Figures from Props

Figures from Props

Full text from 3D Artist issue #34
page 23 article, "Figures from Props"

By Bill Allen / Images by the Author
On page 20 of 3DA#34, Cecilia Ziemer demonstrated how to create a simple Poser 3 figure from scratch with the aid of Ray Dream Studio 5.0.2 for modeling. The following repeats just the key steps from that article, but without the use of an outside modeler.--Ed.

Playing with ballzacs not only helps learning how to create geometry and hierarchy for making your own custom Poser figures, but also gives the opportunity to learn about the settings that constrain a Poser figure's movements.

You can follow the page 20 "Ballzac" tutorial using only Poser itself. Boot Poser clean. Figure/Delete Figure, if one is present. In the Poser Libraries/Props palette, double-click on the Ball. Parameter dials appear for ball_1. Adjust its yTran to 0.300. Repeat this with three more balls, changing the yTran for each in turn to 0.200, 0.100, and 0.000 (or -0.000). All other parameters for each ball should be 100% or 0. (Tip: Rearrange the Poser UI so you can access the parameter stack with the Libraries/Props palette still open.)

___ Create a Runtime\Geometries\ballzac folder and File/Export/Wavefront OBJ to it as ballzac.obj (Single Frame 1 with "Export object groups for each body part" checked). In the same folder, create a plain text ballzac.phi file with this hierarchy code:

Save the following as Runtime/Geometries/ballzac/ballzac.phi

objFile :Runtime:Geometries:ballzac:ballzac.obj

1 ball_4 yzx
  2 ball_3 yzx
    3 ball_2 yzx
      4 ball_1 yzx

ikChain ballChain ball_4 ball_3 ball_2 ball_1

___ Poser writes the .obj file with the newest objects first. You can assign names other than the defaults, but not with Poser's Prop Properties dialog. Use Notepad or SimpleText to carefully edit the names in the .obj file. Look for lines that begin with "g". Make sure the names match those in the .phi file in spelling, case, and object order!
___ Delete the four balls from the Poser Document window, then apply File/Convert Hier File to Runtime\Geometries\ballzac\ballzac.phi. Name the New Set "Ballzac" and it should appear in New Figures.

The original article mentioned some hierarchy problem solutions and referred to a planned but not yet instituted list of such problems and possible solutions. Since that was published, the two most important solutions have become to download and install the Poser 3.0.1 Mac or PC updater, and to get Roy Riggs' PHI Builder utility which analyzes and helps build hierarchies (Windows only). See Re:Poser for how to do both.--Ed.

3DA#34 supplement [3DA#34]

Revised: 12 May 99
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