Poser2MS3D Export Plugin
by BrokeAss Games · 12/22/2008 (3:48 pm) · 12 comments
I am pleased to announce the release of a new plugin for Poser that will export your figures and sequences directly to Milkshape3D.
This is something we saw a big need for, since our previous methods for getting figure and animation work out of Poser were rather lengthy and complicated.
We contacted PhilC (our Poser guru) about the project and he was gracious enough to get involved. The exporter is a Python script for Poser that utilizes MS3D's ASCII Text IMPORT.
Features include:
Exports Geometry (must be triangulated)
Exports Hierarchy
Exports Rigging
Exports Materials
Exports Animations
Supports Multiple Texture Maps
The Poser2MS3D plugin is avaiable at PhilC's store and at Content Paradise at an introductory price of $19.95 until December 31st, 2008.
PhilC's Store
Additionally, Smith-Micro has re-released Poser 6 for the Holidays at a very low price ($29.95), so this is a great time to pick up a license if you don't already have one.
Enjoy,
BrokeAss Games
This is something we saw a big need for, since our previous methods for getting figure and animation work out of Poser were rather lengthy and complicated.
We contacted PhilC (our Poser guru) about the project and he was gracious enough to get involved. The exporter is a Python script for Poser that utilizes MS3D's ASCII Text IMPORT.
Features include:
Exports Geometry (must be triangulated)
Exports Hierarchy
Exports Rigging
Exports Materials
Exports Animations
Supports Multiple Texture Maps
The Poser2MS3D plugin is avaiable at PhilC's store and at Content Paradise at an introductory price of $19.95 until December 31st, 2008.
PhilC's Store
Additionally, Smith-Micro has re-released Poser 6 for the Holidays at a very low price ($29.95), so this is a great time to pick up a license if you don't already have one.
Enjoy,
BrokeAss Games
About the author
http://www.youtube.com/user/BrokeAssGames
#2
12/23/2008 (5:56 am)
Got the plugin, trying it out on some of the low poly poser content, it complains about the figure not being triangulated. Does this not work on Poser source content?
#3
12/23/2008 (6:14 am)
Or, could you point us to a workflow from one of the other tools (UU3D, MS3D, Fragmotion) that can get our rigged chars into poser for animation? 
#4
12/23/2008 (10:30 am)
Will the plugin work only with poser6 or also the latest versions? 
#5
The plugin works for Poser 6 and 7 and "probably" Poser Pro, I haven't tested it in Pro yet.
@ Dave
Milkshape only recognizes triangulated meshes and for now the plugin only works on those. For reference, I believe alot of the older Poser source art is made from triangles, but of course watch out for those license restrictions! ;) We have some some plans compile a list of game-friendly Poser content, but no timeline set for that yet.
Getting your characters into Poser is definitely the way to go, and its actually not too hard once you learn. We plan on documenting that as a workflow too. You have to rig them in Poser, but the first step is to set up your .obj with separate body groups based on Poser naming, which is basically BVH +fingers +toes +buttocks (depending on what version of Poser Skeleton you are trying to make your figure compatible with). Good news is: if you set the groups up properly in the .obj, Poser does a good job of autorigging the figure. (Thank god, since the grouping tool in Poser leaves something to be desired.)
We'll also be documenting how to get your own skeleton into Poser old-school style! Its a text based process and Rex is getting really good at it.
Keep the questions coming!
Jondo
12/23/2008 (12:07 pm)
@ JozThe plugin works for Poser 6 and 7 and "probably" Poser Pro, I haven't tested it in Pro yet.
@ Dave
Milkshape only recognizes triangulated meshes and for now the plugin only works on those. For reference, I believe alot of the older Poser source art is made from triangles, but of course watch out for those license restrictions! ;) We have some some plans compile a list of game-friendly Poser content, but no timeline set for that yet.
Getting your characters into Poser is definitely the way to go, and its actually not too hard once you learn. We plan on documenting that as a workflow too. You have to rig them in Poser, but the first step is to set up your .obj with separate body groups based on Poser naming, which is basically BVH +fingers +toes +buttocks (depending on what version of Poser Skeleton you are trying to make your figure compatible with). Good news is: if you set the groups up properly in the .obj, Poser does a good job of autorigging the figure. (Thank god, since the grouping tool in Poser leaves something to be desired.)
We'll also be documenting how to get your own skeleton into Poser old-school style! Its a text based process and Rex is getting really good at it.
Keep the questions coming!
Jondo
#6
There may be a triangulating plugin out there somewhere; otherwise get some OBJ's in your runtime that are Triangulated and things will roll along.
For example: I used the male skeleton figure from legacy Poser content[not sure of EULA, this was testing] as my base example. That mesh had only around 16,000 polys, well withing Ms3d's buffer limit of ~65,000. I got the same error report about Triangles, some were Quads, I even unTriangulated the shape at a later stage...so, utilizing the Poser5 OBJ[triangulated for sure], I rebuilt the male skeleton stock figure and saved to a Library. I even went so far as to rename a pesky 'legacy' node [neckDummy] that I was warned would not appear in any UI dialog, as it was meant to be hidden from view and commands?? That worked fine as well.
Perhaps, I'll fire up the RexCam and produce another video....or at least a write up of what I did. It was amazing quick and easy to get a figure created and animated with a walk cycle and sitting on the MilkFarm in moments!
12/23/2008 (12:30 pm)
The geometry in Poser6 is compressed OBJ format...they're OBZ now...there is some way to uncompress them, it eludes me at the moment[somewhere in Poser?], so I used the OBJ's from Poser5 as an example just now, Dave, and it worked fine....There may be a triangulating plugin out there somewhere; otherwise get some OBJ's in your runtime that are Triangulated and things will roll along.
For example: I used the male skeleton figure from legacy Poser content[not sure of EULA, this was testing] as my base example. That mesh had only around 16,000 polys, well withing Ms3d's buffer limit of ~65,000. I got the same error report about Triangles, some were Quads, I even unTriangulated the shape at a later stage...so, utilizing the Poser5 OBJ[triangulated for sure], I rebuilt the male skeleton stock figure and saved to a Library. I even went so far as to rename a pesky 'legacy' node [neckDummy] that I was warned would not appear in any UI dialog, as it was meant to be hidden from view and commands?? That worked fine as well.
Perhaps, I'll fire up the RexCam and produce another video....or at least a write up of what I did. It was amazing quick and easy to get a figure created and animated with a walk cycle and sitting on the MilkFarm in moments!
#7
12/23/2008 (7:18 pm)
an OBZ file is merely a compressed OBJ file.
#8
The end goal is to have an excellent skeleton and anim library that I can rig to one or more models in the future, and if I want to make a new spellcasting animation, to be able to take an hour and do it. That would free me up to worry about finding the quality art figures I need without worrying about coming up with all the animations too.
I'm trying to lessen the grip and outsource more modelling and animation work but for small simple things I want to be able to do it myself.
12/24/2008 (6:37 am)
After some tips from PhilC I'm learning about the grouping pre-Poser and how it can be a great benefit. One of the whole reasons I'm trying to learn this process though I'm a coder is to get more animations available to me. It's extremely prohibitive to not have more animations for actions that can be used across characters. I own just about all the packs out there and some custom avatars but can't make any new anims myself as I don't have the high end tools, and all the various pipeline nonsense renders everything incompatible.The end goal is to have an excellent skeleton and anim library that I can rig to one or more models in the future, and if I want to make a new spellcasting animation, to be able to take an hour and do it. That would free me up to worry about finding the quality art figures I need without worrying about coming up with all the animations too.
I'm trying to lessen the grip and outsource more modelling and animation work but for small simple things I want to be able to do it myself.
#9
After rigging in the grouping tool and running through some test poses a lot of my groups separate and form cracks from other groups. I'm sure some kind of welding or something is needed, but where and when in the pipeline?
12/24/2008 (6:39 am)
Here's a new question for Rex/Jondo:After rigging in the grouping tool and running through some test poses a lot of my groups separate and form cracks from other groups. I'm sure some kind of welding or something is needed, but where and when in the pipeline?
#10
On .obj import into Poser there's a big list of checkboxes. The one you're looking for is "Weld identical vertices". "Centered" and "Drop to floor" are both helpful too.
"Percent of standard figure size" is a tricky one. If you uncheck it, it will import in HUGE - off the charts. 100% seems to fall short and we usually end up with a number in the 107-108% range. This has to be done to taste, depending on the mesh you are importing and the skeleton you are rigging it to.
hope that helps,
Jondo
12/24/2008 (10:50 am)
@ DaveOn .obj import into Poser there's a big list of checkboxes. The one you're looking for is "Weld identical vertices". "Centered" and "Drop to floor" are both helpful too.
"Percent of standard figure size" is a tricky one. If you uncheck it, it will import in HUGE - off the charts. 100% seems to fall short and we usually end up with a number in the 107-108% range. This has to be done to taste, depending on the mesh you are importing and the skeleton you are rigging it to.
hope that helps,
Jondo
#11
There is also a Python script under Utilities/ of Python:://, that will uncompress the format....knew there had to be some uber script that did this internally...
Happy New Year All!
12/29/2008 (3:19 pm)
OBZ format is open/read with UltimateUnwrap3D......triangulate from there.There is also a Python script under Utilities/ of Python:://, that will uncompress the format....knew there had to be some uber script that did this internally...
Happy New Year All!
#12
Also, if your groupings don't respect the Parent-Child boundaries, this will make things a bit messy and the mesh will need careful grouping.
Adjusting the Inner/Outer spherical falloff zones can help with the 'jaggies' on the mesh during deformation, if your groups and welds are correct.
01/06/2009 (10:53 pm)
@DaveY: if you've used the Group Tool to regroup faces to bones, from their 'original' 3rd party groups, as you have each group highlighted in the Group Tool dialog, use the Weld button on each new grouping. Poser is respecting any previous grouping seams until you Weld after creating/adding/deleting polygons to a group.Also, if your groupings don't respect the Parent-Child boundaries, this will make things a bit messy and the mesh will need careful grouping.
Adjusting the Inner/Outer spherical falloff zones can help with the 'jaggies' on the mesh during deformation, if your groups and welds are correct.
Torque 3D Owner Dave Young
Dave Young Games
Some questions:
To make things a little easier, do you know if this does anything with polygon reductions?
Can you identify some content (besides MACK) which has usable poser sources that can be exported and used as game characters?