Hi

Using PoserPro2010. I’m working on a kid’s birthday party animation, and I need to make Ben’s hair color blonde. There are two types of hair for Ben’s figure in the library, one seems to be strand based and the other conforming.  To save cpu I’d like to use the conforming because my final animation is going to have several kids and I don’t need all their hair taking up render time.

I did the tutorial in the tutorial manual to change his hair to blonde, and that worked fine, however, the tutorial manual uses the first type of hair, which I believe is Strand based. I was unable to apply the same tutorial to the Conforming hair because when I got to the  Material Room the node setup looked different for the Conforming hair. (Hopefully you can see the pics ok, had to scale them down to post them)

In the tutorial I changed the Root, Tip, and Specular colors (circled in red) by entering the RGB numbers listed in the manual to change the hair to blonde, worked fine. As seen in the second pic, when I load in the Conforming hair from the library, the Materials Room shows me a totally different setup for the hair color nodes.  I’m a fairly new Poser user, so this is complicated territory for me at this stage.

Anyone have experience changing hair color for Conforming hair that might be able to direct me on how or what fields to enter RGB numbers, or basically how it’s done for Conforming hair?  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything in either manual on changing conforming hair color, only strand based.

Thank you!

MM

The difference between the colouring of these two types of hair is that the conforming hair uses a colour image, whilst the strand-based hair uses procedural colours that are selected within the shader itself, as you already discovered.

If you switch to the Materials folder in the Library, you should find some alternative texture colours for Ben's hair, in the Poser 7 section. Are none of those light enough?

If you need something lighter, you will have to add some nodes to desaturate the colour map (retaining the luminance) and re-apply your own colouring to it.

Edited to add: oh by the way... assuming you are using render GC you should ensure that the transparency and bump maps use a custom GC setting of 1.0, rather than the render setting.

Hmm... I deleted my follow-up post (with a very simple node setup), because I realised that we really need to use the original colour texture to control the new colour, rather than just applying a blanket colour over the whole desaturated texture.
Bagginsbill posted the technique for this in this forum many months ago, using wood textures. I would recommend you try to find that thread... unfortunately I have to sleep now!

IsaoShi, thanks for the reply.  Yes, unfortunately the tutorial manual's procedure is for strand based, and wasn't that difficult, but nothing in the manual for conforming hair coloring. I did notice the conforming hair used image files, and I did check the material library, but none of Ben's alternative hair color are blonde, only goes as light as a light brown.

Quote - ... assuming you are using render GC you should ensure that the transparency and bump maps use a custom GC setting of 1.0, rather than the render setting.

Not totally clear what you mean by GC setting?

Quote - I realised that we really need to use the original colour texture to control the new colour, rather than just applying a blanket colour over the whole desaturated texture.

With the simple tab open in the material room, I did try to change/lighten the Diffuse and Ambient colors to a yellowish shade, but that only made Ben look like he was a canary once rendered, lol. 

A step by step procedure with images would be just what I need to learn this. I'll have to see if I can find Bagginsbill's post.  I've been diligently reading the manual, but I still have a way to go in grasping the concept of how the nodes are used and how they affect the outcome.

Meanwhile, any further suggestions would be appreciated, thank you!

MM

The simplest and quickest way will be to take the light brown hair texture file into an image processor like photoshop or gimp and lighten it there. The node purists will frown on this, but it gets the job done.

Thank you very much Nanette, that sounds like something simple I can try with gimp. I did locate the folder that contains those images.  I assume once I've lightened the color it's ok to name it different and save it to the same folder as the original, then find it in the library and swap them.

Looks like there are 2 image maps being used for color and one for bump. (Much to learn though, all the cords connecting the nodes just look like spaghetti to me, lol, don't really know yet why they're connected the way they are :-))

MM

Since it is image mapped , as Nan says , editing it in photoshop will be easiest if you know photoshop or gimp.

Markschum, looks like your method would also work well, I'd have to play around a bit with the RGB to make it more of a brownish yellow and tone down the greenish tint.  I'll try both methods & see what I can do with it.

Any chance of posting a screenshot of what your math node setup looks like?  Apologies for my lack of knowledge, just haven't quite learned yet how to insert nodes, what to click on, how to find them and add them/connect them.  Many thanks!

MM

I used the above shader setup. It's a bit crude because it simply removes all colour from the original texture map and re-applies a blanket colour, but it may be good enough. 

I have added a multiplication factor of 1.5 for the colour input, otherwise the colour multiplication may make the texture too dark. You may need to experiment with that value. The Color_Math output must plug in to the same channels as the original Image_Map node.

Regarding the transparency and bump maps: you are using Poser Pro 2010, so you have the option of using gamma correction in the render settings. If you are using gamma correction (and I'm not going into the purpose of it - not here), the image maps used for the transparency and bump maps are also being gamma corrected - but they should not be.

To stop the render gamma correction setting affecting the transparency and bump maps, you set a custom gamma correction value of 1.0 for each of these image maps in the texture manager.

Edit: cross-post with markschum - it looks like that way works fine!

Once I've adjusted the color to where it's not too yellowish, I guess I'll have to do the same with each hair group.....can I save the node setup somehow so I can then just load in the complete setup for the other hair groups? If so, what library folder would I save a node setup to??

I should also be able to apply it to any figure's conforming hair, (Kate, etc..) not just Ben's, correct?  (Just thinking ahead, I've got ten or so kids figures to create for the party, and they all should look a bit different from each other as far as hair, size, shape, etc...) Only a month into Poser, so this is quite the challenge for me. Thanks again everyone for all the help, much appreciated!

IsaoShi, I'll check my render settings for the gamma correction, thank you!

MM

Your HSV node is redundant. Its purpose was to remove the colour from the original image map before adding your own colour back in. Turn the Saturation dial down to zero if you want to do this, or if you don't you can remove the HSV node entirely.

Oops.. I missed something. Your colour is very bright because your Color_Math node is set to Add instead of Multiply.

The Value 1 output of the Color Math node is connected to the HSV node, and the output of the HSV node is connected to the Image Map node. Now, do I just connect both Value 1 & Value 2 of the Math node to the Image Map node and just delete the HSV node?

I was just reading in the manual about the Add, Multiply, etc....I just set mine to Add from following the pic, I'll change it to multiply, thanks!

EDIT: Couldn't find anywhere in the manual on how to save a whole node setup, or which library folder I would save it to.  I'd like to be able to save the final setup of all the nodes and settings, that way I can apply it to the rest of the hair group without having to create it from scratch and try to match the colors exactly every time for each group. Any suggestions? 

you can select the nodes and use copy and paste to add them into the other materials. You need to know if the image maps are the same for each. When you have all the materials changed you can save it as a material collection in the material room for use next time . 

Looks good to me, thanks for sticking with me on this everyone, much appreciated.

Quote - When you have all the materials changed you can save it as a material collection in the material room for use next time

I'm wondering if I can use Ben's material collection for a different figure, like Kate?  Will give it a try once I've adjusted and saved it all.

You got all the node connections correct, just those two settings were different to my example. If you don't want to use the HSV node to take the colour out of the original texture map, just delete it and then drag the output (plug) of Image_Map_10 to the input (socket) of Value_1 on the Colour_Math node.

The purpose of the Color_Math node is to amplify the colour being added in to the texture. Multiplying by a colour makes the texture darker, but you can counteract this by boosting the colour intensity. The boost factor is in the separate Math_functions node, currently 1.5. If the resulting colour is too dark or too light, try adjusting that value.

A simpler way to achieve the colour change would be to adjust the Diffuse_Color on the Poser node, but that would also result in a darker overall shade.

By the way, the inputs of Poser nodes are on the right, and outputs on the left.

Inputs on right, outputs on left....ok, got it, helps to know that, lol!  Thought it was the other way around. Guess there are a number of ways to do this, will get to practicing, I've learned a lot today, thanks for all the support. :-)

Played with the color intensity boost factor and pretty good results on this render so far!  :-)

I always say its not how ya do it but that you get something useable.    :)    

I was a bit surprised that I could not find hair colors for Ben anywhere in freestuff. 

Thanks markschum, appreciate all the help, glad I was able to follow those instructions and make it work, one more step out of the way. :-)

Maybe there are no hair colors in free stuff because he's a legacy figure, probably not used as much as V2, M2, etc.... 

btw, I'm also looking for conforming clothing for Ben and Katie because I need to have all the kids dressed a bit differently from each other.  Surprised that there is only one set of clothing included for each figure.  Don't know if there will be any clothes in free stuff for them or not. Search is on!

I find with kids some simple textures can make a big difference. Change the shirt colors and maybe throw in some patterns and you are almost done. 

That might just give me enough difference to look believable.  I've been trying to figure out how to put some kind of design or lettering on a TShirt.  For example, maybe have one kid wearing a sports shirt with a number on it, another maybe some kind of logo or silk screen would be good.

I assume from what I've read so far in the manual, that is also accomplished in the materials room using nodes, similar to how I colored the hair.  Problem is, as far as adding patterns and colors to the conforming clothing,  I haven't quite figured it all out yet as to what type of nodes to use and how to set them up, which nodes plug into which, etc...more studying to do!

possibly easier to alter the image map that does the texture. You can get the map using the free uvmapper, just load the obj file from runtime/geometries , and save the map. Then paint it as desired.

correction: Ben seems to have the obj file with the cr2 in RuntimeLibrariesCharacterPoser 7Ben 2. This is ok as far as Poser is concerned but not considered normal.

You can use a node (blender) to add tottoos or decals to an existing texture.

Well, so far today, using the node I found in the materials room, I've checked the file that Poser uses as the default for Ben's TShirt color, and I've located the folder and the size is 2000x2000.  So I created a new file that same size in Gimp, filled the background with black, then overlayed some text and sort of centered it.  Then I saved it as a jpeg in the same folder as the original default tshirt, then went to the materials room and swapped the image file in the color node using the texture manager.  Lol, I'm still reading about the texture manager in the poser manual, and still quite new at gimp, but somehow that worked. :-)

I know that UV mapping is much more accurate, especially since I'm guessing (trial & error) here on where to position the logo or lettering on the tshirt, so I'd like to be able to understand how to take the UV map for the tshirt out of Poser and import it into gimp, but would need a basic step by step if that is possible.  When you say "load" the obj file, do you mean open the obj file in Poser, or in a photo editor?  Not clear on that, sorry.  Thanks, very much appreciated.

MM

I meant open the obj in uvmapper , then save the uv template from uvmapper .
 
download uv mapper is here http://www.uvmapper.com/downloads.html
uv mapper cllassic is the free version.

Once you export a template image as a JPEG, BITMAP, etc, you can open it in GIMP or any other 2D program and overlay your design textures in layers.  Upon completion, delete the UV Mapping and flatten your final image.  Save under another recognizable name and load it into Poser using the texture manager.

Ok, will give it a try, thanks guys, appreciate the tips! :-).