Okay if your wonderding where I've been pretty much the last couple of days, since I haven't caused any real problems in the fourms I've been in Poser/photoshop hell! I'm trying to to learn/figure out how to make textures for say V3 using the V3 template you can down load for free at daz. Well it seems logical enough and with Messengers great help in getting me some pointers she's picked up by actually reading tutorials (something I'm totally horrible at doing) I began my journey to hell. Okay, so here's the problem. I"ve got the mat or texture started in photoshop 7 and the head isn't much trouble at all, but the body is giving me nightmears. I want the body texture to look like it does in photoshop after I render it in Poser and I just can't seem to figure out how to make it do that. I'm posting the text template so you can see how it looks and also a render using Poser 4 with the stock lights that come up when I open Poser. What I'm seeing is that the render isn't as clear or as detailed as what I did in photoshop, the texture doesn't seem to have that 3d look that it does in photoshop. Is this just a normal thing, is there something I"m not doing right? Any imput would be wonderful. I don't know enough about the material room in Poser other than I set all the object colors to white because it seemed to work better, but maybe I should have left them skin colored? As for the other settings in there I'm pretty clueless and just do the trial and error thing.
Thanks for any help or suggestions you may have. Also ahh, is this texture even worth going to the trouble over, or does it suck big time? Don't worry about hurting my feelings, I just want to see what I can learn about doing this.

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I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to just try and keep control over this group of bozo's at the Nut house errr...Clubhouse! --Guilty Pleasures Chief of Bozo's

I forgot, the pictures posted in the oppisite order of how I was thinking, but you get the idea. Oh and I haven't done the hands yet, actually a lot of things I want to do, but need to get the issue of the texture on the body solved first

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I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to just try and keep control over this group of bozo's at the Nut house errr...Clubhouse! --Guilty Pleasures Chief of Bozo's

        

Ok Guiltypleasures, my solution for this is very, very radical but it could help you very much:

1- If you don't have it search the UVMAPPER program (www.uvmapper.com, free version)
2- In uvmapper File->Open Model
3- now go in your Poser directory and search for the file Geometries/dazpeople/blMilWom_v3.obj and load it

Now you can see a very messy template of the Daz V3 woman, I think they made her in this way so people would find very hard to make their own texture for the model... But we can make things easier...

4- In Uvmapper got to Edit->Color->By material
5- Edit -> New Uv Map ->Planar. Here select  Aligement = Z-Axis Orientatio=Orizzonthal Split=by orientation.

Now you can see a Posette       like template.

I think that for your kind of texture it should be enough, it should be easier to work on this template with photopshop.

6- In Uvamapper File->Save model

Be Warned: DON'T USE the same name of the original model (blMilWom_v3.obj), use another (for example newvicky.oby).

7- In Uvmapper File -> Save texture Map: you can save the new template in a directory easy to find, you'll use this to build your new texture.

8- Now you have to modify the CR2 model of one of your vicky to use the new obj. So open Poser and choose one of your vicky, open it... ehm... her... and save it with another name, just to work on a copy.

Assuming that you saved the obj file (newvicky.obj) in the same directory of the original (blMilWom_v3.obj) it's easy.

9 - open a text editor, the window notepad is enough, and search for the copy of vicky character you have just made, if your name was "mynewvicky" in Poser, you must search for "mynewvicky.cr2" file.
Assuming that you have saved her in the default (Daz People) directory, you have to find the file:

c:/Program files/Curious Labs/Poser 5/Runtimes/Libraries/characters/Daz/Daz People/minewvicky.cr2

10 - In notepad search and find "blMilWom_v3.obj" , delete it and write "newvicky.obj" (the name of you modified obj file). There are usually 2 "blMilWom_v3.obj" in the cr2 file, change all of them and save the file.

Now in Poser when you open the copy of your vicky she will use the new obj file and the new easy texture template.

Using the Uvamapper you can also separate the materials in the new map, for example you want to make a very detailes texture for the lips and fingernails, after you have done the new texture map, in uvmapper, go to Edit->Select->By material and choose for example "lips", now you have a "select box" that you can move and stretch in a different position so it can be easier to work on it later.
Save the obj file and follow the same instructions....

THE AUTHOR OF THIS HELP FILE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL THE DAMAGES CAUSED FOR THE USE OF IT...        

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Thank you so much Tormie for your kind help in giving me these instructions and I plan on working though them today when I finish my misery of doing housework    I have downloaded the free uv mapper before, but I never knew what I was suppost to do with it, between messenger and you I have a clear idea of what it is for now. Now hopefully it will work for me as well as you have written it out lol

Thank you very much

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I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to just try and keep control over this group of bozo's at the Nut house errr...Clubhouse! --Guilty Pleasures Chief of Bozo's

UV mapper is one of those programs that looks complicated and pointless until you get around to using it... then you don't know how you ever worked without it

Hope the experimentation is going well, GP.

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Computer Lie #1: You'll never use all that disk space.

"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound as they fly by." - Douglas Adams

Enlarging the size of the template you're working will help you get more crisp and sharp details in your textures.  The higher the res/clarity you want the larger the file.  And in the case of creating something for myself I don't worry about the slowed render times becuz I think the details are worth the extra time.

I generally use 2000x2000 for the head and 4000x4000 for the body (depending on the desired detail and/or the model used).

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i will enjoy the time i have