Rope like figures have quite a long bone structure and it can be tedious to pose each bone. And I saw some superbly posed ones that winds up in a circular spring which is aesthetically pleasing. What tools do they use to pose them?

Passion is anger and love combined. So if it looks angry, give it some love!

Ajax developed a system of ERC to help in posing long chains of actors, it is called "EasyPose". Ajax also made a application "EasyPose Underground" to help in adding this type of ERC to figures. I think I have also see a py script for posing chains of actors, but I can't remember where. It might have been by Dimention3D or ockham.

Ajax,Dimention3D and ockham all do good work.

My version is called "All Tied Up". Details are at:-

http://www.philc.net/AllTiedUp.htm

Whichever one you choose I'm sure you'll have fun using it :)

EasyPose Underground 2

Pose Chain of Actors

 

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I had forgotten about Phil's AllTiedUp. Phil also does very good work, and I feel sure AllTiedUp will be a very good tool.

Theres a pose chain of actors in freebies, poser, utilities

You can add ERC manually but its a pain. I wrote my own program to do it. 

Daz studio has the ability to select multiple parts , and applies the same change to all of them. Its one feature I wish poser would get.

 

 

The best implementation I have seen is in Davos' latest set of belts (available at the other place). Instead of, say, 50 elements he's broken them down into 5 blocks of 10, making it a lot easier to get straight ends or extreme bends in one section and straighter in others. Would love a rope rigged the same

I've always found it easier to use before/after dials on the middle node of EP characters

Poser 11 , 180Gb in 8 Runtimes, PaintShop Pro 9
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I usually just select all the actors i want to pose and then rotate them, either with my "Hampelmann" or "Mouse Wheel Posing" scripts (Poser 8+)...