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Tutorial Manual

image by Paul Sutton

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Contents Transparency Maps

Reflection Map
24
25
Displacement Map 25
Texture Map 25
3D Basics 1 Procedural Shaders 26
Chapter 1: 3D Basics 2 Putting It All Together 26
About 3D Space 2
Basic Poser Operations 28
Chapter 2: Basic 3D Elements 11
Vertices 11 Chapter 6: The Basics 29
Splines 11 Lesson 1: Working with the Cameras 29
Polygons 12 Lesson 2: Tracking Modes 36

Chapter 3: More 3D Elements 13 Chapter 7: Working with Lights 38

The Poser Workspace 13 Lesson 1: Using the Light Controls 38
Normals 13 Chapter 8: Using Poser’s Tools 43
Camera 13 Lesson 1: The Parameter Dials  43
Lights 14 Lesson 2: The Rotate Tool 45
Hierarchy 14 Lesson 3: The Twist Tool  47
Animation 14 Lesson 4: The Translate Tools 49
Chapter 4: Groups 16 Chapter 9: Posing 53
Hair Groups 19 Lesson 1: Creating Poses 53
Cloth Groups 19 Lesson 2: Adding Poses to the Poses Library 58
Chapter 5: Multi/Sub-object Materials 21 Lesson 3: Posing Faces 60
Why Multi/Sub-object Materials? 22 Chapter 10: Rendering 64
Color 22 Chapter 11: Character Creation and Animation  69
About Maps & Templates 22 Advanced Tutorials 69
Bump Maps 24

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Chapter 12: Content Management 101 Task 4: Using Different Materials in Clothing (Part 2) 170
The Library Palette 101 Task 5: Saving Dynamic Clothing to a Library 173
Content Paradise 103 Task 6: Adding Wind to Your Project 174
Content Collections 104 Adjusting Dynamic Clothing to Fit Other Characters 177
Chapter 13: FireFly Render Tips 106 Chapter 17: The Hair Room 183
Automatic vs. Manual Settings 106 Task 1: Quick Start to Creating and Styling Hair 184
Scene Settings and Specifics 107 Creating Multi-Grouped Hair 197
Task 2: Growing and Styling Multi-Grouped Hair 209
Chapter 14: Creating and Assigning Textures 111
Saving Your Hair to the Library 216
Creating Texture Templates 111
Setting Hair Dynamics 217
Creating and Using Texture Maps 112
Creating and Changing the Hair Color 220
Creating and Using Bump, Reflection, and
Transparency Maps 117 Chapter 18: Building a Basic Skin Shader 225
A Note on Workflow 225
Adding Realism 119 Advanced Materials 225
Chapter 15: The Face Room 120 Getting Started 225
Getting Ready for Your Face Room Project 121 Some Notes on Eyes 230
Choosing and Preparing Photos 122 Conclusion 232
Task 1: Import the Photos to the Face Room 127 Chapter 19: Image Based Lighting 233
Task 2: Moving, Scaling, or Rotating the Head Guides 131
Task 3: Fine-Tuning the Texture 134 Posing and Animation 238
Task 4: Refine the Head Shape 143 Chapter 20: Using Talk Designer 239
Task 5: Completing Your Character 148
Chapter 21: Animation Layers 242
Chapter 16: The Cloth Room 154
Chapter 22: Advanced Posing and Animation 248
Task 1: Creating Still Images with Dynamic Clothing 154
Auto Balance and Posing 248
Task 2: Controlling How Clothing Acts 161
Motion Capture and Animations 249
Task 3: Using Different Materials in Clothing (Part 1) 165

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Figure Shaping and Creation 251

Chapter 23: Morph Target Creation 252
Chapter 24: Advanced Body Shaping 257
Morph Targets 257
Morph Target Tutorial 259
Figure Joints and Blend Zones 263
Chapter 25: Basic Figure Creation 275
Example One: Wormy 275
Example Two: Goldy the Robot 277
Chapter 26: Advanced Figure Creation 281
How Do You Make a New Figure? 281
Creating Figure Models 282
Creating Hierarchy Files 284
Setting Up a Standard Figure 289
Adjusting Joint Parameters 290
Setting Limits 291
Setting Favored IK Angles 292
Memorizing Default Positions 292
Setting Surface Materials 292
Adding Morph Targets 292
Setting Body Part Names 293
Saving New Figures to the Library 293
Tutorial - Poser Figure Creation 293
Index 303

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3D Basics


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Chapter 1: 3D Basics ƒƒ Depth

This part describes basic 3D concepts. The following discussion

centers on Poser, however most of these concepts apply to all 3D
applications. Novice 3D artists should read the entire chapter to
gain valuable “behind the scenes” insight that will help in learning
and using Poser. Veteran 3D users can use this chapter as a handy
reference or refresher.

About 3D Space Figure 1.1

Let’s begin by defining the three dimensions: Pick any one of the three dimensions and call it A. Now pick either
of the remaining two dimensions and call it B. In the graphic, the
• Zero dimension: A point is an example of a zero- arrows represent the two dimensions and the rectangle represents
dimensional object. It defines a point in space but has no a two-dimensional object. You will immediately notice that all two-
length, height, or width. dimensional objects are perfectly flat, like the surface of a sheet of
paper. Two-dimensional objects are called planes.
• First dimension: A one-dimensional object is a single line.
It has length but no height or depth. • Third dimension: Three-dimensional objects use all three
of the dimensions (length, height, and depth).
• Second dimension: A two-dimensional object has any
two of the following three dimensions: As you can see from the graphic, the cube is a three-dimensional
object. It has length, height, and depth. That’s pretty simple, right?
ƒƒ Length Here’s the hard part: You create 3D data using two-dimensional
ƒƒ Height tools. Your computer screen is a two-dimensional object and your
mouse can move in two dimensions; it can report left-right and

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front-back motion but cannot report how far above or below them into separate workspaces called views. One view will
the desk it is. Furthermore, your output will always be two- displays the A and B dimensions, the second will displays the A and
dimensional. Look at the above graphic: It does not have depth. It C dimensions, and the third will displays the B and C dimensions.
does, however, represent three dimensions using a simple optical You can also have a fourth view that displays all three dimensions.
illusion called perspective, which is defined as the tendency This graphic shows how the four views might look in a 3D
of objects to appear progressively smaller the farther away they application such as Poser.
are until they disappear on the horizon at a location called the
vanishing point. You can see this by standing at the corner of
a long building and noticing how the roofline appears to get closer
to the ground the farther away you look. Given these limitations,
you ask, how can one create 3D information?

Figure 1.3

Figure 1.2
Let’s look at the same graphic again, only this time let’s substitute
a simple boat for the cube to better illustrate the concept. One of
The short answer is that all 3D applications, Poser included, create the benefits of this system is that it becomes possible to precisely
a “virtual” 3D space. Look at the above graphic again. We can control your 3D model. For example, you can determine the length
view and manipulate the cube in three dimensions by separating of the boat using the AB or AC view, the width using the AB or BC

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view, and the height using the AC or BC view. Which view you use theory behind 3D applications such as Poser. Let’s expand on that.
depends on what you are trying to accomplish. For example, to
It should be obvious that the AB, AC, and BC views lack
create the stern, you would probably use the BC view, and would
perspective. Two-dimensional views without perspective are called
probably use the AB view to create the overall shape.
orthographic views. Each three-dimensional object has six
orthographic views: Top, Bottom, Left, Right, Front, and Rear. Pick
up any object you like and look at it from all angles; you will see
that this always holds true. So, while the boat example above
shows the Top (AB), Left (AC), and Rear (BC) views, it could just as
easily show any three of the six possible views. This is important
because, like the boat, not all three-dimensional objects are
symmetrical.
Now that you understand this fundamental concept, let’s learn
how it’s used in the real world. To recap, the three dimensions are
width, length, and height or depth, each dimension is represented
by an axis, and we can view each pair of axes in two ways to
generate a total of six possible views. So far so good, except for
one small problem: If everyone used an arbitrary system of axes to
Figure 1.4 define the three dimensions, then it would be difficult to pass data
back and forth. In the above example, we are using the AB as the
In these examples, the A, B, and C dimensions are collectively Left view. Someone else could just as easily define AB as any of
called axes. Taken individually, each dimension is called an the six available views. You can see the chaos that could ensue. To
axis. So far, we have used each axis to describe one of the three prevent this, both 2D and 3D objects conform to a standard system
dimensions without caring about which axis describes which of axes called the Cartesian coordinate system. The term
dimension. The A dimension could describe any of the three Cartesian is used in honor of the French mathematician and
dimensions with B describing either one of the remaining two philosopher Rene Descartes (1596–1650), who was one of the first
dimensions and so forth. We did this to illustrate the most basic to employ such coordinate systems.

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Cartesian Coordinates Cartesian coordinate system, the axes correspond to dimensions

as follows:
Before getting too far into Cartesian coordinates, let’s pause for
a quick math review: If you arranged all of the numbers from • X: Width
negative infinity to positive infinity along a line, the number 0
would be in the center of that line. Negative numbers would be • Y: Height
on the left side of 0 with –1 being the closest to 0, and positive
• Z: Depth
numbers would be on the right side of 0 with +1 being the closest
to 0. Let’s combine the origin with the Cartesian axes as follows. As
you can see, the Cartesian coordinate system uses three axes to
represent each of the three dimensions: X, Y and Z. The positive
X axis points to the right, the positive Y axis points up, and the
positive Z axis points towards the front of the scene. The center
Figure 1.5 of the 3D space is a single point, which is the midpoint (origin)
of the three axes. Thus, the 3D space extends to infinity in both
Negative numbers being on the left (or front) works for horizontal negative and positive directions along all three dimensions. You
lines or axes. For vertical lines, negative numbers are beneath can see the origin in any of the Poser views.
0 with positive numbers above 0. This stands to reason, since
negative numbers are literally less than 0. When dealing with
coordinate systems, we assume that each dimension is infinite,
with zero representing the dimension’s center or origin.
The Cartesian coordinate system goes one step further by defining
three axes, called X, Y, and Z. In our previous examples, we
deliberately used the arbitrary letters A, B, and C to illustrate the
concept of axes and avoided using the actual letters because
we wanted to familiarize you with the general idea of axes and
dimensions before focusing on how they are actually used. In the Figure 1.6

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Now that we have a standard system for defining 3D space and

objects within that space, we can use coordinates to define the
object’s shape. Remember that coordinates are always listed in XYZ
order. Coordinates themselves are defined as the distance from the
origin along each of the three axes. For example, the coordinate
{1,1,1} signifies a point that is 1 unit to the right of the X origin, 1
unit above the Y origin, and 1 unit behind the Z origin.

The format of listing the X, Y, and Z coordinates within

braces and separated by commas is the standard shorthand
used with the Cartesian coordinate system.
Figure 1.7

Remember the box we used in the previous 3D example? We can

use Cartesian coordinates to define its corners. What if we move
the box over somewhat? The graphics on the right show how that Planes
might affect the coordinates. As you can see, Cartesian coordinates
serve to define an object’s shape, size, and location in 3D space. As we discussed earlier, 3D applications must depict and
manipulate 3D data using a series of 2D views and tools. You
already know that 2D objects are planar because they exist on a
mathematically defined plane. A plane is a formula defining the
relationship between two dimensions, such as XZ. Combining
these two facts with what we just learned about the Cartesian
coordinate system and a quick glance at our monitor, we find that
3D applications like Poser use three views aligned with coordinate
planes to help you locate points in 3D space.

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Figure 1.8 Figure 1.9

You can change the Poser Document window to show several

cameras, including the orthogonal views (Left, Right, Front, Back,
Top, Bottom) and perspective views (Main, Auxiliary, Face, Hand,
Global vs. Local Coordinates
Posing). Please refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter
There is one last wrinkle to the Cartesian coordinate system. To
5: The Document Window” on page 59, for a description of the
explain this wrinkle, let’s use the example of a motorcycle rider
Poser Document window. The graphic shows a quick rendition of
leaning into a turn. What just happened? For the sake of argument,
three orthogonal views:
let’s assume that the headlight is 30 inches above the ground
when the motorcycle is upright. If the rider leans the motorcycle 45
degrees to the left, then headlight will now be 21.2 inches to the
left of center and 21.2 inches off the ground.

For anyone into trigonometry, we find the new location

by multiplying the original location by the sin and cosine of
the angle. In this case, sin(45) = cos(45) =.707, and.707*30=

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approximately 21.2.

Thus, the headlight’s coordinates will have changed from {0,

30,0} to {21.2, 0, 21.2}. However, nothing has changed about the
motorcycle itself. The headlight is still in the exact same position
relative to the rest of the machine. To demonstrate this, let’s
create a second 3D space using the motorcycle’s center of gravity
(balance point) as the origin. Let’s further say that the headlight
is 12 inches above and 30 inches in front of the center of gravity.
This means that the headlight’s relative coordinates are {0, 12,
-30}, and these relative coordinates do not change because the
headlight does not move relative to the center of gravity. But what
do we mean by relative?
Has the motorcycle leaned 45 degrees to the left, or has the
Figure 1.10
world leaned 45 degrees to the right? To an observer standing
on the ground, the motorcycle has leaned over 45 degrees. To
the rider, s/he is still on top of the motorcycle and it is the world If this seems a bit complex, bear with us as we use a far simpler
that has leaned over 45 degrees. Further, the rider maintains her example. Each object in Poser has its own object coordinate
or his relationship to the motorcycle, meaning (for example) that system. When an object is first created, its center and orientation
her or his head is still 30 inches behind and 32 inches above the are the same as the world’s. As described above, this changes
headlight. Thus, while the motorcycle’s world coordinates when the object moves. The world’s center and orientation are
have changed, its object (or local) coordinates have still the same, but the object’s center and orientation may have
remained the same. changed. Look at the square in the graphic. Say the upper-left
corner is located at {-5,5,0}. When the object is first created, that
point is the same in local and global coordinates because the
object’s center is at {0,0,0}. If we move the object +7 along the
X axis and +3 along the Y axis, the upper-left corner would now

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be at {2,8,0} in global coordinates but would remain at {-5,5,0} As you can see, the box’s center is the same as the origin ({0,0,0}).
in local coordinates, that is, relative to the object’s center. In What happens if you want to move the box? You can move each
other words, any point can be specified relative to its object’s one of the points, delete the existing box and draw a new one in
local coordinate system (object space) or relative to the global its new location, or simply translate the box. For example, setting
coordinate system (world space or global coordinates) shared by a Translate value of {2,2,2} would move box’s lower left corner
all objects. to {0,0,0} since (-2)+2=0. Again, the Translate value refers to the
location of the center of the object relative to world space.

Transformation Rotation
So far, you have learned about 3D objects, the Cartesian coordinate An object’s rotation value refers to its orientation in 3D space
system, and the difference between object space and world space. measured in degrees. As you probably know, any actual object
Let’s move on and learn how we can use XYZ values to define will revolve around its center of gravity (balance point). Objects in
an object’s transformation in addition to its size, shape, and Poser have no mass and no center of gravity, so you can set the
position. object’s center wherever you like and the object will rotate around
An object’s transformation describes an object’s position that point.
(translation), orientation (rotation), and size (scale) in 3D
space. When an object is first created, its transformation is set to
align with the global coordinates. Its position is set to {0,0,0}, its
orientation is set to {0,0,0}, and its size is set to {1,1,1}. An object’s
transformation values are almost certain to change as you work
with the object.

Translation
An object’s translation describes its position in 3D space
Figure 1.11
relative to its center and is measured in defined grid units. Let’s
take another look at the box we used in an earlier example:

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Let’s think back to the motorcycle example. If you model a

motorcycle and decide you wish to lean it 45 degrees, nothing
is stopping you from performing trigonometric calculations to
determine the new location of each part. Remember that each
part of the motorcycle will move in at least two dimensions as
the whole machine rotates. In this case, since the motorcycle is
rotating about the Z axis, you could simply enter a rotation value Figure 1.12
of {0,0,45}. The trigonometric calculations will still need to be
performed, however Poser will get stuck with the job instead of To compute every point on a model, multiply the original
you. coordinates by the X, Y, and Z components. With this in mind, it
becomes easy to see how different values can change the size of
Scale your object. For example, entering a scale value of {2,2,2} would
double the circle’s size. Poser allows you to set each scaling factor
An object’s scale value refers to its size in relation to itself and independently in order to obtain squashing and stretching effects.
is measured in percent. In this case, a value of 1 corresponds to This is called differential scaling.
100%. Take the example of a circle. As with all other Poser objects,
it is initially created with a scale value of {1,1,1}, meaning that it is
100% of its original size in all three dimensions.
Now that your perfect circle is in place, you realize you need to
double its height on the Y axis. Simply enter a scale value of {1,2,1}
and the circle will turn into an ellipse that is twice as long on the
Y axis as it is wide. To stretch it on the X axis, you would enter
{2,1,1}.

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Chapter 2: Basic 3D Elements Splines

Splines are lines that are defined by multiple control points.
Now that you’ve learned about 3D objects, Cartesian coordinates, The following graphic shows three basic types of splines. The
object space vs. world space, and object transformations, let’s go simplest type of spline consists of a set of control points connected
ahead and learn more about 3D objects themselves. by straight lines, called a linear spline (shown on the near
right). The other two splines are curved. You can curve a spline by
adjusting its basis, or method used to compute the spline. Splines
Vertices can be divided into interpolating and approximating.

A point is a zero-dimensional (0D) object in 3D space. It has a

set of coordinates to define its location but has no length, width,
or height. It is nothing more than a location in Cartesian space.
However, we can connect points to create edges or polylines. An
edge is part of a polygon between two vertices, and a polyline
connects two vertices together that are not part of a polygon. At Figure 2.1
its root, 3D modeling consists of nothing more than connecting a
series of vertices together to create 3D objects. An interpolating spline will always touch the points that define it.
A group of vertices used to define a 3D object is called a point In the above graphic, the two splines on the left are interpolating.
cloud. Each point in a cloud is usually called a vertex and is used This gives them a more drastic skin-like bend than approximating
to define one of the corners of a polygon. Points used to define splines. Approximating splines, such as the right-most example
a spline (see below) are called control points. We’ll define these in the above graphic, have a softer curve because they don’t
terms a little later. necessarily touch the points that define them. Either type of
spline requires three or more control points in order to show any
curvature. Poser uses interpolating splines for such things as the
Walk Designer and the Animation palette.

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Polygons
Polygons are multiple-sided surfaces that use vertices to define
their corners and edges to define their limits. Most 3D applications
use triangles (3-sided polygons) and/or rectangles (4-sided
polygons). Groups of polygons form a polygonal mesh,
which alone or with other meshes defines a mesh object. Let’s
reexamine the box example we used above: In this example, the
point cloud consists of eight vertices. These eight vertices are
connected by 12 edges, which define six rectangular polygons. Had
we used triangles, the eight vertices would be connected by 18
edges, which would define 12 polygons.

Figure 2.2

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Chapter 3: More 3D Elements residing in the same 3D space). If a model’s normals are inverted,
certain routines may behave erratically or your model may render
incorrectly. Poser allows you to control the direction of the normals
We have just a few more basics to cover before diving into the and automatically performs these calculations for you.
actual tutorials.

The Poser Workspace

The Poser workspace (you’ll see this referred to throughout this
manual) is the virtual 3D world in which you build your scenes. This
world contains an origin and the three axes.
The Document window acts as the viewfinder for the currently Figure 3.1
selected camera. By looking through this viewfinder, you can see
the workspace. Please refer to the Poser Reference Manual,
“Chapter 5: The Document Window” on page 59 for more
information about the Document window. Camera
The Camera is a default object. This means that it always exists
Normals and cannot be deleted. However, the camera is an object like any
other and can be moved and animated. Additionally, you can apply
A surface normal is a line (vector) that points perpendicular to many different settings to the camera including its position,
(away from) the surface it originates from. Since models have more angle, perspective, and focal length. These are standard
than one surface, knowing which way the normals are facing can photography terms. Object animation rules apply to the camera.
help you understand how a particular function will affect a model.
This is important when rendering a model or for calculating other
operations such as a collision (determining if two objects are

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Lights
A light source is a special kind of primitive. When Poser launches,
it places three default lights in your scene. You can add, edit and
remove lights in your scene and can also control and animate many
settings such as color, intensity, position, shaders (gels), etc.

Hierarchy
Poser objects are often grouped in a hierarchy in order to
facilitate manipulation. The original object is known as a parent, Figure 3.2
and each object linked to it is known as a child. The graphic
shows an example of a simple hierarchy. In this example, the trunk Let’s try another example: Bend your arm at the shoulder. Notice
is the parent. The branch is a child of the trunk, the twig is a child that your shoulder rotation moves your upper arm, lower arm,
of the branch, and the leaf is a child of the twig. Selecting and wrist, hand, and fingers. In this case, your upper arm is a child of
moving the trunk will also move the branch, twig, and leaf. Moving your shoulder and so forth. Now try bending a finger. Your hand,
the branch does not affect the trunk but moves the twig and leaf, wrist, arm, and shoulder do not move.
and moving the twig moves the leaf without affecting the branch
or trunk. Selecting the leaf only moves the leaf.
Animation
Poser lets you animate virtually everything in your scene including
objects, lights, materials (which can have a shader tree containing
one or more nodes), and the camera. Each scene item has different
settings (parameters) that can also be animated. For example,
you can animate an object’s scale, rotation, translation, and shape,

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or a light’s color, position, and intensity (Poser calculates shadows). ball will gradually shrink and turn blue with each passing frame
You can animate any component of an object’s material. Plus, until it reaches the values you set for it at Frame 10. Keyframing
you can animate the camera’s position and rotation. Creating and interpolation allow you to create complex animations with a
animations involves making changes to these parameters over time minimum amount of work.
and assigning these changes to keyframes.

Keyframing
Animations are made up of individual images known as frames.
An animation is created when a series of frames that vary slightly
from one frame to the next are displayed one after another over
time.
Keyframing is the core of computer animation and involves
the following general process: First, a starting frame is created
on a timeline and all parameters for each object in a scene are
assigned to that frame. Next, an ending frame is created later on
the timeline and all changes to any parameters are assigned to
this frame. Poser then compares the parameters assigned to the
starting and ending frames and calculates all of the intermediate
frames that occur between the starting and ending frames. This
calculation is called interpolation.
For example, if you tell Poser that an object is large and red at
Frame #1 then small and blue at Frame #10, then Frames 1 and 10
become the keyframes. Poser then calculates the intermediate
values for all of the frames in between the keyframes. Thus, as
the animation moves from Frame 1 to Frame 10, the large red

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Chapter 4: Groups Poser figures consist of named body parts that can be selected and
articulated (or posed). Props normally consist of a single part
that cannot be articulated, although poseable props do exist. The
This section describes how Poser differentiates between body part following graphic depicts an example of Poser body parts:
groups, material groups, and other group types on a figure or prop.
This explanation is specific to Poser, however it will provide you
with the background information you need in order to understand
groups in general.
The following examples use the Alyson Casual figure (available
in the Poser 8 Content palette’s Figures category). Add this
figure to your scene by dragging from the Library to the document
window, or by clicking the Apply to Scene or Add to Scene
button at the bottom of the Library palette, as described in the
Poser Reference Manual, “Loading and Managing Items
using the Library Icons” on page 102. When you display the
figure in Outline display mode and hover your mouse over the
various body parts, you’ll see an outline of the group underneath
the mouse. We have color-coded the groups for clarity in the
following figure.
Figure 4.1

Please remember that each figure/prop is different,

having different body parts, materials, hair, and cloth groups. The example displays several body parts: head, left eyeball, right
Further, the groups themselves may be arranged in different eyeball, neck, chest, left collar, right collar., left shoulder, right
orders. However, the concepts explained here are the same for shoulder, and abdomen Each of these body parts can be articulated
each figure/prop. (posed).
Each body part (or group) consists of one or more polygons.

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As hinted above, there are several different types of polygon

groups: body part groups, material groups, hair groups, and cloth
groups for example. A polygon can belong to more than one type
of group (such as a body part group and a material group, or a
cloth group and a material group). A polygon can only be in one
group of each type at a time. Thus, the following group
combinations are possible:

• One body part may have one material assigned to it. For
example, the neck will probably have the “skin” material.

• Two or more body parts may use the same material. For
example, the fingers may all use the “skin” material.

• One body part may use more than one material. For example,
each eyeball may have separate materials for the eyeball, iris,
and pupil. Figure 4.2

• In addition to the above, a polygon may be part of a hair

group and/or a cloth group. Since body parts and materials are the most obvious forms of
grouping, let’s use them to illustrate grouping as a whole since the
same concepts apply to hair and cloth groups as well. The graphic
displays the material assignments for the above-displayed body
parts.
You can see that the head, neck, and portions of the chest use
the skin material. The chest and collars use the shirt material. The
eyes use eyeball, pupil, and iris materials. The head uses several
materials including skin, lips, and eyebrows.

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the material assigned to that polygon. Changing a material

itself will affect the appearance of all polygons that have the
corresponding material ID. For example, if one made the skin
green, then all polygons with the “skin” material ID would
turn green regardless of the body part.
The following table depicts a partial list of the relationships
between body parts and materials in the Alyson Casual figure:

Body Part Assigned Material(s)

Head Head, Nostrils, Lips, EyeSockets, Lacrimals,

InnerMouth, TearLine, EyelashesBottom,
EyelashesTop, Teeth, Gums, Tongue

Eyeballs (left and right) EyeballLeft, IrisLeft, PupilLeft, CorneaLeft,

EyeballRight, IrisRight, PupilRight, CorneaRight
Figure 4.3

Neck Body
The important things to remember are:
Collars (left and right) Body, Shirt
• Poser groups polygons by body part, material, hair, and cloth,
and these groups are independent of each other. Chest Body, Shirt

• Each material in a figure/prop gets assigned a unique

numbered ID, and that ID is in turn used by a polygon to
specify which material should be applied to that polygon. Again, the only relationship between the body parts, materials,
For example, the skin material may have ID 1, the shirt ID 2, hair, and cloth is that defined by the figure’s creator. Poser does not
etc. Each polygon in a figure/prop includes the ID number of mandate any such relationship.

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Now that we have differentiated between body part and material

groups and mentioned hair and cloth, let’s describe hair and cloth
Cloth Groups
groups in more detail: Poser’s Cloth room allows you to create realistic cloth that you
can use for almost any purpose in your scene. Cloth groups are
actually vertex groups, meaning that they are groups of
Hair Groups vertices instead of polygons, however this makes little difference in
the overall discussion. Vertices belonging to a cloth group cannot
Hair groups are groups of polygons that can also belong to any belong to a body part group.
body part, prop, and material group. Polygons that are part of hair
groups can have real 3D hair grown on them. Please refer to the Here is an example of a figure wearing dynamic cloth, which
Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter 24: The Hair Room” on consists of props with named groups. See how the cloth realistically
page 391 for more information about the Hair room. drapes and moves as the figure moves:
Please refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter 25: The
Cloth Room” on page 405 for more information about the Cloth
room.

Figure 4.4

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Figure 4.5

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Chapter 5: Multi/Sub-object This sample scene has two figures (Alyson Casual and Ryan
Casual). The Material room therefore displays the following
selections:
Materials
Each figure/prop has its own unique material list containing
individual materials within that list. You can see this for yourself by
creating a Poser scene with two or more figures/props and opening
the Material room.

Figure 5.1
Figure 5.2

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As you can see, the two figures in this image each have different of your object but it doesn’t tell the whole story. For example,
materials lists. Each object in a Poser scene has its own list of painting an apple red is obvious, but the simple red color does not
materials, which is different for each object. These lists of materials contain the other colors and shades, nor does it portray the apple’s
behave like a multi/sub-object material list/table. small imperfections and other features. Thus, a material that simply
uses color ends up looking plastic.

Why Multi/Sub-object
Materials? About Maps & Templates
Look at your own skin. Notice the differing colors, hairs, veins,
The purpose of having more than one material per figure (multi/ moles, and other features. Look at any object. Is it smooth or
sub-object materials) is to provide each polygon with a different rough? Opaque or transparent? If transparent, does it have the
or shared material property with other polygons. This gives you same transparency all over or in portions? Is it matte or glossy?
control over material properties down to the polygon level. Is it reflective? What sort of texture or pattern does it have? Now
A side benefit is that multi/sub-object materials also allow great look at the objects around you. They all have different material
flexibility. For example, if you have a scene with multiple figures, properties. How can you capture these properties in your 3D
each figure can have its own skin and clothing colors. Selecting objects? One answer is mapping. Each object in your Poser
one figure or prop displays only the materials assigned to just that scene can have its own maps, which are used for specifying various
figure/prop, which organizes your materials and prevents possible attributes. Maps provide an efficient way to add advanced effects
confusion. Also, if you save a figure or prop to the Library palette, to your objects. For example, if you had to model every wrinkle,
its materials will be saved as well, thereby preserving your work. mole, eyelash, hair, or other feature, your object’s polygon count
(number of polygons) would quickly become prohibitive. In fact,
most of the 3D figures and other objects you see in feature films
Color have relatively low polygon counts and make extensive use of
mapping.
Color is easy. By applying a color to an object or material group,
As you know, most maps are two-dimensional representations
you are essentially dumping a bucket full of paint on that object
of 3D surfaces. Each point on the Earth’s surface that lies within
or group. Color goes a long way toward establishing the final look

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the map’s area of coverage corresponds to a point on the map.

Depending on the area being mapped and the mapping method
used, the map may or may not resemble the actual surfaces it
represents. This effect is called distortion and is most easily seen
on world maps created using the Mercator projection. We could
spend a lot of time on this, but the important things to remember
are that:

• Maps are 2D representations of 3D surfaces.

• Each coordinate (location) on the 3D surface corresponds to a

location on the map.

• The map may or may not resemble the 3D surface.

Here is a sample map template for a Poser figure:

Figure 5.3

The grid-like lines on the map correspond to the polygons on the

figure mesh object itself. Blank areas do not correspond to any
part of the figure and are ignored. Thus, you can “color outside
the lines” without ill effect, since only color falling within the lines
actually appears on the figure.
Maps used for figures normally use the UV coordinate system
where the upper left corner corresponds to 0,0 and the bottom
right corner to 1,1. Thus, the exact center of the map would be at
0.5,0.5. For any given object, you start with the blank template

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shown above and modify it depending on the type of map you are
creating.

Bump Maps
A bump map is used to simulate roughness on a surface. Bump
maps are grayscale images where dark gray/black signifies lower
areas and bright white/light gray areas signify higher areas. They
work by shifting the object’s normals to give the illusion of depth.
On a human figure, a bump map allows you to simulate wrinkles
and other imperfections/textures.

Figure 5.4

Transparency Maps
A transparency map is like a bump map in that it is a grayscale
image. Transparency maps regulate the amount of opacity in a
given location. The darker the color is, the greater the transparency,
and vice versa. Here’s a sample transparency map for eyelashes.

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Reflection Map
Reflection maps are also grayscale. As the name implies, they
are used to differentiate areas of varying reflectivity. The use of
reflection maps allows you to, for example, create a patterned
mirror where the patterns have a higher or lower amount of
reflection.

Displacement Map
Displacement maps are very similar to bump maps but with a key
difference: Instead of simply shifting normals, displacement maps
actually move (displace) an object’s geometry. Thus, displacements
provide more “real” depth than bump maps. Displacement occurs
at render time, meaning that objects will look smooth until
Figure 5.5
rendered.

Look at the bump map, above. The lighter colored areas around
the eyelashes indicate that they should have height, that is, they
should stand out from the figure itself. The texture map (see
Texture Map
“Texture Map” later in this chapter) specifies the lashes’ color All map types (bump, transparency, etc.) are 2D representations
as rough smears. The transparency map above allows only those of 3D objects, and texture maps are no exception. Texture maps
portions of the texture map corresponding to the lighter areas are the primary way of making 3D objects look real. Texture maps
to show through. The combined effect is eyelashes that stick out make skin on your Poser figure look real, add realistic grain to
from the eyes. Where there are no eyelashes, you can see the skin wood, etc. The following example shows a texture map for one of
beneath them. This is a great example of how combining maps can the Poser figures:
create very realistic effects.

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Procedural Shaders
Poser’s FireFly rendering engine supports the use of procedural
shaders (or shaders for short). Shaders consist of a root
node that can be modified by adding additional nodes that
modify one or more of the root node’s values. A node’s output can
modify one or more nodes, and you can use more than one node to
influence another. You can include all of the maps we’ve discussed
above when building shaders. You can also create realistic
materials that don’t require any maps at all, or you can have other
nodes modifying any maps you decide to use. Thus, shaders are a
second method of creating materials that may or may not integrate
maps. Please refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter
13: The Material Room” on page 213 for information about
Poser’s Material room.
Figure 5.6

You can use shader elements such as color to get an effect without
Putting It All Together
using texture maps, but you won’t be able to precisely place The following image demonstrates the results you can achieve by
features where you want them (such as painted fingernails on the combining the various types of maps.
ends of the fingers).

Texture maps are fully colored, unlike the grayscale

example shown above.

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Figure 5.7

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Basic Poser
Operations


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Chapter 6: The Basics them. By default the camera rotates around the center of the
workspace; you can, however, assign it to rotate around a specific
object within the scene.
The following set of lessons is designed to help you learn the basic Refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter 11:
operations in Poser. They cover topics such as working with posing Cameras” on page 180 for more on Poser’s cameras.
and scene development tools.
In this lesson you’ll explore the Poser workspace using the various
cameras.
Lesson 1: Working with the
Cameras Unless stated otherwise, the tutorials in this chapter
use the Alyson Casual figure, located in the Poser 8 Content
subcategory of the Figures library.
You can access the cameras in Poser in several different ways.
An often overlooked method of selecting a camera is by using
keyboard keys. Learning a few key commands can make viewing a To view your figure using the Main camera:
figure much easier.
Poser’s camera is modeled after the Conical camera type. There 1. Hold down the Command/Ctrl-M. The view switches to the
are two types of cameras in Poser: Conical and Isometric. Conical Main Camera. Start with a figure placed in the center of your
cameras (such as the Main, Hand and Face cameras) act like real- Document window.
world cameras in that they display perspective. Isometric cameras
(such as From Top, From Left, etc.) have no perspective. When you
view figures using Isometric cameras you won’t be able to rotate
around the workspace.
Each camera has its own center; it centers on and rotates around
an object. For example, the Right Hand camera rotates around the
Right Hand, and the Face camera rotates around the face. Both
cameras face the center directly unless you intentionally redirect

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Figure 6.2

3. Click and drag from left to right over the Trackball. Then drag
Figure 6.1: The view from the Main camera
from right to left.

2. Move your cursor over the Trackball in the Camera controls.

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top of the Document window. They should list Alyson Casual

and Main Camera. If not, click the menu and select the Main
Camera.

3. Choose Object > Point At.

4. The Point At dialog appears. The dialog shows a visual list of

all the objects in your scene.

5. Scroll down until you see the Head element. Click Head in the
list and click OK.

6. The Main camera now points at the Head. In the Parameters

palette, note the new parameter dial called Point At appears
at the top of the list of dials.

Figure 6.3: The new view of the workspace

You’ll notice that the Main camera points at the center of the
workspace. You can change this default behavior by linking the
camera to an object in the workspace.

To link a camera to an object:

1. Make sure that the Main Camera is the currently selected
object.

2. Check the Current Figure and Current Actor menus at the

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Figure 6.4: The view of the workspace with the Point At behavior applied Figure 6.5: The new view of the workspace

7. Move your cursor over the Trackball on the Camera controls 8. No matter where you move the camera, the Head remains in
again, and drag down until the camera moves beneath the the view.
figure.
With the Point At behavior the camera always points at the target
object, without changing its position. By changing the camera’s
parent, you can automatically move the camera whenever you
move the figure.

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To change a camera’s parent: 5. Press Command/Ctrl-T to switch to the Top camera.

1. Select the camera that you want to affect.

2. Choose Object > Change Parent. The Object Parent

dialog appears.

3. Choose Alyson Casual’s Body from the list.

4. Click OK.

Figure 6.7: The view of the workspace from the Top camera

6. Click the Translate tool.

7. Select the figure ring around the Body and move it anywhere
in the Document window. Do not click directly on the body
or you will alter the pose.

Figure 6.6: The new view from the Main camera using Body as its parent.

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Figure 6.8 The repositioned Body. Figure 6.9 The view of the workspace from the Main camera

8. Press Command/Ctrl-M to switch back to the Main camera 9. Notice that the view from the Main camera remains the same.
That’s because the camera moved with the Body when you
repositioned it.

10. Try moving the figure’s body again using another camera and
switch back to the Main camera. The Main camera returns to
the same position.

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To view the figure using the Face camera: To view the figure using the Top camera:
1. Press Command/Ctrl-(=) to switch to the Face Camera. 1. Press Command/Ctrl-T to switch to the Top camera.

Figure 6.10: The view from the Face camera. Figure 6.11: The view of the workspace from the Top camera.

2. Click and drag left over the Trackball. 2. The Top camera, like the Left, Right and Front cameras, is an
Isometric camera, meaning that it doesn’t show perspective.
3. Notice that Face camera always stays with the selected figure,
no matter where you move the figure. 3. It is designed specifically for viewing a pose rather than
rendering poses. This camera is very useful for placing figures,
4. The Face Camera is ideal for making animations that center creating animations, and locating Figures and Spotlights you
on a single figure. may have lost in the workspace.

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4. Set the Top camera Scale Parameter Dial to 400% or more to down from 100% to 25% zooms in, while scaling up from 100%
get a wide view of the Poser workspace. to 1000% zooms out.

Lesson 2: Tracking Modes

A tracking mode determines how the figure looks as you move it.
Box Tracking mode displays the figure as boxes all the time. Fast
Tracking mode displays the figure as boxes during movement, and
uses the currently selected display style when the figure is still. Full
Tracking mode displays the figure in the current display style at
all times.
Tracking modes help you overcome the limitations of your
computer’s processing speed when posing. Faster computers can
display better tracking, while slower machines benefit from less
complex modes.
In this lesson you’ll learn how to choose a tracking mode.
Figure 6.12: The expanded view of the workspace.
To set a tracking mode:

A Note on Focal Lengths 1. Click one of the Tracking Mode icons located in the pop-up
menu at the bottom left of the Document window.
Poser’s default cameras are set to 25mm and have all the attributes
of a real-world 25mm Wide Angle Lens. You can experiment with 2. From the top to bottom they are: Box Tracking, Fast
other focal lengths such as 50mm, which resembles the human Tracking, and Full Tracking.
eye’s view, and 100mm, a lens favored by Portrait Photographers.
3. Click each of the mode icons and adjust the figure’s pose.
Each time you set the focal length, the Scale will also reset. Scaling

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Observe how different modes affect response time.

4. Use the mode that doesn’t slow down your computer’s

response time.

Figure 6.13

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Chapter 7: Working with Lesson 1: Using the Light

Controls
Lights You’ll begin this lesson by deleting two of the three default lights
in the Poser scene and learning the controls.
Lights are one of the most necessary and least understood part of
any 3D Program. Often they’re difficult to use. Poser’s remedy is To use the Light controls:
unique Lighting controls that let you intuitively manipulate lights.
There are four types of lights available in Poser: Infinite lights, 1. On the Light controls, select the circle for the light you want to
Point lights, Spotlights, and Diffuse Image Based Lighting (IBL). To delete. Each light in the workspace is represented by a circle
use them effectively, you first need to understand the differences on the Light controls. The following example shows a selected
between them: light.

• Infinite light illuminates one side of everything in the scene

in the same way sunlight does. Poser’s default light set uses
three infinite lights.

• Point lights emit light from a single point outward in a

360-degree radius.

• Spotlights point in a single direction and illuminate everything

that falls within the cone of light they produce. When you Figure 7.1: A selected light.
create a new light, the Spotlight type is automatically created.

• Diffuse Image Based Lighting uses a 360-degree light 2. Click the Delete Light icon. The selected light is deleted.
distribution map, or light probe, to illuminate the scene.

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Figure 7.2
Figure 7.3: The Light Ring in the Document window
3. Select another light and repeat step 2.

4. Select the remaining light. Click and drag over the control
You can use the Rotate Tool to manipulate the Light
from left to right. Note how the Light Indicator (representing Indicator directly in the Document window.
the global light) revolves around the figure. The arrows of the
indicator show the direction from which the light comes.
The Light Intensity slider on the Lighting controls has a range
from 0% to 100%. It acts as the brightness control, or dimmer. The
midway point of the slider is 75%.
There is a quick way to delete all lights in your scene.
From the Scripts menu, choose Utility > deleteLights. The parameter dials also let you control some of the light’s
When a dialog asks if you are sure, choose OK. All lights in parameters. Refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter
your scene will be removed.
12: Lighting” on page 196 for more on lights.
Next you’ll add a spotlight to the workspace.

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To add a spotlight:
1. Click the Create Light icon. A new spotlight appears on
the Light controls. The color of the new light is selected at
random.

Figure 7.5: The position of new light on the Lighting controls

Figure 7.4 3. Use the Intensity slider to set the Light Intensity to
approximately 75% (near the middle of the slider).
2. Drag the new light’s circle to locate it approximately front and
center. This places the light in front of the figure.

Figure 7.6: The Light Intensity slider set to 75%

4. Select the Object > Create Light > Spot menu option. A
new spotlight is created.

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Figure 7.7
Figure 7.8: The Spotlight option on the Light Properties palette

You now have a new spotlight, you can control how it behaves by
You can change any light type at any time. Select applying the Point At function to it.
the light you want to change, and then open the Properties
palette. Select Spot, Infinite, Point, or Diffuse IBL from the
available choices at the top of the palette.
To apply the Point At behavior to a light:
1. Make sure your new spotlight is the selected element.

2. From the menu bar, choose Object > Point At. The Point
At dialog appears.

3. Choose your figure’s Head from the hierarchy list.

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4. In the Parameters palette, set the Tran values for the light to workspace. Spotlights rotate around the center of the light
the following. This moves the spotlight’s indicator to behind object.
the figure and near the floor. Notice how it remains pointed
at the Head:

ƒƒ xTran: -4.000
ƒƒ yTran: Between .900 and 1.000
ƒƒ zTran: -4.000

Figure 7.9: The Spotlight’s indicator in the Document window

5. Adjust the values of the x, y or zRotate parameter dials to

experiment. You’ll notice that the spotlight doesn’t rotate like
an infinite light. Infinite lights rotate around the center of the

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Chapter 8: Using Poser’s Tools

The lessons in this section teach you how to work with the most
commonly used Posing tools and the parameter dials.

Lesson 1: The Parameter Dials

The simplest way of posing a figure is by selecting each individual
part, and using the parameter dials to move it into the desired
position.
Figure 8.1: The Right Shoulder selected on the figure.
A much faster way of posing is to use the four main posing tools
directly on the figure in the Document window. However, this
method requires considerable practice. 2. A series of parameter dials appear in the Parameters palette.
This lesson leads you through the process of posing a figure using 3. Click the value on the Up-Down dial and type 80 in the field
the parameter dials. that appears.
To pose by typing in numerical values:
1. With Alyson Casual in your scene, select the Translate/Pull
tool from the Editing tools, and click the Right Shoulder in the
Document window.
Figure 8.2: The Up-Down dial .

4. The whole right arm should now be at the figure’s side.

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2. In the Parameters palette, select the Up-Down dial and drag

the slider toward the left until the value shown is at or near
-80. The left arm should be at the figure’s side.

Figure 8.3: The new position of the right arm.

To pose using the dials: Figure 8.5: The new position of the left arm.

1. Select the Left Shoulder

Notice that for the left shoulder, the downward bend

value is negative, for the right shoulder, the value is positive.
This is generally true when working with a figure; left is
negative and right is positive. You’ll notice similar behavior
for the Front-Back parameter dial in the Left and Right
shoulders.

Figure 8.4: The left shoulder selected.

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Lesson 2: The Rotate Tool

The Rotate tool is probably the most useful tool for directly
manipulating your figures. Unlike the Translate tools, it only
affects the individually selected part.
In this lesson you’ll use the Rotate tool on the Forearms.

To pose using the Rotate tool:

1. First, switch to the From Left camera by pressing
Command/Ctrl-( ; ). You are now looking at the figure’s Figure 8.6: The selected Right Forearm.
right side.
4. Place the cursor directly over the selected forearm, then click
and drag to the right until it is extended in front of the figure.
Becoming used to quickly changing cameras makes
posing a much simpler task. Many of the Poser cameras have
keyboard shortcuts. Press the Command/Ctrl key plus the key
shown in parenthesis following to change to Main (M), From
Left ( ; ), From Right ( ‘) , From Top (T), From Front (F), Face
(=), Posing (,), Right Hand ([), Left Hand (]), Dolly (/), and Fly
Around (L).

2. Click the Rotate tool.

3. In the Document window, select the Right Forearm.

Figure 8.7: Drag to the right until the arm is in the position shown.

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5. Press Command/Ctrl-( ’ ) to switch to the From Right

Camera. You are now looking at the left side of the figure.

Figure 8.9: The selected Left Forearm.

Figure 8.8: The figure shown through the From Right Camera. 7. Place your cursor behind the figure and drag to the left. The
Forearm bends up.
6. Select the Left Forearm with the Rotate tool.

Figure 8.10: Drag left until the forearm is in the position shown.

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8. Place the cursor to the left of the figure and drag up. The
Forearm follows
Lesson 3: The Twist Tool
The Twist tool does exactly what its name implies, it twists body
parts. This is accomplished by selecting the part and drawing the
tool across the screen. It is an extremely useful tool for creating
realistic poses quickly.

To use the Twist tool:

1. First, press Command/Ctrl-M to switch back to the Main
Camera. Select Edit > Restore > All to reset the figure and
camera to the default positions.

Figure 8.11: Drag up until the forearm is in the position shown.

Now you have used two methods of working with the

Rotate tool. You can use the tool directly on the selected part,
or you can drag the tool across the workspace and the part
will follow. This is true of all four main Posing tools: Rotate,
Twist, Translate/Pull and Translate In/Out.

Figure 8.12: The figure shown through the Main Camera.

2. With Alyson Casual’s Body selected, select the Twist tool.

Click the faint circle that surrounds the figure. The circle turns

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white.

Figure 8.14: The rotated figure.

Figure 8.13: A figure with the Figure ring highlighted.

4. Use the Figure > Use Inverse Kinematics command to

3. Beginning with the cursor placed over the figure circle, drag turn Inverse Kinematics on for the Right Leg and Left Leg if
your cursor toward the right side of the Document window necessary, before continuing with the next step.
until you see the figure at a three quarter face. Check the
yRotate dial value. It should be at about 45 degrees. 5. Select the Hips with the Twist tool. Drag to the left until the
figure is once again directly facing the camera.

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7. Select the Head with the Twist tool and drag to the right. The
Twist dial should be near 16 degrees.

Figure 8.15: The Hips selected with the Twist tool.

6. Select the Neck with the Twist tool and drag to the right. The
Twist dial should be near 16 degrees.
Figure 8.17: The final position of the Head.

Lesson 4: The Translate Tools

The Translate/Pull, and Translate In/Out tools are some of the
most powerful direct posing tools available to you. Used together,
they can quickly generate any pose. Once you have a pose, you can
then fine-tune the pose using the parameter dials. In this lesson,
you’ll explore posing using just these tools.

Figure 8.16: The selected Neck.

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To pose using the Translate/Pull tool:

1. First, save anything you wish to keep from the last tutorial,
and create a new document (File > New). Load Alyson
Casual into the scene.

2. Select the Translate/Pull tool.

3. In the Document window, select the Hips. Drag up to lift the

figure onto the tips of her toes.

Notice that the feet begin pointing down until it looks

like the figure is completely in the air. This is because IK Figure 8.18: The selected Hips
(Inverse Kinematics) is applied to the legs.

Basically, IK sets up dependencies between parts of

a figure to simulate more realistic movement. In this
case, each part of the leg is dependent on another to
determine movement. For example, when the Thigh
moves, the Shin follows. You can turn IK on and off
depending on your needs. Refer to the Poser Reference
Manual, “Chapter 9: Posing Figures” on page 132 for
a complete discussion of IK.

Figure 8.19: Drag up until the figure is in the position shown.

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4. With the Hips selected, lower the figure so that its toes touch 6. Pull the Forearm to the right, then up and down. Notice that
the Ground plane. this movement affects more than just the Forearm. You’re
pulling the figure all the way down to the Abdomen.

Next, you’ll explore using the Translate In/Out tool.

To use the Translate In/Out tool:

1. Click the Translate In/Out tool.

2. Select the Right Foot

Figure 8.20: Drag down until the figure is in the position shown.

5. Select the Right Forearm.

Figure 8.22: The Right Foot selected.

3. Drag up. The Right Foot and leg move away from you

Figure 8.21: The selected forearm.

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6. Choose Figure > Use Inverse Kinematics > Left Hand

and again with the Right And to turn IK on in the arms. IK is
enabled when a checkmark appears next to a menu item.

7. Select the Chest again and drag down.

8. With IK turned on, the Hands resist movement when you

translate a body part that affects them. It appears as if they
are holding onto something.

Figure 8.23: The position of the Right Foot after the move.

4. Select the Chest and drag down. The figure appears to bow.

Figure 8.25: The position of the figure with IK turned off.

Figure 8.24: The new position of the Chest.

5. Press Command/Ctrl-Z to undo the last command.

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Chapter 9: Posing To position the right arm:

1. Create a new scene and load Alyson Casual. Then select the
In this section you’ll learn several ways of posing that expand on Twist tool.
what you have learned in the previous sections.
2. Place the Twist tool over Right Shoulder in the Document
window. Drag right so that the arm twists to 45°. The Right
Shoulder’s Twist parameter should be set at approximately
Lesson 1: Creating Poses 45°.
In this lesson, you’re going to use everything you’ve learned so far
about Poser’s tools to create a simple, yet realistic pose: Hands on
Hips. You’ll use the tools as well as the Symmetrical command to
quickly set-up the pose.
Keep in mind that although the human body looks symmetrical, it’s
rarely positioned in a symmetrical manner. Even a very symmetrical
pose like placing both hands on your hips may not look entirely
natural if you just reverse the values from left and right. That’s why
you’ll also use the tools to set up a more natural position for the Figure 9.1: The Right Shoulder should be in the position shown.
figure’s limbs.
Posing using the Editing Tools can be somewhat imprecise for the 3. Select the Right Forearm and drag right. The Twist dial should
new user; you may want to use the parameter dials to reposition be at 14°.
body parts. The parameter dial values used in the pose are listed so
you can duplicate it using only the dials.
Once you achieve the pose described here, use what you’ve
learned to make additional adjustments so that the final pose
looks right to you.

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Figure 9.2: The Right Forearm should be in the position shown. Figure 9.4: The Right Hand after positioning.

4. Select the Right Collar and drag right. The Twist dial should 6. Select the Right Forearm. In the Parameters palette, set the
be at 25°. Bend dial to 95° and the Side-Side dial to 5°.

Figure 9.3: The Right Collar should be in the position shown.

5. Select the Rotate tool. Select the Right Hand and drag right Figure 9.5: The new position of the Right Forearm.
to bend the Right Hand. The Bend dial should read about
-75°.
7. Using the Rotate tool, select the Right Shoulder. Set Up-

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Down to 26°.

Figure 9.7: The repositioned Right Collar.

Figure 9.6: The new position of the Right Shoulder.

Once you’re done, your parameter dials should read as follows:

8. Select the Right Collar. Set Up-Down to 23°.
• Right Collar:
9. Finally, select the Right Hand. In the Parameters palette, locate
the Hand Controls section of Parameter dials. Set the Grasp ƒƒ Twist = 25°
dial to 26.
ƒƒ Up-Down = 23°

• Right Shoulder:
ƒƒ Twist = 45°
ƒƒ Up-Down = 26°

• Right Forearm:
ƒƒ Twist = 14°

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ƒƒ Side-Side= 5°
ƒƒ Bend = 95°

• Right Hand:
ƒƒ Bend = -75°
ƒƒ Grasp = 26

To apply the right arm pose to the left arm:

1. From the Menu bar, choose Figure > Symmetry > Right
Arm to Left Arm. A dialog will appear asking if you want to
copy the joint zone’s setup also. Click No.

2. Click the Left Hand, and adjust the Grasp dial in the
Parameters Palette to -20.

Figure 9.8: The symmetrical pose.

3. This will be a good time to save the file. Choose File > Save
and save to the folder and filename of your choosing.

Your pose is almost finished, but it still looks a little unnatural.

Next you’ll shift the figure’s weight.

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To achieve a natural standing position: 4. To turn Inverse Kinematics off for the hands, choose Figure
> Use Inverse Kinematics > RightHand. Then choose
1. Click the Translate/Pull tool. Figure > Use Inverse Kinematics > LeftHand. Both
hands should be unchecked.
2. Select the Right Foot.
5. Choose the Twist tool and select the Abdomen. Drag left so
3. Drag left so that the figure appears to be placing its weight that the Twist dial reads -10°.
on the left leg.

Figure 9.10: The repositioned Abdomen.

Figure 9.9: The repositioned foot.

6. Select the Chest. Drag left so that the Twist dial reads -10°

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To add a pose to the library:

1. Click to select the figure that uses the pose you want to save.

2. Click on the Library tab then select the Poses category. The
Poses subcategory folders are listed.

Figure 9.12.

3. Select the folder beneath which you want to add a new folder
or item. The selected folder is highlighted in blue. When you
are able to create a new folder or add a pose, two icons
Figure 9.11: The finished pose.
(shown in the following figure) appear at the bottom of the
Library palette.

Lesson 2: Adding Poses to the

Poses Library
Once you create a pose, you can add it to the Library for future
use. For easy access, you’ll also create a new category for your
custom poses.

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Figure 9.14: The New Set dialog.

6. Enter a name for the pose, such as Hands on Hips or Posed

Arms 01. Press Enter or click OK.

7. Poser asks if you want to save Morph Channels or Body

Transformations with the pose. For purposes of this tutorial,
leave these additional options unchecked and click OK.

Figure 9.13.
In general you check the Morph Channels option
when you are saving a custom character to the library. Custom
characters are usually saved in their default pose. Body
4. To create a new library folder, click the Create New Folder Transformation poses are used to place an item in a specific
icon at the bottom of the library palette. Enter a name for the part of a scene. For example, if you have a sheriff’s office, you
new folder in the New Library Name dialog and click OK. might use a Body Transformation pose to save the position of
Select the new folder before you save your new pose. a figure inside a jail cell.

5. To save the pose to the selected folder, click the Add to 8. The Save Frames dialog appears. In this dialog you decide
Library icon. The New Set dialog appears. whether to save a single frame or multi-frame (animated)
pose. For purposes of this tutorial, select the Single Frame
option and click OK.

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9. Poser adds the pose to your library. You can now use the pose
on other figures.

Lesson 3: Posing Faces

Facial expressions are created using morph targets. These targets
alter the shape of the polygon mesh that makes up the figure.
Many of the parameter dials on the Face have morph targets
associated with them. When you work with facial dials, you’re
moving the figure’s geometry towards one or more morph
geometries. Refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter Figure 9.15: The selected head.
28: Modifying Figures & Props” on page 460 for more on morph
targets. 4. Select the Expressions category in the Library palette.

5. Navigate to the folder that stores the face you want to use
The Scale, Translation, Rotation and Taper dials for the (for example Poser 8 Content > Poser 8 > Alyson). Select
Face are not morph targets. the face you want to use to highlight it.

To apply preset expressions:

1. Create a new project and load Alyson Casual.

2. Press Command/Ctrl-(+) to switch to the Face camera and

adjust to the view you like.

3. Select the figure’s head in the Document window.

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Figure 9.17: An expression preset applied to the figure. .

Figure 9.16: The Expressions library.

6. Drag and drop the Alyson Talk expression from the library
palette and onto Alyson’s face in the Document window.
As you apply the face, pay attention to the Head Morph
parameter dials. Notice how they change, interacting with
each other to achieve a desired expression.

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After exploring the facial controls, you’re ready to create your own
expression. Now you’ll modify the Alyson Talk expression to create
the face of an angry woman using the target dials.

To create an expression:
1. With the Alyson Talk expression applied to Alyson Casual,
select the head.

2. From the Upper Face Expressions category in the

Parameters palette, set the following:

ƒƒ Brow Crease: 1.200

ƒƒ BrowInnerUp-DownL: -0.200
ƒƒ BrowInnerUp-DownR: 0.360
ƒƒ BrowOuterUp-Down: 0.740

Be sure to use the decimal point in each of these

numbers. If, for instance, you enter 400 instead of 0.400 for
the Open Lips, you will severely distort your figure.

3. From the Mouth Expressions category, set the following:

ƒƒ Mouth Yell: 0.400

Figure 9.18: Parameter dials for the mouth.
4. From the Nose Expressions category, set the following:

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ƒƒ Nostril Flare: 0.820

ƒƒ Nose Wrinkle: 0.860
5. From the Eye Expressions category, set the following:

ƒƒ EyeSquint: 0.600
ƒƒ EyeWrinkles: 0.360

Figure 9.19: The completed expression.

6. Click the Add to Library (+) button at the bottom of

the Library palette to save the new expression to the
Expression library.

Figure 9.20.

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Chapter 10: Rendering

Rendering is the process of converting your 3D figure into a 2D
image or animation. There are several options you can set for
a rendering session. All available options are displayed in the
Render Settings window.

To set up a rendering session:

1. Choose File > Open.

2. Locate the file paper-airplane.pz3 in the Tutorials/

BasicPoserOperations folder accompanying your Poser
installation.
Figure 10.1: The paper-airplane file in the Document window.

3. Press Command/Ctrl-Y. The Render Settings window

appears. Click on the FireFly render engine tab.

4. In the Auto Settings tab, slide the Render slider to Draft

quality, or the next level above. This disables the Cast
Shadows option and will speed things up.

5. Click Render Now (Firefly). Poser loads textures and then

performs the render. In true WYSIWYG fashion, what you see
in the Document window is exactly what is produced.

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Figure 10.2: The rendered file.

6. Depending on where the main camera was positioned when

you saved the scene, this view may be exactly what you desire
for your final render. However let’s assume you’re not satisfied Figure 10.3: The Main camera.
with the results.
2. Choose Object menu > Point At. The Point At dialog
To reposition the camera: appears.

1. Select the Main Camera. 3. Select the Teacher figure’s Head element from the list, then
click OK.

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4. Use the Scale parameter dial to rescale the camera so that

both figures appear in the screen.

Figure 10.5: The view through the repositioned camera.

Figure 10.4: Both figures in the scene. 6. Now you decide that perhaps the scene would be better
if the camera wasn’t centered on the teacher’s head. First
you need to unparent the head from the camera. One quick
5. Move the camera using the Translate and Move YZ tools
way to do this is to select the Main Camera and go into
on the Camera controls. The camera will always point at the
the Parameters Palette. Scroll down to find the Point At
Teacher.
parameter and set it to 0.

7. Now, adjust the view of your scene using the Camera

Trackball, Camera Controls, and Move XY camera control.
Your scene should look similar to the following.

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Figure 10.6: The view through the elevated camera. Figure 10.7: The test render.

8. Using the same Draft settings as before, test render the file 9. Now that you’ve rendered the scene with the floor showing,
again. you might be wondering why the floor disappeared during
the render. By default, the Ground plane is set with a material
setting that causes it to only catch and render shadows.
This allows you to use a photo as a backdrop. To change the
Ground plane so that it also renders the floor texture, return
to the Preview tab. Select GROUND from the Current Actor
menu in the Document window.

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10. Switch to the Material room and click the Advanced the test render produces good results, open the Render
tab. Uncheck the Shadow_Catch_Only option in the Settings window (Command/Ctrl-Y) and move the Quality
GROUND’s PoserSurface root node. slider up to Final. This enables the Cast Shadows option
and increases other render settings for a higher quality render.
Render the file once more. Final quality renders will take
longer than draft quality renders.

Figure 10.9: The final render.

There is no set rule for what makes a good render. Success is

subjective. Poser can produce varied results using its custom
Figure 10.8: The final render. rendering engine. Try exploring other lighting and rendering options
using this file and other personal files.
11. You can test render again to be sure the floor looks OK. When

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Lesson 1: Creating a Clown from

Chapter 11: Character Scratch
Creation and Animation Use of props and texture maps are essential to creating a good
character. This lesson walks you through the processes of scaling
body parts, applying props, and texture mapping to create a basic
clown figure from scratch.
Advanced Tutorials
You’ll also animate your clown and place him in a scene to interact
The following tutorials are designed to be both challenging and with props and other figures.
rewarding. Do not plan on completing these tutorials quickly; work
methodically so that you become comfortable exercising Poser’s To select a base figure:
most powerful features.
1. From a new, empty scene, click the Figures category on the
The scenes you create in these tutorials can be dropped into Library palette.
most contemporary films, or can be the centerpiece of a major
production. The goal is to provide you with experience using 2. Select the Poser1-5 > Poser 4 Hi subcategory.
Poser’s animation tools that will enable you to produce increasingly
complex and extravagant scenes. 3. Highlight the Business Man, and click Add to Scene, or drag
and drop the Business Man thumbnail into the scene to load
At any time while working with these tutorials, feel free to
the figure.
experiment. Each section overlaps and explores different features,
as well as different aspects of the same features. This allows you
to develop a well rounded understanding of how to accomplish
desired effects.

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Figure 11.2: Smooth Shaded display mode.

Figure 11.1: The Business Man thumbnail.

To set figure color:

1. Click the Smooth Shaded document style icon from the
Display Style controls.

Figure 11.3: The Business Man displayed using the Smooth Shaded style.

2. To quickly set all of the parts of the figure to white, you’ll use

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a Python utility that is furnished with Wardrobe Wizard. First,

choose Window > Python Scripts to display the Python
Scripts palette.

Figure 11.5: The colored figure.

Figure 11.4: The Python Script palette.

To apply a texture map:
3. Make sure that Figure 1 (the man) is selected as the current
figure. Then from the Python Scripts palette, choose Wardrobe
Wizard. A dialog informs you that the script is initialized. The following tutorial describes the procedure for
applying a texture map using the Advanced tab of the
Choose OK to continue.
Material room’s Shader window. This process is also
possible using the Simple tab.
4. Continue in the Python Scripts palette, selecting the Utilities
button, then the Texture button, and finally choosing Set All
to White. All of the parts of the figure turn white. To apply a custom texture map to a prop or figure in Poser, you will
need to enter the Material room.

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1. Click the Material tab. The Material room layout appears.

If necessary, click the Advanced tab to display the advanced If no Color_Texture node exists, click on the plug icon
shader view. to the right of a given channel on the PoserSurface node, and
drag to the right to create a connection. Poser will prompt you
to select a node type. Select New Node > 2D Textures >
image_map.

4. Click the white file name next to the Image_Source listing in

the node. The Texture Manager dialog will appear.

Figure 11.6.

2. Make sure that the figure or prop you wish to use is selected
in the Object menu. For the purposes of this tutorial, the
name will be “Figure 1”.

3. Select the particular material you wish to modify from the

Material menu. We will use the clown’s Jacket material. As
there is already an image map associated with this material,
you will see a line linking one or more of the channels in the
PoserSurface node to a Color_Texture node.

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6. Select Apply to all from the Options menu at the top right
corner of the Shader window. Poser asks you to confirm
that you want to apply selected nodes to all materials in the
object. Click OK to confirm your choice.

Figure 11.8: The new texture map applied to the figure.

7. Click the Pose tab so that you can see a larger view of your
scene. Then select the Texture Shaded option from the
Document Display Style tool to see the results of your
texture image in the Document window
Figure 11.7.

5. In the Texture Manager, browse to the image file clown01.

tif in the Tutorials / BasicPoserOperations folder of your
Poser installation, and click Open. You return to the Texture
Manager. Then click OK to return to the Advanced shader
view.

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2. Select the Poser 8 Content > Primitives subcategory.

Select the Ball object and click Apply Library Preset, or
drag and drop it into the Document window.

Figure 11.9: The new texture map applied to the figure.

To add a prop:
1. Click the Props symbol at the top of the Library palette. Figure 11.11:The Ball thumbnail.

3. Click the Color tool. Then click the ball and make it red.

Figure 11.10.

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Figure 11.13: The From Left camera icon.

2. Click the Translate/Pull tool. Position the ball in front of the

clown’s face, as shown below.

Figure 11.12: The From Left camera icon.

To position the prop:

1. Drag to the right over the Camera controls until the From
Figure 11.14.
Left camera icon appears. Alternatively, choose Display >
Camera View > From Left, or use the shortcut Command/
Ctrl-(;) 3. With the ball selected, set the Scale dial to 22%.

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5. Press Command/Ctrl-F to switch to the Front camera.

6. Check the lateral position of the ball on the nose.

Figure 11.15. The scaled ball. Figure 11.17: The clown displayed using the Front camera.

4. Use the Translate/Pull tool to move the ball over the clown’s
nose. To set the prop parent:
1. Choose Object menu > Change Parent to display the
Choose Parent dialog.

2. The dialog shows a visual list of all the objects in your scene.

3. Select Head from the list and click OK.

4. Press Command/Ctrl-M to switch to the Main camera.

Figure 11.16: Position the ball over the nose as shown. 5. Review your work from several angles.

6. Save the clown to the Figures library in the Library palette.

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Refer to “Lesson 2: Adding Poses to the Poses Library” on 4. Press Command/Ctrl-M to switch to the Main camera.
page 58 for instructions.
5. Select the Right Shoulder.

Lesson 2: Making the Clown Walk

This lesson leads you through the process of creating and editing
keyframes to create a walking motion.
You can use this animation later with the Walk Designer.

Setting the First Walking Frame

To begin you need to set up a starting pose.
Figure 11.19: The Right Shoulder selected on the figure.
To set up a starting pose:
6. Set the Bend value to 78°.
1. Make sure your clown document is still open.

2. Double-click the handle at the bottom of the screen to open

the Animation controls.

Figure 11.18: The Animation controls.

3. Make sure the frame counter is set to 1 of 30.

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9. Select the Abdomen and set Side-Side to 3.

10. Select the Chest and set Side-Side to 3.

Figure 11.20: The bent Right Shoulder.

7. Select the Left Shoulder.

Figure 11.22: The adjusted Abdomen and Chest.
8. Set the Bend value to -78°.
11. Press Command/Ctrl-(’ ) to switch to the From Right camera.

12. Click the Translate/Pull tool.

13. Select the Left Foot and move it forward.

Figure 11.21: The adjusted Left Shoulder.

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For future reference, a variation of this pose has already

been saved for you in the Tutorial subcategory of the Poses
library, under the name “ClownStart”.

Adding Keyframes
Once you have a starting point, you’ll create an action by changing
the pose over time and saving the changes as keyframes. A
keyframe stores a point in time where action occurs. Here you’ll
Figure 11.23: The re-positioned Left Foot. store changes in foot positions as keyframes to create a walking
motion. Refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “Keyframe
14. Select the Right Foot and move it back. Controls” on page 339 for more on setting up keyframes.

To add frames:
1. Press Command/Ctrl-M to switch to the Main camera.

Figure 11.24: The final pose.

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Figure 11.25: The clown viewed from the Main camera.

2. In the Animation controls, drag the small triangle (called the

Figure 11.27: The left foot position swapped for the right foot position.
Scrubber) to Frame 16.

5. Click the Add Keyframe (+) button to keyframe the new

position.

Figure 11.26: The Scrubber at Frame 16.

3. Choose Figure > Symmetry > Swap Right and Left. Figure 11.28: The Add Keyframe button.

4. The figure’s left foot moves back and the right foot moves
forward. 6. Move the Scrubber to Frame 15.

7. Click the Add Keyframe (+) button to insert a keyframe.

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Editing Keyframes
Now that you have a number of keyframes, you’ll learn how to edit
them in the Animation palette to create more realistic motion.

To edit frames:
1. Click the Edit Keyframes button.

2. The Animation palette appears. The palette displays all the

animatable attributes in the workspace and all the keyframes
you’ve created. Refer to the Poser Reference Manual,
“Chapter 21: Animating with Poser” on page 329 for more
on this palette.

Figure 11.29: The Animation palette.

3. Drag the scroll bar all the way to the top.

4. Click the green keyframes for Frame 15 and drag all the way
to the bottom to select the keyframes for all the attributes. The
selection is bordered with a white line.

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Figure 11.30: All the Frame 15 keyframes selected. Figure 11.31: Frame 15 keyframes moved to Frame 30.

5. Be sure only the green keyframes of Frame 15 are selected. Be 7. Click the close box in the upper-left corner of the dialog.
very careful not to select anything but Frame 15.
8. In the Animation controls, move the Scrubber to Frame 30.
6. Drag all of selected keyframes to Frame 30.

Figure 11.32: The Scrubber at Frame 30.

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9. Choose Figure > Symmetry > Swap Right and Left. 3. Click the subcategory menu and choose Walk Designer.

10. Click the Play button to check your work. 4. Click the Add to Library (+) icon.

Figure 11.33: The Play button.

Figure 11.35: The Add to Library icon..

11. The figure should appear to walk in place.

5. The Add New Set dialog appears.
Saving the Walk 6. Enter the name “Clown Walk” for your animation and click
OK.
You can save animations as poses to the Library palette. Next,
you’ll save your completed walk to the Poses library. 7. A Save Frames dialog appears.

To save an animation to the Library: 8. Enable the Multi Frame option and click OK.

1. Open the Library palette.

2. Click the Poses button.

Figure 11.36: The Save Frames dialog.

Figure 11.34: The Poses icon in the Library palette.

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9. Your animation is saved as a 30 frame preset in the Walk To set up the walk animation:
Designer category.
1. Choose File > New to start with an empty file.

2. Open the Library palette and click the Figures icon.

3. Double-click the clown figure you saved earlier.

4. The default figure is replaced with the clown.

Figure 11.37: The clown in the Library palette.

Lesson 3: The Walk Designer Figure 11.38: The clown figure in the Document window.

The Walk Designer lets you set up various parameters to 5. Choose Figure menu > Create Walk Path.
automatically create a realistic walking motion. In this lesson you’ll
use the file you created in the previous lesson in conjunction with 6. A new path appears in the Document window. You may
the Walk Designer to make your clown move. need to adjust the camera view in order to see the entire path.
You should use the “Move Y and Z” tool on the Camera
palette to adjust the camera.

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Figure 11.40: The Clown Start pose in the Library.

Figure 11.39:A new Walk Path in the Document window.

11. Display the Animation palette.
7. Make sure the Scrubber in the Animation controls is at 12. Move the Scrubber to Frame 30.
Frame 1.
13. In the Library palette, double-click the Clown Finish pose to
8. Open the Library palette and click the Poses icon. apply it.
9. Click the subcategory menu and choose Tutorial.

10. Double-click the Clown-Start pose to apply it to the clown.

Figure 11.The Clown Finish pose in the Library.

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14. Click the Current Actor popup at the top of the Document
window and choose Cameras > Top Camera.

Figure 11.42: The Current Actor menu.

Figure 11.44: The scaled view of the clown.

16. Move the camera up or down to see the whole path.

17. Select the Walk Path using the Translate/Pull tool.

18. It looks like a slight backward “S” extending out in front of

the figure.

19. The path has several small white squares along the gray walk
Figure 11.43: The clown viewed from the top.
path called nodes.

15. Set Scale to 400%. You should able to see the entire scene.

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22. Click the Current Actor menu at the top of the Document
window and choose Body.

23. Drag the clown to the end of the Walk Path.

24. Make sure the red figure ring appears before you start
dragging. The ring indicates that the whole figure is selected.
Do not click directly inside the Figure ring or you will move the
figure’s parts instead of the entire figure.

Figure 11.45: Nodes on the Walk Path. 25. Place the clown over the end of the gray path.

20. Select each of the middle two nodes and move them so that
the path becomes straight. Notice how the pointer changes
when you position it over the path.

Figure 11.47: The repositioned clown on the path.

Figure 11.46: Your path should look like the one shown.

21. Make sure the Scrubber is at Frame 30.

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To set up a walk in the Walk Designer: 3. Click the Stop button to stop the action.

4. Scroll the Blend Styles section of the dialog until the Clown
In order to complete this portion of the tutorial, please walk is visible.
make sure that the Clown Walk style is in the Runtime >
Libraries > Pose > WalkDesigner folder. If that is not the 5. Set Clown to 100%.
case, you need to copy it there from the folder to which you
saved it earlier. 6. Click Apply.

7. The Apply Walk dialog appears.

1. Press Command/Ctrl-Shift-W to open the Walk Designer.

Figure 11.49: The Apply Walk dialog.

Figure 11.48: The Walk Designer.

2. Click the Walk button to see the current walk style in action.
You are about to apply the walk to the figure. Once

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you’re done with the Walk Designer, the only real way to fix Lesson 4: Keyframe Editing
errors is to start from scratch (beginning from Lesson 3).
So far, you’ve created a waddling clown that appears to fall over
8. Make sure the following defaults are set in the dialog: something invisible at the end of the Walk Path. There are two
missing elements: the object the clown fell over, and the cause of
ƒƒ Start Frame = 1 his fall. By editing the animation and adding props, you can create
the story behind the clown’s actions.
ƒƒ End Frame = 120
First, you’ll create a back up file to preserve your work so far.
ƒƒ Figure = Figure 1
ƒƒ Walk In Place = Disabled To create a back up file:
ƒƒ Cycle Repeat = Empty 1. Open the file you saved at the end of Lesson 3.
ƒƒ Path = Path_1
2. Choose File > Save As.
ƒƒ Always Complete last step = Enabled
3. Rename to the file to CLOWN-ANI01.
ƒƒ Transition from pose at path start in 15 Frames =
Enabled 4. Now you have a back-up of your original animation.
ƒƒ Transition to pose at path start in 15 Frames = Enabled
ƒƒ Align head to = Disabled Consider using a compression utility to archive the
original clown-walk.pz4 file. This will save hard drive space
9. Once all parameters in the Walk Designer are set, click OK. and prevent future headache’s. You can continue to add
completed lesson files to the archive as you work through the
10. Click Done to close the Walk Designer. rest of the tutorial.

11. The new walk is applied to the clown.

Next, you’ll set up an animated expression for the clown.
12. Save the file with the name: CLOWN-ANI.

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To set up an animated expression:

1. Click the Edit Keyframe button on the Animation controls.

Figure 11.50: The Edit Keyframes button.

Figure 11.52: Head keyframes selected.

2. The Animation palette appears.

3. Click the Head label on the left side of the dialog. 5. While still pressing the mouse button, drag up one line to
include the Neck frames in your selection.

Figure 11.Both Head and Neck keyframes selected.

Figure 11.51: The Head element selected.

6. Press Delete.
4. Select all the keyframes from 2 to 105.
7. With the frames still selected, click the Linear Section

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button.

Figure 11.56: The Expression icon on the Library palette.

Figure 11.54: Linear Section button.

13. Click the Library category popup menu and choose Add
8. This is important for any expression changes applied face New Category.
during the animation.
14. The New Category dialog appears.
9. Select Head keyframe 1.
15. Enter Clown Faces and click OK.

16. Click the Add to Library (+) button to add the clown’s face
into the library.

Figure 11.55: Head keyframe 1 selected.

10. Close the Animation palette.

11. Open the Library palette.

12. Click the Expression button at the top of the palette.

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4. A new figure appears in the Document window.

Figure 11.58: The imported document in the Document window.

Figure 11.57: Your clown face in the library.

5. Click the Current Actor menu at the top of the Document
17. Move the Scrubber to Frame 105. window and choose Top Camera.

18. Apply the face preset you just saved to the clown. 6. Set Scale to 400%.

Next, you’ll add another actor to your scene.

To import a Poser document:

1. Choose File > Import > Poser Document.

2. An Open dialog appears.

3. Locate the file Trapeze Artist Walk.pz3 in the Tutorials/

BasicPoserOperations folder accompanying your Poser Figure 11.59: The figures viewed from the Top Camera.
installation.

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7. Click the Box Tracking icon, as shown below. 2. Press Command/Ctrl-T to switch to the Top camera.

Figure 11.60.

8. Click the Play button on the Animation controls

Figure 11.61: The Play button.

Figure 11.62: The scene from the Top camera.
While the animation plays, watch the relative positions of the
figures as they pass each other. At the beginning, they’re walking 3. Use the Twist dial to align the clown’s head to face the
past each other on the right. Then, the clown turns his head to face Trapeze Artist figure.
the new figure as he walks.

To align the figure’s face:

1. Make sure the Scrubber in the Animation controls is at
Frame 1.

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Figure 11.64: The head and neck rotated.

Figure 11.63: The clown’s head rotated to face the Trapeze figure.
8. Move the Scrubber to Frame 50.

9. Repeat steps 2-6 for Frame 50.

If you’re having a hard time seeing the position of 10. Move the Scrubber to Frame 55.
the clown’s head, try expanding the size of the Document
window using the resize control in the bottom-right corner of 11. In Frame 55, the Trapeze Artist and the Clown are in the
the window. process of passing each other. The Clown’s chin should be in-
line up with his shoulder, and his silly grin should be intact.
4. Divide the Twist value in half and reset the Twist dial.
12. Repeat step 2 to 6 for Frame 55.
5. This creates the starting pose for the clown’s head.
Next, you’ll twist other body parts to keep the Clown facing the
6. Select the clown figure’s Neck. Trapeze Artist. You’ll use the same twisting method you used on
the Head to re-align the Chest and Abdomen.
7. Use Twist to align the Neck so that the clown’s face is looking
at the Trapeze Artist figure To align the figure’s body:
1. Click the Edit Keyframe button to open the Animation
palette.

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8. Use the Twist dial to align the clown’s chest so that its Head
faces the Trapeze Artist.

Figure 11.65: The Edit Keyframe button.

2. Select keyframes 56 through 105 of both the Clown’s

Abdomen and Chest.

3. Press Delete.

4. Close the Animation palette.

Figure 11.67: The re-aligned chest and head.
5. Move the Scrubber to Frame 60.

6. Press Command/Ctrl-T to switch to the Top camera. 9. Twist should be set to approximately -46.

10. Divide the value of the Chest’s Twist dial in half and reset
Twist to the resulting number.

11. Click the Current Actor menu and choose the Abdomen.

12. Use the Twist dial to align the abdomen so that the clown
faces the Trapeze Artist.

Figure 11.66: The scene view through the Top camera.

7. Click the Current Actor menu and choose the Chest.

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Use the skills you’ve learned in the earlier parts of the tutorial
to create these effects.

Lesson 5: Adding the Final Touch

At the end of the Clown animation, the Clown seems to trip and
fall over an invisible object. To complete the scene you’ll need to
add a prop.

To add a prop:
1. Display the Library palette.

2. Select the Props category, as shown.

Figure 11.68: The re-aligned abdomen shown through the Main camera.

These are more refinements you can add to this file to

make the action more realistic:

Figure 11.69.
Have the clown’s eyes follow the Trapeze Artist as his body
finishes twisting.
3. Choose the Tutorial subcategory from the menu.

Add hand gestures to both figures. 4. Click the Circus Ring.

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Figure 11.71: The total number of frames field.

5. Click the current frame display and enter 121.

Figure 11.70: The Circus Ring prop in the scene.

5. The prop is added to the scene.

Now that you have a prop, you can adjust the character’s
movements to interact with it.
Figure 11.72: The current frame field.
To add an animation to your scene:
1. Click the handle at the bottom of the screen to display the 6. Select the Poses category in the Library palette.
Animation controls.

2. The center of the Animation controls displays the current

frame and the total number of frames.

3. Click the total number of frames field.

Figure 11.73.
4. Enter 130 to add ten frames.

7. Click the subcategory menu and choose Tutorial.

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8. Click the Clown Flop pose. Lesson 6: Setting Animated Cameras

and Test Rendering
In this lesson you’ll use the Dolly camera (the only free floating
camera in Poser) to render the scene. You could use any camera
to render, the Main, Auxiliary, Posing, and Head cameras are all
good choices for rendering. However, the advantage of the Dolly
camera is that it stays true to its own center, making it useful for
animations.
When you’ve completed the lesson, try experimenting with the
other cameras, especially the Head and Posing cameras.

To position the Dolly camera:

Figure 11.74: The Clown Flop pose in the library. 1. Select the Dolly Camera from the Camera controls.

9. This ten frame animation will be added to your the animation.

When you’re setting up an animated pose like Clown

Flop to append to a work in progress, be sure not to move the
entire Body. Adjust the Hips instead to get the proper motion
in relation to the last pose created.

Figure 11.75: The Dolly camera icon.

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2. In the Animation controls, move the Scrubber to frame

120. Reduce the resolution for the test render, as Full
resolution renders are time consuming. Even at this resolution,
3. Using the Move X and Y control, move the camera back until the animation will not render quickly.
the Clown is in full view.
9. Click OK. The Save dialog appears.

10. Choose a save location for the QuickTime (MAC) or AVI (PC)
file and click OK.

11. The Video Compression dialog appears.

12. Use the default settings and click OK.

13. Poser starts rendering.

Figure 11.76: The readjusted view.

4. Choose Animation > Make Movie.

Lesson 7: Final Render
After one or more test renders, you’re ready to start the final
5. The Make Movie dialog appears.
rendering.
6. Click the Resolution menu and choose Quarter.
To render your final animation:
7. Click the Renderer menu and choose Preview.
1. Choose Render > Render Settings.
8. These settings should give you a good test render.
2. Select a render engine (FireFly or Poser 4) and adjust the
Render Settings as needed.

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3. Enable Shadows and Anti Aliasing to produce the best results.

4. Click Render Now.

5. Depending on the image size and computer system, the final

render may take between 45 minutes to two hours.

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Chapter 12: Content Preset icon at the bottom of the Library loads the item into your
Poser scene.

Management

by Lisa Ahrens
Poser offers a variety of powerful tools to assist you with storing,
organizing, and obtaining more Poser content. This tutorial will
walk you through the benefits available to you from Poser’s
Library palette, Content Paradise, Download Manager, and
new content Collections.

The Library Palette

The Library palette, shown to the right, is your content
management center. The Library allows you to store content in
various categories and subcategory folders, for easy access when
building your scenes. The Library palette contains nine content Figure 12.1

categories: Figures, Poses, Expression, Hair, Hands, Props,

Lights, Cameras, and Materials. Each of these categories
holds various subcategory folders, which in turn contain icons for The Materials library category is only visible when you
specific content items. Selecting an item, and then clicking either are in the Material room.
the Change Figure or the Create New Figure / Apply Library

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Adding New Content

You can also save items, poses, etc. from your scene into the
Library. Here’s how:
1. Navigate through the Library categories, until the folder to
which you want to add the item is open.

2. If you want to add your content to a new, custom Library

subcategory folder, click on the Library Options menu icon,
which is the downward facing arrow at the top right of the
folder section on the Library palette. The Options pop-up
menu will appear; select Add New Category from this list.
Enter your new subcategory name in the Library Name
dialog, and then click on the icon for your new subcategory
within the Library palette, to open it.
Figure 12.2
3. Select the item you wish to save in the Document window’s
Current Actor menu. If you are saving a pose, select the
figure in the Select Figure menu, and Body in the Current For more information about the dialogs that may appear when
Actor menu. saving various types of content to the Library, please refer to the
Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter 7: The Poser Library”
4. Click the Add to Library icon at the bottom of the Library on page 92.
palette. You will see an icon for your new content appear in
the Library palette.
Adding New Runtimes
In addition to the standard Poser content Library, you can install
your own custom Runtime Libraries, and access them through the

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Library palette. Navigate to the top, or Library, level of the Library

palette hierarchy, and open the Options menu as described above.
Content Paradise
Select Add New Runtime from the list, and select your custom If you want to add to your personal Library from the extensive
content library folder from the Browse For Folder dialog that additional Poser content that has been created by Smith Micro as
appears. When you have selected a folder and clicked OK, the well as other 3D content creators, visit the Content Paradise
folder will be added to the Library palette as a new Runtime website. The easiest way to access Content Paradise is to click
Library. You will then be able to switch to your custom Library any on the Content tab within Poser. The Content room contains a
time either by navigating to the top level of the Library palette direct link to Content Paradise, which allows you to browse for
and selecting the runtime folder icon, or by selecting it directly the content you need, download it to the Library, and then add it
from the Current Runtime pop-up menu, which appears directly to your scene, without ever having to leave Poser. Alternately, you
over the subcategory folder portion of the Library palette when it can visit Content Paradise any time via a standard web browser,
is in its expanded state. at www.contentparadise.com.
When adding a new Runtime Library, you have the option of When you access Content Paradise from the Content
creating a new folder directly from the Browse For Folder dialog. Room, Poser’s Download Manager automates the process of
Browse to the location in which you want to create the folder, and downloading and organizing content for you, so you don’t have
click the Make New Folder button. A new folder will appear, and to interrupt your workflow to figure out correct file placement.
will automatically be populated by a Libraries subfolder, containing Just add the items you want to your shopping cart in Content
the appropriate folders for Poser content categories. Before clicking Paradise, complete the purchase transaction, and download the
OK, you will want to rename your new Library folder; just right-click content files. Download Manager will do the rest. Your content
on the new folder within the Browse For Folder dialog, and will automatically be installed into the appropriate content folders
select Rename. Enter your new Library name, hit return, and then in your Poser Runtime folder, making it accessible from your
click OK on the dialog. Your brand-new custom Runtime Library Library palette.
will appear in the Poser Library palette. Then all you need to do
is populate the subcategory folders with content, and you’ll have If for some reason Poser doesn’t recognize the content files you
created your own Poser Library! are downloading, you may have to manually add the content to
the Poser Runtime folder. See the Poser Reference Manual,
“Chapter 8: The Content Room” on page 130 and the Poser

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Reference Manual, “Appendix B: Poser File Structure” on new Collections. As we are creating a new Collection, select the
page 591 for information about downloading and installing files, and Add New Collection option from the menu. Your new content
Poser file types and locations. If you wish to read another tutorial Collection will appear in the Collections tab, as shown:
that covers manual content installation specifically, please refer
to the “Installing New Content Into Poser” tutorial on the Smith
Micro website (www.smithmicro.com), in the Training > Tutorials >
Poser > Content Management section.

Content Collections
New in Poser is the Library Collections tab. This portion of the
Library houses content Collections, which are customized subsets
of items from the Library categories. Content Collections can
contain items from any category, and from any Runtime Library,
which makes scene creation and population really simple. Just
navigate once through the Library palette, selecting the items you
want to use and adding them to one or more Collections. Then,
when you’re ready to put those items into a scene, just click on the
Figure 12.3
Collections tab, open the Collection folder, and voila! All your
selected items will be there in one place, ready to go.
Then, browse through the Library palette categories, selecting the
For example, say you wanted to create a basic scene of Jessi going various items you will want to place in the scene, such as: Jessi,
to the beach. First, you need to create the content Collection to a hairstyle, a walking pose, bathing suit, sunglasses, sandals, hat,
hold the various content items you will need for the scene. From a ball and torus for beach toys, and materials for the props and
within any category folder within the Library palette, right-click on background. If you want to include customized items, such as a
a content item. This opens the Collections menu, which lists all custom pose or material, create them as you normally would and
the available content Collections, and includes an option to create add them to the Library as described above. Then you can add

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them to your Collection. When you select each item that you want Once you have created the Collection, whenever you are ready you
to include, again right-click on the item, and select the name of can go ahead and create your scene.
your new content Collection from the Collections menu. The
content items will be added to the Collection.

Figure 12.5

Figure 12.4

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Chapter 13: FireFly Render go even faster, use the Quick-Scale pop-up menu to set the size
of the test render to half or 1/4 of the final size (see below).

Tips

by Colin Gerbode
Figure 13.1: Quick-Scale Menu.
The FireFly render engine, introduced in Poser 5 and refined in
subsequent versions, provides Poser users with a high-quality
micro-polygon rendering engine capable of extremely accurate, As you refine your scene, you can increase the render settings to
photorealistic output. FireFly is a sensitive beast, however, and utilize various features of the render engine. Most scenes will not,
its many settings and options can be somewhat daunting to the however, benefit from setting the render presets to their maximum
beginning user. In this tutorial I’ll explain how to get high-quality levels, as most scenes do not fully take advantage of the particular
results from FireFly without “stress-testing” it; often, turning the features that are activated in these settings. Unless the particular
settings all the way up to the maximum uses system resources with scene requires a large number of raytrace bounces, for example,
no improvement in image quality. the only thing that using the maximum settings will do is to
increase the load on the system and increase render times without
improving quality. The third-to-last setting should be more than
Automatic vs. Manual Settings sufficient for final renders of the vast majority of Poser scenes.

FireFly’s Auto render settings provide a good range of options, and

many people will find them sufficient for their rendering needs.
A few tips are appropriate here. First, for test and draft renders
done to check overall scene composition, camera angles and basic
lighting, use the lowest Auto Setting to save time. To make things

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Scene Settings and Specifics

When you set up your scene, there are several factors which will
affect the rendering speed and quality. First, think about the
lighting in your scene. For each light in the scene that is set to
cast shadows, FireFly has to create a shadow map, or raytrace
the shadows. This takes time and adds to memory usage; you can
speed up your renders and improve stability by turning off shadow-
casting on fill lights and lights used for edge highlights. For quicker
test renders, turn off (uncheck) Cast Shadows in the Render
Settings dialog.
If your scene has no transparent surfaces in it, you can turn on the
Hide Backfacing Polygons option; this will allow Poser to ignore
polygons whose normals face away from the camera, thereby
reducing the load on the render engine. However, you may wish to
Figure 13.2: Final Render Settings. leave this feature disabled unless you really need the performance
advantage, because there is the possibility that if there are issues
Now, if you need to go beyond the presets, you can delve into the with the geometry of any objects in your scene, such as flipped
Manual Settings and achieve a high degree of control over exactly surface normals, you may see holes in the surface when Hide
which options are active and to what degree; which can allow you Backfacing Polygons is enabled.
to produce a very high-quality render without wasted time, or to The Smooth Polygons setting tells FireFly to round the edges
check particular features of your scene with a quick render. of polygons, to give a smoother, more natural look. This can
cause problems with objects that are supposed to have sharp
angles. Fortunately, polygon smoothing can be turned on or off
for each object in the scene, by using the Properties palette.
Turning Smooth Polygons on globally and then off for each

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specific object that needs it is a good way to apply polygon benefits of texture filtering.
smoothing only to specific objects within the scene. Additionally,
polygon smoothing will not override hard edges specified by the
Crease Angle setting in the General Preferences dialog, or by
smoothing groups set up with the Group Editor. So you can use
Smooth Polygons as a global setting, and still specify hard edges
definitively using crease angles or smoothing groups.

If you encounter a “ballooning” effect on an object’s

surface, you should lower the Crease Angle setting for that
object in the Properties palette. Doing so should correct the
problem.

Texture Filtering is used to improve the appearance of fine- Figure 13.3: Non-Filtered vs. Filtered Render.
grained textures, and to reduce moiré patterns when a texture
repeats and scales (imagine a checkerboard-patterned floor In Poser 5 or 6, reducing the maximum texture size allowed
receding into the distance); it can give good results but can also users to control memory usage while producing high quality
use additional system resources. For example, a single 4000x4000- renders. In Poser, improved texture memory management makes
pixel texture, without texture filtering, uses 64Mb of RAM (which this unnecessary, as textures no longer require large amounts of
is itself a good argument for reducing maximum texture size- see memory on loading.
below) while with texture filtering on, that same texture takes
Poser 7 introduced Irradiance Caching, an improvement to the
192Mb--more than twice the RAM for the same texture file. Poser’s
Ambient Occlusion calculation process. By default, this feature’s
FireFly engine generates better performance with texture filtering
slider is set to 50%; higher settings provide increased precision
enabled, hence texture filtering is active by default. This does result
and image quality when Ambient Occlusion is used, while lower
in some additional memory usage but since Poser’s FireFly engine
settings increase render speeds at a slight cost in image quality. In
manages texture memory so efficiently, the amount of memory
the images below, note the shadows around the ear as an example
used is minimal and will be more than covered by the performance
of the effects of the quality settings.

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textures; it’s usually quite sufficient to use the low-resolution

texture when you set up the scene, unless you’re producing a large
close-up rendering. Similarly, when setting up the scene it will
save considerable system resources to use lower-polygon figures in
crowds or for figures who will not be seen close up.
The Minimum Shading Rate tells FireFly how fine a level of detail
to render for each sample. Higher numbers give a “coarser” render
that proceeds faster, while lower numbers give a finer render but
take longer. A good setting for a draft render might be 4-8, while a
really high-quality production render might use 0.3 or even 0.1 if
Figure 13.4 there are fine surface details like fur to resolve.

Setting the Maximum Texture Size can make a huge difference

in memory usage without impacting image quality, provided you
do it right. Use a texture size appropriate to the scene that you’re
rendering. If you’re doing a big render around 2K-3K pixels on a
side, then you should set your maximum texture size to a fairly
high number; at most, about as big as the vertical dimension of
your rendered image (but see the note below.) Similarly, if you’re
rendering something smaller such as a 640x480 image for the
Web, for example, then setting the Max Texture Size smaller (4-500 Figure 13.5: High vs. Low Shade Rate Render.
pixels) will save memory and time when you render, as it will force
FireFly to subsample the texture before it loads it. The critical limit The Bucket Size tells FireFly how many pixels to render at once.
should be the size in the rendered image of the figure to which Bucket settings have no impact on quality but will affect the speed
the texture is being applied. If the largest figure in your scene is of rendering, with high bucket numbers giving faster renders that
only 500 pixels high, then using a 1024-pixel texture is wasteful. take more memory and low bucket numbers allowing a render
Additionally, many figures ship with high- and low-resolution in low memory situations that will take longer. While Minimum

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Shading Rate trades resources for quality (with an impact on

speed), Bucket Size trades resources for speed with no impact on
quality.

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Chapter 14: Creating and 1. Create your mesh object in your preferred 3D modeling
application.

Assigning Textures 2. Export the mesh in a format supported by Poser (see the
Poser Reference Manual, “Importing 3D Objects” on
page 541 for a list of supported formats).
Creating your own textures for figures and/or props requires a
solid grasp of the concepts explained in “3D Basics” on page 1 3. If your 3D modeling application supports exporting your mesh
and knowledge of one or more 2D graphics tools such as Adobe object with UV mapping data, be sure to do this, as this will
Photoshop. The process of creating textures is very similar if probably create your template for you. Please refer to your 3D
not identical for many 3D applications. While it’s impossible to modeling application documentation for information.
cover the entire process in this book, we can give you enough
information to understand the basics and begin creating your own 4. If your exported object does not have UV information, you’ll
maps. need to use an application such as UV Mapper (http://www.
uvmapper.com) to create the UV information and a blank
template that can be used for any sort of map (texture, bump,
This section covers creating maps. Please refer to the
transparency, reflection, displacement, etc.). If you use a third-
Poser Reference Manual, “Part 3: Materials” on page 212
for information about applying maps to shaders. party application to create texture templates, please refer to
that application’s documentation for information on using
that application. Also, should you require technical support,
please contact the application’s creator or vendor. Smith Micro
Creating Texture Templates cannot provide support for third-party applications.

If you use the figures and props that came with Poser (or if you
buy figures from most third-party vendors), they probably come
with one or more ready-made texture maps and one or more blank
templates. If you need to create a new texture template, you’ll
need to follow a process that is roughly similar to the following:

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Creating and Using Texture model’s believability. What may surprise you is that Poser can
generate equally realistic results for you. We are going to give you
Maps some pointers on how you can do this yourself using Poser and
a 2D graphics application such as Adobe Photoshop. The primary
This subsection contains a brief tutorial on creating texture maps. topic for this tutorial is texture maps, however the same principles
The proper use of maps can create stunning results such as the apply to all types of image maps. Please refer to “About Maps &
scene below: Templates” on page 22 for information about the various types of
image maps.

Poser’s Material room can create complete materials

without needing any image maps. To obtain precise results,
however (such as a tattoo in a specific location), you will need
to include image maps in your shaders for texture, bump,
transparency, etc. Image maps are added to nodes using
the Material room. Also, the Face room can create custom
head textures for the Poser figures from images or even from
scratch!

A texture map looks like a skinned 3D model spread out onto a flat
surface. Imagine peeling an orange and flattening the peelings on
a table- that’s a texture map. When creating a texture, remember
Figure 14.1.
that it will ultimately be wrapped around your object and that
you’ll need to pay special attention to the edges, which will be
seams when the texture is rendered.
If you’ve seen some computer-animated movies lately, you were
probably astounded by the realism of the characters; this high
level of believability was achieved using high-quality 3D models
and image maps. The fact is, image maps can make or break a

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realistic human textures are the hardest to achieve, we decided to

describe creating one for this section. The same principles apply to
any texture you are creating, be it a brick wall, animal fur, a plant-
any figure or prop for which you want to use texture mapping.
The brief explanation that follows is courtesy of Ms. Syyd Raven,
who created the textures used by the default Poser 5 figures:
“Save often and under different filenames to
preserve each step of your work.

Maps of 1500-3000 pixels provide an ideal realism/

performance balance. Some third-party textures
can be 4000 pixels or more, however these can
slow Poser down because they require additional
computing resources.”

The figure used for these renders requires two maps, one for his
Figure 14.2.
head, and one for his body. Different Poser figures may use one or
two texture maps, depending on the figure. The following sections
Texture makers use a UV map (template) to place the texture’s address each map separately, and the same principles apply to
major pieces. A UV map provides grid-like lines that correspond figures that only use one map.
to the object’s geometry, provides a coloring book approach
to making textures, and only requires a good graphics editing
software package such as Adobe Photoshop. Like a coloring book, As discussed above, creating maps is an advanced
items not placed properly within the grid lines render askew, and process that can require one or more third-party tools. Smith
Micro cannot provide support or additional information on
anything bleeding over the edge of the grid does not appear at all
creating texture maps beyond the technical aspects that
when rendered. This is one time where you definitely want to stay directly involve Poser. The material presented in this section is
between the lines! The texture maps for the figures and props that for informational purposes only.
are included with Poser are located on the content CD. Because

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The Head Map

• Photos used for the basis of your texture should roughly
match the final texture map size.

• Work on one side at a time.

• Set the photograph’s opacity to approximately 50% so you

can use the underlying template to align it; scale, rotate, and
clone individual facial features to perfectly fit the map.
With your image editor running, launch Poser and apply the head
texture to the figure:

• Set the figure’s material color to white and highlights to black

in the material editor.
Figure 14.3.
• Render the model with white lighting, no shadow, and
antialiasing enabled to test texture alignment.
• Make changes in your image editing software and test render
• Test various morph targets on the face to verify that the in Poser as many times as you need.
texture remains in alignment.
• Once you are satisfied with your map, mirror the completed
side by copying and pasting into a new layer and flipping the
new section.

• After mirroring the texture, you may notice a line down the
center. Remove this line by cloning an area with a matching
color, cutting and pasting small photo pieces from the original

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source image, using the blend tool, or any combination of realism of your renders.
these methods.
• Have the model hold their eyes wide open to show the whites
• Change and add various details (lines, moles, etc.). No face is and roundness of the iris.
perfectly symmetrical!
• Make the veins thin and not overly red to avoid bloodshot-
• Continue expanding the skin to a bit beyond the template looking eyes.
edge.

• While testing, rotate the head to see the ear and side of the
neck; you will need to pay close attention to these areas to
ensure that there are no seams.

• Cut out and place individual teeth, giving the front six
(top) and eight (bottom) the most detail. Realistic teeth are
somewhat gray/yellow, not white.
Figure 14.4.
• Photograph a tongue and apply it directly to the map. Pay
attention to the deep grooved center line; this adds credibility
to the texture when the model’s mouth is open.
The Body Map
• The inner mouth looks reminiscent of a rib cage surrounding
lungs. The body’s fine details (hair, moles, etc.) require larger maps to
avoid blurring and pixilation. Many third-party body maps are
• Lachrymal glands (tear ducts) have wetness and roundness. double the size of the corresponding head map.
• Take close-up photos of eyes.

• Paying attention to eye reflections dramatically increases the

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• Photograph small areas, treating arms as 4-sided objects;

concentrate on elbow creases.

• Male necks can include beards or stubble, which can be

problematic due to different resolutions between the head
and body textures.

• Nipples can be tricky due to low resolution and may require

fine-tuning, especially on female maps due to breast morphs.

• Hands are also important; get close-ups of both sides.

• Take care to include hand veins on the final texture as well as

creases that match the model’s geometry.

• Use the same map for the left and right hand, then add
Figure 14.5. asymmetrical features. Repeat this for the feet.

• Cut individual fingernails and toenails from your photographs

• It’s difficult to use complete photos for textures since they will and fit them into the template.
not align correctly. Size and rotate working images or photos
using separate layers. • Make sure you test all your work-in-progress in Poser.

• Lay out the entire body first, without worrying about matching • When the body is complete, correct the head and body color
edges to get major portions in place, then finesse the edges to make them the same shade/hue. Writing down your color
with ever-increasing detail. values can be a big help.

• Male maps require more detail than females because of body

hair.

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you will start with a black background and draw in white where
you want the eyelashes to appear when rendered. A graphics tablet
works well for this, since eyelashes require a natural curved line
that tapers to a point, which can be hard to achieve with a mouse.
If you don’t own a graphics tablet, you can begin with a very large
map and reduce it to the proper size later. The larger map will
make it easier to draw the lines with accuracy.
Bump maps add further realism to skin pores, scars, or moles. For
photorealistic skin, it’s imperative to deal with major landmarks
(moles, birthmarks, etc.) using a bump map. The quickest way
to create bump maps is to copy the finished texture, desaturate
it (that is, remove all the color leaving only the black and white
components), and invert it. Then convert it to grayscale. This
reduces the file’s size and memory requirements.
Poser allows you to adjust the bump maps’ height, so it’s a good
Figure 14.6.
idea to design them with very high contrast (or the most bump).
Most graphics packages have automatic contrast controls; this is a
great way to quickly get the widest range of bump for your maps.
If needed, you can decrease the bump height within Poser before
Creating and Using Bump, render time.
Reflection, and White areas of the bump map are high, and black areas are low.
Transparency Maps In order for your texture to make a plausible map, you will have to
invert it before you can use it. If you forget to do this, it may take
To be fully realistic, many textures also need transparency and you a while to figure out why your test renders look a bit odd.
bump maps. For example, the eyelash area template needs to be A good example of this would be whiskers pushing in instead of
white where you want the object or eyelash visible. Consequently, outward.

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Bump maps simply disturb an object’s normals. If

you apply a bump map to a sphere, the surface will seem
rough while the edges remain smooth. Poser’s Material room
contains a displacement channel, allowing you to use bump
maps to actually alter the geometry. For example, applying a
displacement map to a sphere would make the edges appear
rough.

Once you’ve adjusted the contrast and desaturated your texture,

you can start modifying it to suit your particular needs. Go ahead,
give it a shot: You might be pleasantly surprised with your results!

Figure 14.7.

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Adding Realism


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Chapter 15: The Face Room • Photo Lineup: Allows you to import front and side photos
of a person, and use the photos to generate a face shape
and texture. This area also contains several tools that assist in
aligning the head geometry to the photos that you use. The
Apply Shape button generates head geometry that matches
by Denise Tyler your photos.

• Texture Variation: Click the Texture Variations tab to

The Face room allows you to create custom faces and textures for display options that allow you to modify the appearance
your Poser figures in several different ways. When you first open of your texture. You can add facial coloring for beards, eye
the Face room, it appears as shown in Figure 1. sockets, and eyebrows, and also modify the texture to add
ethnicity, age, and gender differences.

• Face Sculpting Window: Displays a textured preview

of your 3D head. Camera controls are located above the top
right corner, allowing you to rotate, pan, and zoom in or out.
You can also push or pull selected vertices to reshape the
head.

• Action Buttons: Contains buttons that apply the head

shape and or texture to your current character in several
different ways, with or without the generated texture.

• Face Shaping Tool: Contains parameter dials that allow

you to shape the head and facial features further. The dials are
Figure 15.1: The various areas and controls in the Face room.
similar to those in the Parameters palette of the Pose room.

The areas contained in the Face room allow you to perform the • Caricature Dial: Adds character to your face by enhancing
following tasks:

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the features. Negative values de-exaggerate head and facial • Task 4: Refine the Head Shape
features, while positive values over-exaggerate them.
• Task 5: Apply to Your Figure
• Reset Face Room Button: Restores the default head
shape and texture map and undoes all previous Face room
work. Getting Ready for Your Face
• Texture Preview Window: Shows a preview of your Room Project
texture while you are working on a photo-generated face, and
allows you to load or save face texture maps. Though their heads are shaped and sized a bit differently, Don,
Judy, Will, and Penny have one thing in common. They all share the
• Random Face Button: Randomizes the Face Shaping Tool same head geometry. As a result, the Face room morphs work on
morph settings to generate a new face as a starting point. Use all of them. It has to do with the face geometry.
this feature with caution, as it erases any work that you have In order for any figure to work in the Face room, it must use the
previously completed. same head geometry that Don, Judy, Will and Penny use; otherwise,
In this tutorial section, you’ll learn about each of these Face room the morphs will be incompatible. Seeing as the main reason for
areas, and will step through a real-world project that will create a the Face room is to create customized characters, the morphs are
female character and head. The topics you’ll learn are as follows: vital to this process. Unfortunately, this means that there are many
other Poser figures that will not be compatible with the Face room,
• Getting Ready for Your Face Room Project because their head geometry is entirely different.

• Choosing and Preparing Photos So, go to the Pose room and load Don, Judy, Will, or Penny onto
the stage. When you do this is not really important, but you’ll
• Task 1: Import the Photos to the Face Room definitely want to make sure you have the right character there
before you apply your custom head to the figure. For the purpose
• Task 2: Adjust Size, Position, and Rotation of this tutorial, add Judy in the Pose room as shown in Figure 2. If
you’re creating a male texture instead, choose Don.
• Task 3: Adjust Feature Points

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Pose room will be applied to the head in the Face Sculpting

area.

Choosing and Preparing Photos

The Face room allows you to import photos in

the following file formats: BMP (Windows bitmap); GIF
(Compuserve GIF format); JPG (JPG Files); PCX (ZSoft
Paintbrush format); PNG (Portable Network Graphics format)
and TIF (TIFF Files)

Figure 15.2: Load the proper figure into the Pose Room, so that it is ready for Though Poser does allow you to work with mismatched photos, or
you to apply your custom head.
photos that are not perfectly aligned, you get the best results if you
follow certain guidelines.
It helps matters if you keep the following points in mind when you
Though you can create heads and textures for Will and
Penny, the geometry adjustments and morphs that you create shoot photos for the Face room. The closer your photos are to
in the Face room may cause the heads to be larger. these guidelines, the better your results will be.

• Position the camera so that it is level with the subject’s face.

It should also be close enough to capture the entire face with
If you don’t want to use the Face room to create a the maximum amount of detail. Take the front and side photos
head texture, you can use a third-party texture to develop your at the same distance.
character. First, use the Material room to apply your favorite
texture to Don, Judy, Will, or Penny. Then go to the Face room, • If your camera has a white balance feature, have your subject
and click the “Import Original Figure Head Texture” button
in the Actions area. The head texture from the figure in the
hold a piece of white paper in front of his or her face, and

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adjust the white balancing accordingly before you shoot the Important Notes about Photo Size
photos (or for each view if you adjust the lighting between
shoots). This is essential to achieve photos that are natural in By default, Poser creates a 512 by 512-pixel texture. You can,
color. however, create a face texture that is of higher resolution. However,
in order to do so, there is a slight catch in regards to the size of
• Lighting should be all white. Colored or unnatural lighting the original photos: the dimensions of the source files must be a
colors affect color fidelity. Adjust the lighting so that you power of 2.
achieve the maximum amount of detail without washing out
the subject. Lighting that is too dark will not show enough What this means to you is that if you want to create a head texture
detail, while lighting that is too bright will wash out the that is about 1500 x 1500 pixels, you can’t use a photo that is
subject. that size. The next-highest power of 2 is 2048 x 2048. Your source
photos should be 2048 x 2048 to result in a face texture that is
• The subject should remove glasses or other adornments that 2048 x 2048. You would then need to resize your texture in a
are unwanted in the final texture. photo editor to get the desired size of 1500 x 1500.
For quick reference, the following table shows dimensions that are
• The subject should have a neutral facial expression, with powers of two:
closed mouth.
512 x 512 1024 x 1024
• Ears should be clearly visible. Comb or pull back the hair to
show as much of the ear as possible.
2048 x 2048 4096 x 4096
• For the front photo, the subject should directly face the
camera without tilting the head upward or downward.
If your photos do not come near the sizes listed above, you can use
• For the side view, the subject should face 90 degrees away
a photo editor to add pixels around the outer edges of the photo
from the camera, preferably facing toward the right. (Poser
until you arrive at the recommended dimensions.
can flip photos that face toward the left).

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Improving Photos with an Image

Editor
If your photos are not quite perfect, you can use an image editing
program to help the situation. Here are some tips for you.

• Adjust color, hue, saturation, or contrast until your photos look

their best and maintain consistency in color and brightness.
Try to make your front and side photos look uniform in this
regard.

• Size the front and side photos uniformly, so that the eyes,
nose, mouth, and chin match up to each other. What can help
in this process is to open one of the photos in an image editor Figure 15.3: Use an image editor such as Photoshop to align and straighten the
that supports layering (such as Photoshop, Painter, or Paint front and side photos.

Shop Pro). Copy the larger photo to a layer above the first
photo and reduce the transparency so that you can see the • Fix photo imperfections. If you have multiple shots, you can
smaller image beneath it. Then, rescale the larger photo so use parts of one photo to help fix imperfections in another. For
that the eyes, nose, mouth corners, and chins are on the same example, let’s say you have a perfect straight-on shot that is
horizontal plane as shown in the next figure. Guides can also facing directly toward the camera. The photo shown in Figure
help in this process. An example of this process is shown in 4 is perfect for a straight-on view, with one small exception:
Figure 3. the subject’s mouth is slightly open. To remedy this problem,
locate another photo that has a perfect mouth. Create a
Photos used in this tutorial appear with the permission feathered selection around the good mouth and paste it into
of Peter Levius, host of http://www.3d.sk. This site makes a layer above the less-than-perfect one. Adjust the brightness
thousands of high quality photos available to texture artists for and tone until it they match perfectly. If done properly, you’ll
a very reasonable fee. Check it out! hardly know the difference, as shown in Figure 5.

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Figure 15.5: After minor adjustments in brightness and sizing, the new version
Figure 15.4: Use portions of other photos to fix imperfections in a shot that is of the photo has a closed mouth that is more suitable for texturing in the Face
almost perfect. Here, a different mouth is selected to cover the opened mouth in room.
the photo.

Adding Symmetry to the Front Photo

Sometimes, for one reason or another, your photo isn’t perfectly
symmetrical on the right and left sides. The photo shown in Figure
6 is a good example of this, because the subject’s head is turned
slightly toward your left.
One way around this is to use your image editor to make the photo
symmetrical. Here, I take advantage of Photoshop’s ability to make

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guides, and then snap selections to them. Here, I pull a guide from
the left ruler onto the image, and place it through the center of
the face. If your photo is not perfectly straight, the guide helps you
notice and correct it.

Figure 15.7: A selection is made to include the right side of the image, from the
guide line to the right edge.

Copy the selection to a new layer. Flip the copy horizontally, and
Figure 15.6: A vertical guide placed through the center of the face helps you then align the two sides together. The left side should snap to the
align and divide the face in half. guideline. Also, make sure that the two sides exactly mirror each
other so that one half is not higher or lower than the other half.
The right side of the preceding photo (facing us) is rounder, and Figure 8 shows the finished result. Save the new image under a
it is more likely that it will result in a smoother transition from different file name, so that you don’t overwrite the original version.
front to side. Create a selection, starting from the top end of the Use the new image for the front photo and you should have an
guideline and including the entire right side of the photo (see easier time of making facial adjustments that are symmetrical.
Figure 7).

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room, as noted in the following figure. Their primary function is to

help you position and shape the head geometry while you align it
to the photos that you import. You’ll use these controls later, after
you import some photos.

Figure 15.8: A copy of the right side is flipped and matched at the center guide
line.

Figure 15.9 The Photo Lineup area allows you to import photos and position the
Task 1: Import the Photos to the head geometry to match them.

Face Room
With the figure loaded, you can click the Face tab to open the Importing the Front Photo
Face room. Let’s take a close look at the Photo Lineup area,
After you’ve selected and prepared your photos, you import the
shown in Figure 9. This area of the Face room allows you to use
front and side photos into the Face room. To import the front
photos to generate a head texture and associated head shape.
photo, proceed as follows:
The Photo Lineup controls appear on the left side of the Face

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Click the Load icon for the front view. The Load Front Face 4. You are automatically advanced to the screen shown in Figure
Image dialog appears. 11, when Poser prompts you to click the image on the left
corner of the lips. Click the location as noted.
1. Use the Look In drop-down list to locate the folder on the CD
that contains the front image.

2. Highlight the file name of the image you want (which is

SimonaFront.jpg in this example). Click Open, or double-click
the filename.

3. Poser displays the screen shown in Figure 10, which prompts

you to click your image on the corner of your model’s right
eye. Click the location as noted.

Figure 15.11: Next, Poser prompts you to click the left corner of the mouth.

After you pick the points Poser returns you to the Face room as
shown in Figure 12. The upper portion of the Photo Lineup area
displays the photo that you imported. The lower portion of the
Photo Lineup area displays an outline of a head facing toward
the right (for your side photo). The Face Sculpting area displays a
3D textured preview of your head, and the Texture Preview area
Figure 15.10: When you load the front photo, you are prompted to click the
displays a 2D preview of your texture as it appears thus far.
corner of the model’s right eye.
At this point, don’t attempt to make any adjustments to the photo

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lineups. It is best to proceed to importing the side photo, which the facial outlines. You’ll learn more about these controls in
follows in the next section. Task 2.

Importing the Side Photo

When you import the side photo, the steps are nearly similar to
those you followed for the front photo. Follow these steps:
1. Click the Load icon for the side view. The Load Side Face
Image dialog appears.

2. Use the Look In drop-down list to locate the folder that

contains the front image. If you are performing this task
immediately after loading the front image, Poser defaults to
the same folder that you previously selected.

Figure 15.12: After the front photo is imported, you see previews in the Photo 3. Highlight the file name of the image you want (SimonaSide.
Lineup area. jpg in this example) and click Open, or double-click the
filename.

4. Poser displays a screen that prompts you to click your image

. If you aren’t happy with the results you get, it might
help to try the process again, and making slight adjustments
at the top of the right earlobe. If your figure is facing in the
to the points that you pick when you import the photo. Click opposite direction of the guide image, click the Flip icon that
the Load icon again to repeat the process. You can also click appears beneath the photo.
the Clear icon to delete the photo from the selected viewport.
5. Click the photo at the top of the right earlobe as shown in
Figure 13.
There are also controls that allow you to reposition or rescale

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Figure 15.13: Click the top of the ear for the first side point. Figure 15.14: Click the front of the chin for the second side point.

6. Next, Poser prompts you to click the front of the chin as After you pick the points for the side image, Poser again returns
shown in Figure 14. you to the Face room. The lower portion of the Photo Lineup
area now displays the side photo beneath an outline of the head.
The texture previews in the Face Sculpting area and Texture
Preview area now appear a little more complete. Refer to Figure
15 for an example.
You’ll probably find that your texture doesn’t line up perfectly,
and the outline of the profile might look really strange and out
of proportion. When you zoom in, the eyes may not be aligned
correctly. The mouth may need adjustment. The ears may not fall in
the right place. You might have a big wide spot in the back of the

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neck. You can remedy all of these texture problems by adjusting

the scaling and positioning of the red lines as described in Task 2,
Task 2: Moving, Scaling, or
and by adjusting the green control points as described in Task 4. Rotating the Head Guides
Continue on with these tasks to complete your texture.
After you complete Task 1, you may notice that the texture does
not align perfectly with the character’s features. There are several
controls in the Photo Lineup area that allow you to fine tune the
photo placement on the texture. Other controls help you align the
head geometry so that it better matches the photo. This task shows
you how to make these adjustments.

If you did not complete Task 1, you can open the

FaceRoomTask2.pzz file from the Tutorials/FaceRoom folder in
your Poser installation to follow along from this point.

Adjusting Front Scaling and Position

You’ll notice in Figure 15, shown previously, that the red outlines
Figure 15.15: Front and side photos are loaded and the texture preview is more don’t match the overall shape of the head. You can move or resize
complete.
the overall head geometry to improve the position of the outlines
over the photograph. Each view has a Move tool and a Rotate
tool that help in this regard. When you resize the red outlines of
the geometry, it also affects how features are positioned. As a
result, you’ll have to alternate between scaling and positioning for
best results.

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When resizing and repositioning the red outlines in the

front view, pay close attention to the placement of the eyes
and mouth. By doing so, you will set yourself up to make the
remaining adjustments easier.

Begin by placing your mouse over the Move icon in the front view.
Use the eyes and mouth as a guide for placing the outline in the
right area. Step by step, here’s how you can approach the front of Figure 15.16: Scale the head geometry so that the eyes and the center of the
Simona’s face: mouth align with the photo.

1. To adjust the Front view, place your mouse over the Move
icon . Move the center line of the outline’s mouth over the
center line of the photo’s mouth. Adjusting Side Scaling and Position
2. At this point, you’ll probably notice that the eyes don’t quite When you adjust the scaling and positioning in the side view, it
line up correctly, because the spacing is a little bit off. So, drag affects the position of the ears and chin on the texture map.
the mouse over the Scale icon, and drag it right or left as
necessary to get the eye spacing closer. 1. Use the Move tool in the side view to place the ear outline
over the ear.
3. If necessary, alternate between the Move and Scale icons
until the eyes and mouth both appear as they should. Don’t 2. Drag the Scale tool downward as necessary to increase the
worry about the nose at this point, we’ll get to that later! size of the ear.

An example of what you are looking for in the front view is shown 3. Alternate between the Move tool and the Scale tool until
below in Figure 16. Notice that the spacing between the eyes is the texture of the ear appears in the proper place on the Face
pretty close and the center lines of the mouth match up. We can Sculpting preview. At the same time, try to achieve the best
improve upon this further by adjusting the tilt and turn of the head. possible balance between ear and chin placement.

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4. Drag the tool left to decrease the depth of the head, or right problem in this regard. When you look at the front photo, her
to increase the depth of the head as necessary. The final result right cheek is fuller than her left, indicating that her face is turned
is shown in Figure 17. slightly.
The Rotate tool can help remedy situations when your subject
is looking directly at the camera but has his or her head tilted or
turned slightly toward the left or right. It is important to note,
however, that the Rotate tool won’t work well for heads that are
more than a slight variance from center.

There is no undo for the Rotate tool. Before you use

it, you might want to exit to the Pose room and save your
project under a file name you can remember (such as Work in
Progress.pz3) Doing so will save the entire project, including
the state of the Face room texture and head shape. After you
save the project, return to the Face room to use the Rotate
tool. If you don’t like the results you can use the File >
Revert command to return to the previously-saved version.
Figure 15.17: Move and scale the side outline to match the height ratio of the
ear and the chin.
The Rotate tool for the front view tilts the head geometry along
the Z (side to side) axis. When you drag the mouse upward or
toward the right with the Rotate tool, the head tilts the right
Compensating for Head Tilt or side of the red outline downward. However, you’ll notice the left
Rotation side of the texture tilt downward in response. Similarly, drag the
mouse downward or toward the left to tilt the left side of the red
Photos aren’t always perfect, and you may find yourself with some outline downward. The right side of the texture tilts downward in
that show the subject with his or her head tilted or turned slightly. response.
In fact, the photos that we are using for this tutorial have a slight
The alignment of the head tilt appears to be just fine, as shown in

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Figure 18. The eyes line up quite well as they are, so we don’t need of the eyes is even better still!
to make any adjustments to the tilt of the head.

Figure 15.19: After we Alt-click and drag the Rotate tool for a slight head turn,
the eyes are centered better.
Figure 15.18: The tilt of Simone’s head does not require adjustment.

We do have another problem with our front photo, however. The

head is turned slightly toward our left, making the right cheek Task 3: Fine-Tuning the Texture
appear more full. To remedy this, press the Alt key while you use
the Rotate tool in the front view. This turns the head geometry
along the Y axis. If you did not complete Task 2, you can open the
FaceRoomTask3.pzz file from the Tutorials/FaceRoom folder in
Proceed as follows with Simone’s face project: your Poser installation to follow along from this point.
1. From the Front view, press the Alt key while you drag the
Rotate tool toward the right to turn the geometry a bit. After you adjust the geometry with the preceding tools, you can
A couple of “notches” should do it. It only takes a slight use the green feature points and red outlines to make more
adjustment. refined changes to the geometry and texture. Though the texture
placement is acceptable over the eyes and mouth at this point, the
2. If necessary, make adjustments with the Move and Scale green feature points will allow you to fine-tune and smooth the
tools to further improve texture placement in the Face texture around the forehead, mouth, eyes, and chin.
Sculpting area. As you can see in Figure 19, the placement

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Sculpting area while you adjust the points as follows:

An “Apply Shape” checkbox appears between the front
and side photos in the Photo Lineup area. When checked, the ƒƒ Adjust the Top feature point to achieve proper height of
green control points and red outlines affect both the head the eyebrows and eye folds.
geometry and the texture. In other words, the shape of the
head will change as you move the green feature points or red ƒƒ Adjust the Bottom feature point to place the texture for
outlines. If you do decide to use this feature, make sure that the lower lip and chin in the best possible location.
you keep the green feature close to the features that they
control when possible. Otherwise you will see strange bends, ƒƒ Adjust the Left and Right feature points to create a
twists, and over-exaggerations in the geometry. smooth transition along the upper cheeks.
2. If necessary, use the Move tool to reposition the head
A better approach is to leave the “Apply Shape” checkbox empty. geometry for better texture placement. Figure 20 shows the
This way, the control points and outlines will only affect texture results after the four control points have been adjusted.
placement. This also ensures that you get the best texture results.
You can then use morphs in the Face Shaping Tool area to fine-
tune the head shape and features after the texture is complete. Do not move green feature points to an extreme
position to adjust a red outline. Smith Micro recommends that
you place the green feature points directly above the features,
Refining the Front View without worrying about the red outlines.

You’ll start by making adjustments to the feature points in the

Front view. If you adjust the feature points in specific order, you’ll
find that results will be pretty consistent. Basically, you start with
the overall shape of the head and work your way inward to the
finer detail points.
1. Adjust top, bottom, left and right feature points. Try
to maintain the best outline of the head, while matching the
eyes as closely as possible. Watch the 3D preview in the Face Figure 15.20. Top, Bottom, Left and Right control points help define the height of
the eyelids and brows, as well as the cheek and chin areas.

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3. Adjust forehead and jaw. The forehead points affect else is done. Figure 22 shows the result of one round of eye
placement and spacing of the hairline around the forehead, adjustments.
as well as the spacing of the eyebrows. Adjust the forehead
feature points to maintain the same relative distance along
the top semi-circle. For the jaw, keep all adjacent feature When adjusting the eyes, remember that the placement
points along the lower jaw at roughly the same distance from of the face around the eyes is what is most important here. It
left to right, while you watch the placement of the shadow is much easier to create new eye textures than it is to make a
along the jawline. Figure 21 shows the result after the face texture that is placed correctly, so it is not so important
what the “eyeballs” look like. Instead, pay attention to the
forehead and jaw feature points have been adjusted.
placement of the eye folds, eye lids, and lacrimals.

Figure 15.21. After adjusting the forehead and jaw feature points, the eyebrows
and chin are in position.
Figure 15.22. After some eye adjustments, the eyes are lining up very well.

4. Adjust the eyes. Match the eye points carefully. This is a little
tricky and can be time consuming. Also note that when you 5. Adjust the mouth. The placement of the mouth opening and
make adjustments to the right eye, the left eye is also moving corners appear to define the shape of the mouth. First, move
somewhat. You have to strive for a compromise between the the corners to get the proper width. Adjust the top center
two eyes, and the points may not be exactly the same on each point until the upper lip looks correct. Then, adjust the lower
of the eyes. If you don’t get them perfect, you can always center point so that the mouth opening appears in the right
come back to adjust the eyes in the front view after everything place. Figure 23 shows our progress so far.

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Figure 15.23. For best results, make sure that the mouth opening is in the right Figure 15.24: Adjust the nose and nose tips to place the folds of the nose in the
place when you adjust the mouth feature points. right spot.

6. Adjust the nose and nose tips until you see that the
texture falls in the right place in the Face Sculpting window.
Figure 24 gives you an idea of the result around the nose.
Refining the Side View
Adjust the side points until the wings of the nostrils fall in the With the feature points completed for the Front view, your texture
right spot. Be careful when adjusting the wings: too much should be looking pretty good from the front by now! At this point,
adjustment can cause the head to tilt left or right. Then adjust we have to fine-tune things in the side view. But the rule of thumb
the middle feature point to place the inside of the nostrils. with the side view is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, most especially
if you are using the Apply Shape feature. The profile feature
points go a long way in adjusting the geometry, so take it in small
baby steps if you are applying the shape to the head.
Before you begin, return to the Pose room and save your project
before proceeding so that you have something to revert back to
in case you are unhappy with the results. And remember, don’t
move feature points unless you think they will help to improve your
texture or character.

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If you have to adjust the feature points in the side view, proceed as shown in Figure 26. Pay attention to the texture around
in this order: and behind the ears while you do this feature point.
1. Adjust the top feature point. The top feature point in the
side view controls the placement of the hair on the crown.
Adjust as necessary to get a nice smooth texture as shown in
Figure 25.

Figure 15.26: Adjust the feature point at the back of the head to fill in the neck.
If you have the Apply Shape option checked, you’ll have to achieve the right
balance between head shape and texture.

3. Adjust all of the profile points if necessary. Starting from

the top of the forehead, adjust the profile of the head as
Figure 15.25. Adjust the top feature point in the side view to affect the hair on necessary to improve the texture or the shape of the head.
the crown. Notice in Figure 27 how the profile follows the photograph to
a reasonable degree. The feature points affect the following
2. Adjust the feature point on the back of the head. Use the areas, but you may need to adjust one or more of them
best possible compromise between the back of the head and simultaneously to get the effect you want:
the neck. Too much adjustment here affects the forehead and
eyebrows. If you have the Apply Shape option checked, try ƒƒ The upper forehead feature point controls the
to achieve the best head shape rather than trying to get the forward/backward position of the hair on the crown; it
texture right. If you don’t have the option checked, move the also controls the shape of the forehead if you have the
back feature point to cover the back of the neck as much as Apply Shape button on.
possible without distorting the rest of the texture placement,
ƒƒ The next feature point down controls placement of the

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eyebrows. It also affects the forward/backward tilt of

the head to a small degree.
ƒƒ The third feature point affects the indentation of the
sellion (nose indentation) when the Apply Shape
button is on. It also affects the shape of the inner eyes
and nose area on the texture.
ƒƒ The fourth and fifth feature points control the tip and
bottom of the nose. Observe the placement of the
nostrils while you adjust these.
ƒƒ Adjust the points of the mouth to improve the texture
where necessary. If you have the Apply Shape option
checked, adjust the points until you are satisfied with the
shape of the mouth. You may also need to adjust points Figure 15.27: Starting from the hairline at the forehead, adjust all profile points
down through the chin to further define the character and texture.
in the front view to realign the texture.
ƒƒ Adjust the top and front of the chin to shape the 4. Adjust the eye. As you reach the end of the feature point list,
area beneath the mouth. you will probably find that you’ll have to go back and tweak
previous points in order to place the remaining ones. What
matters for the corner of the eye is the height of the feature
point. This makes a big difference in the shape of the eyelids
on the 3D model.

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the Move tool to reposition the outline on the photo. Figure

29 shows our progress. While the profile around the mouth
and chin doesn’t quite follow the photo, the texture looks nice
and clean.

The feature points and outlines in the following

figure do not exactly match the profile of the photographs.
While a result like this creates a good texture, it will distort
the geometry if the Apply Shape checkbox is checked.
The reason for this is because the green control points are
stretched far from the red outline in spots.

Figure 15.28. Adjust the eye feature point to achieve the correct texture
placement around the eyes. The feature point controls the tilt of the eyelids and
eye corners.

5. Adjust the cheek. Place the cheek feature point at about the
same height as the tip of the nose. If you have the Apply
Shape feature on, move the cheek feature point toward the
front of the head to create puffier cheeks, or toward the back
of the head to create a more gaunt face.

6. Adjust the neck, jaw, and ear. The primary focus for this part is
to get the texture correct. A little goes a long way, especially
in shaping the head and ear - so focus on the texture
placement at this point. You may also find it helpful to use Figure 15.29. With all points adjusted in the front and side views, the texture
looks nice and clean.

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If desired, you can go back through all of the feature points and
give them little tweaks to improve your texture further. However,
if you’re happy with it for the time being, leave it as is ... you can
always clean up the texture in an image editing program such as
Photoshop!

Now that the texture is complete, it might also be a

good time to go to the Pose room, and save your project so
that you don’t lose all of your hard work. The next step is to
refine the shape of the head.

Adding Texture Variation

You can use the Face room’s Texture Variation area to enhance
your Face room texture in various ways. This includes adjusting the
facial color to darken eyebrows and eye area, and adding shading
for beards. You can also vary the texture to add ethnicity, age, or Figure 15.30: The Texture Variation area allows you to adjust shading of the
gender differences. texture to achieve various enhancements to the Face Room texture.

To add texture variation, click the Texture Variation tab that

appears to the right of the Photo Lineup tab. Figure30 shows all To add variation, simply move a parameter dial left or right, or
of the options you can add to your texture. enter a numerical value in the appropriate field. For purposes of
demonstration, Figure 31 shows an example of how the Beard
parameter dial affects the texture.

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Figure 15.32. To save your texture, click the Save icon at the right of the Texture
Preview area.

2. Poser asks if you want to change the texture resolution.

Choose No to leave the texture at its default resolution of 512
Figure 15.31: A beard is added to the texture using the Texture Variation options. by 512, or Yes to save a higher-resolution texture (in this case,
2048 x 2048).

3. Next, Poser asks if your texture will be for a male or female.

Saving Your Texture If you created a male texture, choose Yes. If you created a
female texture, choose No.
After your texture is complete, you can save a copy to your hard
drive by using the controls located at the side of the Texture 4. Finally, the Save As dialog appears. Locate the folder to save
Preview area. Follow these steps: your texture. Then choose a file format from the Save As
1. Click the Save icon that appears at the right of the Texture Type dialog. Some file types will also require that you choose
Preview area, as shown in Figure 32. a compression setting. If you plan to edit and enhance the
texture in a graphics program, it’s usually best to choose a file
format that does not compress the image.

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5. Click Save to save your new texture.

Task 4: Refine the Head Shape

The Face Shaping Tool, shown in Figure 33, provides several
morph dials that allow you to change the facial features of your
character. There are basically three ways you can reshape the face,
and you can use all or some of them to achieve a wide variety of
characters:

• Automatically create a face using the Random Face button

that appears beneath the Face Sculpting area.

• Click on the face in the Face Sculpting area to locate a green

feature point, and drag the mouse to adjust the shape of the
face. Changes are applied to the face symmetrically where
applicable. Figure 15.33. The Face Shaping Tool allows you to change the appearance of
the facial features.

• Use the Facial Morphs in the lower section of the Face

Shaping Tool.
Let’s take a look at each of these procedures individually. Creating a Random Face
The Random Face feature helps you generate a character
If you did not complete Task 3, you can open the that serves as a great starting point for your final character. The
FaceRoomTask4.pzz file from the Tutorials/FaceRoom folder in character you generate can be as realistic or as outrageous as you
your Poser installation to follow along from this point. choose. The Random Face button, located beneath the Face
Sculpting area, allows you to generate a completely random face

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with the click of a button. face texture.

Additional controls in the Face Shaping Tool control how much • Clear Pins: Click this button to remove the pins that keep
effect the Random Face button has on the head geometry. These the morphs from affecting your facial morphs. This removes
controls are shown in Figure 34. all, not some, of the pins.

• Caricature: Adjust this dial, plus or minus, to add or remove

the amount of exaggeration in the final face. A Caricature
setting of -1 turns all morph dials completely off, and the
Random Face button will not work. Set the Caricature dial
between -1 and 0 to achieve faces that are more realistic; the
closer they are to -1, the more realistic they will be. Settings
Figure 15.34. Controls in the Face Shaping Tool affect the results of the Random
Face button. between 0 and 1 create characters that are more “cartoony”
or fantasy-like.
The controls shown above are used for the following purposes: • Exaggeration Min: Adjust this dial to the minimum
Morph button amount of affect that you want each of the facial morphs to
The yellow button at the top of the Face Shaping Tool allows have. The default setting is -1.5. If you don’t want any of the
you to reshape the face by pulling or pushing a control point with facial morphs to work in a negative setting, you can set this
the mouse. at 0. If you want the Random Face button to have a smaller
effect on the overall shape of the face, you can decrease this
• Pin button: After you adjust a feature point to the shape setting to -.15. This results in random faces that are a bit more
you want, click the Pin button, and then click the desired realistic and less characterized.
control point to lock it into place.
• Exaggeration Max: Adjust this dial to the maximum
• Clear Morphs: Click this button to revert the head shape amount of effect that you want each of the facial morphs to
back to its original default shape. DO NOT use the Reset have. The default is 1.5, but setting it at a smaller value (such
Face Room button unless you also want to lose your current as .15) results in random faces that are a bit more realistic

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and less characterized. area until you get a face that you like. Figure 35 shows some
examples achieved with Caricature at -.5, Exaggeration Min
• Use Morphs: There are three Use Morphs options: at -.15, Exaggeration Max at .15, and “Both” selected for
Both (the default), Symmetry, and Asymmetry. When Both Morphs options. As you can see, the faces truly are random
is selected, the morph dials will make symmetrical and and offer a great starting point for characters. You can also go
asymmetrical changes to the face. With Symmetry selected, back and adjust the settings you selected in steps 1 to 3 to
the only changes made to the face will be symmetrical get even more varied results.
changes. With Asymmetry selected, the only changes made to
the face will be asymmetrical.
To create a random face, follow these steps:
1. Set the Caricature dial, if desired, to a value other than -1. For
more realistic characters, set this value closer to -1. For more
extreme characters, move the setting more toward 1. A good
compromise is -.5. You can also adjust the dial left or right at
any time to affect the amount of caricature after you use the
Random Face button or other morphs.

2. Set the Exaggeration Min and Exaggeration Max dials to

the lowest and highest values (respectively) that you want the
morph dials to target. A min value of -.15 and a max value of Figure 15.35. Random faces created in the Face room offer great starting points
for Poser characters.
.15 creates very good starting points for realistic characters.

3. Decide whether you want the morphs to affect Symmetry

(same changes right and left), Asymmetry (differences in right
to left), or both.

4. Press the Random Face button under the Face Sculpting

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Changing the Face Shape

Interactively
Whether you start with a random face or the default face, the
feature points that you work with in the Face Sculpting area
allow you to visually adjust the Facial Morphs in the Face
Shaping Tool. As you click and drag one or more of the feature
points, you notice that the morph dial settings in the Face
Shaping Tool respond to the adjustments. As a result, the
adjustments you make to the face are limited to the morphs that
you find in the Face Shaping Tool.
That being said, it’s very easy to reshape the face with feature Figure 15.36. Use the green feature points to adjust the face in the Face
Sculpting area.
points:
1. Because the sculpting tool moves vertices relative to the 4. Once you adjust an area to the shape that you like, you can
way that you are viewing the model, you will need to adjust “freeze” the associated dial setting into place. This prevents
the mini-camera controls at the top right corner of the Face the dial setting from changing while you work on other areas
Sculpting area to rotate or zoom into the area you want to of the face. To apply a pin, click the Pin button (the yellow
work with. button at the top of the Face Shaping Tool). Then, click the
area that you want to freeze. Pins are shown with a red dot.
2. Click on the face in the Face Sculpting area to locate a
Then reselect the Morph button to continue working on other
feature point, which appears as a green dot similar to those
areas of the face.
you see in the Photo Lineup area.

3. Move the mouse to reshape the face. Changes are made

symmetrically when applicable. Figure 36 shows an example To delete a pin, simply move or click it with the mouse.
To delete all pins, click the Clear Pins button at the top of the
of an adjustment in progress.
Face Shaping Tool.

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Changing the Face with Morph Dials

The Face Shaping Tool comes with a host of facial morphs that
control various facial features and head shapes. Facial morphs are
divided into several different categories: Brow Ridge, Cheekbones,
Cheeks, Chin, Eyes, Face, Forehead, Jaw, Mouth, Nose, Templates,
and Ears. There are also additional morphs that affect ethnicity,
age, and gender, or morphs that apply the shapes of the Poser
default characters (Don, Judy, Will and Penny).

There are additional morphs in the Pose room. While

most deal with facial expression, some of them are also good
for character development. Be sure to check those out after
you apply your Face room head to your character.

Earlier, we covered how to prevent movement of morphs by using

pins. Somewhat related to pins, you can also enable or disable
individual morphs from working. Beside each morph in the Face Figure 15.37. You can lock morph dials to keep them at their current settings.
Click beside a group name to lock or unlock all morphs beneath it, or click a
Shaping Tool is a green bullet point, as shown in Figure 37. When single morph name to lock or unlock it.
a lock icon appears beside the morphs they will not change. To
lock morphs, click the green bullet point beside an entire category
If you have used the Random Face feature, or the morph tool
(such as Cheekbones). This prevents an entire group of morphs
and pins, you’ll probably see some of the dials have already been
from being affected. To unlock the morph, click the padlock icon to
adjusted beyond the default setting of 0. Using the morph dials is
change it back into a bullet. You can also click a single morph (such
very straight-forward. Move the parameter dial to the left to reduce
as high/low or thin/wide) to prevent it from being affected.
the effect of a morph or dial it into the negative range. Move the
parameter dial to the right to increase the effect or dial the morph

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into the positive range. Task 5: Completing Your

There are quite a few morphs that have the words
Character
Axis, Twist, Asymmetry, Transverse, Disparity, Bend, or Shear in The Actions area of the Face room, shown in Figure 39, provides
them. For the most part, these morphs add asymmetry to your
several buttons that allow you to apply the head, texture, or both
character, making them appear a little more realistic. Even
a little bit of these morphs goes a long way toward adding to the currently selected character in the Pose room. The button
realism to your character. you choose is dependent upon how you want to apply the head
and texture:
It took several morphs to create the face shown at the right in • Apply to Figure: Click this button to permanently apply
Figure 38. Rather than include all of the settings in this tutorial, the head shape and texture from the Face room to the figure
you can find the project file in the Tutorials/FaceRoom folder in in the Pose room. If multiple figures are on the stage, the
your Poser installation. The file is named FinishedCharacter.pzz changes apply to the currently selected figure.

• Apply Shape Only: Click this button to permanently

apply the head shape only to the figure in the Pose room.

• Apply Texture Only: Click this button to apply the

texture only to the figure in the Pose room.

• Spawn Morph Target: Click this button to add the head

and eyes as morph targets to the figure in the Pose room.
Figure 15.38. The final face (right), found in FinishedCharacter.pzz, uses several
of the morphs in the Face Shaping Tool. Differences in the forehead, eyes, and
cheekbones are more feminine than the default head (shown at left). • Import Original Figure Head Texture: Click this
button to apply the head texture that is currently on your
Pose room figure to the head in the Face Sculpting area.

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category of the Face Shaping Tool, and then dial the applicable
character morph (select from the default character morphs) to 1.
Then click the Apply to Figure button that appears in the Actions
section of the Face Room.
To create a permanent character with a new head and face texture,
follow these steps:
Figure 15.39. The Actions area provides several buttons that complete your
character in different ways. 1. Go to the Pose room, and add or select the figure that you
want to apply the head shape to.

2. Return to the Face room. Click the Apply to Figure button

Creating a Permanent Character in the Actions area. Poser asks if you want to change the
texture resolution to apply.
The Apply to Figure button creates a permanent modification to
the character in the Pose room. The head effectively replaces the ƒƒ Choose No if you want to keep the default texture
default head provided with Don, Judy, Will or Penny. The texture resolution of 512x512. This results in a smaller file, and is
can be applied with or without color adjustments to match your suitable for distant renders.
head texture to the default body texture. After you create your
character, you can save it to your Figures library for future use. ƒƒ Choose Yes to create a higher resolution texture (1024 x
1024 or larger).
3. Poser informs you that it is creating an alpha map and then
The Edit > Restore > Element and Edit > Restore
> Figure commands will not restore the default character creates the texture. Next, Poser asks if you want to change the
head after you apply the Face Room head to your figure. face color to match the figure color.
There is one way to get the default head back. First, save your
current project so that you can revert back if things go wrong. ƒƒ Choose No to retain the coloring of the face texture
exactly as you see it in the Face room. This choice would
Next, return to the Face Room, click the Clear Morphs button apply if you also intend to use another graphic program
in the Face Shaping Tool. Go to the Standard Figures > Poser (such as Photoshop) to create a matching body texture.

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Figure 40 shows an example of this option.

ƒƒ Choose Yes to instruct Poser to adjust the coloring of
your Face room texture to match the existing body
texture. Figure 41 shows an example of this option.
4. Open the Figures library and save your new character so that
you can use it in other projects.

Figure 15.41. Here, the head and face texture have been applied to the figure
while adjusting the color of the texture. Choose this option when you use the
default body texture.

Using Third-Party Textures with the

Face Room
Figure 15.40. Here, the head and face texture have been applied to the figure
without adjusting the color of the texture, keeping the original colors of the There are many textures available in the Poser community, many of
photographs. Choose this option when you plan to create a matching body
texture.
which will work on any applicable Poser 5 or later figure. There is a
two-part process to using third-party textures with the Face room.
You will need to add the third-party texture to the Face room to
get an accurate view of how your face shape will look when done.
You’ll also have to apply only the head shape to the figure in the
Pose room after you create your head shape. The steps are as
follows:

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1. Use the Material room, or MAT poses provided with your

third-party texture, to apply the third-party texture to your
figure.

2. Make sure that the figure is selected in the Pose room, and
then click the Face tab to enter the Face room.

3. Click the Import Original Figure Head Texture button in

the Actions area. You can do this before or after you develop
your head shape.

4. After you morph your head in the Face room, click the Apply Figure 15.42. Use the Import Original Figure Head Texture and Apply Shape
Shape Only button in the Actions area of the Face room. Only options to use third-party textures in the Face room.
This applies the head to the character without affecting the
texture that you purchased.

5. Go to the Pose room to view the result, as shown in Figure Creating a Morphable Face
42.
You may not want to use this character all the time; or, you may
want to store several different characters in one Library file. In
cases like these, the Face room allows you to apply the head and
eye morphs as a morph target. This will allow you to “dial in” the
amount of character you apply to the default character. It will also
allow you to mix and match between other characters that you
create in the Face room.
When you choose Spawn Morph Target from the actions area,
the morph appears in the list of morphs in the Pose room. By
saving your character to the Figures library after you spawn one or

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more morph targets, you can dial in any character, or combination

of characters, any time you choose.
To apply the head and eyes from the Face room to the Pose room
as a morph target, follow these steps:
1. Go to the Pose room and add or select the figure that you
want to apply the texture to.

2. Return to the Face room and click the Spawn Morph

Target button in the Actions area.

3. Go back to the Pose room. If necessary, choose the Window

> Parameter Dials command to open the Parameters
palette.

4. Select the head of your character, and expand the Morph

section of the dials. Scroll to the bottom of that section, where
you will see a new morph named “head” as shown in Figure
43. Dial this to 1 to apply your head morph target.

Figure 15.43. When you spawn your head room morph, the morph appears in the
“Morph” section of the Parameters palette, and it is named “head.

5. The eyes look a little odd at this point, don’t they? That’s
because you also have to do the same for the left eye and
right eye. Click one of the eyes, and go to its morph section. In
this case, there is already a morph named “rightEye”, so the
new morph that you created is named “rightEye 1” as shown

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in Figure 44.” Dial that to 1 to apply your Face room morph.

Figure 15.44: The Face room morphs appear as “leftEye 1” and “rightEye 1”
for the eyes.

Repeat step 5 for the opposite eye.

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Chapter 16: The Cloth Room

by Denise Tyler
The Cloth room helps you create dynamic clothing that drapes
naturally, and that responds to movement and wind forces during
an animation. You will find dynamic clothing in the Poser Props
library.
The Cloth room contains four main areas:

• Cloth Simulation (area 1). This area creates and defines Figure 16.1: The various areas and controls in the Face room.
settings for a new cloth simulation.

• Cloth (area 2). This area allows you to turn an object into
“cloth”, and specify which objects the cloth will respond to Task 1: Creating Still Images
when they collide.
with Dynamic Clothing
• Cloth Groups (area 3). This area allows you to assign dynamic,
choreographed, constrained, or decorated groups to your cloth In this task you will create a still image. Even though the final
object. goal is a still, you have to create an animation to drape and settle
the clothing to the correct position. By default, Poser creates a
• Dynamics Controls (area 4). This area allows you to assign 30-frame animation, which will be perfect for our needs. We will
properties that affect how the cloth behaves in the simulation. pose the character in the first frame, and use the remaining frames
to let the cloth settle.

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The ClothRoomTask1.pzz file has Jessi loaded into the scene. She
appears in the default position and the inverse kinematics settings The JessiEveDressRaw dress contains around 10,000
are turned off for the arms and legs. polygons. If you have limited system resources, use the
JessiEveDressLo version (the one with the yellow dot), which
contains less than 3000 polygons. It will not bend as smoothly,
To turn Inverse Kinematics off, choose the Figure > but will still serve the purpose for this tutorial.
Use Inverse Kinematics menu option, and uncheck all
options.

The only difference between the JessiEveDress and

Afterward, the easiest way to place a character in the default JessiEveDressRaw is that the raw version does not contain any
position is to open the Joint Editor palette (Window > Joint Editor). Cloth room cloth groups. Use the raw version for this tutorial.
Then click the Zero Figure button to zero out all of the joints. (If the
Zero Figure button is grayed out, click any body part first.) After
you close the Joint Editor, double-check in the Parameters palette
to verify that the X, Y, and ZTran settings on the hip and body are
all at zero.
In the following example, we will use one of the clothing items
from the Props library for Jessi.
1. Open the ClothRoomTask1.pzz file, which you will find in the
Tutorials/ClothRoom folder in your Poser installation. This
scene contains Jessi, who is placed in the default position.

2. Now, navigate to the Tutorial subcategory in the Props library.

Open the Dynamic Clothing subcategory folder. Select the
JessiEveDressRaw dress shown in Figure 2 (the one with the
red dot in the icon), and add it to your scene.

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Figure 16.3. Choose the figure’s Hip as a parent to the dynamic clothing prop.

4. Verify in the Animation controls that you are on Frame 1, as

shown in Figure 4. Then click on Jessi to select her as the
Figure 16.2. Select the JessiEveDressRaw file, which does not contain any cloth current figure.
groups.

3. To attach the clothing to the figure, you’ll need to assign

the character’s Hip as the parent to the dress. With the dress
selected as the current object, choose Object > Change
Parent. The Choose Parent dialog appears. Choose either the Figure 16.4. Verify that you are on Frame 1 of your project file.
Hip or the Body, as shown in Figure 3, then choose OK to
return to the Cloth room. 5. Open the Tutorial folder in the Poses library, and choose the

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JessiWalk01 pose. Then click the Apply Library Preset check 7. Initially, only one button in the Cloth room is enabled. Click
mark at the bottom of the Poses library. Jessi should now be the New Simulation button in section 1, shown in Figure 6.
posed as shown in Figure 5. Note that the dress does not
automatically conform to the figure in the way that clothing
from the Figures library does. The reason for this is that the
dress is a prop that was designed for the Cloth room. It does
not contain groups that automatically respond to the groups
in the figure.

Figure 16.6. Click the New Simulation button to create a cloth simulation.

8. In the Simulation Settings dialog box (shown in Figure 7) enter

Dress for the Simulation Name. Check the Cloth self-collision
option so that the dress won’t fold over onto itself during
the cloth simulation. Then enter 10 in the Drape Frames field.
This setting adds ten frames before the animation begins, to
drape the dress naturally on the character before the dynamics
calculations start. Press OK to create the simulation.

Figure 16.5. The character is posed in Frame 1, but the dress does not pose
with it.

6. Now, click the Cloth tab to enter the Cloth room. You will step
through the sections quickly in this first tutorial. Later in this
section you’ll learn more about what each of the settings do.

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10. When the Clothify dialog opens as shown in Figure 9, expand

the Props popup-menu, and choose the dress prop as shown
in the following figure. Then click the Clothify button to turn
the prop into cloth.

Figure 16.9. Choose the dress from the Props pop-up menu.
Figure 16.7. The Simulation Settings dialog box.

11. The Collide Against button should now be active in the

9. After you create a simulation, the next step is to turn your
Cloth section (section 2). Click this button to open the Cloth
prop into a cloth object. To do this, first click the Clothify
Collision Objects dialog shown in Figure 10.
button in section 2 of the Cloth room, shown in Figure 8.

Figure 16.8. The Clothify button turns the prop into a cloth object.

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Figure 16.10. The Cloth Collision Objects dialog lets you select the objects that
will cause the cloth to respond when they collide.

Figure 16.11. Select the object or objects that you expect will come in contact
12. Click the Add/Remove button to open the Hierarchy Selection with the cloth object.
button shown in Figure 11. By default, nothing is selected.
Because this is a small scene that should calculate very
13. You should now notice that additional options are enabled in
quickly, you can select (or check) Figure 1 (or the number of
the Cloth Collision Objects dialog. For purposes of this tutorial
the figure you want to dress). This automatically selects the
we will leave the default values. The important setting to
entire tree beneath it. Click OK to return to the Cloth Collision
note, however, is that Start Draping from Zero Pose is checked
Objects dialog.
in the Figure Collision Options dialog, as shown in Figure
12. This setting is applicable because the first frame of the
animation has the figure in the zero “Default” pose. Press OK
In the case of larger scenes, you may want to limit the
to return to the Cloth room.
selection to only those body parts or other items that you
expect will come into contact with the cloth object. This will
reduce calculation time during the dynamics calculations.

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the final result. Once Poser completes the draping calculations

and starts calculating dynamics, the dress should be posed
correctly. During the dynamics calculations the cloth will
settle a little bit. This will be more noticeable when clothing is
fuller. The final result of the simulation, shown at Frame 30, is
shown in Figure 14.

Figure 16.12. Verify that the “Start draping from zero pose” option is checked.

14. The Dynamic Controls settings in section 4 are sufficient

for the purpose of this brief tutorial. Click the Calculate
Simulation button located at the top of the Dynamics Controls
section (section 4). This button is shown in Figure 13.

Figure 16.14. The final result using cloth dynamics.

Figure 16.13. Click the Calculate Simulation button. With Frame 30 (or the frame of your choice) selected as the current
frame in the Cloth room, click the Pose room tab. You can add
15. After a brief wait, Poser should drape the dress over the figure items to the scene, change lighting, or whatever else needs to be
as it moves toward the pose you selected. During the draping, done to complete the scene. Then render it to any size you like, just
it will appear as if the clothing is always one frame behind as you would any other still image. You can even adjust the hand

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on her left leg so that the fingers don’t poke through the clothing. Think about the actions that a woman performs while wearing a
The only thing you really can’t do is move her pose in any way that dress. When she sits down in a chair, she uses her arms and hands
would affect the draping of the clothing. If you do, you would have to pull a dress toward her while she moves toward the chair to sit.
to enter the Cloth room again, and click the Calculate Simulation That prevents the dress from bunching up and getting wrinkled.
button again to re-calculate the cloth simulation.
You can accomplish similar results in Poser for your dress. There are
actually a number of different ways you can accomplish this:
The steps to create an animation that uses dynamic
clothing are pretty much the same as outlined above. You • You can animate the character’s arms in the same way they
simply add keyframes that pose your character in various would move in the real world. This would probably be the
frames throughout the animation, and the clothing dynamics best solution for an animation, but it seems a lot of work for
will move in response to the character’s motion. a still image.

• Use a prop, such as a bar or half-donut shape, to push the

dress forward while the character moves toward the sitting
Task 2: Controlling How position. After the dress is in place you can move the prop out
of the view of the camera.
Clothing Acts
• Animate the chair in such a way that the chair itself
Sometimes, results don’t come out quite as you expected. For
pushes the dress forward as needed. This approach will be
example, you might want to create a still image of a woman sitting
demonstrated in the following tutorial.
in a chair, wearing a full dress. You put the figure in its default
position in the first frame, and add the dress and chair. In a later The file ClothRmTask2.pzz, located in the Tutorials/ClothRoom
frame, you pose the figure in its final position, sitting down in folder in your Poser installation, contains Jessi in a mid-length
the chair. When you calculate the dynamics, things don’t appear dress. There is also a chair in the scene. The simulation is set as
the way they should. As the figure sits down, the dress bunches follows in the Simulation Settings dialog:
beneath her and doesn’t fall properly when she sits. The dress
overlaps the chair during the calculations, and creates a jumbled • Simulation Name: Dress
mess. How can you prevent that?

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• Start Frame: 1

• End Frame: 30

• Additional Cloth Collision Objects: Cloth self-collision

• Drape Frames: 10
Cloth Collision options are also important when you want the
clothing to react to props. In addition to selecting Figure 1 for
collision objects, the project file is also set to respond to the chair,
as shown in Figure 15.

Figure 16.15. The cloth will react to the figure and the chair during collision.

The chair appears just behind her in Frame 1. Note how the dress
intersects with the chair in Figure 16. This is a situation that you
must avoid, as it can create a tangled mess as well as excessively
long calculation times. We will correct this problem in the tutorial.

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Figure 16.16. The chair is placed directly behind the figure, but the dress Figure 16.17. Jessi sits on the chair in Frame 15.
intersects the chair.

For demonstration purposes, click the Calculate Simulation button

Move forward to Frame 15, and you will see Jessi sitting in the in section 4 and observe what happens with the project settings as
chair. The dress tilts to respond to the position of her body as they are now. Poser drapes the dress over the standing figure. Then,
shown in Figure 17. as the figure begins to drape, and then sit, you notice the back of
the skirt begins to bunch up over the chair, as shown in Figure 18.

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Figure 16.18. At the beginning of the calculations, the dress begins to bunch up Figure 16.19. When the calculations are finished, the dress is very bunched up.
over the chair.

To remedy some of these problems, try these steps:

As the animation progresses further, the calculations take longer
to complete in each frame. This is usually an indication that things 1. Use the Animation controls to return to Frame 1.
are getting bunched up and faces are starting to overlap. When
2. If the Parameters palette is not opened, choose Window >
the calculations are complete, the dress appears really bunched up
Parameter Dials to display it.
under the character as shown in Figure 19. While it doesn’t look
objectionable, you can also improve it.
3. Click the chair to select it. Notice that the zTran value is set
at -1.746. To move the chair farther away from the character,
decrease the value to somewhere around -3.7 as shown in
Figure 20.

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Figure 16.20. Move the chair farther away from the character by decreasing the Figure 16.21. After animating the chair into place, the dress appears more
ZTran value. natural.

4. Advance to Frame 15 and make sure that the chair is in its

final position, and that Jessi is sitting on it properly. If not,
adjust the position of the chair as needed. Task 3: Using Different
5. Click the Calculate Simulation button again. This time, the
Materials in Clothing (Part 1)
dress drapes naturally over the character before the chair After you “clothify” an object (or turn it into cloth), Poser assigns
starts to move toward the character. As the chair moves all of the vertices in the clothing to a group named _default_.
toward its final position, it moves the dress forward and What this means to you is that the entire object will behave as if it
underneath the character, in much the same manner as the is all made of the same type of cloth.
dress would fall naturally. The final result is shown in Figure
21. Notice that the dress isn’t quite as bunched up now. What if you want your clothing to behave as if it were made of
two different types of cloth? Cloth groups allow you to assign

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vertices to different areas of your clothing object. First, however, it There are five types of cloth groups in Poser, all accessible in
helps if you assign different materials to the clothing object first, section 3 of the Cloth room:
and then use the material zones to define the cloth groups.
• Dynamic cloth groups: Assign vertices to this group
There are other reasons for using different groups in your dynamic when you want the cloth to be of a different “fabric” than
clothing object. For example, your clothing may also include the rest of the clothing. Later, you define the behavior of that
buttons or laces that decorate the clothing. If you keep everything fabric in the Dynamics Controls section of the Cloth room. An
in the _default_ group, your buttons will stretch and bend the object can contain more than one dynamic cloth group.
same as the cloth in your object. In addition, they might even fall
off onto the floor during the calculations. In the case of buttons, • Choreographed groups: Only one choreographed group
you can assign them to a rigid decorated group in section is allowed per object. Assign vertices to a choreographed
3 of the Cloth room. Lacings or belts might be assigned to a soft group when you want to keyframe their movement. You can
decorated group. also use choreographed groups to prevent faces from being
For example, the top of a dress can be made of sequins, and the used in the cloth simulation. To cite an example, imagine that
lower part made of satin. Sequins are stiff and satin flows very you have a sheet lying on top of a bed. You define a small
easily. In that case, you need to create a new dynamic group, circle of vertices located at the center as a choreographed
and assign the “sequin” vertices to it. Then, you use the Dynamic group. You animate the choreographed vertices upward and
controls in section 4 to cause the sequin dynamic group to away from the bed, and the remaining vertices respond to
behave differently. gravity and motion ... and the sheet now looks like a ghost
flying across the room.

You can assign materials to your objects in a modeling • Constrained groups: Assign vertices to a constrained
application (such as LightWave, 3D Studio Max, Wings, or group when you want them to “stick” to the underlying faces.
similar applications). You can also use UV mapping programs For example, if you have a strapless top on a character, you
such as UV Mapper Classic or UV Mapper Pro to assign
can assign the very top row of vertices to a constrained group
materials. You can even use the Poser group editor to assign
materials to your objects.
so that the top will not slip off and fall to the floor. Only one
constrained group is allowed per object.

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• Soft Decorated groups: Assign vertices to this group Tutorials/ClothRoom folder in your Poser installation. This file
when you want them to flex and move with the underlying begins where Task 2 left off.
cloth. Belt buckles, belts, and shoelaces would be good
examples of the types of vertices that would belong to this 2. Click the Cloth tab to enter the Cloth room if necessary.
group. One object can have two decorated groups: one soft
and one rigid. 3. The project should open with the Dress simulation displaying
as the current cloth simulation. In section 3, _default_
• Rigid Decorated groups: Assign vertices to this group appears as the current dynamic group. To add a new dynamic
when you want them to move with the underlying cloth, but group for the top of the dress, click the New Dynamic Group
not bend or flex. Buttons, pins, jewelry, belt buckles, and other button shown in Figure 22.
similar items are good examples here. One object can have
two decorated groups: one soft and one rigid.
Let’s put these points into practice with a simple example. The
dress we used in the previous task does have a couple of problems:
In certain positions, the straps of the dress slip off her shoulders. To
Figure 16.22. The New Dynamic Group button.
prevent this, we can assign some of the vertices at the top of the
strap to a constrained group.
4. A dialog opens, and prompts you to enter a name for the new
The top of the dress is also a bit too stretchy. We can create a new dynamic vertex group. Enter Sequins, as shown in Figure 23.
dynamic group that includes all of the vertices from the waist up. Click OK to continue.
Later, we can use Dynamics Controls to make the sequin group a
little less stretchy, and a little less soft.
The best approach is to add vertices to a new dynamic group first,
and then select a small amount of vertices from the top of the
straps afterward. The following task demonstrates how you can
assign these cloth groups to the dress:
1. Open the project file named ClothRoomTask3.pzz from the

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current group name. Now, you can use the mouse to select
the upper portion of the dress, down to the waist as shown in
Figure 25. Rotate the camera to make sure that you include all
vertices from the top of the dress.

Figure 16.23. Create a new dynamic group named Sequins.

5. Note that Sequins now appears as the currently selected

dynamic group at the top of the Cloth Groups section. Click
the Edit Dynamic Group button shown in Figure 24 to assign
vertices to this new group.

Figure 16.25. Use the mouse to add vertices from the upper portion of the dress
to the sequin group.

7. To verify that you have included all of the top vertices, switch
back to the default cloth group, using the group selection box
at the top of the Group Editor (shown in Figure 26). If some
Figure 16.24. Click the Edit Dynamic Group button to add vertices to the new
of the vertices in the top still appear in the default group, you
group.
can reselect the Sequins group again to add them in.

6. The Group Editor window opens, and Sequins displays as the

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Figure 16.27. Click the Edit Constrained Group button to select some vertices
in the straps.

9. Using the mouse, draw a selection around the top portion

of the dress straps, as shown in Figure 28. Again, rotate the
camera to make sure that you select enough vertices. to
prevent the straps from slipping down.
Figure 16.26. Alternate between the default group and the Sequins group to make
sure that you have selected all of the top vertices for the Sequins group.

8. With the Sequins group completed, we will now select some

vertices to prevent the straps from falling over her shoulders.
Click the Edit Constrained Group button in the Cloth Groups
section, shown in Figure 27.

Figure 16.28. Select vertices near the top of each strap to add them to the
Constrained group.

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In cases like this, the settings in the Dynamics Controls section can
There is another approach that you can use to assign help you create cloth that behaves in a manner that is more typical
vertices to cloth groups. Use your modeling program, or a of the type of cloth you are trying to simulate. In brief, the settings
UV mapping program (such as UV Mapper Pro), to assign are as follows:
materials to the different cloth groups. For example, you
could select the top of the dress and create a material named Fold Resistance This setting controls how much or how little the fabric
“Sequins.” Use the Group Editor in the Cloth room to (Default 5.000) will fold or bend. Settings can range from 0 to 1000, with
create the Sequins dynamic group as described in the previous a setting of 5 being the default setting. Lower settings
example. Then, click the Add Material button in the Group produce cloth that flows and drapes more easily, like silk
Editor to select the Sequins material. or satin. Higher values create cloth that is more resistant to
folding and bending, such as a heavy wool or leather coat.

Task 4: Using Different

Shear This setting controls how much or how little the cloth will
Resistance bend from side to side or collapse on itself, as the corners of

Materials in Clothing (Part 2) (Default 50.000) a tablecloth or bedspread would behave when draped over
the table or bed. Softer materials will have higher Shear
Resistance values than more rigid materials.
In the previous task, you created a couple of different cloth groups.
The dynamic cloth group named Sequins will behave differently
Stretch This setting controls the stretchiness of your material.
than the bottom of the dress, which uses the default cloth settings. Resistance Materials such as coat leather don’t stretch much at all.
The purpose for these different groups is to demonstrate how you (Default 50.000) Glove leather stretches a little bit more. A knitted sweater
can create a garment that uses more than one type of material. is even stretchier still ... and spandex is extremely stretchy.
Use lower Stretch Resistance settings here to increase the
The Dynamics Controls section of the Cloth room controls how stretchiness. The default setting of 50 is suitable for cotton.
fabrics behave. The settings you choose here may be different,
depending on whether you are doing a still or an animation. Low
settings may make a dress drape naturally for a still image of a
sitting figure; on the other hand, that same setting could wreak
havoc during animation and cause the fabric to fly and stretch
much more than it would naturally during movement.

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Stretch Damping Stretch Damping is most obvious during an animation. Dynamic Friction This setting controls the amount of surface friction between
(Default 0.0100) This setting controls how slowly or rapidly the fabric stops (Default 0.1000) the cloth and an object when the cloth moves over the
moving while it stretches. Low settings cause the cloth object. Again using an example, Silk moving over a steel
to flap excessively, whereas high values make the cloth surface has low resistance, while cotton moving over skin or
move in slow motion. A setting of .01 is suitable for most coarse sandpaper over rough wood has high resistance.
purposes.

Air Damping This setting controls how easily the cloth moves through the
Cloth Density The Cloth Density setting controls how heavy the fabric is, (Default .0200) air. Cloth that is woven very tightly has a higher resistance
(Default 0.0050) and represents the weight of a 1 cm by 1 cm piece of cloth. than loosely woven cloth. Values that are too excessive can
Therefore, lighter fabrics such as silk or rayon will have a cause unpredictable results.
lower setting than heavier fabrics like wool or corduroy.
Heavier fabrics will tend to weigh the garment down more
and will cause more stretching. Collision Friction Set Collision Friction to On if you want to calculate friction
(Default Off) when the cloth collides with other objects.

Cloth Self- This setting controls how easily cloth moves over itself.
Friction For example, wool creates more friction against itself than
(Default 0.0000) silk, which is very slippery. Increase the setting to create
more friction. 1. Continue from the previous task, or open the file named
ClothRmTask4.pzz which starts where Task 3 left off. This file
already has the Sequins dynamic group and the constrained
Static Friction This setting controls how much force it will take to make a
group.
(Default 0.5000) stationary cloth move against another solid object. Using
an example, nylon over smooth plastic will have a very low
amount of Static Friction while denim over wood will have 2. The ClothRmTask4.pzz file can be found in the Tutorials/
a high amount. ClothRoom folder in your Poser installation.

3. If necessary, select Sequins as the current dynamic group in

Section 3, as shown in Figure 29.

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5. To make the top material a little less stretchy, increase the

Stretch Resistance setting to 500 as shown in Figure 31.
Increasing this setting means that the fabric will stretch less
than the default setting of 50. The maximum setting is 1000.

Figure 16.29. Select Sequins as the current dynamic group.

4. If the Group Editor is open, click the square at the upper-right

corner (see Figure 30) to close it.

Figure 16.31. Increase the Stretch Resistance setting to 500.

6. After you change the Stretch Resistance setting, press the

Calculate Simulation button to view the results. Notice that
the top does not stretch as much now. The top of the dress
does not stretch beyond her waist, and there is also not as
much stretching beneath the armpits as shown in Figure 32.
Figure 16.30. Close the Group Editor after you finish your selections.

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save it to the Props library. The procedure to save dynamic clothing

is as follows:
1. If you have not completed all of the previous tasks, open the
file ClothRmTask4.pzz from the Tutorials/ClothRoom folder in
your Poser installation.

2. To add the dress to the library, first open the Props library, and
select or create a new subcategory in which to save the dress.

3. Click the dress to select it as the current object, and then

press the Add to Library button shown in Figure 33.

Figure 16.32. The top of the dress now stretches much less.

Figure 16.33. Click the Add to Library button to save the dress to the Props
library of your choice.
Task 5: Saving Dynamic
Clothing to a Library 4. When the Set Name dialog appears, enter a name for the
dress in the New Set Name field, shown in Figure 34.
Because dynamic clothing is different from conforming clothing,
you cannot save it to the Figures library. The main reason
conforming clothing is saved in the Figures library is because it
contains group names that correspond to the figures that the
clothing is designed to fit.
Dynamic clothing is basically a prop with specialized groups, so you Figure 16.34. Assign a name in the New Set Name field.

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5. Click the Select Subset button (shown above in Figure 34)

to open the Hierarchy Selection dialog. Choose dress as the
Task 6: Adding Wind to Your
object to save as shown in Figure 35. Then click OK to return Project
to the Set Name dialog.
Poser provides the capability of adding wind forces to your scene
or animation. Dynamic clothing and dynamic hair react to the wind
forces, which can simulate gentle or strong gusts as well as strong,
forceful winds.
The Object > Create Wind Force command adds a wind force
object to your scene. It resembles a small fan, with the wider end
containing blades that should point in the direction that the wind
blows.
Wind force objects have the following key properties in the
Parameters palette:
Figure 16.35. Choose the dress in the Hierarchy Selection dialog.

• Amplitude: Adjust this setting to control the strength of

6. Click OK to save the clothing object to the current Props the wind force. Low settings create gentle winds, and high
library. Poser saves the dress with the groups and settings that settings create strong winds.
you created.
• Spread Angle: Adjust this setting to control the area that
the wind effects. Small Spread Angles create winds that target
When you add the dynamic clothing from the library to a specific area, such as when a person blows out a candle.
the scene, you must create a new simulation. Large Spread Angles create winds that affect a wide area,
such as a storm.

• Range: Adjust this setting to control how far the wind can
affect objects. Small Range settings will only affect close

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objects, whereas larger Range settings affect objects in the

distance.
The cloth simulation for this file is already configured for you. Some
• Turbulence: Adjust this setting to control the amount of of the important things to note in regards to this simulation are:
irregularity in the wind. ƒƒ There are a total of 60 frames in the animation.
The file ClothRmTask6.pzz, located in the Tutorials/ClothRoom ƒƒ The Simulation name is Curtains. The simulation is set to
folder in your Poser installation, will help to illustrate how wind start at Frame 1 and end at Frame 60. Cloth self-collision
forces work. Rather than demonstrate with clothing, this file is checked, and there are 10 drape frames.
contains a wall with an opening. Curtains hang from a rod on the
“inside” of the wall. Figure 36 shows the “inside” view, as seen ƒƒ The Cloth object is named Curtains. The curtains are set
through the Main camera. to collide against the Wall and the Curtain Rod.
ƒƒ The default dynamic group is the only group used in the
curtains.
1. Choose the Display > Camera View > From Back command, to
view the items from the back side. Here, you will see a Wind
Force object that has already been created for you.

2. Click the Wind Force object to select it. Open the Parameters
palette (Window > Parameter Dials) if necessary.

3. Note that the Wind Force object is not in its default position.
In order to position the wind force correctly on the other
side of the window, the yRotate setting was changed to 180
degrees (to face the wind in the proper direction). The xTran,
Figure 16.36. Curtains hang over an opening in the wall. yTran, and zTran settings are set to .447, 4.662, and -5.736
respectively.

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4. The settings that affect the wind force (or its force field)
appear in the Other and Dynamics portions of the Parameters
palette. They are Amplitude, Spread Angle, Range, and
Turbulence, as shown in Figure 37.

Figure 16.38. The range of the wind force is represented by the length of the two
“arms” that stick out in front of the fan.

6. Move the Range slider until the arms extend beyond the
curtain. The setting should be around .700.
Figure 16.37. The Amplitude, Spread Angle, Range, and Turbulence settings
affect the force of the wind. 7. Now, let’s adjust the Spread Angle, which controls the width
of the wind force. The default of 45 degrees is too wide, as
5. Now, let’s take a look at one of the settings that is important it goes above and below the window and wall. Reduce the
in this project: Range. To adjust the range of the wind force, Spread Angle setting to about 23 degrees. At the same time,
first choose the Left camera (Display > Camera View > Left adjust the yTran setting of the force field to around 4.955 so
Camera). The range is represented by the length of the two that the wind force is centered better in the window. Looking
“arms” that stick out from the wind force fan. They currently through the Aux camera, here is the result thus far, shown in
end well before the wall, as shown in Figure 38. Figure 39.

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10. To demonstrate what Turbulence does, again return to Frame

1. Adjust the Turbulence setting to 1 (full strength), and
calculate your simulation again. Now, the curtains react to
“gusts” of wind that are not all at the same strength.

You can also add keyframes beyond the first frame,

or use the animation graph to vary the forcefield settings
throughout the animation.

Now that you know the basics of wind force objects and how they
affect clothing, you can experiment with dynamic clothing as well
as dynamic hair. Both react to wind force using the same principals
that you learned here.
Figure 16.39. The Range and Spread Angle have been adjusted to fit the window.

8. For now, leave the Amplitude setting at 1, and the Turbulence

setting at 0 (their default settings). Press the Calculate
Adjusting Dynamic Clothing to
Simulation button and view the effects. If desired, use the Fit Other Characters
Animation > Make Movie command to generate a movie of
the test so that you can see the effects more easily. Poser allows you to morph a character so that it has a different
body type. This is done with magnets, or with morph dials that are
9. Verify that you are in Frame 1, and increase the Amplitude already built into the character for you.
setting to 10. Calculate another simulation and you will notice
But dynamic clothing won’t fit a customized character “right out
that the curtains move more in response to the stronger wind.
of the box”. Fortunately, the Cloth room can fit the clothing for
Though the curtains move more, they still move very gracefully
you. The approach is different, depending on whether the target
as if being blown by a gentle wind.
character is lighter or heavier than the default body shape.

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The following examples show how you can use the Cloth room to Using the default of 30 frames for your animation, advance to
adjust clothing to fit a morphed body. Though this example uses Frame 15. This will leave the last 15 frames in the animation for
DAZ Stephanie Petite, the same principals can be used with other the clothing to settle and drape naturally after it resizes. Once you
models that are morphed to a different body shape. get to Frame 15, morph the character into the desired body shape.
For example, in Figure 41, you see Stephanie Petite with the Pear
Figure body morph set to 1.
Fitting a Heavier Body Shape
To begin, load the character that you want to morph from the
Figures library. Then, add an item of dynamic clothing from the
Props library. Use the Object > Change Parent command to choose
the Body of the figure as the parent to the clothing, as shown in
Figure 40.

Figure 16.41: In Frame 15, the Pear Figure body morph is applied to the figure.

Go to the Cloth room, and create a New Simulation, as shown in

figure 42. Set the simulation to run through all 30 frames of your
project file, allowing the remaining 15 frames to settle the cloth.
You don’t need to set the drape frames.
Figure 16.40: Choose the Body as the parent to the clothing item.

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Figure 16.42. Create a new simulation for the clothing.

Figure 16.43. Set the cloth to collide against the figure.

Clothify the clothing as outlined in the previous tasks, and set it to Press the Calculate Simulation button. As the simulation
collide against the figure as shown in Figure 43. The Start Draping progresses, you should see the character gradually morph through
from Zero Pose setting can either be checked or unchecked. the first 15 frames until it reaches the desired shape in Frame 15.
The dress should also morph accordingly. Then, when calculations
run through Frames 16 through 30 you should see the dress settle.
Figure 44 shows the result.

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Figure 16.44. The final fit on the Pear Figure Stephanie is much better!. Figure 16.45. Stephanie Petite, set to “Emaciated” in Frame 1.

Just to illustrate what we are trying to avoid, here is what the

Fitting a Lighter Body Shape dress looks like if you use the same procedure as that used with
a heavy figure. Notice in Figure 46 how Stephanie is swimming in
The process to fit a lighter body shape is slightly different than the that dress! Not only is it dragging on the floor (not shown), but it’s
previous example. Basically, if you use the previous steps to apply hanging off her, most noticeably in the back.
the dress to a lighter figure, the dress will appear too large.
The way around this is to scale the body smaller in the first frame,
and let it “grow” into the dress on Frame 15. In this example, we
start Stephanie Petite at her default body size in Frame 1. In Frame
15, she is set to “Emaciated” (to show an extreme), as shown in
Figure 45.

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Figure 16.46: Emaciated Stephanie Petite is swimming in the dress. Figure 16.47: Set the BODY xScale and zScale to 90%.

To prevent this from happening, follow the same steps as outlined Next, go to Frame 15, or the same frame that has the body morph
for the heavy figures. But, before you calculate the simulation, set to 1. Set the xScale and zScale for the body back to 1, as
return to Frame 1. Select the Body of Figure 1 (your character), shown in Figure 48.
and adjust the xScale and the zScale to 90% (This figure may vary,
depending on how skinny the figure is. This is an extreme example).
Leave the yScale setting as is, otherwise you will affect the length
of the dress in the simulation. Figure 47 shows the location of
these settings.

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Next, create a cloth simulation for the pants, and set it to collide
against the figure, the shirt, and the shoes. Calculate its simulation.

Figure 16.48. At Frame 15, set the BODY xScale and zScale back to 100%.

Once you finish this additional step, you can calculate the
simulation. The clothing will probably fit better this time around!

If you are scaling multiple pieces of clothing to fit the

same body shape, you will need multiple simulations. For
example, let’s say you want to fit a shirt, pants, shoes, and a
jacket. The shirt tucks into the pants, the pants drape over the
shoes, and the jacket goes over the shirt and pants.

Given that scenario, you probably won’t “clothify” the shoes, as

leather is not very flexible. However, you do want the pants to
drape over the shoes appropriately, so make sure your figure is
wearing the shoes.
First create a cloth simulation for the shirt, and set it to collide
against the figure. Calculate its simulation.

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Chapter 17: The Hair Room

by Denise Tyler
You have no doubt seen furry creatures in animated movies such
as Shrek or Monsters, Inc., and observed their hair blowing in
the wind, or reacting to gravity or other movement when the
characters change position. The hair on those characters uses a
technique that is similar to what you find in Poser’s Hair room.
To begin, notice that Poser uses three different types of hair, each Figure 17.1: Hair from the Hair library attaches to the figure’s head. It requires
morphs to bend and style it.
of which have strengths and weaknesses. The first type of hair uses
an HR2 or HRZ extension. This type of hair uses a geometry file, a
texture map, and a transparency map, and can look quite realistic. The second hair type uses a CR2 or CRZ extension. This type of
HR2 files are usually configured as a smart prop that automatically hair works the same way as conforming clothing. You attach it to
attaches itself to a figure’s head. You can also attach them yourself the figure using the Figure > Conform To command, and then
with the Figure > Set Figure Parent or Object > Change it automatically bends to follow the pose of the character. For
Parent commands. example, if you put a long hair object on a figure and then bent her
head forward, the parts on the head and neck bend accordingly,
Though HR2 hair does move along with the character as far as
as shown in Figure 2. Conforming hair also utilizes morphs to style
positioning goes, it requires morphs to make it pose correctly when
and animate the hair.
the head bends in any direction. For example, if you add long hair
to a character and then bend her head forward, the bottom of the
hair sticks out. In many cases, morphs are added to make the hair
bend appropriately, as shown in Figure 1.

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3. Configure the density and amount of curl in the hair, and

style it.

4. If using the hair in an animation, specify how the hair reacts

to gravity, air, bending, and change of position, and calculate
the dynamic properties.

Dynamic hair contains many faces. As a result it needs

a lot of computing power during dynamic calculations and can
affect the performance of your system.

A good way to approach hair is to first add all of the hair groups to
Figure 17.2. Conforming hair, found in the Figures library, moves with the
character like conforming clothing does. the skullcap, using the Group Editor. Then, start with the bottom-
most layer, growing and styling the hair on it. As you work your
way up to the crown, you continue to add hair.
While prop hair and conforming hair can look quite realistic in
still images, they are difficult to use in animation. You need many
keyframes and extensive morphing to make them move realistically.
Strand-based hair, found in Poser’s Hair room, is the ideal solution
Task 1: Quick Start to Creating
for realistic hair animation. Strand-based hair looks more lifelike, and Styling Hair
and reacts to movement and wind forces in much the same way as
dynamic clothing. Let’s take the basic steps of hair creation one step farther. In this
There are four basic steps to creating dynamic hair: quick start tutorial, you’ll create hair from a skull cap that only has
one group. You’ll create a nice, soft hairstyle with a little bit of curl
1. Create a skull cap and divide it into hair growth groups. and styling.

2. Define the length and amount of pull in the hair.

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Though you can add hair directly to a character’s head,

you won’t be able to distribute it without the character, or use
the hair with other characters. The only way you can save a
character, with hair, is to save the entire project. This makes it
difficult to use the same hairstyle on any character.

Adding Groups
To style your first hair style, follow these steps:
1. Open the project named JessiHairRoom01.pzz from the
Tutorials/HairRoom folder in your Poser installation. This file
has Jessi in the default pose, wearing a red and black cocktail
dress. She is also wearing a skull cap that has no hair groups
Figure 17.3. Jessi appears in the Hair room wearing a skull cap.
defined. The skull cap appears as a transparent object on the
head.
3. Click the skull cap on Jessi’s head to make it the current
2. Enter the Hair room. If necessary, choose the Face Camera object.
so that you can see Jessi as shown in Figure 3.
4. Find the Hair Growth Groups section of the Hair room
(section 1, in the upper-left section), and click the New
Growth Group button shown in Figure 4.

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Figure 17.6. Click the Edit Growth Group button to select faces for the new hair
Figure 17.4. The New Growth Group button creates a new hair group.
group.

5. Name the new growth group All, as shown in Figure 5, and

click OK to continue. The other buttons in Section 1 of the 7. The Group Editor opens in the Hair room. To add all of the
Hair room should now be available for use. faces to the All hair group, click the Add All button, shown in
Figure 7. All of the faces in the skull cap should turn red.

Figure 17.5. Name the new growth group All.

6. To define which faces belong in the new growth group, click

the Edit Growth Group button shown in Figure 6.

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Figure 17.7. Click the Add All button to add all faces to the current growth Figure 17.8. The Growth Controls define the length and natural behavior of the
group. hair.

8. Click the square in the upper-right corner of the Group ƒƒ Grow Guide Hairs: Press this button to grow some
Editor palette to close it and return to the Hair room. You guide hairs on the current hair growth group. Guide hairs
have just completed your first hair growth group … the only are representative strands that allow you to style the hair
one necessary for this tutorial. without having to view all of the hairs on the head. You
can view all hairs when you render, or if you check the
“Show Populated” option in Section 3 of the Hair room.
Growing the Hair ƒƒ Hair Length: The Hair Length dial controls the length
of the guide hairs, and the populated hairs, in the current
You should now notice that the Growth Controls in section 2
hair growth group. The default value is .3440, which
are enabled. These controls are shown in Figure 8, and provide the
creates hairs that are about equal length to Judy’s neck.
following functions:
A value of 0 produces a good representation of 5 o’clock

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shadow stubble. A value of about 2.5 to 3.0 creates hair the hair is parted. Numbers above 0 pull the hair toward
that reaches out at about arm’s length. the character’s right, while numbers below 0 pull the hair
toward the character’s left side.
ƒƒ Length Variance: The Length Variance creates hair
that is uneven in length, creating a more natural look. A 1. Click the Grow Guide Hairs button. Initially you’ll see the
value of 0 creates no variation in length, making all hairs wild style shown in Figure 9. There are two things to point
in the current group even (like a blunt cut). A value of out here: first, the hair that you see in the render will not be
one creates unevenness that is about equal to the length as thin as what you see in the window here. These are only
of the neck. A value of .1 produces fairly natural results, representative guide hairs that help you style the hair without
somewhat like a feathered cut. having to wade through thousands of hairs at once. Secondly,
all of the hairs you see on the head are roughly the same
ƒƒ Pull Back: Not to be confused with pulling back from length all across the head. For this style it’s okay, but later
styling, the Pull Back setting controls how the hair in you’ll learn how you can control hair lengths a little better.
the hair group is naturally pulled back. For example,
men’s short hair pulls back naturally from the hair line. A
value of 0 does not pull hair back at all. Increase values
above 0 to pull hair backward, and decrease values
below 0 to push hair forward.
ƒƒ Pull Down: The Pull Down setting controls how
much the hair naturally pulls down because of gravity
or length. Long hair weighs more than short hair, so its
natural tendency to pull downward is greater. Increase
the setting to pull the hair downward, and decrease the
setting below 0 to create hair that sticks up. A value of
.005 creates a nice natural bend for medium to long hair.
ƒƒ Pull Side: The Pull Side setting controls how much
the hair naturally pulls to the right or left, such as when

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ƒƒ Pull Down: 0.00043

ƒƒ Pull Side: 0.00000 (default)

Figure 17.9. After you click the Grow Guide Hairs button, you see a wild hair
style.

Figure 17.10. After some adjustments in the Growth Controls section, the hair
2. We’ll adjust a couple of the controls to tame that hair a little
is a little tamer.
bit. Set the following growth controls in Section 2 to the
values shown below. Your hair should look as shown in Figure
10.
Adding or Removing Curliness
ƒƒ Hair Length: 0.3440 (default)
ƒƒ Length Variance: 0.0000 (default) Take a look next at the Styling Controls in section 3. These
controls define how thin/thick or how naturally straight or curly the
ƒƒ Pull Back: -0.00011 hair is. They serve the following purposes:

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• Style Hairs: Click this button to open the Hair Style Tool saves valuable resources and allows you to create hair that
(described later in this task). renders much faster.

• Show Populated: Check this option to see the density • Tip Width: This setting controls the thickness of the hair at
of the hair as it will be rendered. Unless you have a good the end of the hair, and should be lower than the root width,
amount of computer resources, it is best to leave this option which follows.
unchecked. A good time to use it, however, is when you set
the Hair Density setting described next. • Root Width: This setting controls the thickness of the hair
at the base of the head, and should be higher than the tip
• Hair Density: For best results, adjust this setting with the width, above.
Show Populated option checked until you cover the head
sufficiently. Too high a setting affects system performance. • Clumpiness: Increase this setting for hair that clumps
together, such as in dreadlocks or heavy curls. Decrease for
fine, thin hair.
Hair tends to look better when it isn’t quite as dense.
However, in Poser 5, the only way to prevent the scalp from • Kink Strength: Increase this setting for curlier hair;
showing through was to increase the Hair Density setting. This decrease for straight hair.
put a huge strain on system resources.
• Kink Scale: Increase this setting for tighter curls, and
• To help remedy this issue, Poser offers the Opaque in decrease it for looser curls. This setting is also affected by the
Shadow option found in the Hair Material nodes. This option Verts per Hair setting below.
is explained more fully later in this tutorial section.
• Kink Delay: Controls the distance between the root of the
• When the Opaque in Shadow option is checked on the hair and the point at which it begins to curl. Higher numbers
current hair material (as it is in the current project file), you cause the curls to start farther away from the head.
do not have to make the hair real dense to hide the scalp.
• Verts Per Hair: Controls the number of vertices that are
Instead, the hair gets more opaque as it recedes into the
in each hair strand. Higher values create smoother hair but
shadows, and gives the impression that the hair is fuller. This
increase system resources. Lower numbers are easier on your

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resources but it is better to use them in straight styles.

Starting from the top setting, we are going to make the hair a little
more dense than the default setting. . We’ll also make the hair
less clumpy, because it is straight and fine. To create hair that is
straighter, we will decrease the Kink Strength, Kink Scale, and Verts
per hair settings, and increase the Kink Delay. Try these settings to
get the results shown in Figure 11:

• Hair Density: 2500. With the Opaque in Shadow option set

in the hair material node, this setting strikes a perfect balance
between fullness and system resources.

• Tip Width: 4 (default)

• Root Width: 1 (default)

• Clumpiness: 0.100
Figure 17.11. After some styling control adjustments, the hair is a little
• Kink Strength: 2 (Straightens the hair a little bit) straighter.

• Kink Scale: 50 (Makes hair less kinky)

• Kink Delay: 1.00 (Straightens hair further) Styling the Hair

• Verts Per Hair: 10 (Reduces system resources for straighter 1. Now for the fun part. Click the Style Hairs button in section 3
hair) to open the Hair Style Tool shown in Figure 12.

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(Windows) with the Select Hair tools to achieve the same

thing.
ƒƒ Translate Hairs In-Out: Moves the selected vertices
toward you or away from you.
ƒƒ Twist Hairs: Twists the hairs, somewhat like the shape
of a tornado.
2. Click the Select tool, and select the vertices along the bottom
of the hair. Be sure to rotate the camera and select them all
the way around the head if necessary. Figure 13 shows the
bottom four rows selected.

Figure 17.12. Click the Style Hairs button to open the Hair Style Tool.

ƒƒ Select Hairs: Use this tool to select the guide hairs

that you want to style.
ƒƒ Translate Hairs: Drag the mouse left or right to move
hairs.
ƒƒ Curl Hairs: Curls hair upward in a flip style of under
toward the head.
ƒƒ Scale Hairs: Moves vertices farther away or closer to
each other along the horizontal axis.
ƒƒ Deselect Hairs: Deselects the currently selected
vertices. You can also Command-Click (Mac) or Ctrl-click

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bring the vertices in closer to the neck. The direction of scale

depends on which way the camera is facing. View the model
from the front. Place the cursor in the center of the selection,
and drag the mouse toward the left to bring the selection in
toward the neck, as shown in Figure 14.

Figure 17.13. The bottom four rows of vertices are selected.

The Select Tool adds vertices to the current selection.

To remove vertices from the selection, press the Command
(Mac)/Ctrl (Windows) key while drawing a selection box Figure 17.14. Scale the lower hairs in toward the neck.
around the vertices you want to remove. To remove all vertices
from the selection, click the Clear Selection button in the Hair
Style Tool. 4. Rotate the camera so that you are looking at the character
from the side. Select the Move tool (second tool on the top
row) and bring the selection in closer to the neck, as shown
3. Now that a selection is made, the remaining tools should be
in Figure 15.
enabled. Select the Scale tool (last tool on the top row) and

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Figure 17.15. Move the vertices closer to the neck. Figure 17.16. Select another set of vertices above the previous selection.

5. Click the Clear Selection button in the Hair Style Tool. The 7. Adjust the Lengthen slider in the Hair Style Tool until your
yellow vertices should become deselected. guide hairs are approximately the same length as the previous
layer, as shown in Figure 17.
6. Now, select the group of vertices above those you just worked
on, as shown in Figure 16. If necessary, use the Deselect
tool or press Command (Mac)/Ctrl (Windows) while you use
the Select tool to remove the previous vertices from the
selection.

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than toward the tip of the hair strands.

Figure 17.17. Use the Lengthen slider to increase the length of the selected
strands. Figure 17.18. Scale and move the strands closer to the head.

9. Use the Select tool to draw a selection around both sets

of bottom vertices. Then, uncheck the Constrain Length
After you grow and style guide hairs, it is better to use
the Lengthen slider in the Hair Style Tool to make hair longer checkbox in the Hair Style Tool. Use the Move and Scale
or shorter. If you use the Hair Length setting in the Guide tools to adjust the length up or down until you get a length
Hairs section it will reset all in the growth group (in this case, that you like. An example is shown in Figure 19.
all hairs) to their pre-styled state..

8. Again, use the Scale tool and the Move tool until you see
results that are similar to those shown in Figure 18. You can
also adjust the Falloff slider more toward the root to move
the affected region more toward the base of the head rather

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Figure 17.19. Adjust the length of all strands you have worked on thus far.

10. Finally, clear the current selection, and select the top portion
of the head. Use the Scale and Move tools to bring the hair Figure 17.20. Scale and move the top layer of vertices to finish the style.
in closer to the head, keeping the bangs at a proper length.
The results should look similar to that shown in Figure 20.
11. Render your style to see how it looks, and if it needs any other
adjustments. If the hair looks too thin, go to the material
room and check the material settings for the hair. If necessary,
check the Opaque In Shadow option in the hair node. You
can also increase hair density settings, but try not to increase
it too much.

The two settings that affect your resources the most are
the Hair Density setting and the Verts Per Hair setting. Keeping

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them both as low as possible will create hair that renders one hair group. As a case in point, you’ll have more control over
much faster. the top of the head if you create hair groups that focus on the
crown, or on right and left sections so that you can create hair with
a center part.
If you have ever worn or seen a real wig, you may have noticed
that the hairs are sewn on a cap made of netting. This is known
as a skull cap. Poser’s skull caps serve the same purpose: you
attach the hair to a base part called a skull cap. Poser comes with
some skull caps for you to start with, but in order to share with
other users you should make your own to avoid copyright issues.
You can also create your own in a modeling program such as
LightWave, as shown below.
Though skull caps can be rescaled to fit a figure, you’ll no doubt
obtain the best results if the skull cap is designed specifically for
the character. For example, the position and shape of Judy’s head
(the Poser 5 female) is different than Jessi’s (the Poser 6 female),
and DAZ 3D’s Victoria also has a head that is different from Jessi’s
or Judy’s.
You can actually create a skull cap very easily in Poser’s Pose
Figure 17.21. Render the hair and make any adjustments you feel are necessary. room. Click the figure’s head to make it the current selection. Then
select the Grouping tool from the Editing tools shown in Figure
22.

Creating Multi-Grouped Hair

Though the hair in the previous example is a good start, you get
more control over styling if you use a skull cap that has more than

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Figure 17.22. Select the character’s head, then open the Group tool.

With the head selected, create a new group named Skullcap.

Use the tools in the Group Editor to select the polygons that Figure 17.23. Create a Skullcap group and select faces to include in the new
you want to include in the skull cap. It helps to view the head in group.
Wireframe mode while you do this (Display > Document Style
> Wireframe). It also helps to view the head with the Left or After you have the faces selected, click the Create Prop button
Right Camera while you select the faces, as shown in Figure 23. in the bottom section of the Group Editor. Poser prompts you
This helps you get a symmetrical selection. to name the prop (Skullcap). It leaves the original head intact, but
creates a skull cap that uses the same texture that was assigned to
the faces you originally selected. You can then use this skullcap to
create your hair.
On the other hand, if you intend to share your hairstyle with

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others, you cannot distribute any of the geometry from your Poser The easiest way to simulate this in the Hair room is to create
character. In the case of distributing or selling hair, you will need to more than one hair group in the skull cap. When it comes time to
create your own skull cap in a 3D modeling program. For example, “grow” the hair, you can create shorter hairs on the lower layers,
Figure 24 shows a skull cap in progress for Will (the Poser 5 boy). and longer hairs on the upper layers, giving everything a smooth,
uniform look. In addition, if you want the hair to part in the middle,
or even to the right or left, you can anticipate this with the hair
groups.
You can assign hair groups in a modeling program, a UV mapping
program, or in Poser’s Group Editor. The following sections
explain how.

Using a Modeling or UV Mapping

Program
One way to approach hair groups using a modeling or UV mapping
program is to assign different material zones to the skull cap.
Figure 25 shows several different material zones, colored for clarity,
Figure 17.24. A skull cap designed in LightWave. that are created in a skull cap.
The groups shown in the following figure allow you to create a
As you learned in the previous example, hair is initially all the same wide variety of hair styles. Three layers in the back can each be
length when you create it. In reality, when you look at your own different lengths. The lower layers can be closer to the head, while
hair, this is typically not the case. For example, think of a girl with the upper layers can be farther away. Three crown layers (Crown,
long, shoulder-length hair that appears to be all one length, bangs Top Right, and Top Left) allow you to gain more control over the
and all. In reality, the hair at the base of the neck is much shorter hairs at the top of the head, allowing you to pull part of it toward
than the hair at the crown of her head. the back, and part the upper part in the middle or on one side
or the other. The two side zones, top and bottom, give you more

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control over longer hair that might fall in front of the shoulder. 3. With the object imported, click the Hair tab to enter the Hair
room.

4. Click the New Growth Group button in section 1 of the

Hair room, shown in Figure 26.

Figure 17.25. Divide the skull cap into several material zones using a modeling Figure 17.26. Click the New Growth Group button to create a hair group.
or UV mapping software.

5. A dialog prompts you to enter a group name. Enter a name

After you assign the material zones and save the object as a that is representative of the section you want to grow. In this
Wavefront OBJ file, import the OBJ file into Poser and position it example, I enter TopLeft and click OK.
properly over the character’s head. You can use the material zones
to create the hair growth groups by using the following procedure: 6. Click the Edit Growth Group button. The Hair room Group
1. Choose File > Import > WaveFront OBJ. Select the skull cap Editor shown in Figure 27 appears.
with materials assigned, and click Open.

2. The Prop Import Options dialog appears. As long as the

OBJ file is the correct size and in the correct position, you
don’t need to check any options. Leave them all unchecked
and press OK to continue.

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Figure 17.27. The Hair room Group Editor allows you to select faces for your Figure 17.28. You can add all faces assigned to one or more materials to the
new group. current group.

7. Because the OBJ was divided into separate material zones, 8. Click the arrow to reveal the materials contained in the skull
you can use the Add Material button to choose which cap. Choose TopLeft, as shown in Figure 29. The TopLeft faces
material to add to the TopLeft group. To begin, click the Add turn red.
Material button, shown in Figure 28. The Add Material
dialog appears.

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BackMiddle BackMiddle

BackTop BackTop

Crown Crown

SidesTop SidesTop

SidesBottom SidesBottom

BackBottom BackBottom

Figure 17.29. Choose the TopLeft material for the TopLeft hair group.
TopRight TopRight
9. Proceed through the remaining material zones in the skull cap
to add all the other groups. To add the next group, click the
New Group button at the top of the Group Editor. A dialog 10. Before you close the Group Editor, check the Show
prompts you to enter a new name. The Group Names in the Non-Grouped Faces option to see if any faces show up
table below are added one by one. The Add Material process highlighted in red. If there are any, you forgot to create and
adds the appropriately named material zone to the selected assign some material faces. You should see everything in
faces. Continue in this manner until all of the following groups black, as shown in Figure 30.
are assigned.

GROUP NAME MATERIAL NAME

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Figure 17.30. The Show Non-Grouped Faces option highlights unassigned faces
in red. If all faces are assigned you should see all black.

11. Sometimes, an object is imported with a default group that Figure 17.31. Delete any groups that you did not create yourself.
is generated in your modeling or UV mapping software. In
that case, move through the list of groups in the Group List
to determine if any exist. In the case of the example shown
in Figure 31, a group named Object__0 is found. Press the
Using Poser’s Group Editor
Delete Group button to delete the group. If there are other As you saw in the previous lesson, it is very easy to add hair groups
unwanted groups, delete them as well. Then close the Group if material zones are defined for you ahead of time. If the object
Editor. does not have material zones defined already, you can use the
Group Editor in the Hair room to define each Hair Group and the
faces that are included in it. This approach takes a bit more time
and care, but it still achieves the same results.
The basic steps start similar to the previous method, but you’ll use
the selection tools in the Group Editor to select the faces. You

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may also find it easier to see the boundaries of each face if you
change the Poser display mode.
1. Choose File > Import > WaveFront OBJ. Select the skullcap
OBJ file and click Open.

2. The Prop Import Options dialog appears. Leave all options

unchecked and press OK to continue.

3. It will be much easier to view the skull cap in a manner that

shows you where the faces are when you enter the Group
Editor. For this reason, choose Display > Document Style
> Wireframe. The skull cap should now look as shown in
Figure 32.
Figure 17.32. The skull cap is shown in Flat Shaded Lined mode. This helps you
select faces more easily.

4. In the Hair room, click the New Growth Group button in

section 1.

5. A dialog prompts you to enter a group name. Enter TopLeft

and click OK. This section will create a part in the middle of
the crown.

6. The Edit Growth Group button should now be enabled.

Click it to open the Group Editor.

7. Choose the Top Camera (Display > Camera View > From
Top) and adjust the view so that you can see the skull cap

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more closely. Select four rows of polygons from the center of Growth Group button again, and create a new growth
the skull cap to the left side of the skull cap (which is on your group named TopRight. Confirm that it is the current group
right facing you). Figure 33 shows an example of the selected selected in the Group Editor, then select the faces shown in
faces highlighted in red. Figure 34.

Figure 17.33. Click the New Growth Group button to create a hair group. Figure 17.34. Click the New Growth Group button to create a hair group.

9. Choose the Right Camera (Display > Camera View >

From Right) and move the skull cap closer to your view.
If you select too many faces, or accidentally include
faces that do not belong in the group, press the Command Settings to get the view shown in Figure 35 were Dolly Y
(Mac)/Ctrl (Windows) key while you click a single face or use 53.658, DollyX 1.258, and Scale 11%.
the selection tool to select multiple faces to remove.

8. Now we’ll create the other side of the part. Click the New

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Figure 17.35. Use the Right Camera to look at the side of the skull cap. Figure 17.36. In Wireframe view, both sides of the model’s faces are selected at
the same time.

10. Click the New Growth Group button to create a new

growth group named FrontTop, and add the faces shown in 11. Continue as above, creating the remaining groups and
Figure 36 to the selection. Because you are viewing the model selecting appropriate faces. Figure 37 shows the remaining
in wireframe view, the faces on the opposite side will also be group names along with the selections that went along with
selected for you. them.

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Figure 17.37. Create the remaining hair groups and assign faces to them.
Figure 17.38. Faces that are assigned to more than one group appear in red.
12. After you assign all polygons to your hair groups, you might
want to double-check a couple of things. First, check the 13. The reason all faces are shown in red is because modeling
Show Multigrouped Faces option to see if you have programs and UV mapping programs sometimes assign all
accidentally assigned faces to more than one group. If so, they faces to a group during export. In the case of the example in
appear in red as shown in Figure 38. Figure 39, there is a group named Cap. After you uncheck the
Show Multigrouped Faces option, use the arrows beneath
the group name list to advance to the Cap group, and delete
it with the Delete Group button.

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Figure 17.39. Delete the Cap group from the list.

14. In a similar manner, check the Show Non-grouped Faces

option. Any faces that have not yet been assigned to a group
Figure 17.40. Remove stray faces by pressing the Command (Mac)/Ctrl
will appear in red. Uncheck the option, and select the group
(Windows) key while you select the faces to remove.
that should contain some or all of the missing faces, and add
them to the group.

15. As Figure 40 shows, you can sometimes accidentally have If some faces accidentally get assigned to more than
faces in a group that you don’t want. Here, we see faces from one group, determine which groups share the common faces.
the side of the head included in the TopLeft group. Simply Then, select the group that you want to keep the faces in.
press the Command (Mac)/Ctrl (Windows) key while you Click the Remove Group button to choose the group that
select the faces to remove them. incorrectly shares the faces.

This task shows the basic steps to assign faces with

the Group Editor. For more information about the Group
Editor, refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “The Group

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Editor” on page 507. HairRoom folder in your Poser installation. This project
contains Jessi with the same skull cap used in the previous
exercise, except that it has been divided into the following
hair growth groups:
Task 2: Growing and Styling
ƒƒ Crown
Multi-Grouped Hair
ƒƒ TopLeft
When you divide a skull cap into different hair groups, it gives you
greater control over the way hair falls over the skull cap. Though ƒƒ TopRight
you have more hair groups to work with, the process is very similar ƒƒ Sides
to the method used in Task 1.
ƒƒ UpperBack
There is one main difference when using multiple hair groups.
Think about how a hairdresser cuts women’s hair in the salon. If a ƒƒ MiddleBack
customer has long hair, the hairdresser piles all of the hair on the ƒƒ LowerBack
top of the head, except for a section at the bottom. The bottom
hair is trimmed and styled, and then the hairdresser pulls another 2. Enter the Hair room and select the skull cap. Use the Current
layer down to style over the hair that has already been cut. Group list to select the LowerBack growth group, as shown
in Figure 41.
You will find it easiest to approach your Hair room style in the
same manner. You’ll find it easier to grow and style the bottom hair
group first. Then, choose the next highest hair group, and grow
and style it.
In the following tutorial, you’ll step through the process very
quickly, using the skills you learned in the previous hair tutorial.
For the sake of brevity, this tutorial will not incorporate the Hair
Style Tool.
1. Open the file JessiHairRoom02.pzz from the Tutorials/

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4. In the Styling Controls section, set values as follows:

ƒƒ Hair Density: 2500.00 (Increases the number of hairs

for each guide hair). This setting can be much less if you
check the Opaque in Shadow option on the hair material.
ƒƒ Tip Width: 0.40000
ƒƒ Root Width: 1.00000
ƒƒ Clumpiness: 0.200
ƒƒ Kink Strength: 20.00 (Makes hair curlier)
ƒƒ Kink Scale: 100.00

Figure 17.41. Select the LowerBack layer first.

ƒƒ Kink Delay: 0.30
ƒƒ Verts Per Hair: 30 (Makes curls softer, but greatly
3. In the Growth Controls section, set the values as shown increases resources. This is a very brave setting for
below, and click the Grow Guide Hairs button. Where dynamic hair. If it bogs your system down, cut this setting
settings differ from the default, the reason for the change is back until you get a balance between softness and
noted in the following. resources. Always use the lowest possible setting for this
parameter that still looks good. This setting, together
ƒƒ Hair Length: 0.6000 (makes hair longer) with the Hair Density setting, is the most “expensive”
when it comes to system resources.)
ƒƒ Length Variance: 0.0000
5. If desired, render the first layer. Your results should look similar
ƒƒ Pull Back: 0.00015 to Figure 42.
ƒƒ Pull Down: 0.00200 (weighs hair down more)
ƒƒ Pull Side: 0.0000

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ƒƒ Pull Side: 0.0000

STYLING CONTROLS (Section 3)

ƒƒ Hair Density: 2500.00 (Increases the number of hairs
for each guide hair). This setting can be much less if
you check the Opaque in Shadow option on the hair
material.
ƒƒ Tip Width: 0.40000
ƒƒ Root Width: 1.00000
ƒƒ Clumpiness: 0.200
ƒƒ Kink Strength: 20.00 (Makes hair curlier)
Figure 17.42. After rendering, the bottom layer of hair.
ƒƒ Kink Scale: 100.00

6. Next, select the MiddleBack layer, and in a similar manner, ƒƒ Kink Delay: 0.30
grow the hair and set controls as follows: ƒƒ Verts Per Hair: 30 (Makes curls softer, but increases
resources)
GROWTH CONTROLS (Section 2)
7. Click the Style Hairs button and select the vertices in the
MiddleBack layer. Use the Scale tool to bring the vertices
ƒƒ Hair Length: 0.7000 (makes hair longer) closer to the head, as shown in Figure 43. Click the Clear
ƒƒ Length Variance: 0.0000 Selection button in the Hair Style Tool when you are
finished.
ƒƒ Pull Back: 0.00015
ƒƒ Pull Down: 0.00200 (weighs hair down more)

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ƒƒ Pull Side: 0.0000

STYLING CONTROLS (Section 3)

ƒƒ Hair Density: 2500.00 (Increases the number of hairs
for each guide hair). This setting can be much less if
you check the Opaque in Shadow option on the hair
material.
ƒƒ Tip Width: 0.40000
ƒƒ Root Width: 1.00000
ƒƒ Clumpiness: 0.200
ƒƒ Kink Strength: 20.00 (Makes hair curlier)
Figure 17.43. Scale the MiddleBack layer closer to the head.
ƒƒ Kink Scale: 100.00

8. Close the Hair Style Tool, and select the UpperBack layer ƒƒ Kink Delay: 0.30
as the current group. Grow the hair and set the controls as ƒƒ Verts Per Hair: 30 (Makes curls softer, but increases
follows: resources)
9. Now select the Sides section. This section of hair affects the
GROWTH CONTROLS (Section 2)
hair that is above and in front of the ears. We’re going to pull
ƒƒ Hair Length: 0.6000 (makes hair shorter than the this layer toward the back a little. To do so, use the following
previous layer) settings after you grow the hair. Figure 44 shows the progress
after you complete this step.
ƒƒ Length Variance: 0.0000
ƒƒ Pull Back: 0.00015 GROWTH CONTROLS (Section 2)
ƒƒ Pull Down: 0.00300 (weighs hair down more)

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ƒƒ Hair Length: 0.6000 (makes hair shorter than the

previous layer)
ƒƒ Length Variance: 0.0000
ƒƒ Pull Back: 0.00600 (pulls the hair toward the back of
the head)
ƒƒ Pull Down: 0.00250 (weighs hair down more)
ƒƒ Pull Side: 0.0000

STYLING CONTROLS (Section 3)

ƒƒ Hair Density: 2500.00 (Increases the number of hairs
for each guide hair). This setting can be much less if
you check the Opaque in Shadow option on the hair Figure 17.44. The sides are added to the figure.
material.
ƒƒ Tip Width: 0.40000 10. Choose the Crown section and grow hair with the following
settings, so that the crown blends in well with the existing
ƒƒ Root Width: 1.00000 hair:
ƒƒ Clumpiness: 0.200
GROWTH CONTROLS (Section 2)
ƒƒ Kink Strength: 20.00 (Makes hair curlier)
ƒƒ Hair Length: 0.7000 (makes hair shorter than the
ƒƒ Kink Scale: 100.00 previous layer)
ƒƒ Kink Delay: 0.30 ƒƒ Length Variance: 0.0000
ƒƒ Verts Per Hair: 30 (Makes curls softer, but increases ƒƒ Pull Back: 0.00015
resources)
ƒƒ Pull Down: 0.00100

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ƒƒ Pull Side: 0.0000 of the hair)

STYLING CONTROLS (Section 3) ƒƒ Length Variance: 0.0000

ƒƒ Hair Density: 2500.00 (Increases the number of hairs ƒƒ Pull Back: 0.00050 (pulls the hair back away from the
for each guide hair). This setting can be much less if forehead)
you check the Opaque in Shadow option on the hair ƒƒ Pull Down: 0.00005 (Because the hair is shorter, it
material. doesn’t weigh the strands down as much)
ƒƒ Tip Width: 0.40000 ƒƒ Pull Side: -0.00050 (negative numbers pull toward the
ƒƒ Root Width: 1.00000 character’s left side)

ƒƒ Clumpiness: 0.200 STYLING CONTROLS (Section 3)

ƒƒ Kink Strength: 20.00 (Makes hair curlier) ƒƒ Hair Density: 4000.00. This setting can be much less if
you check the Opaque in Shadow option on the hair
ƒƒ Kink Scale: 100.00
material.
ƒƒ Kink Delay: 0.30
ƒƒ Tip Width: 0.40000
ƒƒ Verts Per Hair: 30 (Makes curls softer, but increases
ƒƒ Root Width: 1.00000
resources)
ƒƒ Clumpiness: 0.000 (Hair does not stick together in the
11. Now for the top sections. You’ll use the Pull Side control
front)
in section 2 to pull each top section to the appropriate side,
keeping the bangs off the forehead. For the TopLeft section, ƒƒ Kink Strength: 10.00 (Makes hair curlier)
use the following settings:
ƒƒ Kink Scale: 100.00
GROWTH CONTROLS (Section 2) ƒƒ Kink Delay: 0.30
ƒƒ Hair Length: 0.2500 (the bangs are shorter than the rest ƒƒ Verts Per Hair: 30 (Makes curls softer, but increases

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resources) ƒƒ Clumpiness: 0.000 (Hair does not stick together in the

front)
12. For the TopRight, the settings are almost the same as the
TopLeft. The only difference is the PullSide setting, which is ƒƒ Kink Strength: 10.00 (Makes hair curlier)
now a positive number:
ƒƒ Kink Scale: 100.00
GROWTH CONTROLS (Section 2) ƒƒ Kink Delay: 0.30
ƒƒ Hair Length: 0.2500 (the bangs are shorter than the rest ƒƒ Verts Per Hair: 30 (Makes curls softer, but increases
of the hair) resources)
ƒƒ Length Variance: 0.0000 13. Render the hair to see your result. It should look similar to the
hair style shown in Figure 45.
ƒƒ Pull Back: 0.00050 (pulls the hair back away from the
forehead)
ƒƒ Pull Down: 0.00005 (Because the hair is shorter, it
doesn’t weigh the strands down as much)
ƒƒ Pull Side: 0.00050 (positive numbers pull toward the
character’s right side)

STYLING CONTROLS (Section 3)

ƒƒ Hair Density: 4000.00. This setting can be much less if
you check the “Opaque in Shadow” option on the hair
material.
ƒƒ Tip Width: 0.40000
ƒƒ Root Width: 1.00000 Figure 17.45. After all layers are grown, the hair could use a little styling with
the style tools.

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14. I’ve omitted using the Hair Style Tool in this tutorial, in favor
of showing you how to add hair to each layer. If desired, you
Saving Your Hair to the Library
can revisit each hair group in the order you created them, and When you save dynamic hair to the Library, you must also tell
use the Hair Style Tool to twist, curl, or scale hairs into place Poser to save the hair strands along with it. This process is very
as desired. For example, you can move the bangs from the easy to accomplish, but it takes a few extra steps than it does to
TopLeft and TopRight sections inward a little more, or scale save other items to the Library. The procedure is as follows:
and move the sides of the Crown section in closer to the face.
Figure 46 shows what the hair looks like after each of these 1. Click the skull cap, or choose it from the selection menu at the
changes are made. Now that you know the basics of hair top of the Document window.
styling you can experiment further to get different results.
2. Select or create a folder in the Hair library.

3. Click the + button at the bottom of the Library palette. The

dialog shown in Figure 47 appears. Click OK to continue.

Figure 17.46. After the Styling tools are used on the TopRight, TopLeft, and
Crown sections, the hair looks much better!. Figure 17.47. Poser advises you to save the hair groups along with the prop
(skull cap).

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4. The Set Name dialog prompts you to assign a name to the

new hair. Before you click OK, you need to choose the objects
that make up the dynamic hair. Basically, you need to select
the skull cap and any hair growth groups that are attached to
it. Click the Select Subset button as shown in Figure 48.

Figure 17.48. Click the Select Subset button to choose the hair parts.
Figure 17.49. Choose the skull cap and all growth groups from the Hierarchy
5. In the Hierarchy Selection dialog, place a check mark Selection dialog.
beside the parts that make up the hair. In Figure 49, we select
the skull cap and seven growth sections. Then click OK to 6. Make sure that you have entered a name for the hair, and
return to the Set Name dialog. click OK. Your hair should appear in the Hair library that you
selected.

Setting Hair Dynamics

There is one more aspect to dynamic hair that we have yet to cover.
You have to calculate the dynamics in order for the hair to react
to animation. Dynamics are the forces that the hair has to work
against: gravity, springiness, air, bending, and so on. In addition,

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you will also be concerned with collision detection. That is, you
don’t want the hair to go through objects, you want it to bounce
off of them.
In order for collision detection to work, you have to turn it on with
the Do Collisions option. You also have to think ahead about the
body parts or objects that the hair will collide against. For each
of those parts, try the dynamic calculations first without the “Do
Collisions” option turned on. If the desired quality isn’t achieved
due to intersections with the body, turn on the Do Collisions
option for the offending body parts only. This saves system
resources.
The process is as follows:
1. Select a body part that you know intersects with the hair. Figure 17.50. Check the Collision detection option for each body part that will
make contact with the hair.
2. If the Properties palette is not open, choose Object >
Properties to display it (or, if the Parameters palette is 4. Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each body part that the hair
already open, click the Properties tab to switch the view). intersects with.
3. Check the Collision Detection check box, shown in Figure 5. After you generate your hair groups and create the hair, as
50 if previous calculations caused hairs to intersect with the described in the previous tasks, select the first section of hair
body. that you want to calculate. Once you select the growth group,
set the controls in the Dynamics Controls section of the
hair room. The controls are as follows:

ƒƒ Gravity: Controls how the hair is affected by gravity.

Higher numbers weigh the hair down more, while lower

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numbers cause the hair to fly out more easily.

The default settings in the Dynamics Controls section
ƒƒ Spring Strength: Controls how much the hair work well with the curly hair style that is covered in Task 2.
bounces. Higher values create hair that is more bouncy
(appropriate for fine hair), while lower values bounce less
(more appropriate for very curly, thick hair). 6. Check the Do Collisions checkbox, shown in Figure 51. This
prevents the hair from breaking through the head. However,
ƒƒ Air Damping: Controls how much resistance the hair make note that dynamic calculations take longer to complete
has against air. This setting should be used with caution. when collisions are calculated.
Higher values are more appropriate for longer hair, and
lower values are more appropriate for short hair.
ƒƒ Spring Damping: Controls the elasticity, or
stretchiness, of the hair. Higher values are more stretchy,
while lower values remain constant.
ƒƒ Bend Resistance: Controls how much you want to
allow the hair to bend or fold upon itself. Higher values
are more resistant to bending.
ƒƒ Position Force: Controls how much or how little
the hair vertices are allowed to move from their
Figure 17.51. Check the Do collisions option to prevent hair from penetrating the
choreographed positions. Higher settings create less of a
head or other objects.
dynamic effect.
ƒƒ Root Stiffness: Controls how stiff the hair is at its 7. Press the Calculate Dynamics button to calculate the first
root (the base of the object that has hair). section of hair.
ƒƒ Root Stiffness Falloff: Controls the amount of
8. Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each additional section of hair
distance between the root and the tip before the stiffness
in your object, working your way up to the top sections in the
of the hair begins to decrease.

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head.

Creating and Changing the Hair

Color
It is very possible to get realistic looking hair colors in the Poser
Material room. One easy way to generate nice hair colors is to
find a color photograph with the hair color you want to emulate.
Pick a dark color from the photograph for the root color, and a
middle or light color for the tip color.
Here’s an example:
Figure 17.52. Select a hair section to display its material.
1. Click the Material tab to enter the Material room.

2. Drag your mouse over the preview window. The cursor turns 3. Find a photograph that shows a person with the color hair
into an eyedropper. Use the eyedropper to select a hair that you would like to reproduce. A photo that shows nice
growth group. The Shader window should display the hair variations between light and dark will produce the best
material in the Advanced tab, shown in Figure 52. results. Open the photo up in an image editing program that
will allow you to select a color and display its Red, Green, and
Blue color formula. For example, Figure 53 shows a hair photo
in Photoshop. The area beneath the eyedropper shows a Red,
Green, Blue color formula of 84 (red), 42 (green), 26 (blue).

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Color color square to open the Poser color palette shown in

Figure 54. Then, click the tri-colored square in the upper-right
corner.

Figure 17.54. Click the tri-colored square in the Poser color palette to open the
standard color dialog.

Figure 17.53. Open a photo in an image editor that allows you to view color 6. When the standard color dialog opens, enter the Red, Green,
formulas. and Blue color values for your dark hair shade, as shown in
Figure 55. Then click OK to return to the Material room..
4. Find three representative colors for the hair: one for the
darkest color, one for a middle color, and one for the lightest
color. Write down the color formulas for each. For example:

ƒƒ Dark blonde: Red 84, Green 42, Blue 26

ƒƒ Middle blonde: Red 140, Green 100, Blue 74
ƒƒ Light blonde: Red 196, Green 168, Blue 144
5. Return to the Material room, and locate the Hair node. You’ll
see three colors: Root Color, Tip Color, and Specular Color. First
we will use the dark color for the root color. Click the Root

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they look less shiny and plastic.

Figure 17.56. Desaturate the specular color to soften the highlights.

Once again returning to the Hair color node, check the Opaque_
In_Shadow option at the bottom of the hair node. You can see this
Figure 17.55. Enter the Red, Green, and Blue values for your dark hair shade.
setting in Figure 50, after step 2 above. This new option makes
hair look more opaque in shadows. This helps the hair look fuller
7. In a similar manner, click the Tip Color color square. For this without having to raise the Hair Density settings, and makes
hair color entry, use the middle color value that you selected rendering a lot easier on system resources.
from your hair sample (Red 140, Green 100, Blue 74 as
10. Before you leave the Material room, save your new material
shown in this example).
so that you can apply it to the remaining hair sections. Locate
8. There’s a little bit of a twist to the specular color. You want the Materials library in which to save the new material. Then
to start with the lightest color sample that you selected (Red click the + button at the bottom of the Library window. The
196, Green 168, Blue 144). New Set dialog appears.

9. After you plug the light values into the Specular Color, 11. Enter a name for your material (such as Medium Blonde,
click its color square again to open the Poser color mixer. shown in Figure 57), and check the Single Material option.
Now, desaturate the light color a bit by moving your mouse Then click OK to save the material to the library.
downward along the color bar on the left side, as shown in
Figure 56. This desaturated color softens the highlights so that

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Figure 17.57. Name the material, and save it to the library as a single material.

12. Use the object selector at the top of the Material room
window (shown in Figure 58) to select each growth group,
one at a time. Then double-click the material icon that you
Figure 17.58. Make sure you assign the new color to all hair growth groups.
saved to the library. This changes the current growth group to
your new color. After they are all assigned, render your hair to
see the results!
Hair Coloring Tip!
You’ll notice that the default hair color uses noise to vary the colors
of the hair a little bit. You can also use a bitmap to accomplish
the same thing. This allows you to create hair with streaks, or to
control the coloring of a fur coat, or a leopard. Basically, the hair
will take on the color of the underlying bitmap.
To illustrate this, open the file CheckerBoardHair.pzz from the

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Tutorials/HairRoom folder in your Poser installation. In this channel. The Root and Tip colors are then output to the tile shader
example, a checkerboard material is applied to the underlying prop (or, a bitmap, or another color source). Note that in this case in
with the Diffuse Color node. Note that the color beneath the hair Figure 60, the underlying geometry retains its own color and
generates the color of the hair that grows upon it, as shown in material, and the texture only affects the hair.
Figure 59. This has great possibilities. For example, you can create
hair that has streaks in it, or use an animal’s texture map to use as
the underlying color for fur on the animal.

Figure 17.60. You can also use a hair node in combination with another color
source on the Alternate Diffuse channel.

Figure 17.59. With a checkerboard material assigned to a prop, the hair takes on
the color beneath it.

In cases where you don’t want the underlying geometry to use the
same color as the hair texture, you can use the approach shown
in CheckerBoardHair2.pzz (also in the Tutorials/HairRoom folder).
In this example, a hair node is attached to the Alternate Diffuse

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Chapter 18: Building a Basic Advanced Materials

Skin Shader For the purpose of this tutorial, we will be using the Advanced
tab to take advantage of the more complex nodes and their ability
to interact more deeply with scene lighting and the FireFly renderer.
If you are unfamiliar with the basic operation of shader nodes in
Poser, please review the Poser Reference Manual, “Part 3:
by Kiera Wooley Materials” on page 212.

Getting Started
A Note on Workflow
We will use James for this tutorial. Load James from the Figures
There is a definite relationship between the FireFly render options, library and switch to the Material room. Select the Advanced
the Material room, and the lighting in any Poser scene. Changes tab. Mouse over the miniature Document window and use the
to any one of these elements might necessitate changes to the eyedropper to select any part of the skin to display the basic
others. When developing a scene that will be rendered as a still shader. Connected to the Diffuse_Color node is James’ texture
image, it is generally easiest to compose the scene, create an map, which defines the color of his skin when displayed under
appropriate lighting arrangement, and then tweak materials to a pure white light. We shall use this map (and his other texture
suit the environment. Polishing the render will generally involve maps) as the basis for our skin shader.
making adjustments to the lights, materials, and render options all Leave the texture map connected to the Diffuse_Color node, but
at once. Because of these workflow concerns, any tutorial involving change the Diffuse_Value to 0.
the Material room should be viewed as a general guideline rather
than a definite recipe for a specific result.

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to that part a bit later. First we will deal with bump mapping and
specularity.

Bump Mapping
Basic bump maps are often created in a paint program by
desaturating the texture map to generate a grayscale version.
For basic skin shading, this method is adequate and provides
enough roughness to approximate realism. We can create the
same effect without a separate map or a paint program using
basic shader math right in the Material room. To do this, drag a
Math_Functions node (New node | Math | math_functions) out
from the Bump section of the PoserSurface root menu. Connect
Value_1 to James’ texture map, and leave all the other values
alone. Instant grayscale! This is an extremely useful technique that
you will find yourself returning to again and again for reasons we
shall discover shortly. To finish off the bump mapping, change the
value of Bump to .003.

Figure 18.1: Diffuse_Value set to 0.

This eliminates the influence of the Diffuse_Color node on the

rendered output but preserves the texture in Shaded document
preview. For our purposes we shall employ the Alternate_Diffuse
node, which allows us to access the more complex and realistic
lighting models available under the lighting submenu. We will get

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Specularity
Specularity describes the shininess of a surface. Extremely smooth
surfaces tend to have small, sharp highlights while rougher
surfaces tend to have large, soft highlights. The specularity of skin
varies depending on a variety of factors: whether it is wet or dry,
oily or rough, young or old, and so on. For our purposes, we will
assume that James has normal skin with a hint of sheen.
Selecting a Specular_Color is something of an art because a
number of factors affect the rendered output: lighting, texture
color, and so on. Ultimately, it’s a matter of taste. Try a dark blueish
tint, RGB 52 52 82. (CTL or CMD click on the color swatch to bring
up the color picker.) The general rule of thumb is that the darker
the color, the less specular the surface appears. If we use the value
of the color to determine how shiny the surface is, we can have fun
with the Specular_Value node.
In a perfect world, we would use a paint program to create a
grayscale map to indicate different levels of shininess for different
areas of skin. White areas of the map would indicate the shiniest
parts and black areas would be the dullest parts. A specularity map
Figure 18.2: Bump value set to .003.
for the face would probably be light throughout the oily T-Zone
area and dark elsewhere. But this is the Basic Skin Shading tutorial,
At this value, the bump is subtle but noticeable. For stronger bump, so we will take a shortcut. Remember that grayscale version of
increase this number in small increments. the texture map we created using math nodes earlier? We will use
it again here. Set the Specular_Value to 1 and connect it to the
Math_Functions node that we are using for the bump map. This
will add some realistic shiny variation across the face and keep

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the sheen from looking too uniform and plasticine. Highlight_Size Diffuse Skin Shader
controls how much of the surface area is shiny. Change the value
to 0.1. Now we’ve reached the heart of our skin shader. Here we will
combine the glancing light effects of Fastscatter with the more
subtle lighting model of the Skin shader. One way to do this is
through the use of a Blender node. Drag a Blender node out from
the Alternate_Diffuse section (New node | Math | Blender.)
Let’s start with the Skin node. The Skin node offers a more realistic
lighting model than the standard connection to Diffuse_Color.
Drag a node from one of the Blender inputs and connect it to a
Skin node (New node | Lighting | Special | Skin.) Change SkinColor
to white and connect it to James’ texture map. Change the
SheenColor to a very pale blue (RGB 235 244 255) related to the
Specular_Color we set earlier. Connect this to James’ texture map
as well. Change the skin Thickness value to 1 to get a brighter,
more natural looking skin tone. The rest of the values may be left
alone for most renders, but it is important to be aware of the Ka
(ambience) value and how it affects rendered output. This value
will need to be adjusted down for any render that requires parts of
the body to appear in total darkness. For normal lighting, however,
the .25 value renders nicely.

Figure 18.3: Skin Specularity settings.

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Blender input and create a FastScatter node (New node | Lighting

| Special | FastScatter.) Connect the Color section of that node to
an Edge_Blend node (New node | Math | Edge Blend.) We do this
so we can tint the skin affected by the FastScatter effect if we so
desire. The Outer_Color refers to the edges and the Inner_Color
refers to interior areas. To visualize how this works, change the
Outer_Color to a bright orange and the inner color to a bright
green and watch the effects in the Material preview. It’s not
generally necessary to tint the skin, but it’s handy to have the
option. For now, leave the base colors white and connect the nodes
to the Skin node we created earlier.

Figure 18.4: Application of a Skin node.

The FastScatter shader allows us to use glancing lights that

emulate that bright backlit subsurface scattering effect. It’s not
true subsurface scattering, so we don’t have to wait for a time
consuming calculation prior to rendering. It’s cheap in terms of
time and effective. To use it, drag a node from the remaining

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Image_Map is calling for the proper texture; the body would

require the James_Body texture map, and so on. Also keep in
mind that a material collection recalls the location of the nodes in
the Shader window; arranging the nodes neatly will make later
adjustments simpler.

Some Notes on Eyes

They say that the eyes are the window to the soul, and so we must
pay special attention to shading them. Dull, flat eyes can decrease
the impact of a render, so most of the shader work for eyes is in
specular highlighting and reflection.
The geometry of James’ eyes is fairly straightforward and
anatomically realistic. Because of the way the eyes were modeled,
we can do some interesting things in the Material room. The
EyeBall material zone actually covers the entire eye, so we will use
this material zone to create most of the specular and reflective
effects. By default there is a transparency map applied to the
eyeball; this will have no effect on the specularity of the eyes. To
Figure 18.5: FastScatter node settings. simulate the shininess of tears over the sclera and iris, we will use
all of the specular nodes available to us.
That’s it for the basic skin shader. To apply the same settings The default values for Specular_Color, Specular_Value, and
to other parts of the body, right click anywhere in the Shader Highlight_Size are actually fine. They can be zeroed out or left they
window and “select all”, then copy the selected nodes. Then way they are for most renders. To add a bit more drama, though,
choose another part of the body to apply these settings to, right we can add to these values by making use of the Alternate_
click in the Materials window, and “paste.” Make sure that the Specular section of the root node. Here we may take advantage of

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additional specular lighting models, such as glossy, anisotropic, or the Glossy node. Combined with the Anisotropic node we created
phong, and the Color_Math node can be used to combine specular earlier, the result is a sharp light reactive highlight with a hint
lighting models. Drag a Color_Math node (New node | Math | of realistic irregularity that suggests that the eye is reflecting an
color_math) from the Alternate_Specular section of the root node. environment.
Now we’re going to combine Glossy and Anisotropic nodes using
the Color_Math node we just created. Anisotropic shading is
useful because it can create irregular specular highlights that are
more or less pronounced depending on the angle of the light.
Drag an Anisotropic node from one of the Color_Math values
(New node | Lighting | Specular | Anisotropic.) It can be effective
to adjust the u_Highlight_Size (horizontal) and v_Highlight_Size
(vertical) according to the lighting in the scene. For example,
larger u_Highlight values create a nice horizontal glancing effect in
side-lit scenes.
Drag a Glossy node from the remaining Color_Math value (New
node | Lighting | Specular | Glossy.) The glossy node is valuable
for wet or slick surfaces. It produces a large highlight that can be
adjusted for sharpness and size. We can use this highlight to create
a light reactive reflective appearance to the pupil area without
using time true reflection or reflection maps. In a paint program, I
used a photograph to create an image to use as the basis for this
faked reflection. It is beyond the scope of this tutorial to describe
the exact methods for doing this, but it should suffice to say that Figure 18.6: Eye shader settings.
a slightly blurred, high contrast, black and white photo works well
for this purpose. For more realism I added some eyelash marks to
the top of the photo and aligned it to the iris location on the eye
texture map. Connect this reflection image to the Ks section of

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Conclusion
This walkthrough was just a demonstration of one approach to
skin shading. It’s not the right way or the only way, and may not
be useful for every situation. I encourage everyone to study all of
the shaders supplied with Poser and to experiment with their own
ideas about what makes for great skin rendering. Happy posing!

Figure 18.7: Completed basic shader results.

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Chapter 19: Image Based

Lighting

by Colin Gerbode Figure 19.2.

One of the useful features in Poser is its ability to use image-based

lighting, in which the lighting values for the scene are computed Now, get the properties for that light by selecting Properties from
based on the brightness values of an image which is “wrapped” the Object menu. Click the Diffuse IBL radio button and then
around the scene. This allows a realistic lighting model to be the Advanced Material Properties button to pick an image to
applied quickly and easily without having to place and fine-tune use for your lighting. You’ll be taken to the Material room with
multiple lights in a scene. the light selected and its shader information available. Once you’re
in the Material room, you should attach an image map node to
The process for using image-based lighting in a Poser scene is the light’s shader. Click and drag from the little plug icon in the
fairly simple. Select a light, either from the Current Actor menu light’s shader to bring up a menu; select New node > 2D textures
at the top of the preview window or by clicking on one of the light > image_map as shown.
controller “pins” (see below.)

Figure 19.1.

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Figure 19.3.

Now click in the Image Source section of the new node and open Figure 19.4.
one of the supplied light probe files. For this tutorial we’ll use the
sunRight.jpg file, found in Poser/Runtime/textures/Poser 6 Textures/ Now, we can build a scene to make use of this lighting. I’ve used
LightProbes. This is a regular JPEG file shot with a digital camera a high-res ball prop, a cube and a cone on its side; not terribly
using a mirrored ball as the light probe. If you want to create your interesting but together they show how the light affects different
own light probes, you will need a mirrored ball to allow the image surfaces. The components of the scene are clustered rather closely
to contain lighting information for as much of the environment together to show off the shadowing abilities of image-based
as possible. A good mirrored gazing ball will do nicely. These are lighting. A render using basic settings gives this result:
available for around $70 from garden supply stores, but we have
seen people use reflective Christmas ornaments in a pinch. The
larger your ball and the higher your image resolution, the better
the lighting quality will be. With the sunRight image selected, the
shader should look something like this:

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Figure 19.5. Figure 19.6.

This is OK, but we should have shadows here. First, we should Now, that’s better, but there is still room for improvement. The
turn the render Auto Settings up to the point where Raytracing shadows in particular are not terribly realistic. The trick here is to
is used; this will increase render times but down the road will turn on Ambient Occlusion--a feature of Poser that lowers the
definitely improve quality, as shown below: ambient light when objects are close together, as they are in this
image. Turning Shadows off and Ambient Occlusion on in the
light’s Properties allows us to render once again, with this result:

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Figure 19.7.

Note that this render was done with the render Auto Settings at
about half of maximum quality; this setting (shown below) should
be quite sufficient for most high-quality rendered images. Certain
specific situations will require a higher quality setting, and often in
cases like these using custom render settings will provide the best
Figure 19.8.
balance between quality and performance.
As noted, for Ambient Occlusion effects to appear, Raytracing must
A diffuse image-based light by definition does not contribute any
be used; for a discussion of FireFly render settings and parameters,
specular light. This means that there will not be any highlights in
see “Chapter 13: FireFly Render Tips” on page 106.
a scene lit solely by one Diffuse IBL. To ensure that surfaces with
specularity (such as a figure’s eyes) appear as glossy as may be
desired, you might want to consider adding a specular-only light
source. The Set Up Light Style wacro in the Material room can
assist you with creating such a light. The following images show
which option to select in the Choose Light Style dialog, and how

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a specular-only light is configured.

Figure 19.9.

Figure 19.10.
Once you have finished adding your specular-only light, position it
so that it is located roughly in the same location as the brightest
spot in your light probe. The following image demonstrates the difference in lighting quality
between renders generated using Low Dynamic Range and High
Poser introduces support for High Dynamic Range Images (HDRI)
Dynamic Range Images for image-based lighting.
in image-based lighting, which allow even more realism and
accuracy in lighting calculations. High Dynamic Range Images
capture more detail in the very dark and very light portions of the
image, so that details don’t get lost. HDRIs are typically either in
EXR or HDR format; Poser supports either of those formats, as well
as 16-bit-per-channel TIFF and PNG images. (Of course, standard
Low Dynamic Range TIFF and PNG images can also be used, as
well as JPEGs, but these are not HDRIs.) When using Low Dynamic
Range images for IBL, the IBL Contrast setting in the Advanced
tab of the Material room can be set to 2 or 3. When using HDRI
Figure 19.11: The Right Shoulder selected on the figure.
in image-based lighting, remember to adjust the IBL Contrast
setting to 1 as shown, to preserve the subtleties that HDRI allows.

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Posing and
Animation


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Chapter 20: Using Talk

Designer

by Colin Gerbode
Poser includes the Talk Designer--an easy way to get your Poser
figures talking naturally without recourse to outside programs
or tedious keyframing by hand. Using Talk Designer is simple.
First, select a Poser figure which includes phoneme morphs;
these are facial morphs that allow the figure to make the mouth
shapes required for speech, and many Poser figures have them
already installed. To see if the figure you want to use has phoneme
Figure 20.1.
morphs installed, bring the figure into the scene and select its
head in the Current Actor menu. In the Parameters palette
(select Parameter Dials from the Window menu if need be) look Once you have a figure with phoneme morphs ready to use, you’ll
for Phonemes in the Morph dials to ensure that your figure has need a sound file. Talk Designer works with AIFF (Mac) and
phonemes available, as shown. WAV (Windows) files. There are a number of audio-conversion and
editing applications available that can translate other file formats
(MP3, etc.) into AIFF or WAV, or allow you to record your own
speech on the computer. When you have your sound file ready to
go, select Talk Designer from the Window menu to see the Talk
Designer palette.

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Talk Designer (by clicking the Supplemental Text entry-

box widget as shown and directly keying in text, or by clicking
the button to load an existing text file). You don’t have to load
supplemental text, but including it makes a significant impact on
your final animation. Talk Designer uses viseme map files for
mapping speech sounds to visemes, which are essentially morph
targets or settings that correspond to specific speech sounds. Take
a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viseme for a quick definition
and explanation of visemes. The Viseme Map File pop-up menu
includes viseme map files for most of the Poser figures included
with your Poser installation that have phoneme morphs. Be sure
to select the appropriate file for the figure you have selected. If
for some reason your selected figure does not match one of the
viseme map files included in the menu, the Viseme Map File
button allows you to load an alternate viseme XML file (if one is
available). If you aren’t sure whether your figure has a viseme map
file associated with it, contact your content provider.
Talk Designer also allows you to apply other head movements
including eye blinks, and to control the figure’s expression during
the speech. Live actors don’t hold their heads perfectly still while
talking, and you’ll most likely want your Poser figures to look
natural as they speak. Talk Designer helps to make this easier.
Figure 20.2. The Eye Blink Rate slider and Create Eye / Head Motion
checkboxes allow you to tell Poser to apply intermittent small
Click the Sound File button as shown in this image to load the movements to the figure’s head and eyes over time. Setting the
chosen WAV or AIFF. To help Talk Designer create accurate mouth Emotional Tweaks sliders applies expression morphs over
movements, users can also load a text version of the speech into the course of the speech animation; configure these sliders to

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customize facial morphs to match your specific sound file. to generate the animated facial pose and merge the sound into
the Poser scene. If you check the Keyframe palette, you’ll see the
One other tool that Talk Designer provides is the Enunciation
new keyframes for the head. Simply select the layer into which you
slide. This control affects how strongly the facial morphs are
saved the speech animation as shown in the following image.
applied, with higher settings giving a more extreme application
of the facial morph. The degree to which morph targets are
manipulated is controlled by the energy of the phonemes in the
imported sound file, with louder or higher energy sounds applying
more pronounced morphs. However you may want to adjust the
Enunciation slider to exaggerate or diminish the morph effects
a bit, for example if the figure is whispering but you want their
mouth movements to be more distinct, or if the figure is mumbling.
Talk Designer takes advantage of Poser’s new Animation
Layers feature, which lets you store keyframed animation data
for different actions or body parts as separate layers, which
can be edited separately and then blended to produce the final
animation. Talk Designer lets you save the speech animation
into its own separate layer, or into any other existing layer, if for
example you already have some facial animations to which you’d
like to add speech. If you have more than one figure speaking in
your animation, putting each sentence into a separate layer with Figure 20.3.
individual start and end frames can help keep your animation
organized. For more information about Animation Layers in
Poser, see “Chapter 21: Animation Layers” on page 242. You can also
save the animated speech directly into your Expressions library
for later use.
Once you have created the proper settings, click the Apply button

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Chapter 21: Animation Layers

by Colin Gerbode
The Animation Layers feature allows animators to save different
animation information to separate layers. A walk could be saved to
one layer while facial expressions are saved to another, and hand
and arm movements are saved in a third layer, allowing each set
of movements to be edited separately and blended in a controlled
fashion. Using animation layers is simple. When applying a pose or
using the Walk Designer or Talk Designer, Poser asks the user
whether to place the animation information into the Base layer or
into a new layer, which can then be edited to meet your specific
needs. Poser’s Animation palette has a new Layers tab, which
Figure 21.1.
allows users to choose which layer to edit and to specify how the
layers should interact.
Let’s suppose we want to create an animation in which Jessi
walks along and waves and smiles. This is pretty simple, and we
can actually do this in Poser without using layers; but using layers
allows us to edit keyframes non-destructively, so we have more
control.
We’ll start by bringing Jessi into an empty scene. Now, we open
up the Animation palette (choose Animation Palette from the
Window menu, or click the button at the bottom of the screen
with the little key on it) and select the Layers tab as shown above.
We can click the New button to create a new layer; rename it if

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you like by entering a new name in the Layer Name field and frames in between for Jessi to move from one of your designated
hitting Enter. Now, click the Keyframes tab; we’re looking at the poses to another. Poser will calculate the tween frame poses
scene in frame #1, with only the initial keyframes set. Select the for you, but for more realistic animation it is important to allow
new animation layer we just created by choosing it in the Layer enough frames between your keyframes for natural movement.
drop-down menu; click the appropriate square on the chart for the
We now have the keyframes for the wave stored on their own
element you wish to pose and the point in time at which you want
layer. Now, we can repeat this process for Jessi’s wink and smile.
it to be posed. In this case we’ll pose the right shoulder, forearm
Click the Layers tab and create a new layer; call it Expressions as
and hand to make Jessi wave. Pose the part(s) to create the new
shown:
keyframe(s) in the new layer; continue this process until you have a
decent wave motion. Keyframes should appear something like this:

Figure 21.2.

Note that the keyframes (the brightly lit green frames) in the above Figure 21.3.
image are spaced far enough apart to allow sufficient tween

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Go back to the Keyframes tab at Frame 1 and proceed down the completed the smile and wink animation. When finished, you will
timeline, adjusting Jessi’s facial morphs to change her expression. have keyframes for the facial expressions in the Expressions layer
Bear in mind that animating facial expressions usually requires and keyframes for the wave in the Hand Gestures layer:
some corrections to the tween frames, so you may need to iterate
over your facial animation until you are satisfied with the results.
(For more information on tween frames and animating facial
expressions, please refer to the “Poser Animation 101” tutorial
on the Smith Micro website, www.smithmicro.com, in the Training
> Tutorials > Poser section.) Your Expressions layer should look
somewhat like this:

Figure 21.5.

We can now use Walk Designer to lay down a walk in the Base
layer, then combine them all to create a finished animation.
From the Figure menu, choose Create Walk Path; edit the path
by dragging its control points around, or leave it as given. Select
Figure 21.4. Jessi and open the Walk Designer from the Window menu;
set walk parameters (or use the defaults) and click Apply to
Continue setting keyframes and facial morphs until you have have Walk Designer generate keyframes for the walk. For more
information on using the Walk Designer to animate a walk, see

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the tutorial in “Chapter 11: Character Creation and Animation” corresponding keyframes in lower layers. Lower keyframes for
on page 69. If these keyframes go into the Base layer, that’s fine; if which there are no corresponding upper keyframes remain
they go into a new layer, that’s okay too. In that case call the new untouched, as shown below:
layer Walk.

Figure 21.6.
Figure 21.7.

And there you are! When Poser renders or displays the animation,
if the Composite Method on the Layers tab is set to Replace Consequentially, if you are using a Poser tool like Walk Designer,
(the default setting) then keyframes in upper layers replace which generates keyframes for every element of a figure, it may be
necessary to select and create keyframes for additional parts of a

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figure aside from the specific part you’re animating. For example, in order to override the keyframes that Walk Designer will apply
setting an arm to wave is a simple task, but just manipulating (see screen shot above). This is easily done: in each frame in which
one parameter (like the Bend value) creates keyframes only for you move the forearm, select the shoulder and click the Add
that parameter of the selected part--if Walk Designer has the Keyframe button on the Animation palette. Do the same for
character’s arm moving back and forth past his hip, then just the forearm and hand. It isn’t necessary to select any particular
applying an additional layer with the forearm’s Bend parameter parameter, just choose the whole body part from the Current
changing won’t give you a good wave at all. To fix this, first think Actor menu, or by clicking on it, and add the keyframe; that will
through what other animation you’re using on other layers. Figure set keyframe data for all parameters, which will then be available
out which body parts will need to be keyframed in order to make to override unwanted keyframes in underlying layers.
the motion look right.
Setting the Composite Method to Add produces more complex
interactions. Specifically, if a certain body part has a keyframe
at some point in the timeline in one layer, and that same body
part also has a keyframe at that point in another layer, the values
for those keys will be added together. For example, if Jessi has a
keyframe set for her right forearm that bends it +15 degrees in
frame #10 of the Base layer, and we apply a pose that, in frame
#10, has a bend value of 20 degrees for the same right forearm,
then when these layers are composited together the net value
for the bend will be 35 degrees at that point. As you can imagine
this can produce some odd effects especially when using poses in
combination with Walk Designer, which provides keyframe values
for everything in every frame. We suggest that the Add method be
used sparingly and with careful thought as to its effects.
Figure 21.8.
Remember, when looking at the Graph palette or the Keyframes
To make a character wave while walking, we’d need to apply tab in the Animation palette, you’ll only see values for the
keyframes for all parameters of the collar, shoulder and forearm, current layer- although in order to help visualize the net effects
of changes made over the various layers, the Graph palette now

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has an additional display. A grey or dotted line shows the value of that layer along the timeline; their spacing relative to each other
the current parameter taking into account the various layers and won’t be affected. Think of each animation layer as a piece of film
Composite Modes. Thus, if the dotted line is the same as the solid laid atop other pieces of film- everything on a given bit of film
red one on the graph display, the Composite Method is most likely moves together.
set to Replace, and any frames with data (keyframes or tween
frames) will replace frames in layers below them. If the dotted line
diverges from the solid red one, the Composite Method is set to
Add, and underlying frame data is affecting the final result.
There are a couple of things to be aware of when using animation
layers that have to do with the way in which keyframes are applied,
viewed and modified as you work in the various layers. Certain
animation tools display all the layers--the Document window,
for example--while others show only the current layer regardless
of setting, like the Parameters and Graph palettes, as well as
the Keyframes tab of the Animation palette. Don’t be surprised
if certain keyframes that you have set seem to ‘disappear’ if you
switch layers--this is normal, the keyframes are still there, they’re
just not on the current layer.
A layer begins at its start frame but may contain keyframes that
exist ‘after’ its end frame; the end frame merely determines the
point at which the frames in the layer are no longer applied or
viewed; frames after the end frame are still in existence but are
ignored. Moving the start frame, then, will change the position
of any keyframes in the layer, while moving the end frame won’t
(but may reveal or obscure keyframes that have already been set.)
Moving a layer forward or back along the timeline in the Layers
tab of the Animation palette does reposition the keyframes in

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Chapter 22: Advanced Posing object is adjustable along the X and Z axes in the ground plane.
Moving the Center of Mass Control Object also adjusts the
Center of Mass Indicator, which appears as a shaded sphere
and Animation in the XZ (ground) plane under the figure. This Indicator shows
the position above which the current center of mass is located.,
as calculated from the body part weights and the position of the
From previous chapters within this manual, you should now have
Control Object.
a grasp of the basic procedures involved in posing and animating
figures within Poser. This chapter introduces additional Poser
features that will enable you to refine your techniques, to create
more realistic images and animations.

Auto Balance and Posing

The Auto Balance feature can be a valuable tool for creating
realistic poses. When the feature is enabled, Poser calculates
what the mathematical “weight” for a figure is and then tries to
maintain it. In this mathematical model, there is more weight in the
hip or center portion of the figure, than there is in the upper torso.
As you move figures, Poser automatically adjusts body parts to Figure 22.1. Example of posing using Auto Balance.
attempt to maintain the original weight distribution. This results
in more natural looking poses, without the need to make several
When posing using Auto Balance, small, subtle motions result in
position adjustments.
better poses, than do large motions. Large motions may create
To further affect the weight distribution and compensation drastic results. When this happens, use the multiple Undo or the
calculations, you can reposition the Center of Mass Control Restore feature to reset the position of body parts.
Object (red outlined ball) at the base of the figure. This control

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To enable the Auto Balance feature: folder that is included with your Poser installation.

• Choose Figure menu > Auto Balance. To import a BVH file:

1. Choose File menu > Import > BVH motion.
Motion Capture and 2. The Import dialog appears.
Animations 3. Locate the desired file and choose Open.
Poser can read stored motion capture files, known as Biovision or
BVH files. These files let you apply stored human motion to your To export a BVH file:
3D models. BVH files create incredibly realistic motion without you
having to set up a large number of keyframes. 1. Choose File menu > Export > BVH motion
BVH files are created using motion-capture hardware. Reflectors 2. This may take several minutes, depending upon the complexity
are attached to a person’s joints. As the person moves, the of the file.
position and rotation is captured in 3D space at different points
in time. Each point of time is then keyframed together to create a
smooth animation. Since this process creates literally thousands Setting the align axis
of keyframes, there is no interpolation needed to create smooth
You can set whether the figure’s arms are aligned to the X or Z axis
motion.
during the import process. The align axis is determined at the time
of recording. It’s important to choose the right axis or else your
Importing and Exporting Motion figures look incorrect.

Capture Files To determine the correct axis for BVH files, please read the
documentation supplied by your content provider.
BVH files can be imported and exported like any other file type.
Sample BVH files are stored in the Tutorials > Motion Capture

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Editing keyframes
The BVH keyframes are applied to the current figure when
imported. You can edit BVH keyframes as you would any other
animation.

Figure 22.2.

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Figure Shaping
and Creation


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Chapter 23: Morph Target

Creation

by Lisa Ahrens
The Create tab on the Morph Editor palette contains controls
that allow you to create new morph targets by selecting and
modifying the mesh vertices on any object within your scene that
has a mesh. If you have a project that requires actual modeling
work, you can create morphs in a 3D modeling application and
then import them into Poser (see “Setting Up Morph Targets” on
page 257 for more information). You can access the Morph Editor by
clicking the Morphing Tool within the Editing Tools display.

Figure 231.

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Before starting work with the Morph Editor, make sure to select preview of the impact region for any of your modifications. The red
the object (prop or body part) you wish to modify in the Current area of the impact region will be directly affected, with the orange-
Actor menu. yellow-green surrounding areas indicating the gradiated falloff
region for the modifications.
You can adjust the impact region by selecting from five different
brush styles, all with varying degrees of direct impact vs. falloff.
Falloff specifies the degree to which vertices towards the outer
edges of the impact region will be affected by your modifications.
Falloff can be a gradual lessening of impact as you move out
from the center of the impact region, or an abrupt drop in effect,
depending on the brush style you select.

Figure 23.3.

The left-most brush style affects only a single vertex on the mesh.
The other four brush styles all affect a region of the mesh, with
the size of the falloff region decreasing, until the right-most brush
Figure 23.2. style represents a region with zero falloff, so that all vertices within
the region are impacted equally. Your specific task will determine
which brush style you should select. For highly detailed work such
When you then mouse over the selected actor with the Morphing
as fixing geometry issues, you may wish to work with one or two
Tool enabled and the Create tab displayed, you will see a multi-
vertices at a time. For other tasks like creating facial expressions
colored display overlaid on the mesh. This display serves as a visual
or improving cloth simulation results, you may find that one of the

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regional brush styles suits your purpose better. Push and Pull to add details on existing surfaces, such as moles or
dimples, creases or edges.
Once you have selected the brush style with which you wish to
work, you can adjust the Radius dial, which will increase or
decrease the size of the impact region. Note that regardless of how
large you set the impact region, only the selected Current Actor
will be affected by your modifications.

The Radius dial controls the size of the impact region,

while the various regional brush styles determine the degree
of falloff within that impact region.
Figure 23.4.
You can also adjust the Magnitude dial, which will change how
much effect the Morphing Tool will have within the specified The Smooth action gradually reduces variation in the mesh
impact region. High Magnitude settings make for more dramatic surface; use this with care, as it tends to reduce definition in the
changes, while low Magnitude settings are better for precision surface of the object. It’s great for smoothing out highly variable
work. surfaces, to create a more consistent surface texture. Restore
After setting up the impact region and Magnitude to your liking, is a great tool to use if you make modifications that go a little
go back up to the top of the Morph Editor palette, and specify beyond what you were hoping for. Restore gradually reverts your
the type of action you wish to use when you modify the mesh. modifications, taking the mesh back towards its unmorphed state.
Your options are Push, Pull, Smooth and Restore. Push moves Thus, it allows for a gradual “backing off”, rather than simply
the vertices inward from the original mesh surface to create undoing your changes and having to start over.
concavities, Pull draws the vertices outward from the original mesh Select your desired action, and then specify whether you wish
surface to create bulges or bumps. The Pull option is especially your modifications to be made relative to the mesh surface, or the
useful for fixing issues with body parts poking through conforming screen, by selecting either the Surface or Screen radio buttons.
clothing, as shown in the images below. Just select the clothing When working in Surface mode, all changes will be made in the
item, and pull it out past the bit of showing skin. You can also use direction of the surface normal of the mesh at the point of impact.

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Screen mode allows you to modify the mesh in any direction, but Play around with enabling and disabling the Accumulate option,
requires you to rotate the figure relative to the camera in order and with combining Accumulate with different Magnitude
to deform the mesh in different directions. When first starting settings, to find the mode that lets you work most comfortably and
to use this tool, I recommend working in Surface mode, as it efficiently.
will probably meet most of your mesh sculpting needs, and frees
Like Accumulate, the Stroke option also will have a direct affect
you from having to worry about how your figure and camera are
on how your changes impact the mesh. Enabling Stroke means
positioned.
that all changes are restricted to the original impact region only,
and the mouse movement controls the degree of the change.
Disabling Stroke means that as you move the mouse, your
modifications will affect the vertices along the trajectory of your
mouse stroke.

Figure 23.5.

Three other options to consider before you start to make your

modifications are the Accumulate, Stroke and Group options.
Enabling Accumulate means that so long as you continue with
a single click-and-drag movement with your mouse, the changes
to the mesh will continue to accumulate. This lets you work
faster, as you can do more with each click-and-drag movement.
Figure 23.6.
However, it increases your chances of taking your modifications
too far. Disabling Accumulate gives you more precise control,
but requires a new click-and-drag motion for each modification. The Group option is useful if you want to restrict your
modifications to polygons within a specific group. This can be

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helpful for increased control on a mesh that has multiple groups Morphs allows you to visualize or hide the current state of any
within the selected actor. Even if your mesh does not include other morph targets. Disabling this option simply reverts the mesh
groups, you can create one for the specific purposes of limiting to its neutral state temporarily; it doesn’t actually change the
modifications to specific polygons on the currently selected actor. state of those other morph targets. So when you leave the Morph
For more information about groups, and creating groups, see Editor, those morph targets will revert to their current states
Poser Reference Manual, “The Group Editor” on page 507 . automatically.
Once you have configured the Morphing Tool settings as The bottom portion of the Create tab contains several buttons
described above, go ahead and make your mesh modifications. that you may wish to make use of in the course of your work. The
As you work, all of your modifications will automatically show Mirror button allows you to make modifications to one portion
up in a “Custom Morph” target, which can be found on the of a mesh, and then to directly mirror those changes on the other
Parameters palette for the currently selected actor. This morph half of the mesh, along a specified axis such as -x to +x or +y to -y.
target is basically a container for the current state of the mesh for Note that Mirror only translates changes across the mesh of the
that actor; any future changes to the mesh will overwrite previous actual selected actor. It will not translate changes from one actor
modifications held within this morph target. Therefore, if you wish to another.
to save any particular mesh state, use the Save a Copy As...
button at the bottom of the Create tab to create a new, separate
morph target.
Remember, if any of your changes are more than you wanted, you
can either Undo to erase your change(s) and do them over, or you
can change to Restore mode to gradually back your change off to
the point where you wanted to stop.
As you work, feel free to experiment with the various display
settings included on the Create tab. Display Mesh will show the Figure 23.7.
mesh overlaid on the surface of the object, regardless of which
Display Style option you are using. Display Brush enables and
disables the impact region preview display. Work with Current

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Chapter 24: Advanced Body an animation, the model begins to change shape until it reaches
the morph target geometry.

Shaping
Besides the basic body shaping tools like the Scale and Taper tools,
Poser provides two features for customizing the shape of figures:
Morph Targets and the Joint Editor.
Morph targets let you add additional parameters to a body part Figure 24.1: A Morph Target used to alter figure geometry.
that allow you to gradually reshape it. Joint Parameters let you set
up how the joints in your figure move. If you want to see an example of how morph targets are used, take
a look at the Head parameters of a Poser human figure. All the
facial parameters, like Mouth and Tongue settings, were created
Morph Targets using Morph Targets.

One of the most powerful features in Poser is the ability to add

user-defined morph targets. Morph targets are transitional changes Setting Up Morph Targets
in the geometry of the figure that can be animated over time.
Morph targets can be created directly within Poser using the Morph targets are assigned to individual body parts. When you
Create tab of the Morphing Tool (see “Chapter 23: Morph Target set up a morph target, a new parameter dial is added to the body
Creation” on page 252 for more information). Or, if your project part’s parameters. The dial lets you control the amount of morphing
requires more advanced modeling work, you can create the morphs applied to the body part.
in a 3D modeling application, and import them into Poser. This
In order to add a morph target, you need to create a morph target
process will be described in detail in the following section.
geometry. This geometry represents the end-point of the morphing.
The figure’s geometry can move from the original shape of the The morph target geometry must contain the same number of
model to the geometry of the morph target. During the course of vertices as the original body part, that’s why you’ll usually use the

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original body part as a starting point. 3. Click the Load Morph Target button. The Load Morph Target
dialog appears.
A morph target geometry can be created in any 3D modeling
application that allows you to save a file in OBJ format.

To add a Morph Target in Poser:

1. Select the body part to which you want to add a morph target.

2. Choose Object menu > Properties to display the

Properties palette.

Figure 24.3: Load Morph Target dialog.

4. Click the Browse (“...”) button to find the geometry file you
want to use as a morph target.

5. The name of the file appears in the Geometry field. The file
must be in OBJ format with the same number of vertices as
the original body part.

6. Do not use a file of the entire figure. The file should contain
only the body part you are morphing.

7. Enter the name you want to attach to the parameter dial that
controls the morph. This dial is added to the parameter dials
Figure 24.2: Properties palette. list for the selected body part.

8. Click OK to return to the Properties palette.

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9. A new dial is added to the Parameters palette for the name it “nosemorph.obj”.
selected body part. Use this dial to morph the body part from
its original shape to the morph target. A value of 0.0 for this
dial is the original object. A value of 1.0 completely changes In order to work as a morph target in Poser, the OBJ
the body part to the morph target. A value of 0.5 is a hybrid file you save must have the same vertex count and order as
halfway between the original object and the morph target. the geometry to which the morph target is supposed to be
You can also use negative values to invert the vertices. applied.

To add a Morph Target in Poser:

Morph Target Tutorial
1. Launch Poser.
This tutorial assumes that you are familiar with 3D modeling
applications, such as Shade, and that you are able to use such an 2. Display the Library palette, by clicking the handle on the
application to edit geometries and save files in the Wavefront OBJ right side of the screen.
format.

To Prepare the Morph Target OBJ File:

1. Using your favorite 3D modeling application, open or generate
a male human head mesh object.

2. Add a morph target to the tip of the nose.

3. Open the Poser > Runtime > Geometries directory, and

create a folder called “TutorialMorph”.

4. Save the morph target file as an OBJ file, to the Poser >
Runtime > Geometries > TutorialMorph folder, and

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Figure 24.5. The Poser 2 Hi sub-category.

5. Double-click the Casual Man P2 preview.

Figure 24.4: The Library Palette.
6. The figure appears in the Document window.
3. Click the Figures category button.

4. Click the Poser 1-4 sub-category pop-up and choose Poser

2 Hi.

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Figure 24.7: The Face Camera icon.

Figure 24.6: The Casual Man in the Document window.

9. Select the Head, and choose Object menu > Properties.

7. Close the Library palette.
10. The Properties palette appears.
8. Click the Face Camera icon in the Camera controls.
11. Click the Load Morph Target button.

12. The Load Morph Target dialog appears.

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18. Use the rotation trackball to rotate the view slightly to the left
or right.

Figure 24.8: The face of the figure.

13. Click on the Browse (“...”) button.

Figure 24.9: A rotated view of the figure.

14. Select the file Poser > Runtime > Geometries >
TutorialMorph > nosemorph.obj. 19. Click the Current Actor pop-up menu in the Document
window.
15. Click Open.
20. Select the Head.
16. Change the Label field to Nose. This assigns the name
“Nose” to the new parameter dial. 21. You can now use the Nose dial to morph the Nose. Drag it to
the right towards 1.0 for an interesting effect.
17. Click OK to return to the Properties palette, and click on the
Parameters tab to switch to the Parameters palette.

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Figure 24.11: An example of figure joints.

Figure 24.10: The Nose after morphing.

The bending and twisting motion in a figure is created by using
transformers. Transformers stretch, skew, or scale polygons in the
transformation zones to produce desired joint motion.
Figure Joints and Blend Zones The transformation zone is defined by the inclusion and exclusion
angles that are assigned to each transformation. Polygons within
The joints on a figure control how parts bend, blend, twist, and the exclusion angle are not affected by a transformation. Polygons
bulge. Realistic movement in a figure is controlled by joint settings. within the inclusion angle are affected. Polygons in the area
For example, a human knee joint can’t bend forward. between the angles, called the Blend zone, are adjusted to
create a smooth transition between the surrounding polygons.

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imported with the Convert Hier File command. Refer to

“Creating Figure Models” on page 282 for more information
about how to create your own Poser figures.

Figure 24.12: An example of blend zones.

Joints are controlled using the Joint Editor. Blend zones are
edited each time you adjust the transformation inclusion and
exclusion angles. Blend zones can be further refined using the
Spherical Falloff zones.

Editing Joint Parameters

The Joint Editor lets you control both joints and blend zones. It
lets you directly manipulate joints and blending transformers to
set how a joint works. These advanced settings can be used in
different ways:

• Fine tune the bending of existing figures to suit your needs

Figure 24.13: The Joint Editor.
• Create new types of effects, such as imitating the comic
character ‘Plastic Man’
Before making any changes with the Joint Parameters, be sure
• Customize joints and transformers for entirely new figures, to turn all IK Chains off. It is also easier to see some attributes,

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such as the center, if you view them in outline or wireframe attribute.

display mode. If your computer is fast enough, use Full
Tracking to see the results of your changes in real-time. 4. Set the attribute’s parameters.

Each joint on the figure has a set of attributes, like Bend, Twist
or Side-to-side. The attributes available for editing depend upon Using the Joint Editor
which joint is selected. Editable attributes are displayed in the pop-
up at the top of the palette. The Joint Editor contains several controls you can use to set
attributes for a joint. These controls change as you select different
To edit a joint’s parameters, you first select a joint attribute and
body parts. However, here are a few controls that are common to
then set each of its parameters. Each attribute has a specific set
all:
of parameters that control how the attribute affects the joint. For
example, the parameters for the Center attribute let you control the • Display Deformer: Toggles the graphical display of the joint
exact position of the center point. on the figure.
To display the Joint Editor: • Spherical Falloff Zones: Toggles on or off the Spherical
Falloff Zones on the figure. Refer to “Spherical Falloff Zones”
1. Choose Windows menu > Joint Editor.
on page 273 for more on falloff zones. The Spherical Falloff Zones
2. The controls available on the Joint Editor palette depend on control appears on all attributes except the Center attribute.
the currently selected body part or prop.
• Zero Figure: Resets to 0 the rotation (Bend, Twist, Side-Side,
Front-Back) for all body parts.
To edit a joint parameter:
• Joint Order: Defines the joint’s axes of rotation. The joint
1. Select a body part. order is expressed as three letters corresponding to the X, Y
and Z axes. Using the front camera position, the X axis runs
2. Display the Joint Editor. from left to right, the Y axis runs up and down, and the Z axis
runs from the front to the back.
3. Click the popup at the top of the palette and choose an

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• Curve Radio Button: Specifies the use of curve bends as

opposed to the standard twist/joint/joint bends. When you set
up a joint using curves, the joint will have one twist and one
curve primitive. The curve primitive will automatically bend the
body part as if it were part of a curved chain of objects.

Interactively Editing Joint

Parameters
When you select a joint attribute in the Joint Editor, a graphical Figure 24.14: A Twist attribute displayed graphically on the figure.
representation of the parameter appears on the figure. For
example, when you select the Twist attribute for the leg, a red and
green line appears on the leg. Editing Inclusion and Exclusion angles
Center. When using Bend or Side to Side/Front to Back, the red line
represents the exclusion angle, while the green lines represent the
The center of a body part becomes the outline of the selected inclusion angle.
target when you can edit it.
Any polygons within the exclusion angle are not affected by a
Twist transformation. Polygons within the inclusion angle are affected by
the transformation. The area between the inclusion and exclusion
When you select the Twist attribute, a line with two handles angles is called the Blend zone.
appears on the figure. The red handle represents the starting point You can edit theses angle by dragging their points directly on the
of the twist transformation area. The green handle represents the figure. As you drag an angle, the figure updates to show the effects
end. Dragging these handles increases or decreases the Twist area. of your change. When the cursor is over an end-point, it appears
as a target.

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Inclusion and exclusion angles exist in three dimensions, so you can Center
rotate the figure to see all the areas affected by the transformation.
You can also edit the angles in all three dimensions. The Center Attribute sets the center of rotation for a selected body
part. This attribute is available for all body parts and props.
If you want to make sure you’re moving an angle in only one
dimension, use the orthogonal cameras (From Top, From Front,
From Left, etc.). For example, if you use the From Front camera,
moving left and right moves in x. Moving up and down moves in y.
In the From Left view, left and right move in z, and up and down
move in y.

Bend
You can adjust the Bend transformation area by dragging the end-
points of the red or green angle. To change the center of the body
part, drag the center point target.

Side-Side/Front-Back.
Both the Side-Side and Front-Back attributes can be edited like the
Bend attribute, by dragging the inclusion and exclusion angle lines.

Joint Attributes.
Each joint on a body part has a number of parameters that
together control how the joint moves.
Figure 24.15: The Center attribute in the Joint Editor.

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The Center attribute has the following parameters:

• Center Point: Sets the XYZ position of the center of the body
part. 0,0,0 is located in the center of the body on the floor.

• End Point: Sets the endpoint for a joint with multiple

children, or no child joint.

• Orientation: Sets the XYZ rotation of the axis. Click and drag
on these dials to rotate the axis. You can alt-click on the dials
to reset them to 0.

• Align: Aligns the axis to the rotation of the body part.

Twist
The Twist attribute alters the location of the twist transformer for
each body part. The intensity of the transformation is controlled
using the Twist parameter dial or Twist tool.

Figure 24.16: The Twist Attribute in the Joint Editor.

Note that there is not a Twist attribute for the hip, since the hip
is the parent of the entire figure. Twisting the parent is the same
as rotating the entire figure. When IK is enabled, twisting the hip
transforms body parts included in the IK chains.

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By default, the Twist axis runs lengthwise down the center of each
body part. For example, for arms the twist axis is the x-axis, while
for legs the twist axis is the y-axis. Moving and rotating the center
of a body part can alter the position of this axis.

Figure 24.17: The Twist axes on the body.

The Twist attribute has the following parameters:

• Twist Start, End: Sets the start and end of a twist area on
a body part. Only the parts of the figure within the twist area
are affected by the twist transformation.
Twist areas can be set to larger than the body part to make a
twisting motion appear more natural. In most cases, you want to
include the body part’s parent.

Bend
The parameters for the Bend attribute alter the angles of the bend Figure 24.18: The Bend attribute in the Joint Editor.
transformers and define how bulges are created.

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The Bend attribute has the following parameters: how polygons within the bend zone are stretched or pinched
to create bulges or wrinkles.
• Center Point: Sets the XYZ position of the center of the body
part. Bending occurs at the center point. Changing that point • The Apply Bulges checkbox specifies whether or not the
changes the center of the body part. bulges defined by the parameter dials will be applied to the
polygons in the current blend zone. Use the parameter dials to
• Joint Angles: These parameters set inclusion and exclusion control the bulges. Right and left dials refer to the sides of the
angles for the Bending transformation. The values in Static A figure. The positive dials control how much bulging out will
and D together set the exclusion angle. Polygons within the occur when the joint moves, and the negative dials control
exclusion angle are not affected by the bending. The values in the amount of wrinkling and pinching. You can alt-click these
Dynamic B and C together set the area of inclusion. Polygons dials to reset them to 0.
within the inclusion angle are affected by the bending.

Figure 24.20: Differences in bulges and wrinkles, when the body part center is
Figure 24.19: The angles of inclusion and exclusion on a body part.
changed.

• Bulge Settings: When enabled, these parameters control

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Side-Side/Front-Back
The parameters for the Side-Side/Front-Back attributes control
angles of the Side-Side/Front-Back transformers and define how
bulges are created.

Figure 24.22 The Front-Back attribute in the Joint Editor.

Figure 24.21: The Side-Side attribute in the Joint Editor.

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The Side-Side/Front-Back attributes have the following parameters:

• Center Point: Sets the XYZ position of the center of the body
part. Side-Side transformations occurs at the center point.

• Joint Angles: These parameters set inclusion and exclusion

angles for the Side-Side transformation.

• Bulge Settings: When enabled, these parameters control

how polygons within the Side-Side transformation zone are
stretched or pinched to create bulges or wrinkles.

Scaling
Each body part has parameters that let you scale the parent and
child body parts. The settings are similar to the Twist parameters,
and follow the Twist axis of the child or parent body part.
For example, the Right Collar body part of the Business Man has
scaling controls for the chest (the parent body part) along the
y-axis, and scaling controls for the Right Shoulder (the child body
part) along the x-axis.

Figure 24.23: Scaling attribute displayed in the Joint Editor..

• High Start/End, Low Start/End: The High and Low

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parameters define a blending area. For example, when scaling include joint parameters.
the head, you might also want the top of the neck to scale
as well. Saving Joint Parameters
When setting this parameter, only one pair of settings—the high Changes to joint parameters effect only the current scene. If you
or the low setting—is relevant. The unused parameter pair is want to save joint parameter changes, you need to either save your
automatically set to an out-of-limit number (such as 100.000 or scene, or save the figure as a new preset in the Library palette. The
99.000). This indicates that the pair is not relevant to the area you new figure has new joint parameter settings. Refer to the Poser
have selected for blending. The out-of-limit settings should not be Reference Manual, “Chapter 7: The Poser Library” on page
edited. 92 for more about saving figures to the Library palette.

Spherical Falloff Zones

Spherical Falloff Zones are an advanced method for controlling the
blending between body parts. Two spheres, a green ‘inner’ sphere
and a red ‘outer’ sphere represent the falloff zones.
Figure 24.24: The effects of High/Low scaling.

The end of each blending zone is represented in red, while the

start is represented in green. The effects can be uniform, or can
be controlled by spherical falloff zones. Refer to “Spherical Falloff
Zones” on page 273 for more information.

Copying Joint Parameters

You can copy joint parameters from one half of the figure to the
Figure 24.25: Spherical Falloff Zones.
other using the Symmetry commands on the Figure menu. Hold
down the Option/Alt key while using the Symmetry commands to

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The green sphere defines the area that is affected 100% by the Editing Spherical Falloff Zones
transformation. The red sphere represents the boundary of the
transformer’s effect. The area between the inner and outer sphere Spherical Falloffs can be edited using any of the Editing tools. You
is the ‘blending’ zone. The effects of the transformation gradually can reposition, scale, rotate or twist Spherical Falloff zones.
decrease from 100% at the boundary of the inner sphere to 0% at
the boundary of the outer sphere.
When adding Spherical Falloff Zones, the default position of the
sphere is 0,0,0.

Displaying Spherical Falloff Zones

Spherical Falloff Zones can be selected and displayed using any
display mode. Choose Display menu > Element style to select
the desired display mode. The default display mode for these
spheres is outline.
Wireframe mode lets you view the spheres in 3D and still see the
body parts they surround.

Figure 24.26: A Spherical Falloff Zone viewed in Wireframe mode.

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Chapter 25: Basic Figure 1. Begin by launching Poser and importing the file wormy.
obj from the Tutorials folder accompanying your Poser
installation. Do this by selecting File > Import > Wavefront
Creation OBJ and navigating to the folder on your system. Set both
Full Tracking and the Texture Shaded document display
style. Do this by choosing Full Tracking from the Tracking
This section provides two examples of creating Poser figures
Mode menu at the bottom of the Preview tab, followed by
from imported props (geometries). Tutorial files are located in the
clicking the right-most button in the Display controls.
Tutorials folder with your Poser installation.
2. Enter the Setup room by clicking the Setup room tab.

Example One: Wormy 3. Set a side camera, such as Right, by clicking the words Main
Camera in the Document window and selecting From
Wormy is a happy little inchworm that also happens to be a great Right. Next, select the Bone tool (3rd from the right in the
example of how you can rapidly create a simple figure using the Editing tools). Starting near the bottom, create the first (hip)
Setup room. bone going up Wormy’s body. This hip bone is the parent
for the entire figure. Next, create three additional bones for
the Abdomen, Chest, and Head. Please refer to the Poser
Reference Manual, “Chapter 29: Figure and Prop
Editors” on page 507 for more information about the Setup
room.

Figure 25.1.

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Translate tool (third Editing tool from the left):

Figure 25.2.

Figure 25.3.
4. Click the hip joint (base of the bottommost bone), and
create two more bones going down Wormy’s tail as follows.
Remember that the tailbones are children of the hip bone You will probably notice that there is a problem with the joints
(see “Hierarchy” on page 14 for an explanation of hierarchical when you try to move the tail: Wormy’s waist deforms incorrectly.
relationships). Correct this by opening the Joint Editor palette, selecting the
upper tail joint, and making the following adjustments (see the
5. Select the Group tool (just to the left of the Bone tool in Poser Reference Manual, “The Joint Editor” on page 521 for
the Editing tools), then click the Auto Group button in more information about the Joint Editor palette):
the Group Editor palette to create groups of polygons and ƒƒ Rotation Order: Select ZYX as the rotation order.
attach them to the bone structure you created. Click the Next
Group button several times to see the groups that have been ƒƒ X-Rotation: Select the X-Rotate parameter and position
created. You can modify these groups as discussed in the the inclusion/exclusion angles as shown:
Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter 5: The Document 6. Close the Joint Editor palette and try moving Wormy’s tail.
Window” on page 59. Close the Group Editor palette The tail now bulges as if muscles were flexing, creating a far
and exit to the Pose room. Try posing Wormy using the more natural appearance. You can, of course, create any effect

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you desire by tweaking the joints. installation.

2. Set both Full Tracking and the Texture Shaded document

display style, and enter the Setup room.

3. Select the Front camera. Goldy should now appear as

follows:

Figure 25.4.

Congratulations! In just a couple of minutes, you have transformed

Wormy from a static prop into a fully poseable Poser figure!

Example Two: Goldy the Robot

Wormy used a simple bone structure built from scratch. Goldy the
Robot was originally created by assembling Poser props from the
Props category within the Library palette. For this example, she
will use a skeleton belonging to an existing library figure and be
adjusted as necessary.
1. Begin by launching Poser and importing the file goldy. Figure 25.5.
obj from the Tutorials folder accompanying your Poser

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4. Open the Figures library and select Figures > Poser 2 Lo

> Default Guy. Click the Change Figure button to load
the skeleton. If you prefer, you can also begin at the hip and
create a skeleton from scratch, just as you did with Wormy:

5. Select the Translate tool and position the bones on your left
(Goldy’s right) side and center (Outline display style shown
for maximum contrast).

Figure 25.7.

7. Goldy’s bones are now aligned side to side. Select a side

camera (or multiple pane view, as described in the Poser
Reference Manual, “Single/Multiple-View Panes” on
page 68) and adjust the front-to-back alignment. As in the
previous step, you can use symmetry to save time. When you
are finished, select the Main camera and fly around Goldy to
Figure 25.6. make sure that the skeleton is correctly placed.

6. Select Figure > Symmetry > Right to Left. Click Yes

when prompted to copy joint zone setups. Goldy’s skeleton
should now look something like this:

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Figure 25.8. Figure 25.9.

8. At this point, you could use the Auto Group tool. However, 10. Check all of the groups to ensure that the correct polygons
Goldy’s hoop will not work properly, since the Grouping tool are assigned to each group. Make any necessary adjustments.
will assign its polygons to the hips and abdomen, causing When you are finished, exit the Setup room and try posing
the hoop to distort or break as Goldy moves. To prevent this, Goldy.
select a side view, select the abdomen bone, and draw a new
bone protruding from Goldy’s center to the hoop.

9. The Auto Group tool will assign some of the hoop polygons
to the bone you created, and others to the hip, thighs, etc.
Simply select the group corresponding to the bone you
created in the previous step, and add the rest of the hoop
polygons to the group to make the hoop move properly.

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12. The final step is to make Goldy gold. To do this, enter the
Material room and make the Diffuse_Color, Ambient_
Color, and Reflective_Color attributes gold as described
in the Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter 15: Material
Room Nodes” on page 239. Render the scene to see Goldy in
all her glory!

Figure 25.10.

11. Not too bad for a few minutes’ work. Still, to make Goldy
move like a robot instead of an organic figure, you will need
to adjust the joint parameters. You may also need to adjust
the bones and/or turn off body part bending by selecting body
parts and/or disabling bending in the Properties palette. Figure 25.11.
The Poser scene Goldy_Raw.pz3 in your Poser Installation’s
Tutorials folder shows Goldy just after leaving the Setup
room. Goldy_Adjusted.pz3 in the same folder shows Goldy
after her joint parameters and bones have been adjusted.
Notice how she now moves like the robot she is. Load this file,
select each joint, and note its parameters. Try using the Walk
Designer (see the Poser Reference Manual, “Using
the Walk Designer” on page 354) and playing the resulting
animation.

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Chapter 26: Advanced Figure page 293 leads you thorough the entire process step-by-step.
Figure creation is a multi-step process:
Creation • Create a 3D model of the new figure.

A figure in Poser is basically a 3D model that has separate parts • Create a hierarchy file for the figure.
for each moving limb. What makes a Poser model unique is how
• Convert the hierarchy file.
it interacts with the controls in Poser. When a 3D model is within
Poser, it has joints that move realistically. It seems to move like a • Locate and use the new figure file in Poser.
real person.
• Verify the figure’s hierarchy.

How Do You Make a New • Adjust the joint parameters of each body part.

Figure? • Set limits.

Poser created the ability to mirror real body movement by • Set favored IK angles.
adding joint parameters to each body part. This allows you to
then manipulate the figure based on those parameters. By using • Store the default position.
parameter dials and the Walk Designer you can create realistic
motion. • Set the surface materials for the figure.
To create your own Poser figures, you must set up your model in a • Add morph targets to individual body parts.
way that Poser can understand. Once that is done, you can move
or pose your model, just as you would any of the models that are • Set part names
included with Poser.
• Save the new figure to the Library palette.
This chapter describes how to create articulated bending figures
in Poser. The Tutorial starting with “Creating the Initial Figure” on

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Creating Figure Models It’s important that groups are set up to denote the individual
moving sections. You can store body parts as individual OBJ files or
Almost any geometry that is made up of polygons and has save the entire figure as a single file. In either method, you need
individual parts can be used as a figure in Poser. What your model to carefully plan how you choose to separate the polygons into
looks like makes no difference to how it works in Poser. It doesn’t individual moving parts.
even have to look human, it just needs to be set up properly and You do not need to move these parts to the origin individually.
stored in the correct format. You should leave them where they naturally relate to one another.
Once those two criteria are satisfied you can make anything into a Local origins are set up later inside Poser.
Poser figure. With the right set up, you can make anything from an When you store each body in a separate wavefront OBJ file
accordion to a zebra into a poseable figure. you need have only one specified group in each file. That group
contains all the polygons in that file.
Model Format When you store the entire body in one Wavefront OBJ, you must
use “groups” to separate different parts of the body that represent
In order to use geometry as a figure in Poser, it must be stored in the moving hierarchy. Saving the entire body in one Wavefront OBJ
a Wavefront (.obj) compatible format. As well, you must use only file is usually the preferred method.
polygons to create your model. Nurbs or spline surfaces are not It is very important that groups do not overlap. Wavefront
suitable. grouping allows polygons to be in more than one group. If this
happens, the overlapping polygons are duplicated when you bring
the file into Poser, each group being turned into a separate Poser
Grouping body part.
Poser uses a group name as the internal name of a body part For example, if you build a human-like object, you want to separate
inside Poser. Some Poser features, like the Walk Designer, require the polygons of the model into the following groups:
specifically named body parts. The group name is also the default rHand
name that you see when working with this body part (you can lHand
head
change that at a later time). neck

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lCollar • “rHand” -- for the body part that represents the base palm of
rCollar
chest the right hand
abdomen
hip • “lHand” -- for the body part that represents the base palm of
rThigh
lThigh
the left hand.
rShin In order for the hand Library features to work completely, the
lShin
rFoot fingers of the hand should be broken up using the following names
lFoot (working from root to tip):
rShldr rHand
lShldr rThumb1 rThumb2 rThumb3
rForeArm rIndex1 rIndex2 rIndex3
lForeArm rMid1 rMid2 rMid3
In order to use the figure in the Walk Designer you’ll have to rRing1 rRing2 rRing3
rPinky1 rPinky2 rPinky3
make sure that the above groups are used in the figure. lHand
lThumb1 lThumb2 lThumb3
• Before creating a hierarchy file, import your OBJ file as a prop lIndex1 lIndex2 lIndex3
to check that the geometry is imported correctly. lMid1 lMid2 lMid3
lRing1 lRing2 lRing3
lPinky1 lPinky2 lPinky3
Naming Groups
In a Poser figure file, there are actually two names applied to each
body part. One name is used internally, the other is what the you
see. It is important that certain body parts use standard internal
names in order to be available for specific Poser features. The user
name (specified by the “name” line of actors) can be anything you
wish.
The following body part names (therefore Wavefront group names) Figure 26.1: The hierarchy applied to the figure.
should be used when available:

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Arranging Groups on the Model

When Poser processes a new model’s geometry and generates a
Poser Figures library entry, it automatically adds bending joints
between parent and child objects as specified in the hierarchy file.
Joints only bend polygons of the objects that are contained in the
parent or child body part at any given joint. So, all polygons that
Figure 26.2: Two incorrect ways, and then the correct way, to connect groups
are physically located at a seam must be contained in either the
on the horse.
parent object group or the child object group. In other words, don’t
have three groups joining at the same place.
A good rule of thumb to use when creating groups is that if two
objects don’t have a parent child relationship, then they shouldn’t Creating Hierarchy Files
be touching each other. It’s important to make sure that groups
are set up with this in mind, otherwise gaps appear when you start The Hierarchy file describes how the groups in a figure are
bending the model in Poser. arranged. It outlines the parent-child relationships between groups.
Once created it can be imported into Poser where it is converted to
The following example shows the connection of the abdomen, hip,
create a new figure file in the New Figures library.
and upper leg of a horse. Since the abdomen is a child of the hip
and the upper leg is also a child of the hip, there is no parental The hierarchy file specifies four important things:
attachment between the abdomen and the upper leg. Therefore
there can be no physical attachment between the abdomen and • The geometry (.obj) file to use.
the upper leg:
• The hierarchical connections (parent-child relationships) of the
body parts.

• The desired rotation order of each body part.

• A specification of each Inverse Kinematics chain to be

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included in the figure. 4 rShin yzx

5 rAnkle yzx
Hierarchy files can be created in any text editor that can save 6 rFoot yxz
2 tail1 zyx curve
documents in a text-only format. 3 tail2 zyx curve
4 tail3 zyx curve
The following is an example hierarchy file: It represents the full 5 tail4 zyx curve
hierarchy for a horse -- including curve channels for the tails. ikChain LeftLeg lThigh lLeg lShin lAnkle
ikChain RightLeg rThigh rLeg rShin rAnkle
objFile:Runtime:Geometries:horseHi:horseHiP3.obj ikChain LeftHand lShldr lUpArm lForeArm lWrist
1 hip zxy lHand
2 abdomen zyx ikChain RightHand rShldr rUpArm rForeArm rWrist
3 chest zyx rHand
4 lShldr yzx
5 lUpArm yzx
There are more samples in the Tutorials > Figure Creation
6 lForeArm yzx folder that is included with your Poser installation.
7
lWrist yzx

8 lHand yxz Hierarchy File Explained
4 rShldr yzx
5 rUpArm yzx The following section explains the various parts of the Hierarchy
6 rForeArm yzx
7
file.
rWrist yzx
Hierarchy File Header
8 rHand yxz
4 lowNeck zyx
5 upNeck zyx
The first line of the hierarchy file contains the “OBJ File” command
6 head yzx which specifies the location of the OBJ file associated with the new
2 lThigh yzx figure.
3 lLeg yzx
4 lShin yzx objFile:Runtime:Geometries:horseHi:horseTex.obj
5 lAnkle yzx
6 lFoot yxz The file location should be defined using a Macintosh format file
2 rThigh yzx
specification (i.e. using colons). The file location is specified relative
3 rLeg yzx

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to the Poser application folder. In the example below, the lShin object is located on the 3rd level of
the hierarchy. The closest level 2 line above would be the lThigh, so
When the hierarchy file is converted, the text of the OBJ file is read
the lShin is a child of the lThigh.
into Poser where a geometry resource is created and linked to the
OBJ file. This process results in a new figure file.
From then on, when Poser uses this figure file, the geometry
resource is used to defined the figure hierarchy relationships rather
than the text stored in the OBJ file. Reading from the geometry Figure 26.4: Parent-Child relationships indicated in the Hierarchy file.
resource is dramatically faster.
The indenting of the lines is not processed but is helpful visually to
Hierarchy File Body denote the hierarchy levels.

The bulk of the hierarchy file contains lines similar to the one The second part of the line specifies the name of the body part. In
shown below: the example the part is called abdomen. This name must match the
group name in the OBJ file.

Figure 26.5: The body part name in a Hierarchy file line.

Figure 26.3: A typical Hierarchy file line.

The first part of the line indicates Hierarchy level, or the parent- The 3-character string at the end of the line represents the rotation
child relationship, of the body part. In this case, the abdomen body (or gimbal) order of the body part. A rotation order defined as
part is a child of the body part of the part on the next level up. “zxy” means that a Z axis rotation occurs first, followed by the X,
Hierarchy levels are numbered in depending order, so the next level then Y axis rotations.
up from this part is 1.

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problems that occur when the middle rotation approaches 90

degrees.

• Place the remaining rotation channel second.

• Some objects are built non-aligned to the major axes. In this

Figure 26.6: The rotation order in a Hierarchy file line.
case, you are able to “align” the coordinate system of the
body part later, while adjusting the joint parameters. For the
Poser uses the following XY and Z axis orientations: hierarchy file, pick the rotation order that seems closest to
what would be desired. When you align the part later, the
twist axis you choose becomes aligned down the length of the
body part.

Linking Body Parts Stored in Separate OBJ

Files
If each body part were stored in a separate file, rather than all body
Figure 26.7: The X, Y, and Z planes that make up 3D space. parts being groups in a single file, you would specify the full path
name for the file at the end of each line. This path is relative to the
Assigning a rotation order is a three step process: Poser folder.
Here is an example of three links using this method:
• Always place the “twist” axis first. This axis should be placed 1 link1 yzx:Runtime:Geometries:examples:l1.obj
lengthwise through the object. If the object, like a leg, is built 2 link2 yzx:Runtime:Geometries:examples
down the Y-axis, specify the Y first since that is the axis along :l2.obj
3 link3 yzx:Runtime:Geometries:example
which the leg would twist. s:l3.obj

• Of the two remaining rotations, place the one most likely

to become 90 degrees last. This helps reduce rotation lock

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Using Curved Transformations Converting Hierarchy Files

The Curved flag tells Poser that this link should use curve Once the Hierarchy file is completed in the text editor, you can
transformations. This is a method of bending designed for the tails import it into Poser by converting it into a geometry resource
of the animal figures in Poser. Here is an example used in the Horse (called a CR2 file).
figure:
2 tail1 zyx curve
This geometry resource is then used by Poser, in conjunction with
3 tail2 zyx curve OBJ 3D data to create a new figure file with rotation order, and
4 tail3 zyx curve Inverse Kinematic relationships as defined by the hierarchy text file.
5 tail4 zyx curve
On Windows, the resource is a separate file ending is RSR. On a
Inverse Kinematic Chains Macintosh, the resource is stored with the OBJ file. If you need to
edit the resource on a Mac, use a resource editor to remove the
The last commands in the hierarchy file specify the links that text from the OBJ file, or create a new text file by copying and
compose the individual inverse kinematic chains. Inverse Kinematic pasting from the old one.
chains are defined in the following format:
ikChain chainName firstLink nextLink If you make changes to the hierarchy file and then convert it
nextLink... endGoal again, the conversion won’t re-create the geometry resource if it
In the example above the ikChain is defines as follows: already exists in the OBJ file. So, if you are trying to make geometry
changes, you need to either delete the resource, or start with a new
blank text file that contains only the text portion of the OBJ file.

To convert a Hierarchy file:

Figure 26.8: An ikChain line in a Hierarchy file.

1. Choose File menu > Convert Hier File. The Open dialog
The name of an ikChain cannot contain spaces. appears.

2. Locate the Hierarchy file you created in the text editor and
click Open.

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3. If there are no errors, a Poser Figure library file is created. Applying the Standard Hierarchy
4. The hierarchy conversion may take several minutes if there is a If a figure’s geometry was created using standard body group
large geometry file. names for human/biped figures, you can use the Hierarchy Editor
to automatically apply the Poser Standard Hierarchy to your
5. The figure file that gets created references the geometry file figure, establishing parent-child relationships. Poser 7 can apply
whenever used. Its location should be established and not the Standard Hierarchy to full or partial figures. Refer to “Naming
moved later or the figure file cannot find the geometry. Groups” on page 283 for more about creating figures with standard
body group names.
6. If the location is changed you need to edit the figure file with
a text editor to designate the new location (specified relative
To apply the Poser Standard Hierarchy to a
to the Poser application in Mac format).
figure:
1. Choose Window > Hierarchy Editor.
Verifying Hierarchy Files
2. Select the Universe.
Once you begin adjusting the joints you are not able to regenerate
the figure file a second time and have all your joint changes in 3. Click the Apply Standard Hierarchy button.
place. Make sure that all Parent-Child relationships are correct
before editing joint parameters. You can make geometry corrections
later, but you cannot change the hierarchy without creating
different joints from scratch again.

Figure 26.9: The Apply Standard Hierarchy button.

Setting Up a Standard Figure

Poser provides the following methods to aid you in creating The Apply Standard Hierarchy button is not available
standard figures. unless the universe is selected.

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Applying the Standard Rotation optimal bending.

Order
If the props for human/biped figures use standard body part
names, Poser can automatically apply the standard rotation
settings for each prop.

To apply standard rotation to a figure:

1. Choose Window > Hierarchy Editor to display the
Hierarchy Editor.

2. Select the Universe.

3. Click the Apply Std Rotation Order button to apply the

standard rotation settings.

Adjusting Joint Parameters

When the Hierarchy file was converted into a new figure file, Poser Figure 26.10: The Joint Editor.
automatically added joints between all the parent and child objects
in the figure. These joints may not work as expected as they use Refer to “Adjusting Joint Parameters” on page 290 for detailed
the default joint settings instructions on adjusting joint parameters.
Before you can pose your figure, you need to adjust each body It’s highly recommended that you work from the outside of the
part’s joint parameters. The Joint Editor lets you select each joint, figure in, making a first pass through to make sure all origins are
twist, smooth scale, and center parameter and adjust them for located as desired. If you move the origin point (center of rotations)

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of a body part later, it carries along the other joint changes so the
bending characteristics change. You’ll save yourself from doing
extra work if you specify the origins (centers) first.

Remember, you can save your figure to a new Figure

preset at any time. You should do this periodically as you work
so you can back up if you make mistakes.

Figure 26.11: The Edit Parameter Dial dialog.

Keep the IK chains turned off until all adjustments are completed.
You can use the Zero Figure button to quickly set all rotations to
zero while working. To set limits for a body part:
1. Double-click the parameter dial for which you want to set
Setting Limits limits. The Edit Parameter Dial dialog appears.

Limits establish a range of rotation, position and scale for a given 2. Enter maximum value of the parameter in the Max Limit
body part. Limits can be set for each body part on the figure. field.
However the most commonly used, and the most logical, limits
are Bend, Twist, Side-Side and Front-Back. For these parameters, 3. Enter the minimum value of the parameter in the Min Limit
limits are expressed as degrees. In this case, the limits define the field and click OK.
maximum and minimum degrees of rotation.
Limits are set by using the Edit Parameter Dial dialog. Remember, you can save your figure as a new figure in
the Figures library at any time. You should do this periodically
as you work so you can back up if you make mistakes.

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Setting Favored IK Angles Memorizing Default Positions

The Inverse Kinematics in Poser works from the current rotations When you memorize the settings on the figure you’re setting the
of a body part, therefore proper IK angles need to be preset in the default values and positions for all the figure’s joints and body
figure for it to work predictably. parts. The next time you use this figure, the memorized setting are
used.
As such, the original rotation values loaded on the joint are
important to help the IK system know which way to bend some
To memorize the figure’s settings:
joints.
Before you memorize the default position of all the body parts, you • Choose Edit menu > Memorize > Figure.
should bend the ones that are used in IK chains so that they favor
their natural bending directions. For example, a human thigh is
bent slightly forward and out. The shin is bent slightly back and in.
Setting Surface Materials
Do this while keeping all the IK chains turned off. Only turn them
on after you have set the favored angles. Please refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter 13: The
Material Room” on page 213 for more information about applying
surface materials to your objects and figures.

Adding Morph Targets

If you have created Wavefront format OBJ files that have the
identical vertex ordering as any individual body part, you can load
Figure 26.12: Favored IK positions.
them as morph targets.
Refer to “Setting Up Morph Targets” on page 257 for more on setting
Morph Targets.

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Setting Body Part Names Tutorial - Poser Figure Creation

The names of the groups you set up in the OBJ file and Hierarchy In this tutorial, a 3D polygon mesh object is converted into a
file may not be the most descriptive names you can use. Once the Poser figure. We assume that you are familiar with 3D modeling
main parameters are set for the figure, you can change the name applications, such as Shade, and have the ability to generate or
of each body part. modify 3D mesh objects.

To change the name of a body part: Creating the Initial Figure

1. Double-click a body part. The Properties palette for that
To create the initial figure:
body part appears.
1. Using your favorite 3D modeling application, open or generate
2. Enter a new name in the Name field.
a female human figure mesh object.

2. Name the body part groups in a manner consistent with

Saving New Figures to the Poser’s body part naming format. See “Grouping” on page 282
for more information on naming groups.
Library
3. Verify that none of the groups in this mesh object are
After you’re finished setting joint parameters and body part names, overlapping, and that each polygon is assigned to a group.
you can save the final figure to the Figures category in the
Library palette where it can be recalled at any time. 4. Open the Poser > Runtime > Geometries directory, and
Refer to the Poser Reference Manual, “Chapter 7: The Poser create a new folder called “TutorialWoman”.
Library” on page 92 for more information on saving figures to the
5. Save the file as a Wavefront OBJ file, to the Poser >
Library palette.
Runtime > Geometries > TutorialWoman folder.

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import options.
Subsequent parts of this tutorial use the file name
“womanfinal.obj” when referring to the OBJ file you have 6. Use the Translate tool to drag the figure up.
been asked to create. If you choose to call your file something
else, then remember to replace any references to “womanfinal.
obj” with your personal file name.

Checking Geometry Imports

Importing this object as a prop into Poser allows you to check the
import of the geometry for errors.
This part of the tutorial illustrates potential problems you may have
in your models, and how you might fix them.
Figure 26.13: Dragging the figure up.
To use Poser to check for geometry errors:
1. Open Poser. Fixing Surface Normals
2. You may need to close your 3D modeling application first in If you notice that some areas seem to have holes or appear
order to have enough memory. inverted, this is because the surface normals are flipped. You can
fix this in your 3D modeling application.
3. Click and drag on the Translate In/Out tool to move the
figure away from the camera. Creating the Hierarchy File
4. Select File menu > Import > Wavefront OBJ. You must create a hierarchy file in order to import the figure back
into Poser. See “Creating Hierarchy Files” on page 284 for details on
5. Open the OBJ file you saved in the Poser > Runtime >
the syntax of the hierarchy file.
Geometries > TutorialWoman folder. Use the default

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To create the hierarchy file: ikChain lLeg lPant lThigh lCalf lFoot
ikChain rLeg rPant rThigh rCalf rFoot

1. Create your hierarchy file to appear as follows: 2. Save the hierarchy file into the TutorialWoman folder and
name it womanfinal.phi.
objFile:Runtime:Geometries:TutorialWoman:womanfinal.obj
1 hip zxy
2 abdomen yxz
To scale the new figure:
3 chest zyx
4 neck yxz 1. Open Poser
5 head yxz
6 lEye yxz
2. Select File menu > Convert Hierarchy File.
6
rEye yxz
3. A new figure is created in a group called New Figures.
6 mouth yxz
4 lShldr xzy 4. Open the Library palette and click on the Figures category.
5 lUpperarm xyz
6 lForearm xyz
7 5. Select the New Figures subcategory.
lHand xyz
4 rShldr xzy 6. Double-click the new figure (with the shrugging Poser figure
5 rUpperarm xyz
6 rForearm xyz icon).
7
rHand xyz 7. The figure is initially very large. Use the Current Actor pop-
2 lPant yxz
up menu to select the ‘Body’.
3 lThigh yxz
4 lCalf yxz
5 lFoot zxy 8. Double-click the scale parameter dial and change the value
2 rPant yxz to 4.2%.
3 rThigh yxz
4 rCalf yxz
5 rFoot yzx
ikChain lArm lShldr lUpperarm lForearm lHand
ikChain rArm rShldr rUpperarm rForearm rHand

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To adjust body part color: 7. Use a skin tone for the remaining body parts.

1. Select Figure menu > Drop to Floor.

2. Each body part is a different color. Use the color tool on the
body parts to better organize the figure.

Figure 26.15: After adjusting body part colors.

8. Select Edit menu > Memorize > Figure.

9. Add the figure to the Library, naming it Womanfinal.

Figure 26.14: Body parts are different colors.

Setting Joint Parameters

3. Use a similar color for the chest, abdomen, left shoulder and
right shoulder to form the shirt. You now need to set the joint parameters for each body part.
This tutorial gives you a general overview of how to begin setting
4. Use a similar color for the hip, left pant, and right pant to your joint parameters. For more information, see “Adjusting Joint
form the shorts. Parameters” on page 290
5. Use a similar color for each foot.
Before adjusting joint parameters, always check that IK
6. Color the mouth red and each eye white. Chains for the figure are turned off.

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Your first task is to set the center of rotation for all body parts. If 6. Set the y value to 0.9.
you change this later, it effects all other bending parameters for
parent and child body parts. 7. Set the End Point y value to 0.8. The x and z value should be
0.0.
To set the hip center of rotation:
To set the centers of rotation for pant body
1. Switch to outline display mode.
parts:
2. Open the Joint Editor.
1. Select the right pant body part. Look at the center of rotation.
3. Click on Zero Figure.
2. Select the right thigh body part.
4. Start by selecting the hip.
3. Drag the center of rotation up towards the edge between the
right pant and the hip. This gives the effect of the thigh and
the pant leg moving together.

Figure 26.16: Adjusting hip rotation.

Figure 26.17: Adjusting the right thigh body part.

5. Change the Center point x and z values to 0.0.

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4. Repeat this for the left thigh.

To set the center of rotation for the abdomen:

1. Select the abdomen.

2. Drag the center of rotation down, slightly into the hip.

Figure 26.19: Adjusting the chest.

To set the center of rotation for the arms:

1. Select the right upper arm.

2. Move the center of rotation towards the joint of the shoulder.

Figure 26.18: Adjusting the abdomen.

To set the center of rotation for the chest:

1. Select the chest.

2. Drag the center of rotation up slightly, within the bottom of

the chest.

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twist start (in red) should be below the chin and into the neck.
This blends the rotation of the head into the neck.

Figure 26.20: Adjusting the upper arm.

3. Repeat this for the left upper arm. Figure 26.21: Blending the head into the neck.

To set the center of rotation for the head: 3. Switch to the From Right camera, and zoom in on the head
and neck.
1. Select the head.
4. Switch from yrot to xrot in the Joint Editor.
2. Switch to the Face camera.

To set rotation values:

1. In the Joint Editor, switch from center to yrot.

2. Swap the twist start and twist end positions. You can test your
settings by adjusting the yrot parameter dial in the Parameters
palette. The twist end (in green) should be above the chin. The

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Figure 26.22: Adjusting the head and neck. Figure 26.23: The static handle at the top of the back of the neck.

5. Drag the static handle on the left (in red) down below the 9. Test your settings by adjusting the xrot parameter dial.
chin.
To adjust scale values:
6. Drag the dynamic handle on the right (in green) counter-
clockwise till it is also below the chin, but still higher than the 1. Switch from xrot to neck_scaleY. This controls the blending
static handle you dragged in the previous step. zone for the y-axis scaling of the neck when scaling the head.
7. Notice that as the dynamic handle hits the static handle, the 2. Set Low start to 5.97 and Low end to 6.14.
static handle is also moved.
3. This sets the blending to within the neck, below the chin.
8. Drag the static handle counter-clockwise until it is at the top
of the back of the neck.

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6. Select lEye_scaleY.

7. Drag the High end up towards 9.

Figure 26.24: Blending to within the neck, below the chin.

4. Select the mouth_scaleY.

Figure 26.26: Dragging the High end up towards 9.
5. Set Low start to 6.4 and Low end to 6.27.
8. Repeat this for the right eye.

9. You can now scale the head to see the effects.

10. You can now set limits for each body part.

To set remaining limits

1. Repeat the above procedures for the remaining body parts,
such that your figure moves and bends realistically.

Figure 26.25: Setting the eye. 2. See “Adjusting Joint Parameters” on page 290 and “Creating

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Figure Models” on page 282 for more information.

3. Set the default IK angles. Memorize the default position.

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Index D Local Coordinates 7

Displacement Map 25 M
Symbols F Maps 22
Materials 21
3D Space 2 Focal Length 36 Multi/Sub-object Materials 22

A G N
Animation 14 Global Coordinates 7 Normals 13
Groups 16
B GroupsCloth 19 O
GroupsHair 19
Bump Maps 24 Objects
H ObjectsOne-dimensional 2
C ObjectsThree-dimensional 2
Hierarchy 14 ObjectsTwo-dimensional 2
Camera 13 ObjectsZero dimensional 2
Cameras K
CamerasChanging parent 33 P
CamerasFace 35 Keyframing 15
CamerasFocal Length 36 Parameter Dials 43
CamerasLinking to objects 31 L Parameter DialsPosing with 44
CamerasMain 29 Perspective 3
CamerasTop 35 Lights 14 Planes 6
CamerasWorking with 29 LightsControls 38 Polygons 12
Cartesian Coordinates 5 LightsIntensity 39 Poser Workspace 13
Color 22 LightsPointing 41 Procedural Shaders 26

Index
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R Vanishing point 3
Vertices 11
Reflection Map 25
Rotate Tool 45
Rotation 9

S
Scale 10
Splines 11
Spotlight
SpotlightAdding 40

T
Templates 22
Texture Map 25
Tools
ToolsUsing 43
Tracking modes 36
Transformation 9
Translate Tools 49
Translation 9
Transparency Maps 24
Twist Tool 47

Index