Hi all, I made a map that consists of several body parts. I made an PHI file and got finally a figure with all childs connected. But I'm not sure, if I have chosen the right rotation order. As seen on the picture, the paper will fold mainly at the z-axis, but there will also be twisting around the x-axis and a small rotation on the y-axis be possible. So, is the rotation order xyz for the child ok? Thanks for your help - Walter

The first axis in the rotation order should be the twist axis, in this case the x axis. The order of the second and third axis is less important. Usually the second axis is the one that's used most, in your case that would be the z axis. I'd suggest xzy for the rotation order.

I concur. To use a 'bone' analogy, the first axis is the one along which the bone length lies. If your body part geometry doesn't initially point directly down that axis of rotation, you can use Orientation to align the 'bone' with the body part.

Thanks, This is for a freebie. It's already available for Poser4 with morphs. Now I try to increase the versatility and make it poseable and with facets on both sides to make rendering easier in P5/6. It also helps me to understand the figure creation better... So I will try it with xzy as rotation order

If you're planning to do more figure creation, I can heartily recommend the book "Secrets of Figure Creation with Poser 5" by B.L. Render (known here as bloodsong), ISBN 0-240-51929-9 It's been an invaluable resource for creating my own figures. In-depth explanations of CR2 structure, joint parameters, morphs and much, much more.

Beware: Poser 5 / 6 doesn't like rendering double sided facets. If you want a double sided map, be sure to introduce some thickness to it (it need only be minuscule); don't just add backwards-facing facets on the same vertices. If you knew that already, then ignore me. Oh, and thanks for the previous version. I walked ten paces North from the old oak tree, but I didn't find any treasure; do I need to reinstall it? ;)

Thanks EnglishBob,

introducing a thickness was exactly what I did. You can even apply different textures to front and back. I heard that before, that several programs do not like double-sided facets. Thanks svdl, think I have to look into this. By the way, my Poser4 behaves very strange. Every time I edit someting in joint editor, the center is reset to 0,0,0. Anyone else seen that?

Message edited on: 08/16/2005 12:55

How did you make the CR2 file? If it was by importing a hierarchy (PHI) file, the first thing you should do is open the new item, and save it back into the library before working on it. There's something wrong with PHI import which causes the joint editor to go wrong.

I did that, but it didn't help. I can edit the cr2 by hand though.

What still doesn't work is smoothing the edges. Is there an easy way by setting the joint parameters or do I need a joint controlled morph.

I have a similar problem regarding the rotation round the x-axis.

What kind of falloff are you using? You can set the twistbar/bend angle/spherical falloffs for each axis using the Joint Editor.

I use the default values and still try to understand how this all works. This is the contour view and the twist parameter. Unfortunately I use a german P4 version.

You can try dragging the green marker somewhat more to the left, and the red marker somewhat more to the right.

Moved both marker a bit to the left. This seemed to help for the rotation round the x-axis. The center piece is on the right and the rotated part is the first child. Thanks svdl for the hint. Now anyone has an idea, what to do with the rotation around the z-axis?

That's a tougher one, since your figure is extremely flat. You can use those green and red lines. Using the front camera, you can make the green lines point to the left, one should end slightly above the model, the other should end sligtly below. The angle between the green lines should be quite small, no more than about 5-10 degrees. Then rotate the red lines until they point vertically up and down. You also might try to have them point to the right. The polygons to the right of the red lines will NOT move when the bend dial is turned. The polygons between the two green lines will fully move with the bend dials. And the polygons between the red and green lines will stretch or contract when the bend dial is used. It takes a lot of tweaking to get these joint parameters exactly right. Trial and error is about the only way to do it. But this should get you started.

Ok, thanks. I'll try that. What about these 'bulge'-values. Are they useful somehow in this scenario?

I don't think so. They're meant as a simple way to have muscles bulge when bending an arm (instead of using JCM), doesn't seem appropriate here.

Seems the figure is a bit too thin. I just cannot get that working, so maybe a JMC morph will help here. I'll give that a try. ...or can the curve value help here? I also don't know what is happening when I rotate this around the y-axis. Although the red circle is between the red lines, it is also affected by the rotation round the y-axis.

Curve could work, though it's usually used for a series of cylindrical body parts, such as in a rope or tentacle. There's also a good chance that the curve parameter won't help much, usually those cylindrical body parts are only a few polygons long. Spherical falloff zones won't help. So probably you'll have to go the JCM route. About the y-axis rotation, it just may be that the amount of polygons is too low to allow Poser to compress the polys between the green and red lines.

bookmark Fascinating.... I don't understand a WORD of it....but.... FASCINATING. SMILE

Trying different things I learned a lot of joint parameters, curve, morphs and all kind of other stuff. Decided finally to remake the mesh for the map and try out some different things. I'll let you know in another thread, what I achieved and maybe I'll write a tutorial and post it on my homepage at www.singular3d.at Thanks for your valuable help - Walter