I have a character that has various cloth and assecories, is there an easy way of scaling her? I have tried, once successfully to use the scale tool, but other times she becomes a pile of shmoots! The reason fo rthe scaling need is I have a background picture and I what to have her animate a walking sequence towards it.. Thanks ahead of time!

It would be simpler to moxe the camera to get the figure corrct then scale the background picture.

First you might try scaling the camera rather than scaling the figure and clothes. In the paramiters pallet for the camera you will find a 'Scale' dial. If you need to scale a character with conformed clothing, first parent the clothing to the characters body (this is as well as, not instead of conforming), then scale the 'Body' of character, use the 'Scale' dial in the paramiters pallet, not the scale tool.

If you select the body of the figure, it'll scale fine. You then have to select the clothing and rescale it to the same scale to keep it from looking odd.

The easiest thing is to parent the character to something, like the Poser ball. Then scale the ball and everything, including the clothes (if they're conformed), will scale with it :o)

Thanks, I'll try both to see which is easier! Chuck

Heya, open the hiearchy editor and drag all conforming clothing attached to the figure to the Body group of the figure. Then use the scale dial in the Body group of the figure to scale it, and figure and clothing will scale together. You can also use the Figure Parent command from the drop down menu if you want to parent the clothing to the figure body. I find it quicker to use the hiearchy editor.

Ah so you're essentially parenting all the clothes to the BODY? Clever, I've always used the ball. Didn't think of that other solution. Thanks for the tip, shadownet :o)

Message edited on: 12/15/2005 04:07

Don't give up on the ball or box prop though. I use a box prop a lot for moving things around in my scene - such as getting people to walk. I set them up to walk in place rather than along a walk path. Say I am doing a group of marching wooden solders. I would set them up to march in place, parent them to a box prop, and then move the box by key frame through my scene so that they traveled as desired. Just hide box or make it black and transparent when done so it does not show on render. You can fake distance this way easy too, say start at 100% scale for the box and have them march slightly away from the camera, and shrink the scale on the box as you go so that when you get to the last frame they are vanishing out of sight into the horizon.

Now if the soldiers have clothing, you have to parent all that to the box as well if you plan to scale the box - or else parent the clothing to the figure which is what I do, and when the box moves/scales the figure the clothing as a child also moves/scales.

When working with a number of figures in a scene, I tend to parent everything to the figure so that I can work with it as a seperate unit. This also makes the hierarchy editor a bit easier to use since all props and clothing that goes to a figure is parent to that figure. Collapse or expand the tree for that figure to get to it or to shorten the HE so you can scroll down to find what you want.

Decide you like the way you have everything positioned and posed but wish you had placed it all 180 about to the light or slightly off to one side or whatever? Easy, load your ball or box prop, parent the individual sets to it, and use the box to rotate or move the entire scene and leave your lights as is. This is great for when you lights are nearly right but you want the shadows to fall just a tad more and it would be so much easier to turn the scene than reposition the lights. So turn the scene using your ball prop.

So there is definitely a lot of good things about using a ball or box prop as a master control thingie. :O)

Is there a tutorial for this method? I understand the concept for walking in place, but the attaching the person to a ball? are you saying to parent the complete character and props on that character (cloth, jewelry, etc) to the ball also? Sorry if I am repeating probably what you stated, just not completely following..

I HATE this stupid time outs when trying to answer a post! Everything I just wrote got lost! Okay, here it is again. No tutorial that I know of. Here is what I do, and why. Generally, I always parent clothing items to the figure as well as conform it. This not only keeps my Heirarchy Editor list managable since I can close the figure tree and all clothing attached to the figure is contained there in. But it also means if for some reason I decide to scale the figure larger or smaller using the BODY scale dials, the clothing will be scaled at the same time. The box to control the figure/props is useful for moving multiple things about in a scene as well as scaling them up or down by group. Whatever you want to control by the box has to be parented to the box, directly such as the figure, or clothing if not parented to the figure, or indirectly such as clothing that is parented to a figure now parented to the box. So, to answer you question. If you have items in your scene not parented directly to the figure that is parented to the box, and you want these items to be controlled by the box, you have to parent them to the box (or as I prefer to the figure to which they belong). Hope that answers that question. Now here is another little trick for those times when you want to get a group of figures to "march" (that is move alike) in your scene. Turn IK off for the first figure, and for all other figures you have loaded. Any clothing used should be parented to the figures for best results). Now, select the first figure you loaded as your MASTER figure. Conform the other figures to it as if they were clothing. Use the Body tran dials to then seperate and position the figures in your scene so they make a row or line or whatever. Select your MASTER figure and move a body part. If all went as it should ever "Clone" should duplicate the movement. Apply a Pose to the MASTER and all "clones" are posed. Select a "clone" and change its pose, and it will now "march" out of step as it will try to mimick any changes in the MASTER not over ridden by changes made to it by the new pose you just gave it. :O)