Hello. :)

I'm working on morphs, which correct the ugly mesh distortions you sometimes get when posing figures in mild to extreme poses. I'm specifically referring to dance and gymnastic poses in which arms and legs are stretch and arced at extreme angles, and the torso is bent or arched radically as seen in ballet and modern dance.

While constructing the morphs I've run into an interesting problem with one set of morphs on the thigh and buttocks area of the V3 character mesh.

In the Figure 1 portion of the image above you can see the V3 mesh zeroed with its right leg rotated -90 degrees side to side and all the mesh bulging, pinching, pushing, and pulling that occurs as the Joint Parameters try to correctly adjust the mesh to compensate for the rotated thigh, but which ultimately fail even when the buttocks is also repositioned.

In the Figure 2 portion of the image I've applied the custom morphs Ive created to enhance the mesh bulging, pinching, pushing, and pulling performed by the Joint Parameters.

Now here is the problem... After applying my new JP Enhancement Morphs something strange happens when I twist the thigh beyond a setting of plus or minus eight (+8 or 8) degrees. If I twist the thigh any further then the buttocks stops rotating with it and the top loop of polygons on the thigh mesh suddenly twist out of control as shown in Figure 3. Without the morphs applied the thigh can be twisted with no apparent problem. What is really strange is that this twisting problem only occurs when the thigh is rotated to the side by exactly 89.7 to 90.3 degrees. If the thigh is rotated by 89.6 or less, or by -90.4 or more, then the twisting problem disappears. Between the setting of 89.6 and 90.4 degrees the severity of the twisting problem varies, with it at its most extreme when set at 90.0 degrees.

Has anyone encountered a similar problem in the past or have any theories on what might be causing the problem?

I've been experimenting with the Joint Parameters to see if they might fix the problem, but as of yet I have had no luck.

Ohhh... Maybe I should mention that I'm using Poser 4 Pro Pack and creating the morphs in Lightwave and Rhinoceros 3D.

I'm testing the morphs on a zeroed Victoria 3 figure with default Joint Parameter settings and there are no other figures or objects in the Poser scene when the problem I mention occurs. There also are no other morphs applied to the figure other then the ones I'm testing.

Thanks.

~Alan