Unit Making Tutorial by utahjazz7 (May 9, 2005)

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!

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!
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?

[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.

Plotinus said:

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.

Click to expand...

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.

Plotinus said:

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?

Click to expand...

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.

Plotinus said:

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.

Click to expand...

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.

Plotinus said:

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?

Click to expand...

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...
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.