5 More Tips for Making Poser Clothes
…Or 5 More Things I wish I knew before wasting many hours doing the wrong things modeling Poser Clothes!
Continuing in the tradition of 10 tips for making poser clothes, here are 5 more helpful tips. There is some math involved but don’t worry, you won’t have to do any calculations!
1. Don’t use triangles in your mesh.
If you plan to use the clothes you have modeled in Poser’s Cloth Room, triangles will kill the simulation process. If you try sub-dividing a triangle mesh using Nevercenter’s Silo (type ‘C’), the result will be a mesh with huge gaps; some polygons will be smooth while others fly hundreds of units away from your figure. There is probably a mathematical reason for this; all manipulations in 3D Applications are based upon linear algebra. I suspect division by zero may be the culprit. At any rate, its best to avoid triangle meshes. Better to use meshes composed of quadrilaterals (4-sided shapes. e.g. squares, rectangles, trapezoids, and parallelograms).
2.Keep your meshes as straight as possible.
This tip makes a big difference in UV mapping. the closer to 90 degree (right) angles the mesh is, the easier it is to create a smooth UV Map over-top the mesh. The ideal mesh would consist entirely of rectangles. To create realistic looking folds it sometimes becomes necessary to violate this tip but try as much as possible to follow it.
3.Group your meshes as you model them.
What newbies often do is create clothing as a single object and then create groups for the abdomen, chest, etc. afterward. To save time and to ensure your clothes bend as naturally as possible, it is best to define the groups as you model them. Depending upon your modeler, you may be able to copy the exact locations of the body parts of your target figure (Victoria 4, Apollo Maximus, etc.).
4. Use Multiple Threads in Poser for your renders.
Splitting your render into separate threads will speed up rendering time. I also found it prevented a problem with crashing in Poser 7. The maximum number of threads you can use is 4 in Poser 7. I tried rendering a separate process but I found that actually slows things down. You can find these controls on a Mac under Poser 7 > Preferences > Render. On a PC, Edit > Preferences > Render.
5. Be careful of exploding Morphs!
This tip applies to all figures, not just clothes. When creating morphs, be careful which programs you use to create them. Edge order matters for morphs and some modelers will change the order of your edges resulting in the exploding mess shown at the start of this article. If you create morphs within Poser itself this is usually not an issue but Poser has limited morph creation tools. I use Nevercenter’s Silo for morph creation. This tool is extremely powerful for creating morphs, improving models made in other programs and making models from scratch.
I Love the VUE (Esprit)!
With Vue I can fly…
No 3-D Application can do everything. Some specialize in figures, others in sculpting. Some excel at producing realistic surfaces others at creating scenery. At a price of $229 US, Vue Esprit is one of the best programs for creating environments, does an excellent job of producing realistic surfaces and it integrates well with Poser, the primary figure creation software in the 3-D marketplace. Higher end versions can cost upwards of $895 US or more. For anyone starting out in 3-D, this is the ideal application to get.
Key Features of Vue Esprit.
- Support for Poser figures including the use of the Poser Shader Tree. There is no need to import figures as Wavefront Objects then re-apply textures for multiple figures.
- Support for Ambient Occlusion, Translucency, and Sub-Surface Scattering. All these lighting features add realism to a scene. For advanced Poser users these features are similar in function to Poser’s Material Room.
- Crash recovery. If Vue suspects that it might crash, it will warn you ahead of time and attempt to save your work. This is a vast improvement over other programs that just crash and tell you nothing.
- Realistic environments including plants, trees, grasses, mountains and water
What’s Missing from Vue Esprit?
Support for Python scripting. This would make using this program even easier. There are some plugins for Vue that will simply not work with the low-end version of the program because it lacks Python support. You get what you pay for. More money = More features. On the bright side e-on software makes it easy to upgrade their software from lower versions for a fee. For example, Vue Esprit can be upgraded to Vue Pro Studio for an additional $199 US and Vue Pro Studio can be upgraded to Vue Infinite for $399. This way instead of speading $895 US at the start you could purchase parts of the program in installments, gaining functionality with each upgrade.
Filed under 3-D Modeling | Comments Off10 Tips for Making Poser Clothes
…Or 10 Things I wish I knew before wasting many hours doing the wrong things modeling Poser Clothes!
- Back-up Everything you create.
- There is an easy way to make MAT Poses.
- Remove IK (Inverse Kinematics) Chains from your clothes.
- Use Morph Manager.
- The Hierarchy Editor is your friend.
- Don’t fear the Set-Up Room.
- Joint Parameters are important.
- Make your model at actual size.
- UV maps will save you time.
- Learn to use Python.
Follow these tips and you will save yourself a great deal of time. Below is a more detailed breakdown of what each of these things mean.
1. Backup Everything you create
Many-a-time I have been saved from destroying weeks-worth of work by retrieving a backup I made earlier. As a Unix Geek using a MAC, I have set up rsync and crontab for this purpose. The new Mac OS v10.5 eliminates the need for this hack. At any rate whatever your operating system, ALWAYS BACKUP!
2.There is an Easy Way to make MAT poses
Material or MAT Poses are convenient method for adding different color materials to clothes. The easiset way to make these files is by creating a material collection (in Poser 6 or 7 extention mc6) or a single material file (in Poser 5, 6 or 7 extention mt5) in Poser’s Material Room. Change one line in these files using a text editor (on my Mac I use XCode). For mt5 “actor $CURRENT” should be changed to “figure”. For mc6 “mtlCollection” should also be “figure”. Close the file and save it with the extension pz2. You’re done.
3. Remove IK (Inverse Kinematics) Chains from your clothes.
This tip will save you hassels when you apply MAT poses. I ran into a situation where every-time I applied a MAT pose it moved the clothing that I had applied it to. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I now know that IK Chains were to blame. IK is only really needed for giving realistic bends to figures. For conforming Clothes this isn’t necessary; the clothes bend with the figure. Read tip #5 to find out how to remove IK Chains.
4. Use Morph Manager.
Try as I might, there is no better tool for adding and removing morphs from poser figures than Morph Manager. On a Mac you can run Morph Manager using Q and a LEGAL copy of Windows.
5. The Hierarchy Editor is your friend.
I found the Hierarchy editor very useful for removing Full Body Morphs (this isn’t done so well by Morph Manager) and renaming parts of figures. At present you are stuck working one part at a time, which makes it less useful if you have to change say 50 morphs but it does work. To use the Hierarchy Editor, first switch to the Set-Up room. Then select Window -> Hierarchy Editor. Here you can delete IK Chains (Tip #3) or bones.
6. Don’t Fear the Set-Up Room.
The Set-Up Room allows you to adjust Joint parameters and re-assign parts of figures to new groups. You can even turn imported wavefront objects (*.OBJ) into figures using the Set-Up room. For anyone making Poser Clothes, this is the MOST useful feature of Poser. Learn to use it well.
7. Joint Parameters are important.
With some 3-D models, the joints are such that modeling clothes for them can be quite tricky. Victoria 4 has an issue regarding bending her legs near the hip (the unfortunately named “crotch issue“). Mastering Joint Parameters will prevent some of these issues.
8. Make your model at actual size.
You will thank yourself when it comes time to import your clothing into Poser. I use Shade 8 Which has a PoserFusion feature for Importing Poser Figures. I model my clothes around a figure in the correct size and location it should appear when it becomes finished Poser Clothing. I can then import it into Poser with all import options turned OFF.
9. UV maps will save you time.
Modeling clothes can be time consuming. Transparency Maps, Bump Maps and Displacement Maps can save time. For example, instead of creating the ribs in an a sweater, a bump map painted in Photoshop can give the impression of ribs in a sweater. UV Maps are basically fltatened out version of a model; like a map of the Globe flattened onto a sheet. UV Mapper is one inexpensive program that can be used to create UV Maps but there are many others (BodyPaint, Blender, ZBrush., etc.).
10. Learn to Use Python.
Without Python, I literally would not have time to sleep when creating 3-D Models. Python allows me to automate the creation of Full Body Morphs and Renders. I can sleep while the computer works. It’s a nice arrangement. Poser comes with a manual on Poser specific Python commands. You can also look at the following sites for ideas on how to use Python with Poser:
http://www.python.org/
http://www.3dtrue.com/tutorial/6.html
http://castleposer.co.uk/articles/python_lists.html
Q -run Windows on a Mac
Q is based on the CPU emulator QEMU. Q allows Mac-users to run Windows and Linux on a Mac. Unlike VMWare and Parallels, Q supports PowerPC Macs (G4, G5) in addition to Intel Macs. For anyone building 3-D models, this is a useful program to have. Many 3-D modeling utilities and programs (Morph Manager, CR2Editor, and ZBrush to name a few) only run on Windows. Q is FREE and is available under the GPL (GNU Public License).
Setting up Q is very straightforward but a bit tedius:
- Download Q from the website http://www.kju-app.org/kju/
- Create a disk image using Disk Utility (available under “/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app”). Your disk image should be large enough to fit whichever Operating System you wish to install (4 GB minimum for Windows XP).
- Eject your Disk Image after creating it. DO NOT format it in DOS (contrary to the instructions on Q’s website). I found I had nothing but headaches after I attempted to install windows on a pre-formated drive.
- Set-up a new Guest PC with Q. Set your new Disk Image as the Hard Disk and set CD-ROM as the medium to Boot From.
- Install Windows from your CD (assuming you own a copy). Follow the on-screen instructions.
SECURITY NOTE:
DISABLE NETWORKING FOR Q. You cannot secure your Windows install at this time. XP cannot be updated using Q. I suspect similar problems for 98 and Vista. To be on the safe-side, don’t put your Windows share online. This avoids potential problems with viruses.
Filed under 3-D Modeling | Comments OffMighty Morphin’ Mac
DazStudio from Daz Productions
When I first started creating my own 3-D Models, I found the most popular online resources — Morph Manager, UV Mapper Pro, and Cr2Editor — are all PC-Only. With patience and perseverance I discovered some alternatives to these programs that work on the Mac!
Shade is an excellent tool for building 3-D Models from scratch that is produced by E-Frontier and is available for both the Mac and the PC. 3-D objects are designed in Shade using splines, curves that can be re-shaped by moving a small set of control points; this is the same method used to create shapes in Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. In building my own models, I learned that Shade has UV Mapping capabilities equivalent to UV Mapper Pro. Although Shade has a steep learning curve, it is well worth the time and monetary investment.
DAZStudio created by DAZ Productions is quickly becoming a powerful alternative to Poser. The cost of entry is much less than Poser (DAZStudio is free) although it lacks some of the capabilities of Poser. There are many plug-ins available, some free and some for sale, that increase its functionality to the level of Poser. One very useful free plug-in to get for DAZStudio is Inj / Rem Export, a tool for creating Morph Injection files.
Xcode, Apple’s Development Program, is available on the OS X installer disc. This is the closest thing to a CR2 Editor available for the Mac. XCode won’t add extra-formating to a file unlike TextEdit. It is a powerful tool but it seems like a waste to use it for something as trivial as editing a text file.
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