kenmo opened this issue on May 31, 2011 · 18 posts
kenmo posted Tue, 31 May 2011 at 8:30 AM
I see Cornucopia3D has a few Vue objects that are poseable within Vue...
Does this require having Poser installed?
Any good tutorials on how to use poseable objects within Vue?
PS: I due have Poser7 installed but for whatever reason I can not get Vue to realize it is in fact installed.... (Vue Complete ver 9.)....
Cheers
Ken
thd777 posted Tue, 31 May 2011 at 10:06 AM
The poseable/animatable figures and animals sold at Cornucopia3D do NOT require Poser. In fact, they cannot be used with poser as their rigging is set up for Vue and they are delivered only as .vob
I have a number of them and they are quite easy to use. You select the figure and then the skeleton. Now I usually switch the gadget to local mode and rotation. Then you can simply select each bone in the display port and adjust the rotations to get the pose you want. I use the motions that are available at C3D as a quick starting point. Feel free to ask if you need more detail.
The same approach also works for figures that I export from DAZ Studio as collada.
Ciao
TD
ShawnDriscoll posted Tue, 31 May 2011 at 11:51 AM
Check first that Vue Complete works with the rigging of those models. Most of them were created in 3DS and exported as .VOB for Vue to use once Vue could understand an object's rigging on its own without another program running (see Poser).
bigbraader posted Wed, 01 June 2011 at 6:01 PM
The poseable figures work in Vue 8 and up. I have Complete, and I have a few, they are poseable.
The Vue human characters are very primitive/simple compared to Poser ones (or DS), you can't change their expressions etc. But of course that makes them simpler to work with, not so many options to consider :)
ShawnDriscoll posted Wed, 01 June 2011 at 7:10 PM
bigbraader, how (well) do the close on those figures bend when "posing" in Vue? I'm guessing the clothes are part of the figure's body and not separate.
forester posted Wed, 01 June 2011 at 8:10 PM
The earliest available human figures for Vue were designed for middle or background use, I believe. They were accompanied with some simple animations. And, yes, the clothes are part of the body - akin to game figures or the figures used in architectural work.
kenmo posted Fri, 03 June 2011 at 9:39 PM
Quote - The poseable figures work in Vue 8 and up. I have Complete, and I have a few, they are poseable.
The Vue human characters are very primitive/simple compared to Poser ones (or DS), you can't change their expressions etc. But of course that makes them simpler to work with, not so many options to consider :)
How about the poseable animals & creatures? How do they compare to similar in Daz or Poser?
Thanks kindly....
forester posted Sat, 04 June 2011 at 2:10 PM
Forgive me if I try to answer these questions in a little more depth, particularly so as to give some answer to the last question as well.
OK, in Vue, a "poseable object" consists of a conventional 3d mesh and a "skeleton" of joints to which that mesh is bound. (Click on each of the illustrations to expand them to a good viewing size.)
Here is the mesh for one of my adult sperm whale models, with the skeleton for it displayed in green.
forester posted Sat, 04 June 2011 at 2:14 PM
Hopefully, the model-builder has given each of the joints a good set of names so that you can guess where they fit in the model, and what function they might serve.
If the model-builder is using professional 3d modelling conventions (non-Poser), the beginning part of the skeleton will move the entire model (or will rotate it), and there will be pieces at the end of each major joint chain that don't really do anything but signify the end.
forester posted Sat, 04 June 2011 at 2:19 PM
In this illustration, I am going to pose the whale so that he is just beginning a dive. I'll start by selecting a joint midway down the tail, and rotate it very slightly so that the back half of the body starts to curl upward.
forester posted Sat, 04 June 2011 at 2:21 PM
Here occurs a critical part of the model-builder's art. The lines of the mesh must be laid out in such a way and be of sufficient density around the skeleton's joints so that when the user "bends" the joints the mesh does not deform in unexpected ways.
For my sperm whales, I made the mesh in the back half of the whale much more dense than I made the head area. Sperm whales do not have a very flexible head or any real neck. So, the mesh is made to have lower density and somewhat less detail in the front than at the rear. And, as you can see in the prior illustrations, the skeleton is much more detailed (has more and smaller joints) in the rear than it does in the front.
forester posted Sat, 04 June 2011 at 2:29 PM
kenmo posted Sat, 04 June 2011 at 2:46 PM
Outstanding explanation and an incredible whate model as well....
many thanks....
Ken
forester posted Sat, 04 June 2011 at 2:46 PM
There is no way one can directly compare Vue poseable meshes against those of Poser or Daz Studio.
This is because it all depends on the individual model-builder. And this is true for Poser and for Daz Studio as well.
Essentially, you must judge the value of a model by looking first at the overall quality of the mesh, and then by looking at the skeleton to see if it makes sense for the kind of poses you will want to create.
You can see the quality of the mesh, most of the time, in the promotional pictures. If the mesh looks over-simplified, or is not photo-real, it might not make a good purchase for you.
Unfortunately, you cannot see the skeleton in Poser, nor in Daz Studio, although human-figure Poser models can be assumed to have a pretty good skeleton. It is not clear to me how a potential purchaser could evaluate a skeleton for an animal or another kind of non-humanoid object for Poser or Daz Studio. I suppose one must simply acquire some experience with different model-builders and then stick to those who turn out good products.
For Vue, at least at Rendo and Cornucopia3d, we are not yet accustomed to displaying the skeleton in the promo pictures. But, I think this will become standard practice in the future. And, even we vendors of poseable Vue models need to develop some further experience. My sperm whales are much better than the bottlenose dolphin I placed in the C3D Store earlier, so I'll be updating that dolphin. (Purchasers of a model at C3D get any updates automatically and for no charge.)
And, there is also the issue of materials. For Poser and Daz Studio, textures and materials applied to those models are "optomized" for the Poser and DS rendering engines. Poseable Vue models have materials and textures made specifically for the Vue rendering engines - you don't have to translate these, down-size them, or whatever, as you do when you import a Poser or DS model into Vue. So, if you decide to acquire a Vue poseable model, everything is already made for you, and you're "good to go!"
forester posted Sat, 04 June 2011 at 2:49 PM
Thanks for your kind comments. You asked a good, worthwhile question.
ShawnDriscoll posted Sat, 04 June 2011 at 2:54 PM
Quote - It is not clear to me how a potential purchaser could evaluate a skeleton for an animal or another kind of non-humanoid object for Poser or Daz Studio. I suppose one must simply acquire some experience with different model-builders and then stick to those who turn out good products.
That's the method I would go by. Been buying plants so far for Vue.
ChuckEvans posted Sun, 05 June 2011 at 6:52 AM
Nice answer, forester!
bigbraader posted Mon, 06 June 2011 at 4:04 AM
Sorry for not getting back here sooner. I just want to fill in, that if you select several bones at once (ctrl-click on pc), like e.g. the whale's tail above, you get a sort of easy-pose effect, bending it smoothly. At least I've done so with an imported DAZ horse (the tail).
DAZ Studio collada export allows the figures to import as "rigged meshes" in Vue. So most Poser figures can be poseable in Vue as well, and with a lot more bones than the C3D ones (at least the ones I know). Of course it's best to work on expressions etc. in Poser or DS, but it is possible to e.g. adjust the eyes etc. directly in Vue with those. The C3D ones are primitive in comparison, IMO.