I'm trying to conform a pair of boots to V4, but the problem is that I need to conform the boots while V4 is in a pose that fits the boots. How do you do this exactly?

I understand the concept of conforming something when the target figure is in it's base pose and zeroed....

I imported my obj, went to setup room and loaded the V4 skeleton, made the proper groups using the grouping tools...and now what?

What other software can you recommend to make this process less painful? You would think that with 7 versions out, Poser would have made it a little easier for content creators.

Or perhaps making conforming shoes is something that happens very rarely??  :sleep:

I believe this is how it goes, although before starting I should disclose that I haven't actually completed anything using this method yet. Model the boots or whatever around the posed but otherwise zeroed figure (e.g. feet in a high heeled pose) Conform the boots to a zeroed figure - not a posed one - as you normally would. This will look odd, because the feet will stick out, but press on regardless. Apply the reverse of the pose to the figure. For example, if you had a foot bend of 35 degrees, apply -35 degrees and so on. Export the boots in that pose, and use them as the new mesh. Now you should be able to conform the boots to a zeroed figure without pokethrough, and have them take up the correct shape when the feet are posed in the original pose. I've also used this method to model an off-the-shoulder top, using a mannequin that had her arms by her sides. Unfortunately that's another project that remains unfinished so I can't provide an actual example. ;) While (back) on the subject of boots, you know that you don't need toe groups in your mesh? Dodger says that you don't need shin groups either, except for over-the-knee boots - just group everything to lFoot and rFoot, but again I haven't tested this myself.

Thanks so much for your help! Going to try the inverse pose thing.

I'm not doing a toe group, but these boots go all the way up to the knee, although they don't cover the knee. So no shin group either? But then what happens to the mesh with you twist the shin of the base character?.......

A group can be affected only by the ones on either side of it - so your boots, grouped to left and right feet, can be affected by the shins and toes, but not the thighs. The rule here would be, if bending the knees needs to deform the boots, you'll need shin groups too. I don't know V4, but it would depend on how close to the knees they get. If in doubt, include shin groups, I guess. The advantage to having everything in one group is that morphs are considerably simplified.

"" What other software can you recommend to make this process less painful? You would think that with 7 versions out, Poser would have made it a little easier for content creators."" There are two software apps I use for this process: AutoGroupEditor by markdc and Tool Collection for Poser by Dimension3D, both in the MP. A synopsis of what each one does, AGE to group the clothing item. Not totally perfect, may have to clean up a tad. The Tool collection has a conform function that will take the obj from AGE and conform it to your figure.