Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL


Subject: A Dev Foundation for M4?

VolcanicMink opened this issue on Feb 07, 2017 ยท 29 posts


VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 12:40 AM

M4 does not appear to have a separate Dev Foundation as V4 does. I clicked on his base M4 while in the Setup Room, and got the bones, but the toes seem to be detached, as well as the thumbs. When I return to the Pose Room, the boots are askew and a bone is still showing. Conforming makes them worse. Please tell me what I'm missing? This worked great with V4. PP12. M4 zeroed. IK is off.M4 boot.PNG


AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 1:47 AM

M4 never had an official dev rig released, so you have to create your own. There used to be one available at rdna I think, but...

Don't enter the setup room with a figure that's already rigged. It can break things and you're just asking for trouble that way.

Instead load a new M4 and open the hierarchy editor and check the box that says 'show all parameters'. Then delete everything you see listed under M4 that is not a body part. All morphs, magnets etc. Then go into the material room and delete all materials. Then save that empty rig back to your library as a dev rig and you should be good to go.



VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 2:03 AM

Thank you!! Now I have to figure out what happened to V4..... Her whole folder disappeared from my library when I was trying to reinstall her morphs.

AmbientShade, Thank you also for your help with the V4 boots. They work perfectly now.


AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 2:15 AM

Welcome. Don't know what to say about the missing folder. I use DIM to install all my daz figures, so I don't have to mess with initializing morphs and all that. It used to be a headache until I figured that out.



VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 2:36 AM

I've lost the Dev Foundation for V4 now! I reinstalled the V4 base and the Morphs++ but it's gone! This is probably going to mess up every V4 file I have. I think I'll go to bed now.


AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 2:50 AM

It shouldn't mess up all your other V4 files. They are separate files from V4 and shouldn't be affected. You may have just installed V4 to the wrong directory, or you might need to refresh your Poser library. I don't know if you're on a windows or mac machine so I can't really be much help with locating them, but you can look in your main file explorer and see if the V4 cr2s are still where they're supposed to be.



icprncss2 posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 7:37 AM

OKCRandy sells an M4 Developer's Pack here in the MP.


VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 8:25 PM

So, I have remaining a sickly white Mike. I'm guessing he should be zeroed... This acts the same way as a bone rig?M4Rig.PNG


AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 8:41 PM

Yes. That's what you want to build any clothing, shoes, etc around, just like you did for the V4 boots.



VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 10:06 PM

Still not working. The boots come back from Setup looking good (pic 1), but Conform is still killing them (pic 2). IK still off, etc. PP12 Win7. Even tried using the morph settings 'bwldrd' suggested in the V4 boot thread. I was really excited about V4's boots working, but most of my characters are male. mboot1.PNG mboot2.PNG


AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 10:10 PM

Do you have a "copy joint zones from" option in your Figure menu? I don't remember if PP2012 has that option or not. If it does, try using that on the boots. Select the boots, then use that copy joint zones command and when it asks which figure select M4.



VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 10:23 PM

Had no effect. After every change, I get a "Can't create unimesh geometry" message, but I got that with V4 also. Had that message for 6+ years. I have also reinstalled the M4 files, but it hasn't changed anything.


AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 10:41 PM

Were the boots modeled with M4's feet pointing down in their zero pose position or were his feet flat on the floor like they are when you load him from the library?



VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 10:46 PM

The model obj is a copy of the M4 figure in zero pose, toes down. I'm remaking the boots, in case that might change anything.


icprncss2 posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 10:48 PM

When you create the developer figure, make sure you turn off IK. Even if you zero the figure, open up the joint parameters and check to make sure the hips, knees and feet are zeroed in the joint parameters window. It takes a bit more time but checking all the joints before saving to the library can save on hair pulling later on.


AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 10:49 PM

It's best to import the M4 figure directly into your modeling program from the geometries folder in your runtime, instead of exporting it from poser, unless you're using the goZ bridge from Poser directly into zbrush. The dev rig you created earlier was for the rig, not the mesh. Just to be clear on that.



VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 10:59 PM

Clear on the rig and the IK. Never imported from the geometries folder before, but I'll try it. I normally save the figure (0'd) as an .obj and load it into Silo. I have been learning Blender, but haven't had as much luck bringing the objects back into Poser as usable figures/props.


AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 11:08 PM

Here's a boot I made for M4 using the exact methods I described, but I used zbrush for modeling via goZ.

m4Boot.jpg

I use blender for UV mapping and sometimes material group assignment when it's a tight area that I can't get to with poser's grouping tool. You have to have the right import/export settings in Blender so that it doesn't break the model up into separate pieces.



VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 11:12 PM

I haven't figured out why it's working so differently than V4. I expected it to be the same thing.


AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 11:14 PM

Here are the import and export settings I use in blender. You can set them once and then save them under the Operator Presets menu as something like 'Poser Import'. That way you just have to select them from that menu again. (But you'll need to save them again if you upgrade blender) BlenderImportExport.jpg



AmbientShade posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 11:20 PM

VolcanicMink posted at 12:18AM Wed, 08 February 2017 - #4296900

I haven't figured out why it's working so differently than V4. I expected it to be the same thing.

You don't have to rebuild the model. Just import M4 into your modeling app directly from the geometries folder and make sure the boots are lined up correctly with his legs then export them in that position and bring back into Poser, and apply the dev rig. As long as IK is not present in the dev rig, then it should work.



VolcanicMink posted Tue, 07 February 2017 at 11:47 PM

Did that. They come in fine. They came in fine before. It was the Conform step that messed them up. Process: In Poser, select M4, zero, turn off IK. Load boots. In Setup Room, select M4 rig from library. NO on grouping because they are already grouped. I usually delete irrelevant bones because that was suggested in Fugazi's tutorial, but that hasn't made a difference either.. Return to Pose Room, everything looks good (other than his "spare bone"). With boots selected, Conform to Michael 4. The same result. mboot1.PNG mboot2.PNG


AmbientShade posted Wed, 08 February 2017 at 12:00 AM

If you can send me the boots cr2 and obj files i can look at them and see if I can figure out what's wrong.



VolcanicMink posted Wed, 08 February 2017 at 12:10 AM

Sounds good....How do I do that?


AmbientShade posted Wed, 08 February 2017 at 12:14 AM

I sent my email address to your sitemail. (just so its not on the forum, i don't like spam)



tonyvilters posted Wed, 08 February 2017 at 5:44 AM

Go to youtube and search for the video tutorials under my name (The Poser2Blender2Poser from tonyvilters) series.

Video1 will show the correct import-export settings between both apps: Poser and Blender.

Video4 will show why you can not build around a figure exported from Poser.=> Poser breaks obj files at export into individual vertex groups.

Building for Poser is easy, but you have to know its internal workings. Best regards, Tony


VolcanicMink posted Thu, 09 February 2017 at 1:54 AM

Thank you Tony. This was imported from Silo, and worked fine with Vic's boots, just isn't working with Mike. I am learning Blender, though, and have had problems with Poser/Blender projects, so I will definitely look at them.


pikesPit posted Thu, 09 February 2017 at 6:22 AM

b.t.w., that "extra bone" sticking out in the hip is the "bodyMorphs", an obsolete ghost bone. It has no geometry, so Poser puts in the standard "bone" geometry. Delete this bone when you're in the Setup Room.


ironsoul posted Thu, 09 February 2017 at 11:00 PM

Can the fitting room be used to automagically rig a prop like a boot in cases where a non zero pose figure was used? I'm thinking is there a way to save OP from having to repeat the work (my fitting room skills are poor so maybe this is a stupid question)