Here is a step by step guide to making a unit. What I've tried to do is take the reader through my complete process of making a CivIII unit. I'll try to follow this thread in case anyone has questions about anything, but I can't guarantee that I can always reply immediately. My original plan was to make a website, but I've decided to make a .pdf copy of my Microsoft Word document. The tutorial is organized in lists (i.e. step 1., step 2., step 3., etc.) As a result, the total number of pages is rather large: 75. However, it is in no way like reading through 75 pages of information!

Good luck with your unit making! I hope to see some more unit creators now; if not, I want my month back! ;)

Unit Making Tutorial by utahjazz7 (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Unit_Making_Tutorial_by_utahjazz7.zip)

Downloads

To follow the tutorial, you will need some programs and some other downloads. All of the URL's refered to in the tutorial are in this post.

Programs Needed

Poser 5
http://www.curioslabs.com/go/poser5

UVMapper
http://www.uvmapper.com/downloads.html

Paint Shop Pro 3.0
http://www.pagetutor.com/pagetutor/makapage/psp/ (actual downoad)
http://www.corel.com

Steph's Storyboard Builder
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42092

pEdit
http://www.agentur-simon.de/pedit/

FLICster (build 18)
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10208

Photoshop 7.0
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html

unFREEz
http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/

Gathering Resources

Poser Setup
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/new_unit_setup.zip

Kinboat's Paperdoll and Stuff
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=1397395

Some Extras Needed
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/spanish_stuff.zip

Creating the Palette

Peleset Spearman
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Peleset_Spearman.zip

New Information

- Using Kinboat's Setup
If you did not use my setup but Kinboat's instead, you will need to make a
couple of changes. When the tutorial tells you to download my Peleset
Spearman, you will need to use one of Kinboat's foot units. That is
becuase the offsets in FLICster and the render sizes will be different. Be
sure the Kinboat unit that you choose has blue as it's civ-specific color.

- New Spanish Shield
zulu9812 wanted to create a texture map for the Spanish_Shield.3ds prop.
Unfortuunately, it wasn't possible to get a good map. So, I made a new
shield prop. It is identical to the original expect that it has an image map
that goes along with it. Feel free to substitute this model with the one
used in the tutorial; there is no difference in using them.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/New_Sp_Shield_With_Map.zip

Now you need to change that link in your signature to this thread instead of mine.

I can't look at it at the moment, what with being at work and not supposed to even be here, but it sounds good :D

UtahJazz7, this is an amazing bit of work. This is the most complete and comprehensive unit-creation tutorial I've seen on here or elsewhere.
I'm not normally prone to use emoticons, but this really does call for it.

Stand up and take a bow.
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

Is there any reason you still use FLICster instead of Civ3FlcEdit?
I have wondered how they compare.

Is there any reason you still use FLICster instead of Civ3FlcEdit?
I have wondered how they compare.

I use both. I have found there are times when Civ3FlcEdit requires me to jump through alot of hoops to get it to work. But other times, I find the added functionality of it to be extremely helpful.

Is there any reason you still use FLICster instead of Civ3FlcEdit?
I have wondered how they compare.

Basically, I use FLICster because I know how to. Civ3FlcEdit may be an incredibly useful tool, but only in the hands of someone who knows how to use it. I don't. ;) I've heard rumors of it, but I've never had a reason to abandon FLICster; FLICster does everything I need it to. Plus, I'm comfortable with it.



UtahJazz7, this is an amazing bit of work. This is the most complete and comprehensive unit-creation tutorial I've seen on here or elsewhere. . . .

Thank you very much. It's nice to know the work is appreciated. I just hope that it will be useful. ;)

Haven't checked, but with that many pages, it sounds quite promising! Also the unfreez program sounds quite nice. Thanks for the heads up. Also dloaded the pedit program you've talked about, in case it's different(or newer version) than the one we have here.

I have poser 4, but I'm sure the basics will be roughly equal, right?
Photoshop will be a prob, as I only have 5.5, but I dloaded a demo to see.
But certainly, thank you, as this was needed! :)

so I need all these programs? I have blender and Photoshop elements. I also can do some programming

I have poser 4, but I'm sure the basics will be roughly equal, right?
Photoshop will be a prob, as I only have 5.5, but I dloaded a demo to see.
But certainly, thank you, as this was needed! :)

Yes, the tutorial will still work with Poser4. The only problem is that I don't think that you will be able to use my Poser setup file because it's a Poser5 file. So, you will need to use Kinboat's setup, which is for Poser4. As a result, the size of your render will also have to be different; therefore, as post #3 says, you have to use one of his units to derive your storyboard and base palette from. The animating and other steps are all the same though.

Photoshop 5.5 will be fine, I'm sure. That's all I need it for is some resizing and minor editing.



so I need all these programs? I have blender and Photoshop elements. I also can do some programming

Well, there are ways of using blender to create units, but I do not know them, and they are not discussed here.

the link to poser 5 does not bring me to a download. Am I just missing it? Also, could I use photoshop 7 instead of paint shop pro?

you would have to buy poser, unfortunately - there is a free alternative called Daz Studio but you would have to tweak some things

bummer i don't want to pay

I'd just like to point out that when I use PEdit and open my storyboard, the storyboard isn't opened. I reinstalled the program but to no avail.

EDIT: here is the storyboard - http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/AttackA_.zip

Upon further investigation, I've discovered that PEdit can open images, but none of the images that I have created and saved - no matter what program I use (have tried Jasc PSP 9, Photoshop CS and MS Photodraw 2000). Which kinda puts a dampner on the whole process. Anyone have any ideas?

Upon further investigation, I've discovered that PEdit can open images, but none of the images that I have created and saved - no matter what program I use (have tried Jasc PSP 9, Photoshop CS and MS Photodraw 2000). Which kinds outs a dampner on the whole process. Anyone have any ideas?

I looked at the image that you wanted to open in pEdit. I think the problem is just that your image is too big. I downloaded your image, tried to open the image in pEdit, and got an error message. Then, I cropped the image down to about six or seven frames and saved it. Then I opened the cropped image in pEdit with no problems.

If you're planning on using this attack sequence in CivIII, I'd recommend shortening it to 15 frames.

well, it won't open this image either (which is 15 frames) - http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Default_.zip

well, it won't open this image either (which is 15 frames) - http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/Default_.zip

Hmm, that's strange. Well, I downloaded your Default_.zip file and opened the .bmp image in pEdit. It worked for me. I don't understand why that would be though. Unfortunately, I won't be much help with figuring out why you're having problems with the program. The only thing that I could do would be to recommend downloading the pEdit setup file again and reinstalling the program.

Do you know of an alternate way of making the palettes, or would you need someone to make a palette for you?

Ignorant as I am, I would have thought it possible to edit a palette in the paint programme itself, wouldn't it? I use NeoPaint and you can certainly do it there. Load up the storyboard or whatever your image is and edit the palette.

I just read through the tutorial and am very impressed. Alas, I don't have Poser and can't afford it right now, so unfortunately there will be no units springing forth from my febrile imagination, at least not for the time being. But it may be useful to me to know how animations go back and forth between paint programs and Flicster, with a view to some colour conversions.

Ignorant as I am, I would have thought it possible to edit a palette in the paint programme itself, wouldn't it? I use NeoPaint and you can certainly do it there. Load up the storyboard or whatever your image is and edit the palette.

I just read through the tutorial and am very impressed. Alas, I don't have Poser and can't afford it right now, so unfortunately there will be no units springing forth from my febrile imagination, at least not for the time being. But it may be useful to me to know how animations go back and forth between paint programs and Flicster, with a view to some colour conversions.

It certainly is possible to edit palettes within paint programs like Paint Shop Pro. It's just that--for me--pEdit is much easier. Of course, if pEdit will not open your images, then it's not gonna be easier. :)

Incidentally, if I wanted to create a unit without any civ colours, is it enough to simply render without any Blue (57:100:253) in the scene?

Incidentally, if I wanted to create a unit without any civ colours, is it enough to simply render without any Blue (57:100:253) in the scene?

Basically yes. You'd probably want to eliminate all blues though because (57:100:253) is sort of the middle value of the range of civ-specific colors.

Or if you need blue in the unit--but not as civ-specific coloring--switch the civ-specific colors to something else. That can be done in FLICster. When you export a .flc to a storyboard, you can specify which civ-specific color will be the default, or what in the unit will be civ-specific. For example, you can set that to white, red, orange, yellow, etc. The change will be seen in the palette created by FLICster.

Just to let people know that you can't get a texture map from the Spanish Shield .3ds file in order to make shield designs for it. So utahjazz7 has very kindly remade the shield and included a texture map for it.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/New_Sp_Shield_With_Map.zip

Just to let people know that you can't get a texture map from the Spanish Shield .3ds file in order to make shield designs for it. So utahjazz7 has very kindly remade the shield and included a texture map for it.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads9/New_Sp_Shield_With_Map.zip

Thanks, zulu. I also made a not in post #3 where new information is updated.

Hi.Im a noob (which is why i read your tutorial in the first place) and for the most part i found it great! The only problem i had was that because of monetary problems (i dont have any ;) ), i was forced to download DAZ studio instead of Poser, and found translating your instructions a bit difficult.
I was upto the part where you start animating the foot, and couldnt for the life of me work out how to do it...

Perhaps i have misread some earlier instructions?

I personally think that it may be mostly to do with the port from Mac to Windows. Any help would be great (atlhough a new version of your tutorial especially for Windows would be better, :blush: )!!!

But apart from that, your tutorial looks great! It has defiantely got me started on the road to unit creation anyhow! :goodjob:

Rather than use the translate tool, I just use the dials

Hi.Im a noob (which is why i read your tutorial in the first place) and for the most part i found it great! The only problem i had was that because of monetary problems (i dont have any ;) ), i was forced to download DAZ studio instead of Poser, and found translating your instructions a bit difficult.
I was upto the part where you start animating the foot, and couldnt for the life of me work out how to do it...

Perhaps i have misread some earlier instructions?

I personally think that it may be mostly to do with the port from Mac to Windows. Any help would be great (atlhough a new version of your tutorial especially for Windows would be better, :blush: )!!!

But apart from that, your tutorial looks great! It has defiantely got me started on the road to unit creation anyhow! :goodjob:

As far as any operational difference from mac to windows, there really isn't one. The only thing that I am not sure about are the exact button and menu names. The process of animating a unit is the same though. Sorry, you'll have to find another excuse. ;) I'm just kidding there. I'm not familiar at all with DAZ studio, so I'm no help there. Good luck though.

Rather than use the translate tool, I just use the dials


Ok, thanks for both your help...

Perhaps it is the theory i am struggling to understand then.

As far as any operational difference from mac to windows, there really isn't one. The only thing that I am not sure about are the exact button and menu names. The process of animating a unit is the same though. Sorry, you'll have to find another excuse. I'm just kidding there. I'm not familiar at all with DAZ studio, so I'm no help there. Good luck though.

Damn! Ill just have to think of a better one! ;) Erm...the tutorial crashed, yeah, erm, thats it!

Thanks again for doing this tuturial. I've now downloaded it and printed it out. I'm hoping to make some units for Anno Domini and this will certainly help.

For those who are interested, here is a thread where I will post figures and props for use with Kinboat's paperdoll.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=2795262

Awesome, now I have some more figures and props to play with.
Thanks to you and Kinboat I may never have to learn how to model. ;)

Thanks utahjazz7. :thumbsup:

I have a question, not sure if this is the right place, oh and it's a wonderful tutorial!

I made a very basic and simple shiled in 3ds max, for this tutorial. I mean very basic, my spelling is not the best perhaps, but It was supposed to look like it was made of four wooden "planks" with glitches between them, roughly cut out. However when I imported that to Poser it was all in one mesh? Also made these "straps to hold the shield" - made two of them, sometimes only one showed up in poser and they were also part of the mesh...? Not sure if this is understandable... I tried to export both as 3ds and obj...

But is it one special plugin you make to export from max to poser?

I have a question, not sure if this is the right place, oh and it's a wonderful tutorial!

I made a very basic and simple shiled in 3ds max, for this tutorial. I mean very basic, my spelling is not the best perhaps, but It was supposed to look like it was made of four wooden "planks" with glitches between them, roughly cut out. However when I imported that to Poser it was all in one mesh? Also made these "straps to hold the shield" - made two of them, sometimes only one showed up in poser and they were also part of the mesh...? Not sure if this is understandable... I tried to export both as 3ds and obj...

But is it one special plugin you make to export from max to poser?

I'm not a 3D modelling expert, but I'll lend my opinion. I believe that when you save your model, even if the your model has separate parts, it will always be concidered one object, meaning that all the parts move together and will have the same color and other properties. What you can do however, it to assign individual polygons to materials. For example the base of the shield could be a "wood" material. Then you could have a "straps" material. Then, the different parts of the model could have different properties. The other thing that you can do it the create a texture map for your object which you could then color and apply to the model. I'm not sure if that helps or not, but I think that that is what your were wondering about.

I'm not sure why one strap wouldn't show up, but I have also had this problem where when I export my model to .3ds format, pieces are missing. I don't understand why though.

utah, I can't find any references to PSP 3.0 anywhere on the Corel site (I even did a search). Where can I download it?

Hey everyone. This seems like a great tutorial, but i am unable to find the poser link. Does anyone know where i could get this?

utah, I can't find any references to PSP 3.0 anywhere on the Corel site (I even did a search). Where can I download it?

The problem is that PSP 3.0 is old. I don't think that you can dowload it from the Corel site itself. I first started using it back when CivII first came out--long time ago, it seems. I still have the two floppies that I originally used to install it. I've used the free trial for a couple of newer versions, but I like this version 3.0 the best. All that said, here's what you really want . . . a link where it can still be downloaded from. I should have just posted this originally. :)

http://www.pagetutor.com/pagetutor/makapage/psp/

Hey everyone. This seems like a great tutorial, but i am unable to find the poser link. Does anyone know where i could get this?

I don't know what you mean by the Poser link. Do you mean a link to download the program? If so, I'm afraid that I do not know of you. There is no free trial for Poser, as far as I know. You're best bet is to buy it, if you want it.

I'm not a 3D modelling expert, but I'll lend my opinion. I believe that when you save your model, even if the your model has separate parts, it will always be concidered one object, meaning that all the parts move together and will have the same color and other properties. What you can do however, it to assign individual polygons to materials. For example the base of the shield could be a "wood" material. Then you could have a "straps" material. Then, the different parts of the model could have different properties. The other thing that you can do it the create a texture map for your object which you could then color and apply to the model. I'm not sure if that helps or not, but I think that that is what your were wondering about.

I'm not sure why one strap wouldn't show up, but I have also had this problem where when I export my model to .3ds format, pieces are missing. I don't understand why though.

This is a poser glitch actually.
I import to other software and they come normally, seperate. But in poser, I'm pretty sure even its own models will be imported as one(actually, i'm certain as I've tried it).

I don't know what you mean by the Poser link. Do you mean a link to download the program? If so, I'm afraid that I do not know of you. There is no free trial for Poser, as far as I know. You're best bet is to buy it, if you want it.

I think he means the link in the second post, which doesn't work, as Curious Labs is no longer 'Curious Labs'. I found the new site the other day, however.

GREAT tutorial !

This has solved most of the problems I had before ! I think I am back and will eventually release something !
On the other hand I have one new issue : I cannot see the shadows anymore. Did I do something wrong at one time ?

And my last remaining issue is the palette. I am partly color-blind which does not help much and in you tutorial the part is covered briefly (guess you were tired or thought it was obvious).

So if someone has proficiency at palette editing and wants to work with me....

Here's some prices of Poser 5 I could find at Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006IXA4/104-0454971-4969548) and Ebay (http://search.ebay.com/poser-5_W0QQfkrZ1QQfromZR8). Ebay seems iffy, though; most only make mention of Poser 4, ad the one that does say Poser 5 only says so in the title... not sure of the specifications... and the rest are handbooks. On Amazon, Poser 5 and 6 are the same price, too.

Hope this helps! :king:
SilverKnight

Please someone tell me where to get one of these programs free i can't afford them and would like to make units.

hey guys!! i found a free trial version of poser 6 and many other e-frontier products right here: http://downloads.e-frontier.com/user/home.php?cat=1349

Damn, it gives me an access denied message for some reason.

hmm, works for me...

Damn, it gives me an access denied message for some reason.
You have to register to download the trial copy then they e-mail you a new link to download it.

Yes, that's the problem, sorry for not being clear. It gives me the access denied when I click the link they've send.

But I'll retry.

No problem.......btw the trial lasted about one hour with me because it has trial watermarked in the background.

Thanks for this tutorial Utahjazz7! I'm making a unit in Daz Studio and have been referencing to your tutorial along the way. I don't think I ever would have figured out animation without it.

By the way, Daz Studio is a free program which seems to be alot like Poser (I've never used Poser though). It can use Poser props and figures and this tutorial almost completely matches up with it.

could someone please tell me step by step how to add a downloaded unit

could someone please tell me step by step how to add a downloaded unit

This thread is not about adding units. You should not have posted your question here.

Look at the link below. If that isn't what you're looking for, then I can't help you. Please don't post in this thread, if you aren't talking about creating a unit using the tutorial.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=71114

This is a great tutorial!
I managed to do everything it said but I've run into a problem: it's about the step where I have to use the UVMapper. I open uvmapper as the tutorial says, I load the Kilt 4.obj but I have no Export Texture Map option but an Export UVs option and after I select this option and save as Kilt 4_map.tif, I can't open it in photoshop - it says it's not a TIFF file.
So I'm stuck here. Please help!

Hmm, Sword_Of_Geddon wrote me a pm about a similar problem. I believe that the problem comes from me using the mac version of the software. When you load the Kilt4.obj, you should see an image on the screen that shows a view of the models mesh--probably white with black lines. At this point, you have to save this as an image. On the mac, I get the option for "Export Texture Map". The Windows version must have something, like "Save Texture Map" or something that will allow you to save an image. I'd imagine that it would be in the "File" menu.

Once you find the command, save the image as whatever file type you want. It doesn't need to be a .tif image. That's just the only option that the mac version has other than .pdf, which wouldn't be useful for me.

Good luck.

Thank you so much! It worked!

I think he means the link in the second post, which doesn't work, as Curious Labs is no longer 'Curious Labs'. I found the new site the other day, however.
The proper link for them is here:

http://www.e-frontier.com/go/poser5

Once again, thanks for the tutorial. I've now created over 30 units for Anno Domini using it!
However, I'm finding it difficult to sort out animations for an archer. Looking at units that you've created, it would seem that the fortify animation is a case of taking the arrow out of his quivver and loading the bow and the attack is firing the bow. For some reason, I'm finding it difficult to do these two animations. Do you have any tips that might help me?

Well, hmm . . . let me think. I have made the occasional archer unit, but what would be the best way to do it? Yeah, unfortunately, it's not all that easy to describe, but I will try to do it off the top of my head.

I make no guarantees to the accuracy of the following information. ;)


building the model

1. Loosely close the grip of the right hand, as if the figure were holding an arrow to notch.

2. Parent an arrow to the figure's right hand. The shaft of the arrow should extend from the knuckle out, parallel to the forearm.

3. In the first frame, set the size of the arrow to .001%--making the arrow invisible.

4. For the arrow, make all frames of the default animation key frames.


animating

fortify--ten frames

In the fortify animation you have a couple of options. You can either have the animation end with the figure's hand at the quiver, or the unit can actually be prepared to fire an arrow at the start of the attack animation. I'll talk about how I'd animate the second option. I will concentrate on just the arm drawing the arrow. I would animate all of the figure in all ten frames except for the arms and neck before animating the arms and neck in any. The footwork is similar to a normal unit. First the left foot steps forward, and then the right foot steps backward. The only difference is that the unit will be turned almost 90 degrees to the right by the end.

1. In frame 4 of the fortify, the figure's right hand should be located so as to appear to be grabbing the end of an arrow in the quiver. The neck should be adjusted so that the unit appears to be looking at the quiver here, if possible.

2. Select the arrow prop--the one parented to the figure's right hand--and make the first four frames key frames.

3. In frame 8, the figure's right hand should be at the string of the bow--just about to draw back. The neck should be adjusted to aim at the target.

4. Go back to frame 5. Set the scale of the arrow back to 100%. Watch in frames 5-8 that the arrow doesn't stick out through the quiver or anything else. Look to frame 8, to make sure the arrow is on the bow properly; I'd recommend adjusting the right hand, not the arrow, to correct any problems.

5. Make key frames for frames 1-8 for the entire figure. Be sure to do this with the bow as well.

6. In the hierarchy editor, turn on the IK-chain for the right hand.

7. In frame 10, move the right hand to draw the bow. You'll need to play the the bows draw morph to find the right position. Also, you may need to adjust the right shoulder and forearm for a more realistic movement.

8. Make key frames for frames 9 and 10 of the entire figure, arrow, and bow.


attack--15 frames

Here the unit will basically release the arrow, have a follow through, grab another arrow, and get ready to fire again. I don't bother moving the feet, but you can if you wish, of course.

1. In frame 1 of the attack, select the arrow and set the parent to the rotate ball.

2. Go to frame 3 and from the left/right camera view, move the arrow out to where it will be flying. You'll have to play around with this, but if you look at the Firaxis units, I think you'll notice that the arrow doesn't fly too far at all. In fact, and I beleive it's in the Firaxis Longbowman, the arrow looks like it will hit the ground about 20 feet in front of the figure.

3. For the arrow, set key frames for the arrow in frames 1, 2, and 3.

4. Go to frame four, and parent the arrow to the figure's right hand.

5. Set the scale to .001%.

6. In the key frame editor, copy frame one of the default animation. Paste it into frame 4 of the attack animation.

7. Select the bow. In either frame 1 or 2 of the attack animation, set the draw morph back to 0. I think I normally have it gone in frame 1 already. You'll have to see how it looks to you.

8. In the hierarchy editor, turn of the IK-chain for the right hand.

9. You'll notice that the Firaxis archers have a pretty active release. Go to frame 3 or 4, whichever you prefer, and create the end of the release. Typically, the figure should lean away from the target, so maybe use the hip and chest to create this effect. Also, the right arm should extend back about parallel with the chest. The figure should still mostly face the target though. Create a keyframe for the entire figure here.

10. In the keyframe editor select the entire figure's (include the arrow)frames 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the fortify animation. Copy them.

11. Paste them into frames 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 of the attack animation. This should create the same animation for pulling an arrow, notching, and drawing that you had in the fortify animation.

12. You'll need to do something with the left arm during the animation so that it doesn't seem immobile. I normally lower the left shoulder and move it forward a bit in frame four. I'd also, probably bend the forearm here abit and twist the forearm toward the figure. It just makes things look less stiff.

13. Create key frames for the entire animation.

I appreciate the help and will give it a go :goodjob: !

Great tuto! Very useful :goodjob:

One remark: The rotate ball casts shadows. It can be seen better with air unit.

If you'll go to the object options, you can untick "casts shadows"(at least in P4) and your problem is solved.

Yes, I know. I said it here so Utahjazz could "fix" it if he does a new version of his setup :)

Having got my hands on Poser 6, I'm giving this a go. I've hit a couple of problems already.

The serfsuit doesn't seem to fit him properly. To be specific, his arms seem to bulge out of the sleeves, as if the sleeves should be a couple of inches (his inches, not mine) higher up. Could this be because I'm using Poser 6, or is there some more obvious thing causing this that I'm too daft to spot?

I'm completely stumped by the business with UVMapper and the kilt. I can save the texture map as an image format and open it OK in NeoPaint. But what exactly am I meant to do with it? Simply paint over it with big blocks of colour, as if creating a modern art masterpiece? I tried this but it had no discernible effect on the kilt when loaded into Poser. I've never encountered texture maps and their ilk before so I don't really follow this.

Other than that, it's tough going, but hopefully I'll get the hang of it! And big respect to the earlier unit makers, especially Kinboat, for somehow working all this out and creating the models in the first place.

A new unit-maker on the horizon! Sweet! :bounce:

Oh, I wouldn't get too excited yet! I think it's going to take a fair bit of perseverance yet...

I belive in you! :king:
I have to get that Poser thingy, somehow, the PovRay is actualy scaring the living daylights out of me! :)

BTW, your language is strange - scaring the living daylights? WTF? :p

[Utahjazz] Thanks for the great tutorial - I've worked my way through it and actually produced something resembling a unit at the end of it. I made many mistakes along the way, which I won't again (er, possibly). Without your tutorial I wouldn't have known where to begin.

Apart from the points mentioned above, I hit a couple of other snags. In particular, having produced the storyboards for each direction, there didn't seem to be any way to combine them into the comprehensive storyboards that Civ uses (that is, only one storyboard per action, including all the directions). There didn't seem to be a point in the tutorial at which these were created. So I just copied and pasted the direction storyboards together. I bet I missed something that makes this process easier, but it didn't seem that SSB can do it.

How people managed to do this before there was the tutorial and Kinboat's models and settings, I can't think...

Hello, Plotinus. I'm sorry that I didn't see your questions before this. I've been on the forums, but I just didn't notice . . . I've been a little distracted with my computer problems. ;) I'm not sure that any of this will help or if it's too late, but I'll try.


Apart from the points mentioned above, I hit a couple of other snags. In particular, having produced the storyboards for each direction, there didn't seem to be any way to combine them into the comprehensive storyboards that Civ uses (that is, only one storyboard per action, including all the directions). There didn't seem to be a point in the tutorial at which these were created. So I just copied and pasted the direction storyboards together. I bet I missed something that makes this process easier, but it didn't seem that SSB can do it.

I don't really understand what you did here, so I can't help so much. Look through the Rendering section of the tutorial again, I guess.


The serfsuit doesn't seem to fit him properly. To be specific, his arms seem to bulge out of the sleeves, as if the sleeves should be a couple of inches (his inches, not mine) higher up. Could this be because I'm using Poser 6, or is there some more obvious thing causing this that I'm too daft to spot?

Hmm, I'm not sure about this. After conforming the serf suit to the paperdoll, were you sure to set the x-, y-, and zTran values to .000? Also did you click the Zero Figure button in the Joint Editor—again, after conforming the serf suit to the paperdoll? See Building the Model Part 4, More Conforming Clothing of my tutorial for the step-by-step on these. If it isn't either of these I really don't know what the problem might be. Possibly, the IK-chain for the hand(s) of one of the figures was turned on and that's causing the problem.


I'm completely stumped by the business with UVMapper and the kilt. I can save the texture map as an image format and open it OK in NeoPaint. But what exactly am I meant to do with it? Simply paint over it with big blocks of colour, as if creating a modern art masterpiece? I tried this but it had no discernible effect on the kilt when loaded into Poser. I've never encountered texture maps and their ilk before so I don't really follow this.

When you open the image file that was created by UVMapper, it should be white with black lines on it. The black lines represent the wireframe structure of the model. You can paint over these parts to make to the texture look as you want it too, very detailed or "a modern art masterpiece." To get the texture that you created onto the model, you have to assign the texture to the model's material (e.g. TTrim, Tunic) that you want textured. See Building the Model Part 5, Another Conforming Figure of my tutorial.

The serfsuit doesn't seem to fit him properly. To be specific, his arms seem to bulge out of the sleeves, as if the sleeves should be a couple of inches (his inches, not mine) higher up. Could this be because I'm using Poser 6, or is there some more obvious thing causing this that I'm too daft to spot?
I had the same problem (with the serfsuit and other conforming figures), but worked out how to resolve it. Basically, you need to load the serfsuit and conform it to the PDM. At this point the arms are bulging out of the sleeves etc. You then need to go into each part of the suit, ie hips, thighs etc and ensure everything is set to 0 - you'll find that it isn't initially, which is causing the misfitting of the outfit.

[UJ] Thanks for the tips. I shall try the texture creation and see what happens.

[R8XFT] Thanks also. It sounds like that might sort it. I suspect that this may be a difference between the PC and Mac versions of Poser, but who knows?

utahjaz7, many many thanks!!!
I've begun to settle Poser 5 and some questions have arrived.
1. What must I do to Select a part of the PDM model? I cant select them all together.
2. What is Gouping tools? I cant find it in menu. And my dictionary doesn't give me any translate of this word - 'gouping'...
Thanks in advance...

Maybe its "grouping tools"?

Is this a new unit maker I see? :)

2Stormrage
Oh, maybe you are right... concerning 'gouping tools'. Simply in pdf-file this 'term' is.

PS. Im not a new unit maker, but I long for it.

To select a part of the model, just click on it in the picture. Alternatively, click on the name of the model where it appears just above the picture, and use the drop-down menus to select a part of it.

Thank you, Plotinus.
I've already made out how to do it. I asked this question 'cause I thought that all this PDM-clothes are added altogether to model, and I thought that they must be selected all before adding them to model, but they are added one after another and there is no need to select them all.
Sorry for frequent questions but there are more ones...:mischief:
1. As I understand this tutorial is intended for making of human units. Is it so? If I want to make a vehicle unit Can I do it in Poser?

2. Im delayed on part 4 of tutorial 'cause I cant find where 'Set the xTran, yTran, and zTran all to zero'... Where is it?

Thanks in advance....

The tutorial is for human units, but of course you're not restricted to that in Poser. You can make anything you like, provided you can find a model for it. I think you can get vehicle models for Poser - have a look on Renderosity and the other Poser model sites.

For the second question, make sure you've got the object properties box open (open it from the Object menu if it's not open already). Click on the Parameters tab and X Tran, Y Tran and Z Tran should all be there. These are the object's coordinates in 3D space, so changing these moves it around.

Utah and other Poser users,

Since the free download, I've been working on creating some new units with Poser. However, I have run into one issue. I've created a shield prop myself using ppmodeller. I've saved it as a .obj, resized and placed it into position in Poser. I then exported it back into an .obj, and used UVmapper to create a texture map. However, I can't get the map to appear on the shield. I've followed the tutorial (at least I believe so...) and I been able to add textures to Kinboat's Serf Suit easily, but not any of the props I have made.

One issue could be when I used UVMapper, it told me that the prop was not UV defined. Is this the issue, and what can I do in Poser to fix it? If it is not the issue, what can I do?

Thanks in advance!!

I didn't bother to use UVMapper for the simple props I've made so far. I just kept it 1 texture per obj or 3ds file.
For example, I recently posted a couple of pitchforks in this thread:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=185230
download them and try the following.
Open Poser.
Import the object.
Select the object
go to the materials tab and change the from the default color to some texture.
go to the pose screen and render.
Works for me.
A sheild prop should be the same, shouldn't it?

If you want a more complex set up, maybe UVmapper would help.
Try this tutorial, it shows the same error you got.
http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/Gen3DTuts/UVMapperTut/UVMapper1-1.html

Thanks, Bjornlo. I was trying to get a particular design on the front of the shield, so I'm going through the tutorial you posted now. Thanks again!

Edit: It was a stupid mistake...Whenever I would create my texture map in UVMapper, I would save the map...and not think to save the model. When I saved the model, everything worked out great.

I'm glad everything got worked out.

I just wanted to point out that I can now say from experience that this is an excellent tutorial. Thanks utah :)

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/5413/spearmania9.png

Poser vets:

I'm trying to create a spearman, but I'm having an issue creating the death. Whenever I unparent the spear to make it fall from the model's hand, it makes it unparent for all of the animations. I've probably goofed up somewhere in the Keyframe Editor I'm guessing, but would that be correct? Or is there something other simple I've probably goofed on?

Thanks in advance. :)

Make a seperate animation when you wish to unparent something
Open the keyframes. Select the attack animation.
Paste it to the first 15 frames
Shorten the animation to 15 frames
save as unitname_death
Unparent the spear and have fun.

[Olorin] For the part where the spear is stuck to his hand, make sure you make every frame a key frame. Then unparent it in the next frame, and it should leave the previous ones alone.

[Olorin] For the part where the spear is stuck to his hand, make sure you make every frame a key frame. Then unparent it in the next frame, and it should leave the previous ones alone.

This is the behavior I expected... but I did not get it. It would periodically move all over the place when I made later changes

Hmm, it shouldn't do that. I have had problems in this area too but I've also made it work, so it should be possible. But it's certainly rather unforgiving.

Thanks. Now to get cracking :whipped:

Paint Shop 4 won`t open the .tif file I exported with UV Mapper? :help:

Windows Fax and Picture viewer opens tifs. You can edit them with paint, too.

I think GIMP opens them too. I know newer versions of Paintshop does. And, of course photoshop does.

Paint Shop 4 won`t open the .tif file I exported with UV Mapper? :help:

If you have other file formats to choose from in the Windows verision of UVMapper, you can choose another one (e.g. .bmp, .jpg, etc.). I have only ever used the mac version, and in that there are only options for .tif and .pdf. That's why I say to export as a .tif file.

[Olorin] For the part where the spear is stuck to his hand, make sure you make every frame a key frame. Then unparent it in the next frame, and it should leave the previous ones alone.

Yep, that's how it's done. Before you make the prop parented to the ROTATE BALL, be sure that all of the previous frames for the prop are key frames. Only then, parent it to the ROTATE BALL. If you're doing this, you should have everything go well.

The same holds true if you want a unit to put something down and then pick it back up--for example, sticking a sword into the ground then picking it back up. When the sword is where it's going to stand in the ground, make all the previous frames key frames. Then, parent the sword to the ROTATE BALL. Continue animating. When the sword is ready to be removed, again make all previous frames, up to and including the frame before it would start to move, key frames. Then parent the sword back to the PDM's hand.

Paint Shop 4 won`t open the .tif file I exported with UV Mapper? :help:

I have been exporting my image files as bmp's.

Thanks guys!

I`m following the tutorial and it makes me really nervous. I mean, its a POSER UNIT MAKING TUTORIAL, for Pete`s sake! For making units! In Poser! A tutorial! Ain`t that great? :D

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Have you touched the camera at all? Because it sounds like the PDM is out of its view.

You got me?

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Okay, how come .cr2 files never work for me, no matter what I do? For me, all they do is add a skeleton to an existing model, like the paperdoll, but never add a prop when you want it to. Like I was using Kinboat's Aiel turban, and went into the room where you add stuff, and clicked on the turban to add it. I went back to the Pose room and all of the rest of the props were gone, and the Aiel truban wasn't even there, either! Just a bunch of arrow things. So how do you use.cr2 files?

I'm stuck at building the model pt 5. My version of UVmapper has no option to "export texture map." The closest thing is "export uvs." When I try to do this I see a lot of options that aren't mentioned in the tutorial. UVmapper wants to save everything as a UVS file rather than .tif files as per the tutorial. I've tried saving with both extensions; I have PSP8 but it doesn't recognize either the .tif or .uvs files.

I'm sorry. I'm having some very difficult personal problems, and I just can't help right now. I'm really sorry.

I hope things turn out well for you, man!

That's ok, man. I'll come back to Poser later, anyway. Hope everything turns out well, :).

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Can anybody else help me? I'm on "building the model" part 5.

UVMapper interface is different from the way it is described in the tutorial. There's no "export texture map" option, only "save model," "save texture map" and "export uvs." Selecting "export uvs" gives me all kinds of options that aren't mentioned in the tutorial. The program wants to save the file as a uvs rather than a tiff. If I give it a tif extension, neither photoshop and paint shop pro can open it.

But windows fax and picture viewer can. Just open it with that, edit it with paint, and save it as whatever you want.

I've been using Paintshop Pro with it. I just use "save template" and it saves it as a .bmp file.

I see, thank you both.

Can the paperdoll figure use any poser props, or do poser props have to be custom made for the figure? In other words only paperdoll props can be used with the paperdoll figure

It can use any props that fit it! Most clothes won't fit the Paperdoll and can't be made to, because the Paperdoll has different body parts from the figures that most clothes are designed for. But things that don't need to fit so exactly will probably work. For example, you can probably make any hat look fine on the Paperdoll. And other objects, such as weapons, will probably be fine too. So as a rule, props from other sources are fine but conforming clothing isn't.

There seem to be a lot of props on the web free for the taking, but they are made with various programs and come in various formats. If I want to make a prop available in Poser, is it simply a matter of putting it in the correct folder, or is there more to it? Does the prop have to be modified, formatted? Does that require a special program?

you can put them anywhere and go file/import and that'll work too.

There seem to be a lot of props on the web free for the taking, but they are made with various programs and come in various formats. If I want to make a prop available in Poser, is it simply a matter of putting it in the correct folder, or is there more to it? Does the prop have to be modified, formatted? Does that require a special program?
If the PROP is made for poser, it will not need to be resized. Most modelers will scale their item for you.
If it is another 3d object you wish to use, it will have to be scaled. Poser has a very different scale. Everything has to be significantly reduced once it is imported. I have no idea why they did it this way... it doesn't save memory or file size... since the data is exactly the same no matter how tightly the co-ordinates are packed.
Just do as Quinzy said, if the item is a 3ds or OBJ file, just import it and resize it in Poser.
Or you can load the free copy of Bryce you hopefully downloaded. Import the paperdoll figure. import the object (in nearly any common format) and resize it there and then export it in OBJ for use in Poser.

question: how would i go about making kin's wings conform to the PDM's arms? i just wanna squash them down so that they're basically feathers, and i't like to have them correspond to parts of the arms and move with the arms :)

Plan A: Did you try just having them parent to the arms?

Plan B: If that fails, make two of them, and adjust the starting position so that one is correctly parted to the right arm and make the left wing invisible (object properties, just uncheck visible, shadows, etc) and do the opposite for the other arm/wing.

i never thought of plan B! thanks Bjorn!

edit: but they still wouldn't "conform" to the arms, would they? they wouldn't bend at the elbow for example.

i never thought of plan B! thanks Bjorn!

edit: but they still wouldn't "conform" to the arms, would they? they wouldn't bend at the elbow for example.
I don't recall where those wings are articulated. But if they do not blend there, than you can use more than one wing per arm.. Just make them shorter and thicker/thinner as needed. There are wings out there that are like arms and could be parented correctly to an arm. But, the render times with them tend to be horrible.

I would check it out, but I am only just tonight re-installing Poser.

thanks bjorn. i'll keep ticking away at it for now :)

thanks bjorn. i'll keep ticking away at it for now :)

Ok, and if all else fails, you can send it to me, and I will chop it up and send it back.

i've managed to chop it up :)
thanks for the help! i'll get cracking now!

Okay, I'm still having some trouble importing props. With some props I simply don't see them after importing them. Others seem to work. Am I supposed to check any of the prop import options? (these are 3ds props)

I've never had a problem with any .3ds prop. Check the first three boxes and leave the other unchecked. You may have to resize, but should get it to work.

Oh nevermind, the prop was just waaaaaaaaaay too big. Doh, how simple.

I'm still having a little trouble parenting the paperdoll shirt to the paperdoll figure, arms keep poking through as they bend. Guess I'll keep plugging away...

The parts that are completely covered by clothing can be set to invisible, and thus you won't see them poke through.

Could it be the camera that's making them poke through? Using the Auxillary camera, and changing its position can help.

How do I parent the imported paperdoll pants to the paperdoll's legs, so that the pants conform to the legs? I'm trying to do it through the properties box, but I get some funky results... the tutorial doesn't seem to cover this exactly.

Don't forget to open the "joint editor" and set to zero.

In general, with PDM pants, I find that by increasing the scale to 101-103%, a lot of the funky results go away. Same with the shirts. At civ scale, this baggy effect will not show up. If anything, it will make the unit easier to see.

What are you making by the way? Hook us up with a preview...

Oh, I'm not making anything in particular, I'm just trying to get the hang of the program. Eventually I want to make an insurgent/irregular combatant unit of some type.

I guess you are using PDMpants2 for your infantry units. What do you parent the pants to? The PDM itself? The body? The hip? something else? Then you go to the joint editor and zero it, and the pants should follow the legs as they are moved, right?

dont "parent" it to anything, just "conform" it :)

How do I get kinboat's angel wings to move with the PDM (it won' t let me parent it to it).

Thanks Quizny, you guys are the best! Putting up with my endless questions and all...

odin, what do you meant "move with it"? as in you attach them to the arms? if cant be done so easily. you must seperate all the pieces (i do this be going into the grouping screen and clicking each part and going 'spawn prop' and deleting all the unnececarry parts. then i line up and parent each of the bits so corresponding areas of the arm.

if that isnt what you're on about, please tell me what it is that you're on about.

No, I want to parent it to his back, so when he moves forward, it moves, too.

figure tab, set figure parent. :)

Thanks!

flyingninjamonkeys

Step 25 of animating, it says to "click on the yellow button with the up and down line on it." I don't have a yellow button and "up and down line" is too vague. The tutorial doesn't say what the button is or what it does. Is it the linear selection button? Or what?

in the keyframe editor, there is a button that looks like this:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/60705/poser_yellow_button_2.JPG
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/60705/poser_yellow_button_1.JPG

Thanks for the tutorial utah!

I tried to start following your tutorial to make units. First I wanted to download all the files, before I look in the tutorial. I downloaded Spanish Stuff, and it doesn't want to extract, tells me 5 files or so are corrupt. :(

@Mirc: Try restarting your comp. That's what I do in this sort of situation. Then, try re-downloading them if it still says they're corrupt.

Ok, I tried, but I get the same message again...

Thanks for the tutorial utah!

I tried to start following your tutorial to make units. First I wanted to download all the files, before I look in the tutorial. I downloaded Spanish Stuff, and it doesn't want to extract, tells me 5 files or so are corrupt. :(
Which files? I just tested them and the ones I tried seem to work.
Did you try to re-DL them?

It's interesting that it doesn't actually tell me which file...

http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/5397/dlsptmbui7.png



Edit: And yes, I tried to redownload them, and tried to restart my computer...

nvm, I got it to work. I realised that the only "corrupt" files were in the folder MACOSX, which I don't need.

Now I have a question regarding the tutorial. It tells me to make that texture map for the kilt. I made it, and tried to use it on the kilt, but it doesn't work as it should, I think.

I made something like this, is anything wrong with this texture map for the kilt? The instructions are pretty vague here...
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/560/kilt4mapco2.jpg

Anyone? :(

...

:bump:

thats the exported map, yes?
open it in your painting program and what i do is wipe out all but the outline of the kilt and draw on your design. once the design is done, finish off wiping out the outline and save the image, and load it in poser.

now i dont know if this is the "conventional" method or anything, but it works for me quite well, so far.

The grids are only a reference. Do not color the grids. You paint over them.
They are so you can map a design or logo to some part of a OBJ. Notice how the checks are smaller at the edges? So if you wanted it to be stripes, you would use the grid as a guide for how large the strips should be as you approach the edge, to better create the illusion of a 3d object. But, your final image that is loaded into Poser should not have the grid.

oh, so i've been doing it sort of correctly then!

Is there any way to attach both hands to a prop? For example if you want a figure to hold an object with both hands

for a spear/pike, i'd do it like this:

attach the spear to the right hand and attach the lef habd to the spear. that way the weight is on the right hand and the left follows.

Thanks Quinzy and Bjornlo, it works! [party]

During rendering, changing the yrotate value of the rotate ball as instructed in the tutorial doesn't seem to change the figure's angle in the .bmp's produced. All the bmp's are taken from the angle of the main camera. Am I missing something? It would seem to make more sense to adjust the angle of the main camera.

Question: How much time does an average unit take to be made?

Because I just finished the fortify animation and I can't believe how far I am from a final result, and I'm kinda disappointed. I never thought unit making was something easy, and I'm not disappointed at the tutorial, but I can't believe how long and complicated it is to make just one unit!

[Iron Beagle] The reason the ball rotates rather than having the camera move is so that the lighting stays the same - you wouldn't want the direction of the unit's shadow to change when it changes direction. I think that you have either (a) parented the camera to the rotate ball (unlikely) or (b) not parented the unit to the rotate ball (more likely).

[Mirc] I completed one in a day once. That was a very quick one to render. It does take a long time. You'll find that after you've done a couple it gets much quicker, though, since you know what to do.

Thanks for the answer, I am a bit more confident now.

I really hope it will get quicker, but I think it is true, because I really don't understand a lot of concepts right now (like why I have to do different things with different clothes, what are keyframes for and why do I have to add them in that order, why I can't use the translate/pull tool as the tutorial tells me, and many others)

Well I can help you with key frames at least. Say your character has his arm straight out in frame 1. And then you go to frame 10 and make his arm stick up in the air. The program will automatically "fill in" all the frames in between - so from 1 to 10 he will raise his arm. Now a key frame is simply a frame that won't be automatically "filled in" like this. Say that you make frame 10 a key frame. And then you go to frame 20 and put his arm back to how it was in frame 1. The program will now "fill in" from 10 to 20 - result, he raises his arm and then lowers it again. If frame 10 were not a key frame, then there would be no movement at all, because the program would "fill in" from 1 to 20.

Note that a frame can be a key frame for one object or body part but not for another. In the above example, you might make frames 1, 10, and 20 key frames for his arm, but not for the rest of him.

Also note that if you move anything, the program automatically makes that frame a key frame for that body part. Thus, moving the figure's arm in frame 10 means that frame 10 is automatically a key frame for his arm. So you can then go straight to frame 20 and move it again, knowing that the position in frame 10 is "saved". You can make other frames key frames as well by selecting on them in the animation window (that thing with all the green squares) and clicking the plus sign. Key frames are shown in brighter green. As you can see, the frames are ordered from left to right, and the objects in the scene from top to bottom, creating a grid. Each square represents an object in a frame, and it can be key or not.

If an animation over many frames is a journey, then the key frames are the waystations along the way. If you see what I mean.

Key frames seemed very daunting to me at first. Now it's my best friend in Poser.

Since I covered the 1st 1/3 of the tutorial, and the last 1/3 isn`t Poser work, I think I can say I`m halfway there :)

Of course, I always screw up when scrolling in .pdf and end up doing some old things that strangely look familiar and then I get a mess :cool:

Thanks guys for the help with the UV mapper, special thanks to Mirc!

Oh, one thing that may help someone who has a poltergheist computor like me:

When I save the kilt as the .tif thingy in the UVmapper, and then try to open it in Paintshop, it says its not a valid .tif file. So I opened it in Irfanview (I just love that program, its so handy for everything!) and it says its an incorrectly named .bmp file? WTF? So I convert it to a proper .bmp with Irfanview (it asks you if you want to), and then I save it as a .tif, and then it works :)

Um, guys? :help:

Page 23, section (11)12:
"Check the box next to the Right Arm under the PDM figure.. "

I don`t see a Right Arm in there? Right Shoulder, Hand, etc. yes, but no Right Arm. Also, which box? There is the " - ", the "eye" and one other, I forgot what it looks like..

hold on a sec while i fire up Poser. i'll edit this with the answer hopefully...

okay, the eye makes it invisible and the - just closes the list under the are (i'm presuming arm is forearm) and the hand opens up the parameters for whatever you select. there should be a box labeled create IK chain, and its there for me, just greyed out..
i'm afraid i dont know!

During rendering, changing the yrotate value of the rotate ball as instructed in the tutorial doesn't seem to change the figure's angle in the .bmp's produced. All the bmp's are taken from the angle of the main camera. Am I missing something? It would seem to make more sense to adjust the angle of the main camera.

What Plot said about the lighting is the reason why you don't rotate the camera.....

I have, however, found a way to get the unit to rotate WITHOUT the ball.... All Poser files have a default ground plain (which you need to have visible anyways so that your unit will have shadows and not appear to be floating in mid-air), which I just parent the main figure to... That saves a small amount of rendering time, because although the ball is transparent, the program has to load the textures for it when rendering, and transparent/texturemapped objects slow rendering down.

Once the Base figure is parented to the Ground prop, all you have to do is change the Rotate attribute of the ground prop. I also usually set the ground's scale to 1000% before parenting the base figure to it, so that the ground will completely fill a 240x240 frame at the propler Civ III camera set-up. The best part is that if you have multi-unit animations you're making, you can still parent all the base figures to the ground prop, and they will rotate properly.

Just another bit of time-saving advice for all the folks out there.

Thanks, Hikaro! I was thinking that since it's able to be used in Bryce, it could also be used here.

Do any of you guys have trouble with body parts peeking through clothing with the paperdoll?

make those bits invisible or the same colour as the cloth. invisibility works best for arms and the hip.

Make sure you open the Joints Window and zero both the PDM and the clothes too. With some of the clothes, you may have to select each body part in turn and ensure that the coordinates are all set to zero, too.

Why does changing an object's parent in mid-animation sometimes drastically change its position?

Why does changing an object's parent in mid-animation sometimes drastically change its position?
Because the current position in relationship to the original position of the first parent and 2nd are quite different.

If the two objects moved exactly the same way and the same amount than changing parenting should not make any difference to the objects location.

Now what if I want the figure to reach down and retrieve an object that is parented to some part of him, such as a sword in a scabbard for example, and I want to re-parent that object to his hand in the middle of the animation. Is that possible without causing the object to go flying around everywhere in the preceding frames?

Yes, I do that a lot. Utah's tutorial explains it pretty well when he talks about the spear going from the hand to ROTATE BALL for the death.

Take a 10 frame fortify for a sword unit. Frames 1-5, hand goes to hilt (sword parented to the sheath, which is parented to the hip). Use the Key Frame editor to + in frames 1-5 for the sword. Go to frame 6 and change sword parent to whichever hand. Go to frame 10 and pose the arm with sword drawn. Go back to frames 6-9 and check the sword and hand to make sure it's not sticking through his side or anything and make small adjustments as needed. Look at me Sheriff fortify (drawing gun from holster) for an example. Hope this helps.

Now what if I want the figure to reach down and retrieve an object that is parented to some part of him, such as a sword in a scabbard for example, and I want to re-parent that object to his hand in the middle of the animation. Is that possible without causing the object to go flying around everywhere in the preceding frames?

Like NavyDawg said, basically that is no problem to do. You can definitely have a sword parented to the hip/scabbard and change to parent it to the hand. You just need to make sure that all previous frames for the prop are keyframes. If the parenting change takes place in frame 40, then the sword prop's frames 1-39 all need to be keyframes.

Yeah, that's what I thought. But I make all the frames before the parent change key frames, and when I pose the figure at the end it STILL changes the position of the prop in the first frames wildly. It looks like poser is still "filling in" all the frames in spite of my making them key frames. I'm about to throw in the towel here.

You may find that you need to go through each of those early frames and parent the object to the "original" parent in each frame. I've found that sometimes this is inexplicably necessary. You're right, though, that this business is trickier than you might think it should be.

Even that doesn't work! Changing the parent in one frame seems to change it in EVERY frame! I have come up with a temporary solution of having 2 of the exact same props, one of which is always parented to the hand but scaled to zero until needed, but this problem is driving me insane.

I had this problem with Diomedes spear. I'll try to remember how I got around this.

EDIT: I remember, I when I wanted to return the spear to the origional hand, I used the "+" icon in the Key place, and then the NEXT frame, I re-parented it to the hand.

Jeez, it's so hard making a punch animation...mine doesn't look very good. Any tips? Also, how do you get the appearance of bent knees?

Bent knees? Just lower the y value of the hip.

Ok, I'll try that.

Alright, my unit's going pretty good. I've made two convincing punch attacks, a default, a fortify, and a victory. In each attack, the last frame is at the fortify pose, so it can cycle nicely. The victory ends at the default pose, and starts at the fortify. But now I need to make a death, and it has to start at the fortify pose. Now, I can do this manually, but that would be pretty painstaking and tedious. Is there any way to "save" the pose a figure is in at a certain frame, and start a new file with that as the first frame? (sorry if I was just kind of wordy, I'll explain better if need be, :crazyeye: )

Yes! Easy. Open up the keyframes editing window. Go to the top and you'll see "PDM". Click on the PDM box corresponding to the frame you want to export. The white box should surround all his body parts too. Now press CTRL-C. Now open up the file you want to export the pose to. Open the keyframes window again. Select the PDM box in the frame you want the pose to go to. Press CTRL-V.

Sometimes this has odd or unexpected effects, but in theory it should work. If it doesn't, try again.

Here's an alternative method. Click on "PDM" in the frame containing the desired pose, as before. But this time just drag that box to the first frame. Now save it as the new file.

Thank you, Plotinus!

Okay, new question: in my death animation, I want the unit to levitate in the air and hold his arms up to the sky while getting enveloped by a bright orb of white light. I got the first part done, and even the light effect on the unit's body, with a spot light. Is there any way I could do this using an effect or something preinstalled in Poser? Or would I have to dish out some dough to buy an effect pack?

For the orb, try a sphere primitive. Give it a little transparency (.2-.5?) and play with the texture to try matching the light source.

Okay, how do you make primitives in Poser?

its in the prop section

Another question. (I know I'm getting kind of annoying, but hey, it's my first unit). Okay, like an idiot, I didn't really follow the tutorial for the animations. That's cool, though, because I did all the animations to my liking, just I didn't do them in the civ 3 template. But, I imported the files into the template, and the animations work fine, as does the lighting and stuff, with two exceptions:

1. The unit casts no shadows.
2. When rendered, the unit is really small.

Are these an effect of importing the files into the template? If so, how do I remedy these?

2. How small is it in comparison with a normal civ3 unit?

1) Press CTRL-J to call up the "Make Movie" screen. Click the "Render Settings" tab at the top. Tick "Cast shadows".

2) Is the whole image too small? In that case, go to the "Make Movie" screen as above, and change the image size under "Resolution". Most infantry-type units are 100x100 pixels. Or is the image the right size but the unit itself too small within it? In that case your camera isn't right. Check that you're rendering from the Main Camera view (CTRL-M in the main screen). Check that the Main Camera has the settings that it does in the default "New Unit" file.

How do you unit-making veterans make two-handed attacks? Would it involve parenting both hands to the weapon prop? I'm using the naginata prop to make a Joseon Halberdier, so there's going to be a lot of two-handed animation going on. The right hand controls the movement of the weapon, but the left hand should be forward and acts as a support hand.

Also, is there a way to manually move a prop without warping it or making it go through the pdm figure in animations? That keeps happening when I use Kinboat's kensai robe. I make some parts of the body invisible, but that only solves the problem with it going through the PDM.

The unit itself is too small. I will try the camera settings...

I tried everything you said, Plotinus, but "casts shadows" is already checked. And the camera settings are exactly the same, and it's 100x100, but the unit is too small...

[Ogedei the Mad] As far as I know, parenting both hands to the weapon isn't possible. CamJH gave me a tip from Kinboat: parent the weapon to one hand, as usual, and then put a small sphere on the weapon where you want the other hand to go. Design your animation, trying to keep the other hand on the weapon where the sphere is. Then remove the sphere or make it invisible when rendering. Quite a hassle to do, but it does work - this is how I made my Ethiopian Pikeman. As for the kensei robe, I'm not entirely sure what the problem is - it ought to be conformed to the PDM, so that it moves with him. Select the robe, then click on "Conform to..." in the Figure menu, and conform it to the PDM. Then go to the Windows menu and open the Joint Editor, and click "Zero figure". All should be well. One problem with the kensei robe is that although it extends below the knees, the entire leg section conforms to the thighs. In other words, it doesn't bend at the knee. That's just a flaw with the figure as Kinboat made it. It means that you have to be very careful with the Run animation and any other animation where you want him to bend his knees - this is why my oriental magic-users have a slightly odd walk. The alternative is to load the robe into the Setup Room and give it a new skeleton with shins, which might actually be not too hard to do, but is rather complex.

[odintheking] Is the PDM itself scaled to 100%? If it is, then are you quite sure the unit is too small? It might just look small compared to how it looks while you're working on it. I'm always horrified at how tiny units look when I render the first images - all those nice little details, lost - but Civ III units just are small. Post an image and let's have a look.

EDIT: I realized that the size was funky because I did some stuff in the beginning of the process. I increased size to 112% and it looks normal. Now about the shadows...

Probably a dumb question, but could the sphere in question be parented to the polearm prop and the left hand parented to the sphere?

What I'm thinking of doing is manually positioning the hand in every frame. More work, but I want to keep things more fluid. One problem I have, though, is that sometimes when I try to move one body part manually (as in select the limb and drag it with a mouse cursor), the whole body moves with it!

That's why you go to the actual window with all the numbers, and use the twist, bend and etc values. The animations and poses will look more natural that way, and more precise, :).

I did what Plot did, namely manually positioning the off hand, only without using the sphere. That's how I kept the hands on the gun during the various animations, and how I did the two-hand sword attacks for the Alexandrian Holy Knight and Shinra SOLDIER

OK. I'll try it out once I get to the attack animation part. I'm still only on the "Default" animation in the tutorial (yeah, I'm THAT slow when it comes to Poser :p ). :crazyeye:

Don't try to be too ambitious, though. I found it hard to make a unit with a two-handed weapon, and that was after a fair bit of practice with single-handed ones. Don't forget that, no matter how hard you try, your first couple of units will not be as good as your later ones. That's inevitable given the complexity of the process, and you can check it yourself by looking at the libraries of some of the other creators and seeing how they have come on. I would recommend treating your first one or two units as "practice" ones - make them quite simple, perhaps variations on Utahjazz's spearman, to get the hang of it. Then start on the complex ones that you really want, in the knowledge that they will be better because you've had more practice.

That's just what I'd do, though. You might be quicker to get the hang of it than I was!

Now that you mention it, it probably would have been better if I simply tried making a wizard unit as a first unit; that way, I wouldn't need to have weapons props and I could attribute quirky animations to "magic" effects. :p

I have a lot of patience these days though (mostly as a result of having to put up with hyperactive middle school kids everyday :crazyeye: ) , so I'll stick with working on my halberdier unit regardless of how much of a hassle it's going to be. ;)

How do you unit-making veterans make two-handed attacks?

It is possible to make two-handed attacks in Poser without manually adjusting one hand in every frame. You said that the weapon is parented to the right hand, and the right hand controls the movement of the weapon. Now you need to find a way to parent the left hand to the weapon, right?

If I understood correctly and can remember correctly, this is entirely possible. I have actually done it before, at least one time for my Elf Spearman. Here's what I would do, if I were you.


1. Go to the frame where the unit first places both hands on the weapon. I would imagine this is somewhere in the fortify animation.

2. Position the left hand where you want it to be on the weapon.

3. Open the key frame editor, and make all frames, up to and including that frame, key frames. It's probably best if you make all the body parts key frames, especially the left hand, shoulder, and forearm.

4. Close the key frame editor.

5. Turn on the I-K Chain for the left arm.

6. Parent the left hand to the weapon.

7. The left arm (hand, forearm, and shoulder) will move with the weapon.


I just opened Poser for the first time in months, and this did work. You'll still have to do some editing of the left shoulder and forearm though. They won't move naturally as the left hand moves with the weapon. You'll probably need to do at least some bending and rotating. Good luck.

A big thanks, utah. I'll try it out once I have the opportunity. :)

That's very interesting, utahjazz. I didn't know that was possible.

EDIT: I'm so stupid! I got the shadows to work. I just went to Display, and then Ground Shadows. I was trying to apply them in the render window when I didn't have the in the actual file, :lol:.

EDIT 2: Ok, this is really ticking me off... I get shadows to work in the file, but no render shadows! HAs this happened to anyone else?

EDIT: I'm so stupid! I got the shadows to work. I just went to Display, and then Ground Shadows. I was trying to apply them in the render window when I didn't have the in the actual file, :lol:.

EDIT 2: Ok, this is really ticking me off... I get shadows to work in the file, but no render shadows! HAs this happened to anyone else?

Oh, I just remembered that I have had a problem like this before. I don't know why it happened, but the GROUND prop would constantly revert to being invisible. I think it was anytime I had just opened the file or would go to the materials room. I would check to make sure that the GROUND prop is visible before rendering.

That worked! Thanks, Utah!

That worked! Thanks, Utah!

No problem. I'm happy to help when I'm able to.

Bah. A virus destroyed my halfway-completed first unit. Now I'm going to have to start all over again. :crazyeye:

Thanks for the tip, though. I'll try it out once I crawl back to that part. ;)

EDIT: Got lucky this time. My duplicate file still exists so I can continue. :D

So Ogedei... is there a preview of your unit somewhere? :)

EDIT: Nevermind

Okay, new problem (poser seems to hate me). When I try to get the PDM shoes to work, they don't. I put them there, then conform them to the PDM. This happens:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/1193/untitledyj7.png (http://imageshack.us)

I don't know what's going on. Any tips?

Make sure you zero them in the Joints Window! After doing that, you may have to click on each shoe and make sure that all the Tran and Rotate settings are at zero, too.

also, its best if you make all parts hidden by lothes invisible too, in case of poke-through :)
namely, the feet there.

Hey if anyone has setup files for Poser 6-7 I'd appreciate it if they posted in this subforum. I'm considering working with one of them when I'll have some time in the future. I hope 2007 will be nothing like 2006 in that area.

HNY everyone!

utahjazz gives links to setup files in the tutorial.

You mean of 6-7? Cause of the P5 I know. %'s is different than 4/pro and if so, maybe 6-7 is too. I have all of those, but 7 seems to have so much more potential and i have loads of content for it too.

and I think hiding the feet doesn't work perfectly. Zeroing is best.

The setup does work, at least for Poser 6. (I don't have P7).

How do I create textures to apply to the paperdoll as well as clothes?

EDIT: I found the answer

Kinboat's Kensai robe figure doesn't seem to conform quite well to the Paperdoll Figure. I'm assuming that it was meant for the "improved" version of the Paperdoll Figure, but the problem with using that is that a lot of the clothing props don't conform well to the "improved figure"... Any ideas on how to adjust the robe to fit the standard Paperdoll figure?

I haven't noticed the clothes not fitting the improved PDM, which is the one I always use. The robe doesn't quite fit that PDM either, in that it doesn't bend at the knees. You could fix this by re-rigging the robe in the Setup Room, but I've never bothered to do that.

Which clothes props do you use on the improved PDM? Some of the pants props don't fit.

I have to say I haven't noticed anything not fitting.

Odd. I've never had the robe work or manage to get anything to fit the improved PDM figure.

Or maybe I'm doing the process wrong. What process do you do when you attach the robe figure to the PDM figure? Whenever I conform the robe to the PDM figure and then click "Zero Figure" in the Joint Editing room, I always end up getting it messed up.

If you are using the Samurai props posted (which I assume you are, the robe is one) you have to use the old PDM, still linked to in the first post. Those clothes are designed to conform the original PDM, not the improved version.

I load up the figure, conform it to the PDM, zero it in the Joint Editor, check that its translation/rotation settings are all at 0, and then click on each part in turn, also checking that their translation/rotation settings are all at 0.

I also do the same, but for some reason, I can't get the robes to conform correctly to the standard PDM figure and I also often get odd results with other clothing props for the improved PDM figure. Parts of the robe figure still goes through the PDM. What I've been doing so far is simply assigning materials to exposed parts and coloring the same as the clothing prop. It still looks a bit awkward, however.

If I can get my hands on poser 7 would this tutorial work for that as well? if not, where can you get poser 5?

I'm sure it would work for Poser 7.

wooooo! thanks plotinus! only 22 hours away from unit making fun :) I have made the Civiii Creation folders already in preperation :p

Kai will have Poser! Yay! :bounce:

Thats right! although they might suck...

Yah, don`t worry, the taskmasta is working on that ;)

Edit: I was stuck but I sussed it out :)

hello friendly people of the civ forums :D

First of all thanks alot to you Utahjazz for this great tutorial.

After alot of units and alot of rendering....... I realized that I had probably made a huge mistake. When you render then run animation you are supposed to change the PDM body yrotate back to 0 (previous -20), my question: am I supposed to do that for the other animations aswell or shall they remain at
-20

(Worst thing is that I probably already know that answer for this question, I just hope I am wrong)

Alot of units eh? Thats allways nice to hear :cool:

Welcome to CFC Rm80! :wavey: I`ve been reading the tutorial today myself, and I don`t think other animations require the rotating. But I`m not sure.

I don't remember having to rotate the body at all! The key thing is that the unit should be facing the correct direction (due south, due east, etc.). If it's facing the right way, and it's facing the same way in each animation (obviously crucial, so they cycle smoothly), then it's OK. But I have a nasty fear that if you've been rotating the body in some animations and not in others, then it's not going to be consistent...

Ye my guess is that -20 rotate was to get a better view when you where animating and where supposed to be changed back when rendering.

Guess I have some more rendering to do then, yippie....


Thanks for the answers.


edit: Well about thoose units Stormrage as you hear its quantity not quality, but hopefully they will soon be good enough for me to post them here.

Well, I hope you find those animations in the library usefull :)

In Utah's tutorial, you ARE supposed to rotate the body 20 degrees, as Utah felt it gives the unit a more powerful looking stance.

For the Run Animation, you should use an entirely different save. Take your unit, delete all keyframes so your unit appears in the 'crucfix'-like position, add the run animation and save as 'unitrun.pz3'.

For the other animations, the abdomen should be rotated 15-20 degrees opposite the body, so as to not mess up the direction for the attack.

Hope that helps some.

Thanks that helps alot, saved me alot of re-rendering.

Right. Now post some previews. We`re like zombies here - we hunger for preview-brains :crazyeye:

(does anyone else think we need a zombie smiley?)

I'm sorry if this was asked before, but the link to poser 5 DL isn't working (the curioslabs one) and when I google, I onlt get contentparadise site where it isn't on anymore. can someone please direct me to a good site?

It doesn't look like Poser 5 is up for sale, except for maybe on Amazon or Ebay (didn't check those two). The tutorial should work just as fine with Poser 6 or 7.

Content Paradise did once give away Poser 5 for free, they might do so again

Yeah, that's when I got Poser :D

OK I have classic version of uvmapper (0.26)

I can with UV mapper only export and save as a .uvs file... and then I cant load it into photoshop. what to do?

I can save as bitmap file, but I cant change color specific pieces of the kilt then, they just refuse to be selected...