heyas, guys!

how's stuff going?

i have been working for like... well, in the modern era, since 2018 on rigged avatars for second life.  i'm in the process of creating a new species, and thought it would be cool to bring it to poser.  (actually, blender is a butt, and doing stuff for sl is like working on a kludge on top of a jury-rig on top of a game model from 2003... because it IS! :X  and i have been lamenting 'the good old days' of making content for poser.)

so... but like what tools do i need?  i saw on the FAQ the process is much the same as i remember.  (unless the faq is as out of date as i am.)  i have...  "poser pro 12."  which i don't think is poser 12, cuz that's the one that i got... in probably 2012? 

an what's this i hear about 'weighted' figures?  can i now import rigged blender figure files (like dae's) and just go?  that would be just TOO powerful...!

oh!   i'll also be making anthro parts (furries).   is there a  proper/good method for making body parts for existing human figures?  like hands and lower legs/feet?  (wow, this brings back memories of wanting to create a 'furry factory'.)

::wanders around lost::

Welcome Back!!!

What do you need?  I would definitely upgrade to Poser 12 (You have either 8 or 9 not sure) and Blender is much better now ... just remember to only learn what you need for the project you are working on ... and P12 (P11 too for that matter) use a version of Cycles for creating textures and as a render engine making the renders far more realistic.  There are far more features in Poser that are improved to list ... and some folks swear by ZBrush and it does play nicely with Poser.  Gimp or Photoshop of course as tools.  There are more expensive and elaborate texturing software but that would get you started.  Again Welcome back ... and I'm sure others will join in with more wonderful tips.   

Hi Bloodsong

Just wanted to say your book 'Secrets of Figure creation' has been incredibly useful throughout my Posering endeavors.

Good to see you back.

If you speak "Python", in its WxPython flavor, it may help you to speed up some processes. If that's the case, Poser12 had to switch to Python 3.7.9 as Python 2.x was declared definitely dead, and this broke some tools.
Besides what have already been mentioned, I very often use XNView, to browse/transfer/convert pics, and Windows users must have "Everything", the instant file finder: finds your file as fast as you can use your keyboard, very handy when looking for some files

Hi ! Welcome back !!

I find free Irfan View does a lot of stuff that XN View can't, and vice versa. They complement each other. eg, XN View will (slowly) open huge HDRIs that confound IV. But, XN View may try and fail to open a texture file per its suffix, while IV cheerfully announces that eg is a mis-named PNG or JPG, and would I like it renamed ??

;-)

Species & Monsters...

https://www.renderosity.com/forums/threads/2972242/three-eyed-monsters

"Now the 'Burgess Shale' has yielded a Cambrian (~500 MYr) three-eyed apex predator, please, monster-makers, consider a third-eye as a routine option ??"

https://phys.org/news/2022-07-million-year-old-fossilized-brains-stanleycaris-prompt.html

Yeah, that beastie had a big dorsal centre-line eye between the two laterals. (IIRC, we have pineal, which seems to be a re-purposed vestigial third-eye. )

Likewise, 5-fold symmetry per starfish, sea-urchins and Lovecraftian horrors.

Also, 7-fold if possible...

"oh!   i'll also be making anthro parts (furries).   is there a  proper/good method for making body parts for existing human figures?  like hands and lower legs/feet?  (wow, this brings back memories of wanting to create a 'furry factory'.)"

In Poser 11 and 12 there is the Match Centers To Morph command. So you can create a morph that turns the feet into an animal type arrangement and apply the match centers command, this will move the origins of the bones to match the new shape. The results will be attached as a dependency to the morph dial. The command can also be baked as a new rig. Further refinements can be done manually via Animated origins and orientations, which can be done via the joint editor.

Not sure if geometry switching and animated origins can be used in tandem. But that would be a (very) hypothetical idea. Would be interesting if the switching and animated origins could be manipulated by a further dependency. Geometry switching and weight mapped or unimesh figures won't work in tandem as far as I know.

hey, primorge!  that's awesome! 

good to hear the book was worth it to someone.  :)

ohhhh, the geometry swapping thing.  man, i had forgotten about that!  but... does that have to be built into the character?  i was thinking more along the lines of sticking paws and tails on the human figures that are there.  what's their names?  steve?  dawn?  something... ;D  oh, l'homme/l'femme.  like that?

what about taking a partial figure (like a hand) and parenting it to the existing hand,  or forearm?  and then it just gloms on and you pose it from there?  too primitive a technique? ;D

guys, guys... i don't need Moar Programs (and just 'oh god no' on the python scripting ;D) .   i just needed to know what/which poser i needed to import and 'do the things' with.    you know, the joint parameters?  are those still a thing??  ;D

i want to make the body in blender, then bring it into poser to do the poser rigging with joint parameters, because that is so much better than doing it in blender.  like, in poser, i can pose the figure and move the rotation centers on the fly.  (i can still do that, right??  RIGHT?)  then i have a poser figure converter in blender.

for the head, i'll rig it in blender, using face bones.  i don't suppose poser figures use face bones now, but still use morphs.  right?  so i can pose the face in blender and export morph targets.

but tell me more about weight painted figures in poser?  some articles made it seem like Kind Of A Big Deal.

thanks, everyone, for your warm welcome(back)s!  :)

Yes. Switching has to be built into the character. Unless it's possible to create an injector for that.

Sure you can parent detached parts. You can also do it with conformers, basically still parenting. You can blend with transparencies. It's a bit wonky but it's been done a lot. Think the creature creator feet for V4 from daz. Numerous examples over the years.

You can animate joint centers now. You can pass this stuff along in a pmd inject pose. I think that was introduced in 11 pro. You can get 11 pro very cheaply. There's a ton of quality of life improvements since you left. A dependency editor that let's you create complex ERC/valueOps ( also shareable via pmd pz2) within Poser itself. Export morph injection files. Etc. 

You can rig facial parts in Poser itself. Body handles for rigged parts, etc. Look at La Femme. Again, Poser 11.

Weight painting...

Rig your figure as you would the old way with sphere zones and then use the merge zones to weight maps command. You can then further edit the maps using the weight painting tools in the joint editor for each rotation to your satisfaction. You can also paint smooth scaling. Scaling between body parts is much improved now. It's all in the manual. There's also smooth translations now.

There's also an adjunct to the set up room called the fitting room where you can run simulations to more automate fitting conformers between figures

Subdivision and subdivision morphs is also a thing now. Work on unimesh figure stuff. Improvements to the morph putty tool (morph brush)

How's that for a start?

As far as human animal hybrids go, you might want to check out Sparky's work. I can't link to her store but just web search Philosopher's Egg Poser... It's all done with morphs and centers manipulations. Unbelievable stuff.