Subject: Exploring The Limits Of Morphing
I finally decided to fix my Athletic Posette (PF Gallery) character. Though she was pretty good overall, there were bad problems in her mesh in a couple of spots that I just couldn't take any more.
At first I focused on trying to fix the existing model, and was indeed able to make some improvements. In the end however there were problems that were just too deeply rooted to repair, so I decided to start a new version from scratch, keeping only the face of the original. I still have never learned how to use any of the stand-alone assistance programs, so the way I work on stuff like this is just to go though all my characters with Morph Manager and load practically everything ever made for P4NW onto one model, spin the various dials until I'm happy, break out a magnet or two if absolutely necessary, and then combine the final version into one new morph and use MM to delete all the other now unnecessary stuff.
This is a fitness-themed character, so I based it on the old but nice P4 Female Bodybuilder character by John P Moore. The previous version was also based on this character, but less so because it also relied strongly on an old morph set called MusclePak by an unknown creator. Anyway I am very happy with the almost final redux version of the character (frame A of the picture compares the two models). The old one was smoother/more subltly curved (especially in the shoulders), but the new one is more muscular (which of course is the main point of a fitness model), has a more natural bustline, and is generally a bit more realistic compared to photo references of professional fitness models.
There's one horrible problem, though: her rear end. A minor and barely noticeable issue in the original bodybuilder base model became greatly amplified through all the various morphs I used. Rather than try to describe it, it's shown in frame B of the picture. The area inside the red circle is the problem, as it doesn't look natural and the mesh is in fact broken on a few polys. The trouble is just on the hip part of the model, and doesn't involve the thigh body parts; however some of it is right at the edge of the junction between the two.
Aackk! Posette is extremely upset and on the verge of hysteria over the way her butt looks. She's only thrown a couple of dishes at me so far, but I'm afraid she'll go off the deep end if I don't get her taken care of soon. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to proceed or fix it.
The old version of the character does not have this problem in this area (frame C of the picture, circled area looks natural). However, there were far too many changes on other areas of the hip between the versions for me to just use a whole hip morph of the old version on the new version. Having spent many hours on the project already, I also don't want to start all over again, because there were dozens of settings involved and I doubt I could exactly recreate them. I know how to use the Grouping Tool in Poser to make magnets affect only specific polygons, but since the area that needs fixed in this case is a highly curved area and right on the border of a joint blend zone, I don't think I will be able to use magnets to make it look good.
My questions are as follows:
1) Using Poser 4, is there any way to apply a pre-existing morph target that affects a whole body part to only specific polygons of the target figure? Or is there a way to export a morph target of a body part so that it contains information on certain polygons of the given body part but not others affected by the original? What I mean is, if I could take a morph of the old version's bum just in the problem area and apply it to the new version without affecting the rest of the hip, that would be ideal. But I don't know how to do this or if it is even possible.
2) Does anyone know of any off-the-shelf free morphs for P4 woman that affect only this small inside hip part of the rear end? In my archives I've got many morphs that affect the upper part of the tush, or affect the right area but also change the front and sides of the hip, or thigh morphs that affect the outer part and outer bottom edge, but not one single thing that adjusts the rear bottom of the hip independently.
3) If plans A and B don't work, does anyone have any other suggestions on how to deal with this problem other than learning MorphMaster, etc? :mmmh:
Except for this one area, I am highly satisfied with the new look of the character, so hopefully the Posette Forever gang will have some tips to deal with this issue or Posette will have to be sitting down in all my renders from now on.
Thanks
Endosphere
P.S. If anyone has other suggestions for improving the figure, feel free to make them as she is still being worked on.
I finally decided to fix my Athletic Posette (PF Gallery) character. Though she was pretty good overall, there were bad problems in her mesh in a couple of spots that I just couldn't take any more.
At first I focused on trying to fix the existing model, and was indeed able to make some improvements. In the end however there were problems that were just too deeply rooted to repair, so I decided to start a new version from scratch, keeping only the face of the original. I still have never learned how to use any of the stand-alone assistance programs, so the way I work on stuff like this is just to go though all my characters with Morph Manager and load practically everything ever made for P4NW onto one model, spin the various dials until I'm happy, break out a magnet or two if absolutely necessary, and then combine the final version into one new morph and use MM to delete all the other now unnecessary stuff.
This is a fitness-themed character, so I based it on the old but nice P4 Female Bodybuilder character by John P Moore. The previous version was also based on this character, but less so because it also relied strongly on an old morph set called MusclePak by an unknown creator. Anyway I am very happy with the almost final redux version of the character (frame A of the picture compares the two models). The old one was smoother/more subltly curved (especially in the shoulders), but the new one is more muscular (which of course is the main point of a fitness model), has a more natural bustline, and is generally a bit more realistic compared to photo references of professional fitness models.
There's one horrible problem, though: her rear end. A minor and barely noticeable issue in the original bodybuilder base model became greatly amplified through all the various morphs I used. Rather than try to describe it, it's shown in frame B of the picture. The area inside the red circle is the problem, as it doesn't look natural and the mesh is in fact broken on a few polys. The trouble is just on the hip part of the model, and doesn't involve the thigh body parts; however some of it is right at the edge of the junction between the two.
Aackk! Posette is extremely upset and on the verge of hysteria over the way her butt looks. She's only thrown a couple of dishes at me so far, but I'm afraid she'll go off the deep end if I don't get her taken care of soon. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to proceed or fix it.
The old version of the character does not have this problem in this area (frame C of the picture, circled area looks natural). However, there were far too many changes on other areas of the hip between the versions for me to just use a whole hip morph of the old version on the new version. Having spent many hours on the project already, I also don't want to start all over again, because there were dozens of settings involved and I doubt I could exactly recreate them. I know how to use the Grouping Tool in Poser to make magnets affect only specific polygons, but since the area that needs fixed in this case is a highly curved area and right on the border of a joint blend zone, I don't think I will be able to use magnets to make it look good.
My questions are as follows:
1) Using Poser 4, is there any way to apply a pre-existing morph target that affects a whole body part to only specific polygons of the target figure? Or is there a way to export a morph target of a body part so that it contains information on certain polygons of the given body part but not others affected by the original? What I mean is, if I could take a morph of the old version's bum just in the problem area and apply it to the new version without affecting the rest of the hip, that would be ideal. But I don't know how to do this or if it is even possible.
2) Does anyone know of any off-the-shelf free morphs for P4 woman that affect only this small inside hip part of the rear end? In my archives I've got many morphs that affect the upper part of the tush, or affect the right area but also change the front and sides of the hip, or thigh morphs that affect the outer part and outer bottom edge, but not one single thing that adjusts the rear bottom of the hip independently.
3) If plans A and B don't work, does anyone have any other suggestions on how to deal with this problem other than learning MorphMaster, etc? :mmmh:
Except for this one area, I am highly satisfied with the new look of the character, so hopefully the Posette Forever gang will have some tips to deal with this issue or Posette will have to be sitting down in all my renders from now on.
Thanks
Endosphere
P.S. If anyone has other suggestions for improving the figure, feel free to make them as she is still being worked on.
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