I've been playing around with dynamic clothing and like the effects. I have 2 questions, firstly, how do I stop clothing falling off the figure if I take the pose to its farthest extent? Secondly, I want to create a ghostly, semi transparent effect on the figure in the attached picture. I'm running on the idea of a Wuthering Heights type thing and want to put in a stormy sky background. I know how to do this, but the figure being "ghostly" would be just the effect I want. Thanx for any help given.

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Don't know how to do the first, but as for the second problem, set the transparency to whole body parts and clothing to about 50%. Here's a sample pic with every bodypart transparency set at 55%. You probably would like to mess with ambient settings and all that P5/P6 nodes, but bassicaly it's all about transparency.

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I know you mentioned you wanted to try doing it without postwork, but it will probably take less time to do it that way. V3 has a lot of material zones that you'd have to change, whereas the quickest solution might be to render her normally, and save the render as a TIF file. You can then load the TIF file into a new layer in an image program (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Painter, etc) and use the alpha channel in the render to hide or delete the solid background of the render.

Thanks Vilian, that's the sort of effect I'm wanting - I was aiming at the figure "Cathy" being wraith like etc. Will play around with the settings I've got. Wasn't sure I could do it within Poser 6 but hey - live and learn. I'll just have to get some big safety pins for her robe to stay on her shoulders ;-)

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Ooops, forgot to answer the dynamic clothing question ...

Select a small number of the verticies on her shoulders (one row in the middle of the shoulder will do, but you'll have to experiment with what will make the best selection). Assign those verticies to a "Constrained" group (you'll see the Edit Constrained Group button in the bottom left section of the Cloth Room). Then you'll have virtual safety pins. 8-)

Message edited on: 09/18/2005 09:50

thanks Deecey, suspected I'd have to do something like that but wasn't sure - can't have the poor girl getting cold, even if she's a ghost

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Attached Link: Fallen Angels, Restless Wraiths

There's a product at 3DC that also might help you with the result you are after. It appears to make both the character and the clothing, etc., transparent. You can view the product at the link I'll attach.

The product's description reads:
"This package allows you to add special effects to your characters so that with a couple of clicks of your mouse you can create shining angels, barely seen ghosts, or just a set of shiny clothes..... All the effects are developed and tested with Poser 4, 5 and 6, so they can be used by everyone. A complete set of textures suitable for the application of effects is supplied for the supported figures, but if you have a texture already in your library that you want to make see through, glowing, or just add a bit of sparkle you can do that too! The MAT poses are structured in stages, so you can load a texture from anywhere in your library and then just skip past the texture load straight to the special effects. Each figure also has a set of six tone settings, so you can add a colour cast to your figure (the settings for the hair, wings and clothes and people all match). The effects change with your lighting and the scenery behind."

Maybe this will help you achieve the look you are after? It looks pretty cool!
Hope this helps!

~arry

I dare you, while there is still time, to have a magnificent obsession. --William Danforth

Great tip, ariannah!!

Thanks Deecey! I only saw it yesterday as it just came out. I added it to my wishlist right away as it might help create the effects I'm after for a render I have in mind. Since I haven't yet purchased it, I can't say for sure how well it creates these effects, but it seems to do what barrowlass was asking so I thought it worth mentioning. ;)

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I would follow the transparency advice but also take the textures and desaturate the colors to taste in your photo app then, of course, save to a new file/files. Then you wouldn't have to do the postwork, it would render straight away.

Message edited on: 09/18/2005 11:26

thanx every1 - will take all advice on board - that program certainly sounds time saving - as well as effective - (must sweet talk hubby ;-) )

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Another thought - Unless you're doing an animation, you can try exporting the posed and composed female character and then re-importing it as a prop. Less resource-intensive, and easier to adjust the transparency. No longer posable, though. You can also create a graduated transparency map so the figure fades out at the bottom (see example).

hey, that's neat! Will I have to export it as an object, then reimport it as object? I know I imported some bryce terrains and made props with them some time ago.

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have just created the prop - here I go!!!!

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Attached Link: http://www.3dcommune.com/3d/store/display.mv?new+vs_cyll_ptexs#cyll_spirits

Thank you for the tip off about Cyllan's product. Very nice effect. I like leatherguy's approach too. Looks like we're all getting ready for the spooks and goblins to take over. :)

Well, she is not a figure, she is a prop!

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Attached Link: http://www.untamedaggression.iofm.net/ghostwatch_01.jpg

you mean something like this? (not 3D - this is an opitcal effect - aiming for the effect desired)

Attached Link: http://www.untamedaggression.iofm.net/ghostwatch_05.jpg

or this?

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=799207

Another image, I have more in my gallery

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Attached Link: The Hunted

Not a prop or anything -- straight up regular figure. No postwork. This was rendered in Poser 4, prior to any of the more advanced features of 5 or 6. Prinicple elements to keep in mind are specularity, transparency fall off, and good, effective lighting.

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Way cool effect, Elle. Man - there are some great ideas present in this thread.

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Daz has materials for sale that can make ghost like characters. (see image) It's part of their particles 2.0 material/object set for Poser.

Message edited on: 09/18/2005 16:20

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=689810

You can get some very nice results if you also add a refraction node to the transparent body parts (index of refraction 1.2 gives nice results). That'll distort the environment seen "through" the ghost. Be sure to set raytrace bounces to at least 4, else it won't work. It's what I did to the Violator in the linked image.

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Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1093356

Here's a way using the old theatre trick called 'Pepper's Ghost'.

thanks Raven, that's exactly the sort of effect I was wanting. Will go off and have a play now, tho' it's getting late here!

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Raven - many thanks from me as well. Whenever I can, I try to create what I'm after from within the application so your technique (I have both Bryce and Vue) should be alot of fun to experiment with. The result looks er cool and since that particles application doesn't come in the Mac variety, your technique offers me another option.

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Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1679791

Another link on the Pepper's Ghost effect in Poser 5 (see post numbers 11 & 12) IIRC there is also a Pepper's ghost material in my shader pack in free stuff (and for anybody that's had trouble downloading that lately, the link should be working again now).

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I don't know if it can be done in Poser5/6. The main characteristic of a ghost, other than some transpareny, is that the borders of the figure are not well defined, are vapourous! You can make a ghost with 1) backculling (not render back faces, don't look good for a ghost). 2) Inverse transparency (min 100% max 0% fallout 10) 3) Transparency index modulated by turbulence. With Poser4 you cannot use transparency maps, inverse transparency doesn't work with the map, I don't know if with Poser5/6 is the same. The most difficult part of a ghost is the hair.

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Easy trick: convert the textures of the character to grayscale and set transparency in Poser to 0.50 Scary: grayscale the textures, invert them (negative) and equal transparency and Happy Helloween ;)

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Set every material to ambient Blue/Green. -Then Max the transparencies and slide falloff way up to maximum -Delete all lights. -Import background pic and render.

-Anton, creator of Apollo Maximus
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Okay I added in one light in the back for a bit of sheen. Apollo's materials: Ambient Color: Color Picker teal Transparency Min 0 Transparency Max 100% Falloff is 1.07 Done in Poser4. Hope that helps.

-Anton, creator of Apollo Maximus
"Conviction without truth is denial; Denial in the face of truth is concealment."

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Hi Everyone

thanks so much for all the advice! Truly mind boggling ;-). However, I've tried Anton's tip to change tex colour, transparencies etc, and this is what I came up with (see attached pic). I actually used a prop made from a figure - and I'd just like to know if there's anyway of making the teeth and gums invisible - they're set to 100% transparency anyway but still show up.

I've not used a background in this example but used 1 blue point light to use on the "ghost" - got to say this is very much as I wanted (except for teeth and gums)

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Just use regular transparency. Apollo's teeth and Tongue are parts so I can just click those invisible, but with all other figures you have to tweak the materials invisible completely. Min 0 Max 100 Falloff 0 Do the same for the eyeballs(leave the Iris and pupil. Increase the falloff on the dress a but more to make it show better and you should be good to go.

-Anton, creator of Apollo Maximus
"Conviction without truth is denial; Denial in the face of truth is concealment."

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Make ambient color black on the teeth and stuff you don't want to show. Best of luck. have fin with it. Sppoky stuff is always fun.

-Anton, creator of Apollo Maximus
"Conviction without truth is denial; Denial in the face of truth is concealment."

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Another example, although this one used a bit of postwork to make the edges of the ghost figure glow: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=1029649 When doing this light placement is critical.

Attached Link: http://www.blauheit.de/elke/index.htm

If you want to make it easy, the image used the halo material made by garduna. You can find it at that link under downloads/poser5 materials. It will work fine in P5 and P6. Sorry the page is in German only but I am sure you will survive.

---

Ulli

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Well I guess everyone should show off their ghosts now.

Message edited on: 09/20/2005 23:20

Thanks everyone for all the advice, etc. Here's what I've come up with - the background is made with Vue 5

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The only thing I'd add is try to make the lighting sources in your background image match the ones you're using in Poser. Your ghost looks like she's well lite from two different sides and the shadow in the background is coming from a completely different direction.

Attached Link: http://www.shadowwindmanor.com/tutorials.html

If anyone needs a tutorial for Pepper's Ghost in Vue and Bryce, they can find one I wrote up on my site from the thread that was originally mentioned by Raven, who did a great job in converting it to Poser.

http://www.shadowwindmanor.com/tutorials.html

Just a thought... One of the posts above mentioned making the image fade at the edges. You can do that if you have P5/6. The 2 balls above have identical settings except for trans. edge. The left ball has trans edge of 0.25, the right one has trans edge of 1.0. (Just FYI, main trans = 0.7, falloff = 0.5 and specular is 0.) Cheers, Diolma