For what it's worth I've got IK turned all off.

I originally though that if you wanted a Figures X, Y, Z Transition recorded into a .PZ2 it could only be done through the Hip.  And that to record a Hips Transitions into a .PZ2 file you just need to have the Hip selected when you saved the .PZ2.

I just saved 2 pose files, one I created with V3's Hip selected, and one without; but both files return her hip to the transition she was at when I saved the .pz2?  Then I thought maybe it was if the Hip is selected when you apply the .PZ2; but then again with or without the Hip selected, and with either .PZ2, the figure's Hip kept returning to it's original spot?

That is normal in my experience.  If you want to place a figure in a scene and not worry about applying a pose and having the figure's hip return to the coordinates saved in the pz2 file, then either a) translate the Body actor when setting up or b) edit the pz2(s) to remove the hip translation params.  What body part is selected doesn't affect anything as far as I remember, Hip translations are always saved into the pose file no matter what you do, if the Hip is included in the bodyparts selected to be saved.

Yep.  As pjz99 says.  BODY transforms are not saved to a pose (except in Poser 7 with the option set) and hip transforms are always saved to a pose.

It is irrelevant which part of a figure is selected when you save a pose. If you want to save a partial pose you can use 'Select Subset'. No pose data is saved for the BODY actor in versions prior to P7 (where it is an option).

I think I saw a python script to save poses that include BODY data, but I can't remember where.

If you want to exclude some actors from pose at the time you apply it, you can lock those actors, after applying the pose the actors can be unlocked again. It's handy to have some lock/unlock poses for the lags, arms, hands-fingers, head,  and especially the eyes.

O.K.  Thanks Guys!  It was nice to hear it from each of you, which helped it sink in this time!  This was another oldie, but a goody; I just never committed to memory properly.  Spring must be in the air, I've had a few of these lately. 

I'm still using P6; so I'll remember the Hip and the Body are just two different things, that what's selected does'nt matter, and that Hip position always does get added.

In Poser 7, does Hip get remembered when you choose to save the Body Transition?  Would anyone care to elaborate on how that does, or does not, become redundant?

Hip translations always get saved into the pose file, unless you exclude Hip when saving the pose, independent of whether you have Body translations saved into the pose.  They do two different things, and it is useful to have control of both, but if you're just saving a pose, there isn't any need to make use of both (and probably most users would prefer you leave Body alone).

Thanks pjz99!

I think I'd like a way to remove both the Hip's and the Body's Transition?  Most all my scenes are still just character studies; they contain only one figure, at the center of the universe.  Soon I will be populating scenes with several figures.  The first thing I will do is space the figures out evenly.  Then I'll apply a pose to each; when I do I will want the figures to stay spaced evenly, I wo'nt want them move, just change pose.

That's exactly what the BODY actor is good for.  The origin of the Hip is a child of the BODY actor, so if you move the body -10m on the X axis, the hip will still be at coordinates 0/0/0 (relative to the BODY).

Thanks again pjz99! 

I wonder why Poser used to add the Hip(in relation to the Body,) but not then the Body?

Quote: "I think I'd like a way to remove both the Hip's and the Body's Transition?"

For an existing pose file (if it is saved uncompressed) you can do this in a text editor, but you will probably find it even easier in a cr2 editor, eg "CR2Builder", or  "CR2Editor". Just delete the translate channels from the hip actor.

You may want to leave the 'translateY' channel in place. The hip's yTran determines the hight of the feet relative to the GROUND. If the knees are bent the hip needs to go down to put the feet back on the floor, you probably want to let the pose handle that, rather than having to adjust it yourself every time you apply a pose.

For saving a new pose, you can apply a pose to set xTran and zTran of the hip to zero before saving the pose. This won't actually remove the translations, but setting them to zero is usually ok. Here is the text of such a pz2 file:

{

version
    {
    number 3
    }

actor hip
    {
    channels
        {
        translateX xtran
            {
            keys
                {
                k  0  0
                }
            }

        translateZ ztran
            {
            keys
                {
                k  0  0
                }
            }
        }
    }

figure
    {
    }
}

If you like, rather than saving this file to a pose folder, you can save it as a Pose Dot, so it is always close to hand. In P6 the Pose Dots live in.

.Poser 6RuntimedotsPoseRoom

Give it the file name "poseDot_#.pz2" where "#" is a number from 1 to 9, you may want to make it Read-Only so you don't accidentally overwrite it.

Of course you could just set the translations to zero by hand before you save, which is not much more work than applying a pose dot. You don't need to do anything for the BODY, as BODY data is not saved by default.

When placing a figure in a scene it's usually best practice to use xTran and zTran in the Body to move it side-side and front-back, and use yTran in the hip to set its hight relative to the ground. For the general orientation of the figure (which way it is facing) use yRot in the Body, for all other rotations use the hip. Doing it this way usually results in pose files that are easy for the end-user.

Occasionally you may want a pose file to position a figure in a scene, for example a couple of figures, dancing, or fighting, where the position of one figure relative to the other is crucial. In these cases it is usually best to implement the translations and yRot in the BODY actor. For this I usually edit the pz2 to include a BODY actor, and write the necessary channels by hand. You could also use "MAT Pose Edit" to make a pose including BODY translations from a saved cr2. file.

Don't be frightened of text editing a pz2, it's fun...No, really it is!

Quote - I wonder why Poser used to add the Hip(in relation to the Body,) but not then the Body?

I think this was a hit of hand holding from Poser. If it had saved translations fot the BODY by default, figures would have been jumping all over the place when a pose was applied. But I think it was a very bad move not to provide an option to include BODY data. It made a lot of work for people who did need to include BODY data for some reasion.

*" Don't be frightened of text editing a pz2, it's fun...No, really it is!"

*Excellent advise, I really need encouragement like this;  thank you LesBentley, you're a Champ!  You were whom originally broke my my train of thought, about this; some months ago, but I could'nt find the thread, and was hoping you'd happen by!

I have this thread bookmarked, in a folder titled ledbentley; and will be getting back to this soon.  I'm not really ready to test, just yet, as I wo'nt have much practice; but soon this will change, and hopefully we'll be able to stay on top of it.

Thanks again!