ZBrushCentral

Poseable Mutant Sumo... From Zsphere to Posette WIP (new: brief tutorial)

Hello,
I thought I would show some of the work I’ve been doing the last two days. This is some of the progress shots of making a mesh poseable for further animations and renders.
Please feel free to ask questions…
Next steps are to finish tweaking the joint parameters, add spherical falloff zones and kinematic chains and to add the other geometries as props(teeth, tongue, shoes, hair, wrap, necklace, armband etc…) I also plan on making some facial morph targets for phenomes and completely repainting all the texture maps. This character was inspired by Robotalks behemoth contest! Just fun… nothing serious. Everything modeled in Zbrush(except for the loin straps which I modeled in Rhino) Thanks for looking!
Michael

Well done PusGhetty great modeling on this Sumo(?)type feller.

Yes really good model…should sort Robo’s little freak out. :+1: :+1: :+1:

Tell me Pusghetty…firstly where’d that nick come from?

Secondly…does Poser allow you to bend joints and things in the body?

Oh no! I said that word…shame on me.
Thanks

look good pusgeteo :+1:
ed if you want to bend Joints you have to use a UV Mapper http://www.tiemdesign.com/reviews/UVmapper/UvMapper.htm
then you have to line up your Joints with Joint Parmeter its been a while but far as i remember you have to bring the mesh in as a Hericy file < i spelled that wrong im sure then there this other tool for Hericy i dont have the link but that set up your X,Y,Z

Thats great stuff…I am glad that Zbrush seems to work with Rhino. Ah, good to see an app that integrates well with one’s tool box. :cool:

Well, first of all, Thanks for all the kind
words everyone! I’m glad this piques some interest! The answers could get rather long!
Ed, My nickname is derived from my little sister… You see, when we were kids I played soccer and I was bone skinny, My sister called me pusghetty, what she meant was of course spaghetti! Later on in life I made the nickname my alias… and went with it full blast for my internet username! As a matter of fact, my freelance graphics company is named PusGhetty Designs. ;~)

Ed and Ez,
Quick answer to Ed… Yes you can make any imported group of polygons into a Poseable figure within Poser. Sorry I made you say that word! ;~)LOL Once all the joint parameters are embedded than you can freely pose your figure into any pose you want to!
This is what Poser is really about!
Now onto the explanation…
You do not have to use UVmapper if you have an application that can separate polygons into groups, rename them and apply UVmaps.
This can be done in most 3d programs such as, Maya, 3dsmax, Truespace, DeeepPaint3d w/Texture Weapons, Lightwave, etc…(you could feasably do this in Zbrush but I have yet to figure out how to export an object with named groups? Anybody… Aurick?)
However, UVmapper is probably the best that I have used. I used UVmapper on this model.
Here’s a quick rundown.
First you must load your model into UVmapper then separate the polygons into groups. These groups need to have standard figure hierarchy names such as: head, neck, chest, rShldr, rUpperarm, rForearm, rHand, rThumb1, rThumb2, rIndex1, rIndex2, rIndex3,
etc…
Here is what my finished uvmap looks like:

Each of these groups represents a joint that needs to be implemented in order to bend said groups. Each joint actually resides between two groups.(just like it should)
Once the object groups are named properly there are two methods for making an object hierarchy(list) for your new character.

  1. You can create a hierarchy file manually in a text editor and import this into Poser.(select File Menu> Convert Hierarchy)
    This should look something like this:
    1 hip zxy
    2 abdomen yxz
    3 chest zyx
    4 neck yxz
    5 head yxz
    6 lEye yxz
    7 rEye yxz
    4 lShldr xzy
    5 lUpperarm xyz
    6 lForearm xyz
    7 lHand xyz
    4 rShldr xzy
    5 rUpperarm xyz…
    Etc…
    Just use the old bone song… ya know, the chest bone is connected to the neck bone, the neck bone is connected to the head bone… Hahaha!! LOL
    If you want IK(Inverse Kinematics) chains then you must list them in this Hierarchy file as well… in ex.
    “ikChain lArm lShldr lUpperarm lForearm lHand”
    Be sure to do this for each IK chain.
    Also rename this file with .phi and move it to the appropriate folder that you want your
    figure to be in.(this folder should be placed within the Poser program files.)

  2. You can also just import your geometries(.obj file) into Poser, Select the grouping tool and “spawn all props”. Once this is done delete your object and you will still have all the groups now separated. You can then go into the hierarchy editor and drag and drop the group names into a suitable hierarchy. Once the hierarchy is done then press the “create figure” button. Warning this method imbeds all texture maps.

After all of this is done now comes more work! ;~)
You must now manually go through each joint (using the Joint Editor) and adjust the parameters of each! This will tell the joint how/where it can bend, how much it can bend or swell… also what polygons are effected by the joint(Spherical Falloff Zones).
Once the JP’s are tweaked to your liking… then you can save the figure and have some fun with it!
Whew… I think that about does it!! I hope this information will be usefull!
Take care,
Michael

Indeed it is most useful Michael!!! And a job most superbly done. This is exactly what I have been want to do with Poser. Now to just figure out how do to do it with C4D hmmm… Lots of possibilities here! This is a prime example of how to apply the power ZBrush to enhance other packages!

Very well done, I am working on similar project (creating figure to use in poser). Do you not use the setup room in pro pack to set/edit bones etc…?

At the present time, there is only one way to name groups in an object, and that is through the MultipleMarker tool. ZBrush will name the object group with the name of each tool that is used to make up the composite mesh.

For example, if you make something with 4 Ring3D objects, you will get one object group called Ring3D. But if you create four copies of the Ring3D and name them Ring1, Ring2, Ring3 and Ring4, then those will be the group names in the exported object, as well.

However, for groups created by the ZSphere skinning method, you do not have this option. You’ll have to rename the groups yourself in another app. Technically, you could open the OBJ file in a text editor and rename them that way, but you should always do that on a copy of the object just in case you mess something up! :slight_smile:

Mentat7,
Thanks for the feedback! :cool:
The amount of info used to create poseable models can be overwhelming for most! I am using Poser4.0.3 and from what I understand Poser ProPack and now Poser5 make this stuff much more easier. So… in other words, I am going about this the hard way! ;~) Ihope to upgrade soon!
This should be a fairly simple process in Cinema4d since I’m pretty sure you can make a skeleton first then attach the skin to it.
I’m not sure however… I haven’t tried C4d yet. Truespace uses bones and I am quite familiar with it.
Let me know if I can help at all… the brief tutorial I already wrote here is only the tip of the iceberg in figure design within Poser. Poser gets very complex!!!

AlienHive,
Thanks for the kinds words… I am using Poser4.0.3… I do not have the Pro Pack!
Sounds very cool though!

Aurick,
Thanks Matthew!
I kind of figured that was the case. Tell me, How come my exported Zsphere skins only have maybe three groups after exporting insted of thirty or so?
When I view them in Dots mode it appears that the thirty some odd groups are there… I export the model and the groups disappear?
I’m not too sure as to why this happens!?
Michael

I figured you were using Poser 4.0.3. The Pro pack really does make things a lot easier! Good work though, considering you are doing it the hard way, I look forward to seeing more of your stuff

I have been doing Cinema4D with UVMapper, and it works pretty good.

Although if you got Bodypaint 3D too it has some pretty good tools for unwrapping meshes aswell. If you make a new texture, load in a material as diffuse, drop material on the model. Assign a UVcoordinates tag (or whatever its called, something with UV anyways :wink: ). Then go into the texture window and press the show UVs and after that it works just as UVMapper, only you don’t have to split the model into groups unless you want too, and it got some other features such as optimal mapping.

Anyways, back to the Cinema4D with UVMapper. I divided a model into groups in Cinema4D, exported it to UVMapper and made the UV map there. then I imported all the objects back into Cinema4D and linked them all to a null object. Then I loaded the texture to the null object (parent to the groups of the model) and it mapped the texture perfectly.

Thats a great looking model Pusghetty, well done with the poser posing stuff. :slight_smile: :+1: :+1: :+1:

Thanks Karasuando… I’m sure your tips will help a few others!
Thanks Grub for both the comments and the technique for Zsphere heads… You rock dude!

I have bookmarked this thread for future use. I only have poser III and for the most part it is still a mystery to me on the levels you discussed above. So much to learn and only one lifetime to accomplish it…grrrrr unless they have Z in heaven :slight_smile: very nice thread, PG…loved the spaghetti referrence…when I read that I went doh… I had been pronouncin it like two different words…lol… but should have been sayin spa sketty or words to that effect…nice modeling too by the way…

Pretty awesome stuff PusGhetty! :smiley:

:+1: :+1: :+1:

wow…thanks for the answer to my questions. Certainly more info than I expected. This thread I’ll be saving for future reference…thanks again.

And thanks EZ I checked the programme out and downloaded it.