1 Poser Tutorial Hair Designer Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:51 am
Admin
Admin
The Hair Designer is a suite of tools that enables the user to create hair props and figures in Poser. Please note that this is not a "one click, one minute solution", a degree of skill and patience is required. Please review the information and videos provided to ensure that this product meets your needs prior to purchasing.
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PhilC | PhilC | PhilC | lululee | lululee | PhilC | slideshow |
Over View. Click here for on screen video. The Hair Designer is a large library of hair models that may be applied to any Poser figure to build up a wide variety of hair styles. The resulting unified hair prop or conforming hair figure is then considered to be royalty free thus allowing the user to redistribute it should they so wish. You may not redistribute the tool but the result is yours to do what you like with. For full details please see below. | ||
Workflow Click here for on screen video. Remember to first decode the OBJ files, see below for details. When building up the hair model DO NOT PARENT OR CONFORM ANYTHING TO THE BASE FIGURE. If you wish to parent the hair components to something to make moving them en-mass easier, please use the Null figure provided for this purpose. The completed prop hair may be parented to the figure, and the completed figure hair may be conformed to the figure, but do not parent anything to the base figure whist constructing the hair. If you do it will be ignored by the scripted utilities. When manipulating the various hair models in the scene:-
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The Hair Texture Creator. | ||
A utility to create hair textures and matching transparency maps is included in the Hair Designer package. On the PC this is provided as a stand alone application. On the Mac this is also a stand alone application but requires prior installation of Python and the Python Image Library. Most modern Macs already have the required Python 2.5 installed, you will also need the Python Image Library 1.1.6 (PIL). Both of these may be downloaded free from http://www.python.org/ and http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/ respectively. "One click" installers are currently available at http://pythonmac.org/packages/ Please note that I do not provide customer support regarding how to install Python 2.5 or PIL. I do most certainly provide support on how to install and use the Clothing Designer and Texture Creator within a correctly configured computer. For more Mac info please see the screen grab at the bottom of this page. The output of the Hair Texture Creator is a matched pair of texture and transparency maps and a Poser material room MT5 file. The textures may then be easily applied to the hair by clicking the saved material room library preset. The material has been set up in such a way that a large degree of user flexibility is possible. | [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | |
PoserSurface
Texture Map
Color_Math_1
Color_Math_2
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Transparency_Map
Feather_Edges
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Python Utilities A number of scripted utilities are included. No knowledge of Python is required, they are all just button clicks. In Poser 7 and later initialize the scripts using the Poser menu Scripts > PhilC > P7_start_HairDesigner. In Poser 6 use the Poser menu File > Run Python script and browse to RuntimePythonposerscriptsPhilCHair Designerstart_HairDesigner.py Then for either version use the Poser menu Window > Python Scripts to bring up the script buttons. | |
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | Skullcap Menu Access the skullcap menu Figure Utilities Access the figure utilities Prop Utilities Access the prop utilities Texture & Materials Tools to manipulate textures and materials Magnet Utilities Access the magnet utilities Help Bring up the Hair Designer help page. Save As Upon completion use these utilities to save the final version of your hair. More More utilities |
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | It is common practice (though not essential), that hair is built off a skullcap. Use these buttons to create a skullcap for your figure. Please watch this video for details. How to create a skullcap |
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | Super Zero Figure Zero's out all translations, rotations, morphs and sets all scaling to 100%. Use this button to prepare the base figure when creating hair for it. Zero Pose (exclude mags) Some figures include magnets. If you wish to zero the figure but not the magnets then use this button. Zero Morphs Sets all the morphs in the figure to zero. Zero Me + Children This will zero pose the selected actor and all of its children. Set all IK's OFF This will turn off all the figures inverse kinematics. Delete Multiple Figures. Brings up a pop up window allowing the user to select which figures in the scene are to be deleted. A great time saver over deleting them one by one using the Poser menu. Import figure's OBJ file Imports the selected figure's OBJ file. What is figure's OBJ file? Prints the answer to the question. |
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | Turn Hair Fig into a Prop Converts the selected hair figure into a prop thereby allowing the Poser morphing tool to be applied to all of it rather than just one part. Mirror Prop Mirrors the currently selected prop about the X axis Delete Multiple Props. Brings up a pop up window allowing the user to select which props in the scene are to be deleted. A great time saver over deleting them one by one using the Poser menu. Geometry Stripper If a prop has embedded geometry this will save it out as a separate OBJ file and amend the prop file accordingly. |
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | Define Default Maps If you wish to change the default texture and transparency maps click this button. Reset Default Maps If you wish to reset the texture and transparency maps back to their defaults click this button. Reassign Materials Brings up a pop up window enabling the user to select which existing materials they wish to reassign to a new or existing material. Delete Surplus Materials If the hair is saved as a figure the resulting CR2 file will contain contain references to materials that are no longer required. This button will remove the redundant entries. Apply Same Mat To All Hair During the hair creation process you will find that the scene will contain multiple figures and props. It would be very time consuming to have to change all the materials settings one by one to test out a different effect. This button allows you to do it automatically. |
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | Add Hair Magnet Adds a magnet to the selected actor, PLUS sets it so that it will deform all other body parts in that figure. Not available in Poser 6. Poser 6 users will need to add magnets using the Poser menu then if required set to deform other elements using the "Set Mag to also deform". Delete All Mags in Scene Deletes all the magnets in the scene. If your base figure contains magnets these will be deleted also. Deletes Mags in this Figure Deletes all the magnets within the selected figure. Delete Mags in this Actor Deletes all magnets within the selected actor. Set Mag to also deform. Provides a quick way to allow the selected magnet to also deform other actors within the same figure. Mirror Mag about X Copies the current magnet settings and pastes a mirror version of them to a magnet selected from an offered list. Reset All Magnets Resets all magnets to their memorized state. |
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | Save as Hair Prop Saves the multiple hair props and figures as a single hair prop. Save as Hair Figure Saves the multiple hair props and figures as a single figure that may then be conformed to the base figure. Save as Morph Target Save the multiple hair props and figures as a single morph target that may then be applied to the saved hair prop or figure. Please see section below for more details regarding morphs. |
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | Access these buttons by clicking the main menu "More" button. Decode OBJ Files To make it easier for me to provide additional content via the update page the OBJ files are supplied encoded. Click this button to decode them. Shadowless Lighting Provides an eight light shadowless lighting environment. Lights Follow Main Camera Provides a four light shadowless lighting environment when viewed through the main camera. (Its what I use, others may find it useful). 4 View Camera Preset Provides three orthographic and one perspective view when the preview window is split into four panes. Version Prints out the script version number, some basic Poser details and the registered users details. |
Redistribution Nothing that you redistribute should be in competition with the Hair Designer. Redistributing completed hair models with textures is OK but redistributing models and textures that form part of a hair construction kit is not. OBJ Files You may not redistribute the individually supplied OBJ files but once multiple hair figures or props have been combined into a single object then that may be redistributed if required. I appreciate, but am not concerned, that hair groups can be disassembled by the end user. Textures Anything created by the Hair Designer Texture Creator and any supplied texture may be redistributed provided that it forms part of a genuine hair prop or figure. Poser files CR2, PZ3 & PP2 etc The supplied files may be used as a pattern or teaching aid, but must not be redistributed as is. For example supposing that you created a pony tail hair style comprising of a crown plus a pony tail. You would not be able to simply parent the tail to the crown and redistribute that because in essence that would be an exact copy of the supplied Poser files. You would need to combine everything into a single figure using the tools provided then if required add additional bones to the tail. If you are not redistributing the hair then it will not matter how you save or use the result. | |
Creating Morphs When saving the final hair model as either a prop or a figure you will be given the option to also save a copy of the scene for later use in the creation of morphs. To create such a morph:-
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Texture Creator on the Mac This is how to start the Texture Creator on a Mac. Use finder to navigate to Applications:PhilC Designs:Hair Texture Creator Look for the file HD.py If Finder is hiding the file extension you will not be able to differentiate this from the file named HD.ini so look in the preview column where the full file name will be displayed. Right click HD.py and these menu options will appear allowing you to start the Texture Creator:- [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] | Alternately you could select "Get Info" from the above menu and this pop up will appear. Here you can ensure that the "Hide Extension" box is unchecked. You can also select which application to use to open the file when it is double clicked on. Here you can see that the designated application is "Python Launcher". You will then be able to double click on HD.py to launch the stand alone Texture Creator. For more information on how to handles files on a Mac please see this on line tutorial. | [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] |
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