Hello, I'm hobbyist artist experimenting with ways to combine 2D and 3D digital art. I had a question regarding Poser I thought some of the experts here might be able to help.

Is there any way to produce a simple, black and white outline of a human model like the one shown above with Poser? Here's another example but with a face:

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/2925059/2/istockphoto_2925059-human-head-surface-anatomy-outline.jpg

I would like to utilize such an outline as a basis to digitally finish with Photoshop.

The Preview view of the Cartoon w/lines option in Poser is actually pretty close to what I think would work although it is gray and black. But the problem I found is that you cannot save the Preview image as a high-resolution file. It only saves as 30kB or so when you Export it and the resolution is very bad.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

The cartoon with lines view will do that but as you say, you can't produce a high res output.

Best thing I can think of is to render a white image without shadows. Save as PNG or TIF, then use the Stroke effect in and perhaps the Posterize filter Photoshop. You won't get varying line weights around the body contours, though.

I believe Miss Nancy has some insight on getting a good drawn outline effect. There are also a few Photoshop effects packages here in the Renderosity Marketplace which may be of use.

Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.

My Store

My Gallery

You can produce a hi-res output from a preview style. Set up an animation - with one frame will do - and set the output size as you want it.

Thanks for the quick replies!

@SamTherapy - Do you think Miss Nancy would mind if I PM-ed them?

@EnglishBob - You can make an animation in the Preview view? That would be great! I haven't done any animation with Poser before so I'm completely in the dark but I can look for a basic tutorial.

Is there any specific setting or trick that is needed to save the animation in the Preview view?

Groade - I don't think Miss N would mind.

Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.

My Store

My Gallery

You can use a full render by using toon lines, set all materials in a figure the same toon-id so you only get the outline and then set all diffude colors the same , for a flat colored shape.

Of course this is very tedious, which is why I have a python script that does it.

You have to set toon ouline in the render settings.

results like the pic.

here is script, rename to .py

it detaches any node attached to diffuse

it sets diffuse color to white

sets toonid the same for all material in the figure , so only the body outline shows.

This was an attempt to get a comic look to renders, less than wonderful actually so I dropped it.

> Quote - @EnglishBob - You can make an animation in the Preview view? That would be great! I haven't done any animation with Poser before so I'm completely in the dark but I can look for a basic tutorial. Is there any specific setting or trick that is needed to save the animation in the Preview view?

Sorry, I could have been more helpful there. :-)

This is the dialog you get when you select Animation > Make Movie, showing the settings you need. Before you get to this stage, set up the preview window with the mode you want to use.

@EnglishBob -Thank you! It's very helpful seeing what the exact settings are. I'll give it a try this evening :)

I would think the next step would be use a player like VLC to do a screencap of the video? And then that screencap can be loaded in Photoshop.

@markschum - Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into that as well.

If you use Bobs settings you will get one image file at the preview settings. Note the start and end frames both say 1 .

Yes indeed. It will ask you for a destination and save the image file there directly, with a _0001 suffix (this is usually used for producing a series of image files, one per frame of an animation).

Awesome. Thanks for all the information EnglishBob and Markschum! This forum is really great. I'll see if my plans to do some art with this method actually work out and make sure to post them here :) Probably superheroines or science-fiction/fantasy-genre babes lol

If you are doing animations you might want to work at 640 x 480, 720 x 480 or 720 x 540 depending on what your intended display site is. These sizes are all broadcast video sizes. HDTV frames are larger.

easy in poser (no raytracing, no shadows, no IDL). falloff shader as in att img. render at 4X desired size.

in photoshop, using 2800X3200 falloff render:

filter: hi-pass 1.5
level: 0,0.2,125
gaussian blur 2.0
downsize to 25%
adjust darkness as desired

result in att img. method described in tutorial by Adam Baroody at http://www.3dluvr.com/rogueldr/tutorials/toon_ink/toon_ink.html

Wow MissNancy.. that one is neat! steals idea

Thank you Miss Nancy! This is exactly what I was interested in finding!

You rock! And thanks for the link!

THANKS for that link! I love the effect! ^^

(digging up VERY VERY old Poser characters at the moment since they're usually better suited for toon rendering ^^)

looks good, trekkie!

also possible to render edge-blend outline in poser (without any postwork); olivier selling that at RDNA; bagginsbill may have posted another version here.
for those using version of poser without edge-blend node, same result (falloff shader render) using white diffuse, no shadows/raytracing, and full-frontal infinite lite.
directional falloff shader in poser: use toon shader for large inked areas, then falloff shader for lines IMVHO.
pre-poser 9 toon outline not useful, as it draws outside the object edge, rather than inside it; anti-aliasing probs as well.

Hooray! Thank you Miss Nancy! It took me a while last night and I had to load a GIMP plug-in but I managed it!

Now I just to figure out how to clean it up a little, I guess that's messing with Hi Pass filter and mess around with the scaling but this is pretty much what I wanted to do.

Also need to figure out if there's a way to keep the inside detail, though I don't need that as much.

Quote - - directional falloff shader in poser: use toon shader for large inked areas, then falloff shader for lines IMVHO.

Could I ask for a bit of translation? Still pretty new to all this :)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2801137&page=2#message_3640811

this be what I'm talkin' 'bout (bill's toon shader) - for dynamic inking. takes awhile to learn all this poser stuff.

Quote - this be what I'm talkin' 'bout (bill's toon shader) - for dynamic inking. takes awhile to learn all this poser stuff.

Thanks Miss Nancy! I'm learning with helpful sources like you :)

BTW - If I want to thicken the lines on the render, I guess I just increase the Hi Pass value? Or would it be better to darken the lines post-render?

as in the poser toon lines, the APS line thickness is approx. the same, regardless of render size, hence the lines look thicker on a smaller render. more interior detail becomes apparent by using the threshhold adjustment prior to the blur step in APS, but it's indiscriminate. more interior detail can also be seen when setting edge blend atten. at 1.0 in poser, or using hipass >2, which filters out less noise. however, none of these results is pleasing (e.g. above) when compared with a drawing by an human artist, who would know how to vary the line width in the right places. IMVHO it's necessary to vary all the options until it looks as good as possible, then augment the machine-generated lines with the pen tool and/or graphics tablet.

Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL

Subject: Basic human outline in Poser?