Some Tips on using Poser to make Units

[Kinboat]

Well I originally used M2 for most of my stuff (a few with the original Poser Dork) but then I learned how to make figures myself and made a man to more closely fit the Civ3 proportions... I'll try to track down that thread.
The parent option should be in either the second or third menu at the top (poser 4, although 5 shouldn't be that different)
If you are parenting a prop to a figure or another prop then it will be in the third menu (the program isn't in front of me at the moment so I can't be more specific). If you are parenting a figure to another figure or prop then the parent option will be in the second menu.
Some M2 and V3 stuff can be used with other figures... However the conforming clothing very often doesn't work too well because of the differing geometries of the figures. Try out some of the free stuff and see how it works when you conform it to the poser Dork.

 

[Kinboat]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70328

Here's the thread with my base model.

 

[LouLong]

Nice. Took me sometimes to figure out I had to actually import loincloth and paperdoll but it is OK now and I have figured out too how to change colors (about time !).
One question though : do you put the textures in Runtime/Textures or is there another process ?

Do you (all of you) have preferences already for skin colors ? (I mean best for Eastern Indian, black or Asian).

Any chance you will be producing some more stuff (like Egyptian loincloth ?).

 

[Kinboat]

Well If I'm going to do some of those sketches by Kal-el I will need to work up an eqyptian style loin-cloth... I'll be sure to post it here. I just created my own folder within Runtime/Textures to keep all my own textures.
I haven't really worked up a set of skin tones that work well... The color my paperdoll comes loaded with is the color I use when you see very little skin (just hands and face for example). Then I change it to the color listed in my readme and apply the texture when the figure is mostly naked. It seems to give a fairly good bronzed/Tan skin tone that is good for a lot of units. Try reducing the Luminosity of the color to darken it or raise it for a lighter one... Although it might be better to get a completely different color rather than trying to alter the one I use here.

 

[LouLong]

OK, next set :

I did one animation but I have the following pbs :

1. I used an already existing anim (forced walking) which has 30 frames, is there a way I can make this number decrease (a standard run is 10) automatically without having to copy only the frames I select afterwards ?

2. I cannot rotate my model of 45°. Where is the tool and on which page (pose, material,...) ?
EDIT : I FOUND IT

3. My model's clothes are too dark and they don't show well in Flcister. I want to change the color but how can I select mulitple items (key ?) to change them together to the same color (changing colors in Poser is easy but knowing to which one is less easy).
Otherwise : should I keep clothes.... colors above a certain light level to avoid all things bluring into black ?

4. After rendering, I have the following pbs :
- palette (that I expected), I just need to change the palette in PSP or do I need to do something while still in Poser ?
- size : it looks too small (rendering settings ?)
- no shadows (palette or settings for rendering ?)

Sorry if some have been answered somewhere before but I failed to find an answer I could understand.

 

[Kinboat]

Well for the wallking you could do two things... a) delete multiple keyframes in the animation palette until you get down to 10 (I usually go for 15 frames since deleting 20 out of 30 would make your animation very jumpy) b) use the walk designer to create a walk/run that you like. When you apply it to the figure it asks you for the start and finish frame (letting you set it to as many frames as you want). The walk designer should work with most human figures in Poser.
Well there is a drop-down menu in the materials window that shows all the figures and props in the scene. Select the clothing and then the next menu over lists all the different material sections of that figure/prop. You just need to go down that list changing what you want, most only have a few but there are some where it gets really exhausting. Trial and error is all that I can suggest for the color selection
You don't need to fiddle with anything in Poser... Just make sure you save it as a bitmap image to preserve the colors (JPEG compresses and loses some info)
I generally go for a 142x142 frame size. Through much trial and error I came upon that as working with my camera settings the best to arrive at a decent match for the original units. If the unit won't fit I'm forced to adjust the camera and render settings until I get a close match... Endless trial and error If your using my setup then 142x142 should be the best fit.
Something that might be causing the last two problems is the importing of my default scene after creating the figure. Sometimes the ground or light settings are messed up if the scene already has these set. A quick and dirty solution would be to remove the ground plane (under the display menu) and delete all the lights before you import my default scene. Hope that works.
The shadows could also be under the render settings, I think there is a place to check whether to render shadows.

Hope this is helpful

 

[LouLong]

Yep, your answers are always useful, Kinboat
But I am not good enough to do without them... yet (hopefully).

Shadows are working (I overlooked it sorry).

OK, I practiced trial and error a few times with diferent things.
I tried to create a Run anim for a character I got (called Lawboy, it is a policeman, you have probably seen it) and I tried to model my own.
I ran into two different pbs.

Lawboy : size is definitely "off" and so are the colors, especially background.
What I did : open your default, posed the character, chose a walk animation, rendered in each direction (size 142 X 142), destroyed every other picture to reach 15 (basic was 30). Used SBB to make the storyboard. Chose size 79 X 75 (or sort of) for the Storboard then replaced another run (+ 5 frames) created with Flicster with this one. The preview in Flicster gave me the original S direction then the policeman with strange shapes and not centered + too small in the picture...
Here is the generated pcx if someone wants to take a look and tell me what I did wrong.

Own model : I used a "lthtunic" I downloaded which is nice but I don't know where to attach it (I have tried chest, abdomen, hips and shoulders) with no good result. To what part of the body should I attach it ? I wanted it to be a kind of armor so it should not fold and arms/ legs movements should avoid it during movement but all the "buttons" I tried with "resistance" did not work. I used one of your loincloth too but I have the same pb to know where to attach it too so it moves softly with the legs...
Besides I have just checked, when I make the loincloth look good on the front it does not hide the buttom ! So I have a problem with size, position and attachement. But I thought it would be OK since they are both (default + loin) your creation. Anything I am doing wrong ?

What is working !
- head attached props
- anim : I have practiced for a while and I must say I have found anims much easier to do than what I thought it would be by comparison to modelling (just thought it would be posing props and ... done !).

What I would love if some of you have it :
- an ancient armor (I got a Greek one but 1/ it is not really Greek 2/ I don't want the legs but they stick with the armor and they are not at the right place (for dwarves ?))
- the sling prop

 

[Kinboat]

My loincloth figure has a few issues with it When you conform (not parent... Although you could probably just parent it to the hip body part) it to the parperdoll you then need to go to the hip part of the cloth and zero any of the 3 transform axis that have numbers in them.
You should make the storyboard with the same frame size as the renders... so in this case 142x142.
Don't know what is wrong with the Flicster problem... The image looks good except for being too small. Have you tried reloading the FLC in Flicster after you paste the images into the storyboard?
I don't have any Greek armor but I will post that sling soon

 

[LouLong]

OK the anim was my mistake. I had not learnt SBB carefully !
So it seems to be working now, except for when I try to use civ colors so I guess it means I have to learn to mess with palettes (something I really fear).

Now the second pb remains meaning I still haven't figured out the conform/parent tool. But I should keep on trying !!!

Here is my first job to show I am actually doing something !

Thanks Kinboat (and Dom Pedro in PMs) !

 

[Kinboat]

Well for the civ-specific colors I usually set whatever I want civ-specific to the middle color in the blue civ scale... I think the default blue is 52, 99, 255 RGB. This gives you a fairly decent range of highlight and shadow, and when you paste the image onto the storyboard the blues should all work out.

If you have MSN Messenger I'm now using it to help someone else out with Poser so I'll be checking it at least once a day... Just search for Kinboat

 

[The Slayer]

Really Kinboat?, I can add you for some poser lessons?. No matter I do, I can't get rid of the strong light without eliminationg my shadows...

And, the camera angle doesn't seem to be the same, and I'm not noving it :S

Please, if you can help me, add eapanitz --- hotmail --- com .

I hope my not so developed english will be fine for my/you explanation abouit it.

 

[LouLong]

When you have a prop made of a combination of different parts (ex Greek armor in 3DS incorporating legs prtoection as well), is it possible to dissociate / destroy part of the prop ?
That would be useful as well for the units Wyrmshadow provided.

 

[embryodead]

Poser itself can't edit 3D models, so whole props are uneditable. You can, however, use Grouping Tool as a workaround (create new group, select all polygons of the part you want to "destroy", assign a new material, then make that material invisible...).

 

[Kinboat]

Or another way to do it is to select all the polygons you want in the group tool and use the 'spawn props' button at the bottom of the grouping tool. This should make a new prop out of the selected polygons.

 

[embryodead]

oh well not the first time I'm wrong I recently discovered that I can actually animate materials...

 

[LouLong]

OK, next round !!

I have a model that includes ligths, background... that I don't like. How can I "incoporate" it into Kinbaot's setting ?
I did it partly but I guess it was not the best (empiric) method for there are differences.

 

[embryodead]

choose the figure you want to retain and save it in the library (with the "plus" button). then open your default setup and load the figure.

 

[LouLong]

Gee, did not think it was that easy. Thanks !

 

[Kinboat]

Make sure you have all the props and stuff parented to the main figure when you save it... It should ask you if you want to save the whole group or just the base figure. You'll want the whole group

 

[CivArmy s. 1994]

I have some problems with my colors: mu unit CaveMan appear as this:



In Flicster they appear as this:

The yellow is the team color




In Poser his shorts uses R=127 G=127 B=127 (just the shorst suppost to change color when the team changes) and his skin uses R=119 G=84 B=100 .

WHERE IS THE MISTAKE???