I'm dabbling in creating clothing for V3. I've modelled a basic strappy sandal in
Lightwave and now I need to know how to make it conformable to Vicky's foot.

1)I'd like the sandal to be in two parts  - the toes and foot. I'd like the
sandal toes to bend with Vicky's toes, etc. I've noticed in other similar models,
they share the same morphs as the figure - Bend, side-to-side, twist, etc. How do
I do this?

2)How should I separate the toes and foot parts? If I do it in Lightwave and export as separate models, I have an awkward time rescaling and positioning them both once in Poser because it always centers imported models. There's no way to tell it the models are connected, related. There is an option in Lightwave to "Create a part" in a model, by selecting polygons and giving it a name. However, when I did this and imported the model Poser still saw the whole thing as one model.

3)When exporting the sandal out of Lightwave, which format is best? I only have a
choice of DXF, OBJ, and 3DS. 3Ds only exports as 3-point polys and I'd rather preserve its quads.

I'd be grateful if anyone could guide me in this matter. Ironically I find
Lightwave and modelling easier than doing any of this stuff in Poser! I haven't a
clue.

Cheers,

Hi Joe, there are quite a few tutorials available on this subject.

Nerd3d has one here:
http://www.nerd3d.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=11

Bloodsong has one here:
http://www.3dmenagerie.com/goodies/tut/conform.htm

Some commercial tutorials:
PhilC
Poser Clothes Modeling Video Tutorial markdcQuickConform 2.0 by markdc

Hope this helps :-)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/homepage.php?Who=Posermatic

Load V3's OBJ into Lightwave first. You will find it in her Runtime/Geometries folder. Load you sandel into and copy it, then past it into a new layer. (Or you can copy V3 into a a new layer on your sandle object.) Make V3 the background layer. Move your sandal so it basically fits her foot. This way will make the sandle appear in the right place when you load it. Now go back to V3's layer. Along the bottom of the screen select Polygons. Now in Lightwave hit the letter "w" and bring up the polygon statistics menu. The line 1 up from the bottom says "Part (none)", with a little twisty arrow next to it. When you click it, you will see a list of body parts for V3. Select the foot for the sandle you want to work on. (Right or Left) Now right in front of "Part (Foot)" you will see a + and - Sign. Hit the plus sign. V3's foot will become selected, and only her foot. Now hit the "=" sign on your keyboard. This make everything but the selected polygons hidden. You can also go to the "View" tab and hit "Hide Selected" instead. Now you should have ONLY V3's foot visible in the layer. Select the layer with your sandal, and make the Layer with V3 the background again. Select the polygons on the sandal that basically line up with V3's foot, leaving the polygons for the "toe" unslected. Now hide everything but the "FOOT" part of the sandle. You should see your sandal like the front has been cut off. If there is a lot of strap or lace running up the shin part, hide that too. You want to eliminate any polygons that are far away from the foot peice. This next part get's a little tricky because the menu option for it move around from version to version. In LW9 they are still in the View Tab. Under "Selection Sets" click "Create Part". Then name it identical to the foot part of V3. Repeate this for every part you want to make. lToe, rToe, lFoot, rFoot, lShin, rShin, Etc. You have defined all these area's in Lightwave as polygon groups just the way Poser wants to see them. Now... make sure you apply UV maps and textures to your sandles in surfaces. Then export as an OBJ. It might ask you "Do you want to export point selection sets as groups? Hit NO! If you don't... Poser will see 2X the parts. The polygon groups will still export just fine. Now you have an OBJ that will work just like V3's foot in Poser. Here's where we go nuts. Get a program called CR2Editor1.51. Posermatic has it in his file locker. Now load V3's CR2 from her Runtime/Libraries/... (If you're going to be doing this a lot... better learn to find it it on your own. Tuff luve baby!) Now.... in CR2 Editor.... "SAVE AS" THE CR2 UNDER A NEW NAME!!!! You don't want to accidently overright your V3 CR2. delete every body part except hip, xButtox, xThigh, xShin, xfoot, xtoe. Where "x" = l or r for left or right. Basically you want to eliminate all the parts of the CR2 that don't do anything in your mesh except those from the hip down. Now change all the "figureResFile" comments to point to your sandal.obj file, or whatever you called it. Make sure you turn any "/" between folders in ":", and that you have you sandlals in something close to Runtime:geometries:(Your name here):sandle.obj You'll have to search around and delete all other referances to body parts and materials in the other parts of the CR2 as well. Like in "figure". ALso delete any morph channels. The hold the info for Geometry that won't work on your sandals. When your all done, save the CR2 (It was already renamed when you "Saved As" before.... RIGHT!!) If everything worked, you should only need copy the files to their own runtime, add them to your poser runtimes, and you'll have a set of conforming sandals. I've glossed over a few things, but I think I've gotten you 90% of the way there. The last 10% requires learning Poser's Directory structure and other really complicated crap that a short "how too" won't cover. Good luck and have fun.

Quote - There is an option in Lightwave to "Create a part" in a model, by selecting polygons and giving it a name. However, when I did this and imported the model Poser still saw the whole thing as one model.

It will still be one object but when you apply the bones in Poser's setup room the various parts (if named correctly) will be grouped accordingly so the foot, toe will be properly deformed by the appropriate bone.

edit:  Ah, looks like JoeHFG has it all laid out for ya. :)

Wow, thanks guys, especially JoeHFG, thanks for taking the time, I appreciate it. I'm pretty familiar with Poser's directory structure, I've just never made anything for a Poser character before ;).  Seems I still have a lot of homework to do, though :)

jumps in head first

Cheers,

JoeHFG, maybe I should have mentioned I only use Poser 4, and Lightwave 9. I got as far as naming polygon parts  - lFoot, lToe - and exporting the model, only when I exported the model to Poser, it DIDN'T have any body parts - lFoot, lToe, etc. It's still one whole model :( I'm guessing this only works in later versions of Poser? In which case, I'm wasting your time and mine :/

I bought Poser 7 at a discount, but the stupid thing took 4 HOURS to install, even on my speed-demon, and when I finally got around to using it, I hated almost everything about it. Is there any reason why this shouldn't work in Poser 4? Or is that a dumb question?

Oh, wait a minute, I need to use the Grouping Tool. NVM ;)

Well I have the sandal in two parts, conformed and fitting ok, but when I load it the toes won't bend with the Vicky toes. Messing with the JP doesn't seem to do anything.

JB,

You will want to use V3's CR2 for your sandle, it basically will tell the sandle how to move and bend. Edit the line that has the obj reference to call for your own obj.
I believe DAZ has a tutorial that goes into this.

By the by, generally don't need a group for the final body part. If the sandals have only a "foot" object group but body parts "toe" and "shin" in the cr2, they will conform and bend normally. The only disadvantage to going this way is that in some versions of Poser you will be unable to select the toes of the sandal directly (you have to select the toes of the conformed-to figure, then switch figures.)

Since your figure is a conformer, you can still do this. Poser 4 doesn't really matter for my method. Go over your edited CR2. Something probably got lost there. Remember... CASE COUNTS when referancing OBJ groups. I can't even count the times I've started cussing like I was possessed because I did LToe instead of lToe. :-D Lightave 9 should export propely. Try leaving everything in the CR2, but just pointing to your sandal.obj in the "figureResFile" lines. If that works you can make a copy and then start editing things out that you don't need.

OK thanks for your input people. I think I understand, I guess I'll just muddle through blindly like always ;)

Conforming your clothes, a less painful method: Apps required: Tool Collection for Poser by Dimension3D, AutoGroupEditor Both available in the MP Workflow: Model your item, export as an obj. Load that obj into AGE, load the figure you want the groups from Save the grouped obj Load the figure you are going to conform to into TCP then load the grouped obj. Give the cr2 a name then create it. Load your target figure into Poser Locate your new clothing item and load it, conform. As with most conforming clothes, you probably will have to adjust the joints.

Hmm, I still can't get the damn toes to bend with vicky's toes. I don't get it. To test, I copied the V3 CR2, loaded it in CR2Edit, replaced ONLY the "figureResfile" with my sandal object (figureResFile :Runtime:Geometries:DAZPeople:SandalL.obj), leaving everything else as it was. It loads ok in Poser, but when I conform it the toes just won't bend with Vicky's toes. The hierarchy looks right, and yes the toes ARE a separate part. The foot part bends with Vicky's foot; the toes won't. They are named "lFoot" and "lToe" respectively.

Maybe this malarky just isn't my thing.

BTW: just which parts of the CR2 should I delete? Body parts are listed twice, and there's so much other stuff I haven't a clue about.

To clean out the unneeded body parts, open your shoes in the setup room and delete the unneeded bones. When done, save the shoes.

Um...reading through that last, and it is possible you have the correct groups and bones but the joint parameters are too narrow to encompass the toes. Try this; take that character you rigged with Vickie's bones, and within Poser open up the Joint Editor window. Navigate to lToe and rToe and uncheck the box called "use spherical deformers."