I made this model turn it to 3DS,,,  I could also turn it into an obj file.  I want to make these vertebrates of my Machanical animal move and bend..  I also want to have the joints in the legs have movements without that anoying stretching of the mesh,,,   from my limited experience, I found out that if you import parts of a model into Poser separately it makes it easier to bone it.....  

I was happy with this Idea until I looked at this one model..    I would need to make lots of files to accomplish this....  This is the same theory as a skeleton...  How is it done?  Is it done like all other models.....  as an example, I can not afford to have the leg femur twist out of shape when moving or bending...  any advice...?

unfortunately an actual human skeleton bends in ways different from the current poser setup. in effect, the concept of an human figure containing rigid bones is currently ignored by poser. for your purposes you would pose the skeleton as you would pose a robot (turn bending off).

Yes, switching bending off for each body part will stop any stretching of the mesh.

How do I switch bending off.....  

Select a body part of your figure and in the object menu select properties and uncheck the bend box.

Thank you very much.... perhaps I'll get my Mechanical animal to move as I desire...

As for the multiple files issue, there are a couple of ways around it; If you import a single mesh with named polygon groups, you can "attach" these groups to a bone of the same name in the Setup Room. You can also pre-create your joint hierarchy by creating a Phi File -- this is a simple text file listing the joint hierarchy and rotation order -- and import that into Poser to rough in the bone structure. If you prefer to work in the main window/heirarchy editor, you can use the Grouping Tool to "spawn props"; the latter exercise will create one object in your workspace for every group that was in the imported mesh. I see a couple of elements in your robo-skeleton that may need more tricky rigging. When you get the rest of it basically running, look into ERC and the "point at" function for possibilities on those hydraulic cylinder-looking things on the back of the legs. If you are really serious about rigging new Poser creatures, I would recommend getting your hands on a copy of BL Render's book. Unless they make radical changes to the code base in Poser 7 (unlikely), most of that book will continue to be applicable for quite a long time to come. ("Secrets of Figure Creation with Poser 5")

Apparently I got a lot to learn about bones.... this PHi file sounds like a good thing but how do you write this file is another question....  I'm sure it has its own language script...

The grouping tool seems like more likely place to start...  ECR and the "point at" function sounds interesting... I just got to find where it is...

Than you again for pointing in the right direction..   the book cost $30.00 in paper back Amazon..
it is for Poser 5 okay I understnd P7 won't change significant changes.... but who knows?

I'll have to seek a tut on this....

A program called phi builder can be downloaded at the link, if your object has groups with the standard poser names you can load it into phi builder and it will automatically make the phi file for you.

http://www.royriggs.com/poser.html

objFile :Runtime:Libraries:character:new figures:testguy.obj
1 hip yxz
 2 abdomen yxz
  3 chest xyz
  3 head xyz
  3 lCollar xyz
  3 leftEye xyz
  3 lFoot xyz
   4 lForeArm xyz
  3 lHand xyz
 2 lShin xyz
  3 lShldr xyz
  3 lThumb1 xyz
   4 lThumb2 xyz
    5 lThumb3 xyz
  3 lToe xyz
  3 neck xyz
  3 rCollar xyz
  3 rFoot xyz
   4 rForeArm xyz
  3 rHand xyz
  3 rightEye xyz
 2 rShin xyz
  3 rShldr xyz
  3 rThumb1 xyz
   4 rThumb2 xyz
    5 rThumb3 xyz
  3 rToe xyz

Above is an actual phi file, it has the hierarchy information, the name of the figure part and then the rotation order for the body parts.

basically you import your model as an obj file. open the grouping tool click name new group ie, first vertibrea and colour the polys of what you want that group to be. make sure you only colour those polys. next you click on name new group again. then colour the part of the model that will be , lets say the second vertibrea, tou can do this whilst in wire mode and all the poly from front to back will be select. dont worry if you colour part of the first bertibrea, just click on remove group. then on the name 1st vertibrea. this will remove the first vert. continue till all the parts you want named are named. save as pz3 as you go incase poser plays silly buggers and hangs. once you have named all the parts. click on create props. this will create a list of all named parts as props. save it as an obj file. then go to set up room. creat a bone for each named part making sure the internal name for the bone is changed to the exact name for the part and parent it. its case sensitive so beware. Ie: bone 1, it's internal name would change to fVert if thats what you named it as. or Fvert depending on how you did it. once all the bones have been created go to pose room. (make sure while in set up room you only use the front, back, top, left and right view cameras.)

one in the pose area. look at your hiearchy window  (dont forget to save as pz3) you have to rename to the set up name to the one you want. then delete the prop figure. this is why you saved the prog at this point to pz3, cos i cant remember exactly if that right lol. but by saving it you can piss about a little. once you have it done.  open the figure section of the roll out and click on the plus sign to save the figure. type the name you want the figure saving as and bobs your uncle.  you can seehow to create ik chains in the manual it takes about 40 seconds. you shoud be able to see what rotation sequence you need by looking at an already existing hierachy or say jesse. the verts would obviously for the same sequence as the hip and chest. sorry i can't help with the jps...but i'm still trying to learn how to use them myself...just make sure you save a lot. double check after you have made your props that you only have polys in the group you want them. i did a whole figure...i click on one part of the chest and the lMid 2 finger part shows up i also get the tip of the r thumb showing up as well lmao. i also had a piece of the neck missing cos i deleated a no bone group without realizing it. took me ana age to realize what i did wrong. now i ahve as far as i know got to create  the bones again. it took me about 3 and a half hours so it should be too bad. luckily i have my pz3 save of the named parts so i can just clean up the polys and create props again which will take about 5 mins.

good luck. if you get stuck on the naming parts stuff mail me and i'll see if i can help

ps, it's the button on the right of the two create props funtions which you use after naming all the part. i can't remember off hand if its create or spawn props...but it is the one on the right lol

PPs. to delete polys use control kel and left mouse button

billy

@ Xantor:  I downloaded the file and the 'text read me'  says:

Installation Instructions:
UnZip into the same directory as your Poser 3 executable.

This is a 32-Bit application for Windows 95, 98 or NT.

Since this is the second version, there are bound to be bugs,
please email them to me at fur@edge.net. Thanks and Enjoy!

We are on P6..  You think it is still safe to do so..?  Does P6 have this function already?   I'm a little worried... I want to thank you for your help....
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

@ billy423uk:  Thank you for your help... I have to sit with your input for a little while...  I have to use a simpler model to apply your technic first...

About naming parts.. Poser already names them for you ... ie.. bone1, bone2..etc..
isn't that the same as I putting my own name on it..? or is it not?

phibuilder is fine. It reads your iobj file and gives you a hierarchy of parts.

you adjust that hierarchy by moving parts around till it appears correct.

Then from within poser you use the file menu option , load the phi file and it will create the figure in the new figures folder.

You then load it and adjust centers as required.

You can use the hierarchy editor in poser to do the same thing, use the button at the bottom to create the figure.

its a lot easier to know what bone was intended for what group if you change the boine name to one that has a bit of relevancey, specially if your using a lot of bones. plus to use bone 1 bone 2 etc in the hierachy you have to name the groups bone 1 bone 2 etc as the bones have to correspond to the group (i think) i could be wrong and hopefully if i am someone will correct me

billy

Yes, phibuilder should work in 6 okay, it doesn`t overwrite any poser files already there so it wont mess up p6.

Always worth aping the default Poser group names when possible. It is surprising just how much a strange creature with no arms and multi-jointed legs can actually take standard poses.

thank you...  I need to sit with a model and open Poser to the setup section.....

I agree with nomuse, wherever possible it is always better to use the poser names for figure groups, that way poses and bvh and the walk designer are more likely to work with your figure.

I probably have a little unorthodox way of rigging my figures. I use Poser 5 also. But I used to use propack for the longest time.

Anyhow, I load my figure in and then start adding the bones so that it matches up to the figure. (Little things like teddy bears and mech-stuff don't need many bones and don't need to use a walk designer...) Although, a shortcut for you might be to go in to the setup room, and then pick the character in your library that would be the most similiar and then double click that character. The bones will be loaded in to the scene. Now, I usually move the skeleton around to get it overlaid on my figure and then move, bend, etc the bones so that they are as close as possible. Then I go to the grouper tool up there in the setup room and click auto group. It's never gotten it 100% for me, but it's come close. So, then it's just a matter of checking the groups and adjusting anything that might need to be adjusted. Then after that you can go back to the posing room and see how everything moves.

I learned all that from a tutorial a long time ago. (I think it was for ProPack... The tutorial.) But it's been a method I've used for a long time, but then again... What works for some doesn't always work for all. LOL!

Good luck with your model all the same. (It's pretty wicked looking!)

If you have modeled this in your 3d app, you can set the groups up in there.

When I'm doing something to be rigged/conformed in Poser, I generally cut the mesh first in Max. For me this gives me more control than the group editor in Poser. I give each separate part the internal name it would need for Poser, select them all and export as one obj file.

This way, there's only one thing on import, but the parts are all still there. Then just name the bones to match the parts, double check with the grouping tool that everything is lined up right and you should be good to go aside from adjusting the join params.