It stays when you load a brand new V4 or the one you saved? It shouldn't affect anything but what you've loaded (and saved and reloaded).

The grouping tool let's you select individual polygons. Use that feature to select polygons and assign them to a material zone.

The pantyhose group would appear even when I created a new scene and loaded the V4 character.  I saved the original scene, but never saved the modified V4 character.  I thought it was odd because this never happened with A3 or V3.

Thanks for the help.  I'll play around with the grouping tool some more tonight and post some results.

Xan

Congratulations! That looks great. Now go get my VSS and make her skin look real.

Quote - Here's the same model with a goofy outfit to better show the end result...

That is a spectacular job! good ON ya! well done.

Quote - Congratulations! That looks great. Now go get my VSS and make her skin look real.

At the risk of making an ass of myself - aGAIN - where does one get VSS, please?

Hi Robinsveil,

Thanks for the compliments (and BagginsBill, too).  We'll get this thing figured out or die trying!

The url for the VSS thing is toward the bottom of this page:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2737823&page=4

I messed around with it a bit last night without success, mostly because I don't know what I'm doing, I'm sure.  I'm not that familiar with python scripts, so I'm sure I just didn't know where to look for the loaded buttons.  BagginsBill explains the process toward the middle of page 11 of that forum, so I'll give it another go when I get home from work.

There's a saying, "Knowing is knowing that you don't know", and that has become my philosophy with Poser.  Just when I thought that I was on top of things because I could group polygons together to make pantyhose, I quickly realized that I don't really know anything...yet.  I am, however, light years beyond where I was when I first picked up the program.  After fiddling around with Poser for two years or so, I've come to understand a couple of things.  One, there really isn't any good published material for Poser.  Oh sure, there are books.  I've got them.  They are large and full of pictures, but they don't really tell you how to go about doing the things that you really want to do (like grouping polygons together and assigning textures to a V4 model to make pantyhose).  That's why these forums are a valuable resource, which leads me to my second point.  There isn't enough time in the world to learn this stuff if you aren't able to dedicate every waking moment to it.  For this reason, I'm willing to bet that BagginsBill has come back to our time from some distant future to share his knowledge with the rest of us.  Thank you BagginsBill.  Your sacrafice is very much appreciated!

Xan

Hi guys - I'm at work and kinda busy but I'm popping in to give a quick tip or two.

The VSS downloads are here: http://poserbagginsbill.googlepages.com/vsshomepage

VSS is in beta and there are bugs, but it works pretty good for some people. I will eventually get around to working on it again.

VSS preview release 1 (PR1) was the first version and you should download that to install everything. VSS preview release 2 (PR2) was a replacement of just a couple things, so you want to download that and replace what it replaces.

Testers pointed out that my lights (and corresponding shader settings) for PR1 were too hot. So PR2 corrects that in the shader, but I didn't post new lights. When using the PR1 lights with PR2 shaders, cut all intensities in half. Of course, you can and should use your own favorite lights as well.

I know it is a lot to read, but the thread identified by Xan there is a must read. Every problem you're going to encounter was already encountered by somebody else, and what to do about it (if anything) is in there.

Some folks apparently have never ever seen the Poser Python buttons window. This is very surprising to me. It's like not knowing about the cloth room. Anyway, use menu item Window/Python Scripts to see them, or press Ctrl-Shift-O.

I'm not happy with the Python button interface and I'm working on alternatives, but Poser is really lacking in the user-extensible UI department. I've built a Poser Python web-based application server that let's you talk to my scripts using a browser. But it's not ready for public consumption yet, and I haven't integrated VSS into it either. I'm now looking into Flex which looks pretty cool and works nicer than an HTML-only interface.

Ok, I seem to be doing something wrong this time around.  I know this works because I did it before for V4.1 for this image:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1559804

However I need to do this again using V4.2 because I have some morphs  for V4.2 that won't work with V4.1 even with the morphs applied.

I set up the material zones in the exact same fashion this time around as I did previously, but for some reason I can't get the skin texture to apply properly to the upper thigh (hip) area.

I'll post screen captures of what I'm doing and what ends up ultimately wrong.

Images to follow

Lower legs, feet, toes  =  Stockings
Upper legs (thighs)  =  Stockings1

For the original V4.2 figure, the upper legs actually carry a "2 skinhip" material zone, and the skin texture applied in the original application on default V4.2  is "DD Torso" as you can see in the first image I posted above.

However, when I apply the "DD Torso" texture to the "Stockings1" material zone, I get large white patches on the legs, which aren't there when the "DD Torso" texture is applied to the original material zones of the legs.

The same thing happens if I include the hip area of V4.2 with the "Stockings1" (upper legs) material zone

Oh! I should also add that I tried it on my earlier saved V4.1 with stockings mat zones, and I had the same problem with the white patches on  it this time too.

So I don't know what I did the last time that I am not doing this time, but it's obviously something,  LOL

So you're saying that I need to make three material zones instead of two? 

1, Below the knee including the foot and toes

1. Above the knee to mid thigh
2. Mid thigh to hip

I didn't do that before.

Here is a capture of my saved V4.1 after I had done the material zones for her, when this thread was new.  This is the figure that I used for the linked gallery image above, and I've used it for other projects too.

I know this one worked because I helped someone on the telephone to do the same thing.

But I don't understand why it doesn't seem to be working now.

Instead of mucking around with the group tool with, the easiest thing to do for V4 is this:

1 - Go to the material editor room and paste bagginsbill's pantyhose texture dials to the hip group. 
2 - Assign the torso texture from your prefered character by changing the texture file to the correct torso file (not the limbs file).
3 - Fiddle with the dials and settings until you get the desired effect, then copy all of the settings to the leg and foot (or shin and others if you using something other than V4)
4 - Change the leg and foot textures from torso texture to the limbs texture for your prefered character.

Done!

The downside with this is that there is a bit of copying and pasting, but because the V4 torso and legs are on two different texture files, you would need to create at least two different pantyhose groups using the group tool anyway.

The upside (even using this approach for V3, A3, and The Girl) is that you can more easily assign the texture to specific groups (if you character is wearing high boots, you might not need to texture the foot and shin, for example).

The group tool gets complicated for V4 because the torso and limbs textures come together somewhere in the middle of the thigh group (see the bottom of the red wavy line in my above post from october 16th), so I avoid it if I can.  It looks like that is the trouble you are having with your textures.  You've made the groups, but you can't get the textures to match.
It's easier to do what I suggested above and build onto it if you need:

For high cut clothing (see my above posts from August 19th), you can build up some of the polygons from the abdomen to match the cut of your clothing, and assign those polygons to a new material like UpperPantyhose.  You'll just select the UpperPantyhose group in the material room and use the same settings as the hip, since it is part of the torso texture.  Pretty easy

The real test is when you have a swimsuit with high cut hips and a low cut back.  Then you're also going to need to create a new group deleting out the polygons that are poking above the back of your suit.  Messy, I know, but it will still be part of the torso texture.
It'll make sence once you play around with it a bit.

Hope that helps :)

Quote - Instead of mucking around with the group tool with, the easiest thing to do for V4 is this:

1 - Go to the material editor room and paste bagginsbill's pantyhose texture dials to the hip group. 
2 - Assign the torso texture from your prefered character by changing the texture file to the correct torso file (not the limbs file).
3 - Fiddle with the dials and settings until you get the desired effect, then copy all of the settings to the leg and foot (or shin and others if you using something other than V4)
4 - Change the leg and foot textures from torso texture to the limbs texture for your prefered character.

Done!

Yes, that's essentially what is being done by assigning different material zones.

However, when you don't assign the different material zones like I'm doing, when  bagginsbill's stocking shader is applied, it will also apply to the hip in a pantyhose style, which I don't want. I just want the legs and feet, not the actual hip/crotch/waist area.

But what I don't understand is why I was able to do it with V4.1 using a different skin texture for the image that I have in my gallery.  Before when I did it, I assigned the lower legs and feet to one material zone, and the upper legs to another. And it worked.   I know it worked because I did an image and I also helped someone on the telephone to set up their V4.1 in the exact same way that I had and it also worked for them.  I didn't have to set up 3 different zones dividing the thighs in half.

Hmmm...not sure.  As far as I know, if you don't want to include the hip, you'll have to create a group for the upper thigh and assign it the torso texture to it.  The lower thigh can be added to the same material as the rest of the leg.

I was reading this over and over and it took me a while to notice what you did wrong Acadia.

You selected each thigh group and assigned the entire group to Stocking1. That is the mistake. The V4 thigh groups span two different UV zones - the UV map with legs+arms covers the lower thigh, and the UV map for torso+boobs covers the upper thigh. You created two materials: Stockings for leg map, and Stockings1 for torso map. But you mistakenly assigned Stockings1 to the entire thigh. You can't do that. You have to assign material Stockings1 ONLY to the polygons of the upper thigh (what used to be material 2_SkinHip). The other polygons of the thigh should be assigned to material Stockings, same as from the knees on down.

Here is stock V4. I've gone into the material room. I put:

Green: into material 3_SkinLeg and 3_SkinFoot
Red: into 2_SkinHip
Yellow: into 2_SkinTorso

Notice the numbers? DAZ did that to help you remember which UV zone you're dealing with. All zones that begin with 2 share the arm+leg UV map. All zones that begin with 3 share the torso+boob map. (#1 is the facemap)

Here's where you made youre mistake. You assigned this whole group to Stockings1. WRONG.

Some of these polygons need the leg map, some need the torso map.

Add a Group called temp.

Initially this group will be empty.

Now click Add Material...

However, I suggest that it would help you to remember things better if you followed the same naming scheme as the other zones.

So 2_Panyhose and 3_Stockings would make sense.

Repeat the above for your other thigh.

Then go through the rest of the lower leg zones and re-assign them to Stockings.

The divisions should look like this. Notice how the boundary is higher.

One more thing. I suggested this on PAGE 1 of this thread.

After you get it done correctly SAVE YOUR NEW CHARACTER.

When you want a pantyhose-mapped vicky in the future, you'll get it with one click.

Acadia, I understand you DID that so I'm not telling you anything new, because that was the old V4. You are going through it again because of the updated V4.2.

I'm just reminding the other readers to SAVE SAVE SAVE your work in a library.

Correction: A few posts up I said 2 is arm+leg UV map and 3 is torso UV map. I said it reversed.

2 = torso
3 = arm+leg

Oh man! I seriously don't remember having done all of that! 
Aging does have its benefits, but memory retention isn't one of them!

Thanks to the both of you for help. I'm sorry that I was so confused.

Hmmm I think I see another application for VSS? Would still have to assign polygons to new material groups, but then applying the shader would be a one-pop process after the templates are set up properly... or am I re-inventing the wheel, Bill?

Correct - VSS can automate distributing the shader to the multiple zones, while retaining the target color map on each zone.

Without VSS, people resort to creating a new singular material zone and changing leg+feet+toes to that zone. This prevents having to edit 3 materials to get them to be the same. With VSS, that is automatic and does not require re-zoning the figure.

But VSS cannot change the polygon material assignments.

Is there any way to Make Stocking Tops, as in much earlier posts, using Group Editor?

How about some way to add Fish Net to the stockings?

Thanks

I could see the use of a mask judiciously applied in a VSS template here, with the filigree lace of your choice, and even that pulled-by-garter-snaps look if a garter belt (suspender belt?) were available. Pretty much like what BagginsBill has shown me to do for make-up in the VSS Opinions thread:
www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php

The imagination reels...

Quote - Is there any way to Make Stocking Tops, as in much earlier posts, using Group Editor?

How about some way to add Fish Net to the stockings?

You could do it that way. If you made a selection of a ring of polygons above the knee, you could make yet another material for them and set the stocking shader up there with a higher Denier setting. This would make that part of the stocking look more opaque.

Another option is to create something like a transmap for the stockings. This would be a lot of work and you'd have to deal with the seams around the UV map. You'd use this mask to control the Denier. If you set the Denier to a high value, and plugged this map into it, the parts that are white on the map would be high density, and the parts that are a darker shade of gray would be lower density. The particular choices you'd need for white/gray would be tricky but it's possible.

Another option would be to just identify the stocking top in the map and use that to drive a Blender node. In Value_1, you'd plug in the lower leg Denier value using a math node to hold the number. In Value_2, you'd plug in the stocking top Denier value using another math node to hold the value. This setup would let you adjust the relative amounts of the two values independently without having to edit the mask.

For fishnet, you'd do the same thing, except the mask would have to be drawn so that the pattern of strings would appear.

Is there a way within Poser to create sock or stocking toes for V4?  It seemed like V3 had one, but the result was kind of bizarre looking. 
Has anybody tried Stocking Magic?

Attached Link: "Long Stocking for V4 & Material program"

Even if there was, a sock morph really doesn't work well for sheer stockings. There are no toes inside. Much better is to use an actual toe cap. I remember a while back there was such a thing for V3. They were just small props that you parented to the toes of the figure (V3 if I recall). They worked great.

This double shader (skin + stocking) was meant to give an easy way to apply to a figure that is not showing stocking tops or toes. If you really want stocking tops and/or toes to show, better to use superconforming clothing.

I've never use any for V4. Stocking Magic looks ok, but $15?! Check out the linked product - looks great and only $6.

Thanks bagginsbill!

I think I might have that product, but I'll have to check.  If I do, I picked it up while I was mostly using V3 and might have put it on the back burner.
The problem that I've always had with pantyhose and stockings in Poser is that the hosiery always looks bulky.  Stocking material should be completely form fitting where you can't see daylight between the stocking and the skin, which is why I like your dial settings so much.   
If nothing else, I guess I can use the "Long Stocking" files to create a separate group for the stocking toes and/or the stocking top and make everything else invisible.

xan

Just an addon, i've use some part of this shader to use it with cloth or props, copy it in a folder as you want in the materials folder without the ".txt" .

how do you add the glitter? I wouldn't be using it on stockings but I'd love to try it on nails or clothing...

VP:

If you mean in my shader, page one shows a screen shot of the nodes. You enter a number other than zero into the node called Glitter.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3109388&ebot_calc_page#message_3109388

The parameters are explained in that post.

Quote - One more thing. I suggested this on PAGE 1 of this thread.

After you get it done correctly SAVE YOUR NEW CHARACTER.

When you want a pantyhose-mapped vicky in the future, you'll get it with one click.

Acadia, I understand you DID that so I'm not telling you anything new, because that was the old V4. You are going through it again because of the updated V4.2.

I'm just reminding the other readers to SAVE SAVE SAVE your work in a library.

I'm going to assume, Bill, that by SAVE you mean "save as Pz3" or at the very least "save as cr2".

I want to save a new material zone so I can use it in a pz2 (as a MAT pose) to apply to a newly loaded V4.2 and have not found a straight-forward method to do this. Just the zone, mind you - I can add the materials later. Would it need to be a script, like what you do for VSS in your Designer -> Add Material Zone? I'm a bit lost.

Sorry, I don't know how to make a mat pose that changes what materials are assigned to polygons or to create a new material.

A material collection will create a new material on your figure (after prompting you) but as to assigning polygons to that material, I have no idea.

Polygon selections are normally written in the OBJ file(s) that the CR2 file then calls at load time (figureResFile lines).  If you create a custom polygon selection like you're talking about here, you'll find that re-saving the CR2 will write a new OBJ file that contains your new polygon selections, tagged with 'usemtl' descriptors in the OBJ file.  It's never occurred to try to make something like this into a pose file, I'm not completely sure that's possible.

It seems to me that if this CAN be split into a pose file, then there's no reason you couldn't load an alternate UVmap the same way (something DAZ|Studio brags about as a feature).

I know that if I create a custom VSS template with my own material zones, then bring up your prop and load my template (mt6) on top of it, Poser informs me that I'm about to add materials that don't exist in the original.

That's for a prop.

For a character, it seems odd that you can create new material zones with the grouping tool but can only save them to a cr2. Not very user-friend or commerce-friendly.

I'll research this further and let you know how I get on. Thanks for your answers, both of you: you've given me some ideas.

Here's a render using the stocking magic morph.  I think it's great for opaque hosiery, but not so good for sheers.

Hosiery (esp pantyhose) in Poser has stumped me for years -  but bagginsbill's' tutorial is far and away the best I've seen to date!  I developed a .psd for a pantyhose top and waistband about a year ago as I struggled with ph-2nd skins (attached img). It seemed to me this might combine well with bagginsbill's trick - and sure enough it did! 

This is a simple .psd overlay of the waistband and gusset over the the V4 - Anais texture. I've used this on many characters by just matching the pixel dimensions of the overlay to the character. The waistband extends into the abdomen region, thus allowing for the entire hip to be designated as a material zone as in bagginsbill's tutorial. 

The final render is cooking right now...will post as soon as it's done.

Thanks, bagginsbill - you solved in an evening what has bedeviled me for years!!!!!

Paul