Hi. Why are "characters" sometimes distributed as .pz3 and sometimes as .cr2? What is the difference, what data is saved in each case? Also, why are props sometimes distributed as .pz3 rather than .cr2 or .obj? Thank you.

A PZ3 is a scene. It may contain many figures. Since the guy and each of his items of clothing are separate figures, except for a nudie character (or one with permanent clothes) you can use a PZ3 for everything together.

And it contains all the lighting info.....Steve

How do you extract the differents items from a PZ3 to use somewhere else? Claude

heyas; nitreug, open the pz3 and grab whatever you want to save (if it is a multi-figure character, make sure everything is parented to the main figure and you select the main figure), and add it to the appropriate library.

Thanks for clarify that for me Bloodsong. I will try it tonight. For me there is no Thanksgiving today because I am not american. Claude

You can also use pz3tocr2 in the utility section. It guts the pz3 and makes a cr2 file out of it. You can also just rename the pz3 file to a cr2 file and load it as a figure if you don't mind it messing with the camera settings and such.

How about the posable props distributed as .pz3? I guess if I want them in my library I should save them as character .cr2 rather than prop .pp2?

heyas; yes, posable props are really characters. poser doesn't care if a character is a creature or a lawnmower; it just cares if the thing has a heirarchy. :) i have a directory under characters called 'props,' where i stick my prop characters.

But then some "Poseable" props are actually just Morphable props, and as such can be saved as a .pp2 in the Props libray. You can click on the menu under the display window to see if the current item is made up of a single object (prop - .pp2) or actually has poseable Body Parts (character - .cr2). Hmmm -- Though I've never actually checked, I've just assumed that a .pp2 is a smaller file than a .cr2 of the same object??

heyas; well, i don't consider morphable props to be posable... they're, well, morphable. :) of course, SOME poseable props are two parented props that rotate around their hinge points.... actually, a pp2 usually contains all the object geometry embedded in the file, while a cr2 usually just points to an outside obj file. depending on the size (# of polys) of the object, the pp2 can be larger. of course, figures are usually larger than props, so it might break even in a general comparison. also note that it is possible to point to an obj with a pp2, rather than embed it. if you got any freebie zygote props, some of them work like this.