Some Tips on using Poser to make Units

[Kinboat]

It's hard to see what it looks like in the game but it looks like the palette has too much of the purple. How do you create the palette that you use?

 

[CivArmy s. 1994]

It's hard to see what it looks like in the game but it looks like the palette has too much of the purple. How do you create the palette that you use?

- In Poser I used the standard pallete
- I used SBB to create the storyboard, when I replaced the original storyboard created by FLICser by SBB one I changed the black/white by magenta/green in PhotoShop

I'm a beginning in this graphic designer stuffs, is that palette that you were asking me?


Thanks for helping me! I hopy u help me solve the color problem.

 

[Kinboat]

Ok... I'll go through my sequence of events to see if we can work this out.

1) After animating I render them from Poser as 24bit BMP files. I set the color I want to be civ-specific to (58,100,255) Red, Green, Blue. This fits in with the middle of palette color 6 (I think) when exporting from FLICster.
2) I use SBB to create the storyboards.
3) I take some of my renders (a good mix of views) and paste them all into a larger image which I save as a 24bit BMP.
4) I use this image and load it into a program called PEdit... I also load a default palette that only has the civ-specific and shadow, smoke colors on it. I can use this PEdit program to add the colors I need to the blank spaces in the default palette.
5) Load a storyboard created by FLICster into an image editor program (must be the same frame size as your SBB storyboard).
6) Apply the palette you created with PEdit to the FLICster storyboard and then paste the SBB Storyboard onto it. Save it.
7) You'll need to reopen the file in FLICster to get the palette to display correctly.
It doesn't sound like you are creating much of a palette... I hope I explained that so it can be understood.

 

[CivArmy s. 1994]

I think my error in the step 3:
- what is the size of this large image that u did?
- how many positions it needd?
- how do u add the colors in this default pallete?
The other steps I think i'm doing well.

Kinbot, thanks!!!

 

[Kinboat]

Basicly it could be any size you want. THe goal is just to try to represent all the colors that are in the unit, so if you have an orange symbol only on the back of the unit you need a rear view to see that color. Then you can open the image up in PEdit (look below my signiture) along with the 'essential palette' I've included. You can use this program to select colors from the image into the palette (starting after the civ-specific colors in the palette). You need to select as as many different colors as you need to get the best view (don't select any of the pink shadow or civ-colors since they are already in the palette). The program also has an option to check the picture with the palette you are creating so that you can see if you are missing any major colors. Then you can save the palette in several different formats... hopefully one that you can use in an image editing program to load it onto your FLICster storyboard.

 

[CivArmy s. 1994]

I created the cave man pallete in PEdit and using Photo Shop I loaded this pallete in the Flicster storyboard before copy/past the SBB storyboard onto it. The FLICSter storyboard changed to magenta to blue. what I did wrong?
the caveman pallete, its SBB storyboard and the bigger image that I used to created its palette are all in this attachment.

 

[Kinboat]

The palette looks fine to me... Maybe it has to do with the Photo Shop program. I use Paint Shop Pro, Photo Shop (if I remember correctly) might flip the order of the palette. You could ask a general question in the creation forum to see if someone who uses Photo Shop knows more. It could also be when you apply the palette to the FLICster SB there is an option (at least in Paint Shop Pro) to either Apply best match or Maintain Index... You'd want to Maintain Index or what ever the similar option is called. Not sure if that would really make a difference, or cause what you are describing but I really don't know Photo Shop.

 

[CivArmy s. 1994]

The palette looks fine to me... Maybe it has to do with the Photo Shop program. I use Paint Shop Pro, Photo Shop (if I remember correctly) might flip the order of the palette. You could ask a general question in the creation forum to see if someone who uses Photo Shop knows more. It could also be when you apply the palette to the FLICster SB there is an option (at least in Paint Shop Pro) to either Apply best match or Maintain Index... You'd want to Maintain Index or what ever the similar option is called. Not sure if that would really make a difference, or cause what you are describing but I really don't know Photo Shop.

I'll do that, I hope I fix these error as soon as possible, it is freak me out

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Kinboat,

I have a few questions for those of us who have extremely slow connections, and even slower Poser 5 operation, and don't want to go through the time and hassle of downloading and opening your set up just to get what could easily be typed here.

To whit I need to know, in exact x,y,z coordinates and FOV angle, your camera settings are. Also, is it possible to link/have the camera track objects, like in Bryce? If so, you could save a ton of messing around by having the camera follow the ground plane (it would be automatically pointed at 0,0,0 so everything would be proplerly centered), and just rotate the ground plane instead of the figure. I'm trying to create my first human type unit with Poser, but I unfortunately don't know what I'm doing, in terms of camera setup. Any and all help would be appreciated.

Of course, if worse comes to worst (noone replies within the next few days), I'll just make a valiant attempt to use Wyrmshadow's Bryce 5 setup (hey a camera is a camera is a camera.... I hope) and put the camera at -4500,3500,4500 and set the FOV to 1, and adjust the zoom as needed, or someting.

 

[Kinboat]

My file shouldn't be that big either...

I use Poser 4 with the Pro Pack expansion and don't know what changes have been made in Poser 5.

You should be able to parent the camera and lights to the ground plane... Although I think it's just easier to rotate the base figure's Body element... Or for multiple figure units (like my bond for example) just parent both of them to a sphere under the ground plane and rotate that.

Main Camera
Focal: 100mm
hither: 0.016
DollyZ: 0.800
DollyY: 0.100
DollyX: 0.000
zScale: 100%
yScale: 100%
xScale: 100%
Scale: 394%
zOrbit: 0
xOrbit: -30
yOrbit: 0

The Other cameras don't need any particular settings.

Main Light
Shadow: 1.000
Map Size: 256
xRotate: -65
yRotate: 35
zRotate: 0
Scale: 55%
Red: 1.000
Green: 1.000
Blue: 1.000
Intensity: 80%

Secondary Light
Shadow: 1.000
Map Size: 256
xRotate: -60
yRotate: 20
zRotate: 0
Scale: 55%
Red: 1.000
Green: 1.000
Blue: 1.000
Intensity: 20%

Tertiary Light 1
Shadow: 1.000
Map Size: 256
xRotate: 0
yRotate: -55
zRotate: 0
Scale: 55%
Red: 1.000
Green: 1.000
Blue: 1.000
Intensity: 50%

Tertiary Light 2
Shadow: 1.000
Map Size: 256
xRotate: 0
yRotate: 55
zRotate: 0
Scale: 55%
Red: 1.000
Green: 1.000
Blue: 1.000
Intensity: 50%

Shadows are turned off under Light Properties for all lights except the Main Light. I also have another Work Light that I use during animating to light the back of the unit. I delete this before final rendering.

Shadow Ball
I place a sphere prop off to the side to help diffuse the shadow. I think I explained previously how this works. This can sometimes cause problems though. If you have a unit that develops flickering shadows in the animations then you can try deleting the sphere and see if it stops.

Scale: all 100%
Rotate: all 0
xTran: 3.000
yTran: 0.000
zTran: 0.000

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

KinBoat, Tanks for the info, however I got really bored and decided to play around with the camera settings and figured out another workable arrangement (at least for my Arashi Commando unit that I'm currently working on).

The main Camera is set like this:

Focal/Hither: Default settings
DollyX:-.15
DollyY:1.2
DollyZ:1.2
x/y/z scales:100%
Scale:~400% (i'll have to open the file up)
Zorbit:0
Xorbit:30
Yorbit:45

Lighting: I play around with the three default lights until I got what I wanted (although I'll have to double chech to make sure that the RGB values are equal for all three I don't want any funky colors showing up). Also, my Document Window is 110x110.

As for the Shadows, Poser 5 allows you to set the shadow density for a particlar light, and I've got mine around 75%, so no wories there. I like my shadows a bit on the dense side, though. I'm just wierd like that, i guess.

The best part about the camera settings I discovered is that if I change the Yorbit in increments of 45 degrees, I'll get all 8 angles, and the unit will be centered. I'll probably still just rotate the main figure since I don't feel like messing with the lighting.

You can see how the unit looks at civ scale in my latest preview thread. If you have any further advice and comments, it's always welcome.

Well, I guess this just goes to show that there's always more than one way to skin a cat

 

[CamJH]

Hey KB,

Here's a sketch to give you an idea of the unit I'm working on. Not sure if I could PM you a pic or not, so here it is. This particular picture is of Mazrim Taim, now leader of the Asha'man (my unit). He has dragons wrapped around his sleeves, but that is not typical of their dress, only because he is their "M'Hael."

Thanks,
CamJH

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Okay, I was animating last night, and I found a slight annoying problem which I managed to fix.

This occurs only in Poser 5 as far as I know, but if anyone else runs into this problem, the methods I've listed here should work just fine.

Basically, as I was rotating the main figure to get the different facing animations, I ran into a bug where the conformed clothing figures got messed up (lots of poke-through, etc) when I set the Y rotation for the main figure to 180 deg. I undid my last, then set the rotation to -180, and it faced the proper direction without any errors. To get the remaining directions, I then set the yRotate to -135,-90,and -45 respectively.

To sum it up, when using Poser 5 set the main figure rotation to 0, 45, 135, -180, -135, -90, and -45 to render all eight directions.

One more thing to note: If you use a pose from the library (either preset or custom), it will generate a key frame for the main figure, and when you rotate, you'll have to rotate for all the key frames as well. I only use the pose library for storing the original pose in looping animations, so that I don't have to memorize every single angle/side-side setting for every joint I moved during the animation. What this means is that I only have two keyframes, the first and last, to deal with, which is still much faster than dealing with writing down all the values and manually inputing them for the last frame.

 

[Kinboat]

I get that problem in Poser 4 occasionally. My solution is to just rotate the figure to 179.9 instead of a full 180. Not really noticable in the final render and it seems to solve the glitch. Not sure what causes it though.

 

[LBPB]

Is it possible to repaint only a part of the body of Kinboat model (for exemple his feet) ?

If for exemple I recolor his feets, then I don't have to bother making him some shoes...

 

[Kinboat]

Yep... Select the body part you want a different color (in this case one of the feet) and click on the grouping tool (looks like a dotted line box in Poser 4). Then you can 'Create New Group' Select the polygons you want to recolor (in this case you can 'Select All' to select all the polygons on the foot). Then click on the 'Assign Material' button farther down. It asks for a name and you've just created a new material. You can then do the same thing for the other foot (if you use the same name for the material it will group both feet in the same material group.)

 

[LBPB]

It's work better this way !

 

[CamJH]

Quick question KB: When your rendering your images in Poser, do you use the "draft" quality or the "production" quality in render options?
_______
Edit: Nevermind

 

[CamJH]

Hey Kinboat,

Came across some discrepancies with running the default setup on Poser 5 instead of Poser 4, and thought I'd mention them here. The first is that shadows for the Main Light need to be reduced to .667 from 1.0. This has been brought up before by other people, but I thought I'd include it. The other is that the Blue and Red values under the properties for the Main Light need to be bumped up to 1.333 from 1.0. The magenta for the background, along with all the other colors, become slightly distorted without fixing this.

Thought maybe you'd like to post this setup in your first post along with your original default setup for all the newbie creators (like me ) that are picking up Poser 5. Or if you don't want to, I could attach it here. Thanks Kinboat. You're default setup has been a big help for me, so hopefully this might help some people out there that have been having issues.

Later

 

[Kinboat]

Thanks I've posted it in the first post.