Just butting my horns against a long-term Poser problem in the latest Poser release (Pro 2012). With virtually every Poser version I've tried and failed to simulate gravity on various items (earrings, ponytails, etc.) using a deformer whose magnet prop is pointed at a dummy prop (I call it a Nadir, being the opposite of zenith) situated at a large negative Y translation.

Placing the deformer base at the origin of the desired rotation, but rotated to aim the magnet deformer at the nadir in the default position, then setting the Point at attribute of the magnet to aim at the nadir certainly results in the magnet deformer pointing at the nadir no matter what the orientation of the actor the deformer base is parented to, yet the actor is never deformed unless the relevant rotations are manually dialled into the magnet deformer.

To me, this says that the magnet deformations are only being based on the dial settings of the magnet prop, not its Point-at rotated values which seem to be completely inaccessible to the Poser interface unless extracted by using Python scripting to interrogate the actual World-Transformed attitude of the magnet deformer. If these Point-at rotations were available within the Poser interface it would then become possible, via ERC-style dependencies, to apply rotation limits in the slave rotation channels, thus preventing hair or jewelry from rotating into the head or neck of the parent figure under the influence of the Point-at rotations which notoriously ignore such limits.

I know I can achieve the desired final result by using the setup room and bone tools and turning hair & jewelry props into actors, but I'm really just looking for a quick prototyping solution to determine whether it's worth the effort. I certainly don't want to have to keyframe hundreds or thousands of deformer rotations (though I have in the past).

The deformer props are in Outline display mode. The magnet deformer points at a nadir null prop at ytran -100000, but has no effect on the ponytail. The deformer zone operates on the Ponytail group.

Hm.. IIRC, Dodger made a torch once that behaved like what you're looking for. So it is possible I think. I just don't know HOW..

It was part of his Dungeon Lighting set

Thanks for the reference TrekkieGrrrrl. I checked out Dodger's Dungeon Lighting set and the documentation implies that anything that's gravity affected is a prop with it's Point-at attribute set. What I'm after, which is why the deformer solution would be great, is to affect only part of an individual prop or actor's geometry. In the example case, just the tail of the ponytail.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go down the new feature request path with Poser. Magnet deformers have always operated one way and so has the Point-at function. It's just a shame that they don't play nicely together.

Instead of deformers I would try to put a bone into the Tail.

Attached Link: Antonia thread

Quote - Lesbentley made some jewellry for Antonia and used a trick to make them reacting to gravity, follow the link maybe you can use this.

Except in Les' case each earring prop is its own geometry. I this case, the ponytail is part of a geometry... you can't have the whole hair pointing down, just the ponytail bit.

I guess there's no way to export just the ponytail by itself as a prop?

Thanks rjjack, I had already found that thread by searching before I posted and RobynsVeil is correct, the problem relates to just creating effects on partial geometries.

Believable3D, I have no problem with using the Grouping Tool to turn the tail into a separate prop, but that's half way to turning Ponytail hair into a figure which seems to be more work (not that I have a problem with that) than I want to invest and moreover suddenly prevents any possibility of re-distribution (another artist's geometry is involved), whereas the deformer solution is eminently distributable without presuming any technical expertise on the part of the recipient.

Maybe use the Morph Brush or whatever it's called. You can actually push and pull gemoety with it. It might work.

I've submitted a feature request, but coming back to the suggestions about rigging...

From what I see, it doesn't matter what actor, be it deformer prop, whole prop, body part actor or rigged dummy bone, that the point-at function operates on, when the point-at attribute is set to 1, the rotational limits of that actor are completely ignored. Point-at doesn't "play nicely".

Until the point-at imposed rotations are exposed to the Poser User Interface, their effects cannot be inherited or ERC slaved in any way. They also can't be limited (to prevent body part collisions or intersection) except by tediously key-framing the Point At attribute.

Could it be grouped and "drapped" in the cloth room?

lmk