Hey I finally got the newly-uvmapped model to work by using PHI Builder (thanks Billbay!) to make a PHI file, importing the obj, and applying the PHI I *thought* it was working, but to my disgust, when I move any bodyparts they bend and warp into really weird shapes, if I turn off bending then they simply leave gaps between the joints any idea why, and how to fix it? SewerRat

In the .cr2 there are statements in the top actor section that have been set incorrectly by Poser. "storageOffset" should be set to "0 0 0" on all "actors". -Rob

they all are already set to "0 0 0" :/ SewerRat

At the very end there is another one that may have been messed up during the save... setGeomOffset should be "0 0 0" as well. Oh, wait a minute... you said you used a phi to build joints... you have to set up the joint parameters yourself now. If you've used standard naming conventions for body parts you may be able to use a prebuilt phi from the content cd (nude male). It would at least give you better results to start with. The above was just a fix for corrupted pre-built .cr2's. -Rob

With experimentatin, it seems to be the joint parameters that are wrong (OK OK I know you just TOLD me that, but I'm stubborn, I never learn something until I discover it for myself...my bad) the problem seems to be that phi builder invents it's own xyz or zxy whatever that is, which tells it which axis seems to be primary (not sure if I got that right) and I'm not sure how to read that out from another obj file, does it really matter what they are set to? Then I've got to set the joints, is there any method behind this, or just a general guess as to where it should be?

If you use the one provided on the content CD, the rotation order for all of the joints should be correct. The only thing that it doesn't have in it are the eyes, which you'll have to cut and paste in a text editor (or John Stallings' Cr2editor) to get them to work correctly. As for whether or not they matter... yes, very much so. The info for joint parameters is not contained in the .obj, it is in the .cr2. Method for editing joints? I use outline mode and side view along with front view. Once you have one side of the body set the way you like, use symmetry/Left to Right(or Right to Left) to copy all joint settings to the remaining side. -Rob

When changing the joint parameters (comparing them using the joing parameters view) body parts like the left shin on the nude man have a center point and an end point on my model they only have the center point and not the end point is this because I set the XYZ differently in the PHI editor? Is it a problem either way? SewerRat

In the default male, the feet are children of the body, not the shin though they are welded to them. That leaves the shin the last group in the limb, thus giving you the endpoint. I've thought... this has something to do with IK-chains and/or the walk designer, but don't quote me on it because I'm not positive. Perhaps one of the other figure creators/programers in this communtiy have the answer to that one? Will it be a problem? Without trial and error, it's hard to say what effect it really has. -Rob

ok cool thanks =) I'd kinda given up, although with this new feet-info I could try again I redid the texture so that the new parts are not overlapping any of the default nude man, so that I only need to replace the head and neck OK, so it's not quite as elegant a solution, but it has the same effect in the end, and it means I can carry over human texture maps and only need to replace the face =) thanks heaps for the help, it seems to be working now =)(with that workaround), and thanks for the info on the feet =) btw, with the feet, does that mean I have to parent them to the hip in the phi editor? SewerRat

If most of your figure is the standard nude male, why are you not using that .cr2 to start from? It'll save you TONS of work, it's already mostly built for you. Then you can just tweak the jp's for the head and neck... All of the parenting should be done already in the prebuilt .phi. You shouldn't have to parent anything (provided you used "neck" and "head" for the group names of your additions). BTW, the feet being parented to the body may also be for the auto-balance feature... -Rob