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Poser Full Body Morphs to ZBrush 1.5-- I FOUND THE ANSWER!!!

Yeah, I said I’d given up… but I’m very stubborn, and I just had to keep trying, and I found out what the problem is. The problem is Poser and the way it exports OBJ files. The trick is NOT to export the figure from Poser and then import it into ZBrush, but rather, to import it directly into ZBrush from the Poser “Geometry” folder. (To find out whether the problem was with ZBrush or Poser, I tried creating morphs in Carrara and had the same problem with the figures exported from Poser.)

So, here are full instructions for doing full-body morphs for Poser figures, and many, many thanks to Aurick for his help in getting me headed in the right direction!

Step 1: (not necessary but useful) Create a new folder for your OBJ files, both the altered figure OBJ and the morph target OBJs. You can put it anywhere, but the logical place to put it is under the “Geometries” folder.

Step 2: DO NOT use Poser to export an OBJ file of the figure; this is what causes the problem. Poser apparently does something weird during export. Instead, import the figure’s OBJ file into ZBrush directly from the Geometries folder or subfolder.

Step 3: Make changes to the figure in ZBrush, then export the figure as an OBJ using the “flip-script”-- or, if you don’t have the flip-script, export the figure, then import it and export it again. BE SURE TO SAVE IT UNDER ANOTHER FILE NAME so that you don’t overwrite your original Poser OBJ file!

Step 4: Start Poser, create a new file, and import the figure OBJ file you just created. You will get a dialogue box with a bunch of selections such as “Centered,” “Place on Floor,” etc. Make sure NOTHING is checked; everything should be de-selected.

Step 5: For each body part that you want to create a morph target for, do this: click on the “group” tool (the last one to the right in the group of editing tools). The imported figure will turn dark grey, and you will get a dialogue box saying “Group Edit.” On the pull-down menu just below that, select the body part. The selected part will turn red. Then click on “Spawn Props.” The spawning process may take awhile if you’re using one of the DAZ figures, even on a fast computer. When the spawn is done, the body part will turn dark-grey again. Select the next part, spawn it, and so on, until you’ve spawned all the props for the body parts you want.

Step 6: Go to “File” and “Export” and “Wavefront OBJ.” You will get a dialogue box saying “Select Range of Frames to Be Exported.” Just click “OK.” You will then get a dialogue gox entitled “Hierarchy Selection.” De-select “Universe” and then select one of the body parts for which you spawned props in Step 5, and click OK. You will then get an export dialogue box asking what you want to name the OBJ file and where to save it. Name it whatever you want to and click “Save.” You will then get a dialogue box with save options such as “Include body part names in polygon groups” and so on. Make sure that everything is DE-selected EXCEPT “Weld body part seams” and “As morph target (no world transformations).” Then click OK. Repeat this process for every body part you want to export. (Aurick was right-- it is somewhat tedious.)

Step 7: Create a new file (don’t save the one with the imported figure) and insrt the Poser figure. Then, for each body part you want to include in your full-body morph, do the following: Select the body part. Then, on the menu bar, go to “Object” and “Load Morph Target.” You will get a dialogue box saying “Add Shape Interpolation Target.” There are two fill-in fields, one called “Label” and one called “Geomoetry File.” The “Label” field is for what you want to name the morph-- this is the name that will appear on the morphing dial, so it should be fairly short. Type in the morph name, then click on “Locate” next to the “Add Shape” field, locate your OBJ file, and click OK. The dial for the morph will then appear in the dial set for that body part. Test the dial to see if the morph works correctly.

Step 8: When you are finished loading the morph targets, set the dials for all your new morphs to “1.” Then on the menu bar, go to “Figure” and “Create Full Body Morph.” You will get a dialogue box asking what you want to name the morph. Again, it should be something fairly short, since it is name that will appear on the dial. Then click OK.

Step 9: Reset all the individual morph dials that you created to “0.” Then in the body part selection pull-down, select “Body.” Your new body morph dial should appear in the dials for the body. Test it to see that it works properly.

Step 10: Congratulations! You’ve just created a new character. Rest the full-body morph dial to “0,” and add the new character to whichever library you want.

Step 11: Treat yourself to a martini, a beer, or whatever other restorative treat you prefer. After all that, you deserve it!

Blondie,
Sorry, I had the answer but I haven’t had time to be online much lately! I just read your other post as well! All that work for nada! Bummer!
I suggest that you should use Compose by:John Wind. Compose will correct all of those problems you are having and you wont have to worry about messing with the original geometries! Not to mention that you can avoid several of the steps mentioned above! It is freeware and you can find it on google, I did… I don’t know the url though?
I turned Nadya into an Ample woman with an FBM that I made in Zbrush and Compose in about twenty minutes total.
Take care,
Michael
P.s. I can help with Poser but you will get my attention quicker over at www.3dcommune.com as you already know, I am a mod for the Zbrush forum over there!

Thanks, PusGhetty-- I’ll try that Compose thing, I didn’t know about it. It would be nice to eliminate some of those tedious steps. (Weird that it never turned up on any searches I did and none of the few tutorials I found mentioned it.)

Oh, well-- another of those “learning experiences”!

Blonde9999,

Someone helped me solve the problem with export body parts out of Poser. You might want to edit step #2

The right way to do this is,

A. Load a figure in Poser

B. Select “Figure” in menu, select “Use Universe Kinemetics”, uncheck everything off.

C. Select “Windows” in menu, select “Joint Editor”, select “Zero Figure”

It will make the figure to be the exact position as in Geometery. So you can export body parts at once and leave some out for example export only Head, eyes, and neck at once.

Washington

blondie9999,

Great tutorial!
I’ve tried compose but it’s much more complicated than your way(plus you don’t have to install Java runtime environment to get it to work).
Though, in step 5(I think) you said to hit the “spawn props” button - that will actually make a copy of all the body parts and every time it’s clicked will make another copy(I found that out by clicking it 10 times when making a fullbody morph on a daz figure - let’s just say that my pc slowed down quite a bit).
Press “create new prop” for each body part or “spawn props” once.
Once again Thanks for the tutorial!

Great wok!!! You are the man!!!
I found this very easy to do. I t only took me about 10 minutes to verofy that it worked. Excellent!!! The possibilities!! AHhhhhhhh…

Hi blondie9999,

I can’t thank you enought for this tutorial, I’ve been pulling my hair out trying to do this, I tried using compose too and got more and more confused, although there are a few extra steps using your tutorial they are totally worth it.

Thank you thank you thank you…:smiley:

Aurick i m glade to u if u give me a intruction aur discribing me how to export model to pozer and how v riging it i mthanx full to u

You can export your ZBrush model to Poser (5 or 6) as an .obj and use the grouping tool and the Set-Up room to rig your model. Alternatively, and the method most Poser model makers use, is to take your exported obj and run it through UV Mapper (to map the model, and name the Groups and Material zones), followed by Phi Builder (to set up the parts hierarchy, the rotation settings for each body part, and any IK chains), then use the Create Hier command in the File menu of Poser (4, 5 or 6) to assemble the model. Then use the Joint Editor to adjust the bones and fall-off zones.

As you can see, it’s a big subject, and not really anything to do with ZBrush. Somewhere like Renderosity.com will be the place for you to ask questions about this type of work-flow. Good luck … it’s not as complicated as it sounds, but does require a degree of patience and practice.

I’m on an intel Mac using Poser 6 and found out that I have to run a Python script to uncompress all of the “.obz” files to “.obj” files. In case a few total noobs (like me) read this post and scratch their heads saying “My Poser uses OBZ files instead of OBJ files!”. I’m still running the scripts as I write this post so I’ll post again if everything works out.

The script can be found here (on a Mac):
(applications)/Poser 6/Runtime/Python/poserScripts/Utility/uncompressPoserFiles/py

This’ll be a good test since I’m a complete rookie when it comes to modifying Poser anything. I purchased Poser in early 2005 and haven’t used it for much at all. I’ve also just started using ZBrush 3.1 (via Parallels).

I got it to work!..I had to change my hotkeys in my Parallels so I could select specific parts of the figure to export for morphing. The “Ctrl-Shift” kept on triggering a right-click because of the Parallels config so I had to change the right-click keyboard combo to “alt-command”.

There is a really straight-forward video tutorial on using Zbrush to create Poser morphs by Ray Phelps here:
http://www.darkedgedesign.com/

I’ve been using Philc ToolBox it does it all in on hit it works with models from Z3 as well. But you probably known this anyway.

I’m glad that you have found a way that works, I know it must have taken you some time to get…so congratulations! :smiley:

May I offer another way for exporting/obtaining your base mesh from Poser? Please don’t interpet this post as my way is better than yours, possibly a new idea is all.

1- Load figure in Poser
2- Turn off IK’s and zero the pose, select Body
3- Edit/memorize figure/save to figures library
4- Open saved figure CR2 with MorphManager and delete all body morphs, save the CR2 as ??_Blank CR2. At this point, your figure/cr2 is zeroed and all body morphs have been removed. You can now use this cr2 for your conforming clothing (edit obj line to point to your clothing) or use that figure as a donor skeleton in the setup room (easy way to setup bones).

What is the same as your way is that we are not using the exporter in Poser, because the exporter sucks and alters the position ever so slightly…which we know becomes magnified later on!
I import directly from the runtime folder when I need a base mesh to build armour around, perfect fit and exactly where we want the base mesh.
When it comes time to make cr2’s for that armour try the blank cr2 method and just edit/point the obj line to point to your new piece of armour. Edit with text editor or CR2 editor. Then delete un-needed body parts from cr2 (ie; if you are using the cr2 for a chest protector, then you don’t need the body parts from below the hip, always leave the hip).
Make sense?
It’s a can’t miss method. :wink:
Hope this helps.

That’s a good tip I’ve been having problems with conforming clothes and this looks like it will do the trick. Thanks

Thanks for posting this, blondie, I need all the help I can get, lol! :smiley:

I’d just like to add my thanks for all this info. I’ve learned a great deal that I have needed to know.