I need a little help please :)

Most of my work is landscape/nature using Vue and Painter – however, I occasionally have to add a figure to my images. I’ve used Poser since version 3, but only for VERY basic posing of figures that will end up being used mainly in silhouette. I can use the basic characters the come with Poser and just add the basic clothes props, which for the most part I can get on the character pretty well.

I’m working on an image where I’ll need a women in a dress.  I’m going to use V4.  The dress, which works for the image, is the basic Fantasy Morphing dress.

Here’s my question... I load V4, in the default pose, I add the morphing dress.  The dress lands kind of close to the V4 figure, so I hit the “conform to figure” button, and that does almost nothing. From there I try playing with all the dials that show up for the dress – I fix the neck, and a hole in the chest opens up - I fix the skirt, the abdomen gets a hole in it.  I’m assuming it can’t be as difficult as I’m making it.  How do I get this dress to fit correctly?   Or is that just the way it is??  Do I pose first, then add the dress?I understand I can correct some of the “holes” post render in Photoshop,  but  I know I’m not using the controls in Poser correctly.  Morphing vs. Dynamic – does that effect the way I get the prop to fit the figure??

Like I said, I’m not familiar with dressing these characters, but I have to start learning.  Can anyone please give me a few pointers, or links to other threads or tutorials about getting these props to work better?

Any info would be GREATLY appreciated. 

Thanks for your time!!!

It's weird a dress specifically made for a figure in it's unmorphed state wouldn't align perfectly when conformed to the zero posed figure.

Somtimes you can select the dress BODY and zscale to fix poke through, but other times you have to select different parts of the dress to zsca. ie. dress Chest then zscale. This fixes the chest area without distorting the rest of the dress that's already fixed. Maybe you have poke through in the right or left thigh. Press on them and z or y scale a bit.

Have you used the magnet poses? That is one of the new features of V4. Load V4, turn off the IKs and zero her. Load the dress and conform. Apply the first magnet pose to the dress.

As far as Dynamic vs Morphing....

Morphing is cool in the sense that you can get a pair of straight legged pants to have flare. Dynamic clothing is better all around. It drapes and doesn't have that stiff look conforming or morphing clothing has. Without using magnets or python scripts, you can get dynamic clothing to fit figures it wasn't intended for.

Thanks very much for the feedback.   

Can you please tell me the steps to "Apply the first magnet pose to the dress."  I don't know how to use the magnets.

Thanks!!

Try this thread which helps you fit the MFD to a posed figure:

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=490&highlight&flatnum=1

I also suggest this thread which tells you how to use a conforming skirt/dress in the cloth room so that it looks more natural with the pose:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2517340&page=1

Hi,  I just started using magnets, but this is what I found out trial and error method.
When you look at the magnet group:  You have three things (all are important)-the magnet base-little bar that covers both ends of the magnet,  the circle, and the horseshoe magnet.

The magnet base, as long as the magnet bar covers all of the ends of the magnet, the magnet has no effect and if you click on the base you move the horseshoe around without affecting anything.

Now the circle, that puppy defines what polygons are moved in the dress (whatever is enclosed by the circle will be affected.

The horse magnet, when moved off its base will move the polygons enclosed by the circle
If you move the horse shoe on the x axis the polygons will move on that axis, if you move the horse on the y axis the polys move up or down.  If you move the horse on the z axis the polys move in or out.

Now lets examine the dress-suppose that the buttocks sticks out of the dress and you want to enlarge that portion of the dress:  Here is what I do:  Ensure that the model is in the default position (zero the figure).  Then apply the dress and move it to cover as much of the figure as you can.

Now check out the dress in the hiearchy menu and see how many parts it has-select the hips

Now apply the magnet assembly (it will automatic center on the hip portion).  Go to the side view, click on the circle and move it to cover just the portion of the dress you want moved.

Now select the horseshoe magnet and with its dials move it in the direction you want the polys to go-probably the z axis.  Next  rotate the camera around to inspect the dress for poke throughs, move the horseshoe magnet (via dials) on its x, y, and z axis to eliminate the poke throughs.  When you are satisfied, you will want to attach a morph dial to your dress (get rid of that nasty big magnet assembly-click on the hip again and then go to the menu and click on spawn morph target, than name it something (dress adjustment etc).  When you do that, another dial will appear with your title on it.  Now click on the horseshoe and hit delete.  The assemby is removed and your dial replaces it. When you move the dials that portion of the dress will stretch in or out.

Might want to mention:  you can place millions of these magnets on one dress resulting in a million dials,  you can flare the dress raise a portion of it, move a portion of it sideways etc.

Takes a little experimenting, but you can even bend a cube every which way too.  Have fun with it.  Plutom  

Thanks very much for all this info!   I'm going to try all these suggestions today!! :)

Quote - I don't know how to use the magnets.

Thanks!!

I just got the hang of magnets. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to learning computer stuff so it took years before the bell finally rang where magnets are concerned, LOL

Magnets do have a learning curve and requires loads of practice. But there are tutorials out there. There are also some programs in the MP and I saw another one recently, that use magnets to help fit the clothing to the figure, or to other figures. Here are some links to some magnet tutorials. It was PhilC's video tutorial that finally hit home for me:

http://www.philc.net/magTut1.swf
http://www.planet-3d.com/tutorials/basicmags/
http://drgeep.com/p4/m1/m1.htm
http://drgeep.com/p4/m2/m2.htm
http://drgeep.com/p4/m3/m3.htm
http://drgeep.com/p4/m4/m4.htm

...Can you please tell me the steps to "Apply the first magnet pose to the dress." I don't know how to use the magnets..... after you have the dress loaded and conformed, look under your4 pose folder for Magnetize Clothing. Click on the dress then from the library click on the magnetize to V4 (V4.1) icon.

Thanks everyone!  I appreciate all the info - I'm workin' on it now  :)