*MESHER'S RESOURCE* Hi-Res Bodyshape Poser Magnet Sets - New Sets added 2-11

[Warlokk]

1.  The alpha channel in the textures, and the Alpha Layer in the mesh, are two different things.  For example, if you look at the Maid or Hula Skirt, those are actual Alpha meshes, they have separate mesh groups for parts of the outfit that overlap the body mesh itself.  Those are the ones Mesh Tool cannot handle, and will explode.  It is certainly possible to remove the alpha groups and make a workable mesh that way, but you would have to do this with Milkshape or some other tool, because the Mesh Tool requires a base mesh formatted the same way as the one you're modifying, so it wouldn't really work.

2.  It's possible, in fact I went the other way with the 36DDD and several of the newer shapes by expanding the entire torso a bit.  The drawback is, the skeleton will stay the same, so the shoulder joints especially can look slightly odd if you reduce the width of the torso... but if you keep the changes subtle  it is totally workable.  Just use the main Torso magnet, and reduce the X and Z a little bit (maybe to 90% or so) and see how it looks, then adjust other magnets to taste.  Basically if you can get the magnets to do it and look decent, the final output should be reasonably close.  However, any new shape would need to be done to the nudes meshes and whatever clothing items you wish to apply it to separately... you'd basically be creating a new bodyshape.

I highly recommend Milkshape for mesh work, it's cheap ($20) and all the tools and plugins by Wes and Demon are designed for it, and they're pretty much the definition of Sims meshing tools.  Mesh Tool hasn't been updated in about 2 years, I think, while Wes releases updates for Unimesh pretty regularly.

[wayneout]

Thanks again,

1. I can forget that experiment then.

2. I was going to try it both ways. (down and up) I just don't
know what to pick in BodyShop to export to Saved Sims to
do it.

3. Will buy it once I do some tutorial reading.
Bill

[Warlokk]

I would recommend starting with either a swimsuit/undies mesh or my Hi-Res nudes... all my magnet sets are built around making the nude shape the way I want it, then I tweak them for the individual outfits to make them fit the way I want.  It's probably the best place to start when learning the technique.

The cool thing with Milkshape is it has a 30-day free trial period... so you can read up on it (especially the unimesh thread by Wes over at MTS2), and play around with it for a while before committing any cash.

[wayneout]

Just wanted to let you know that I tried the reduction for the
girl mesh and it looked okay to me. Of course, if you looked at it,
I am sure you would find my mistakes.
I then tried to make a blouse for her and it came out okay except
for the black mark around the bottom of the blouse. I remember
Xenos talking about that a long time ago but I don't remember what
the resolution was about it. Also, at the base of the neck there is
a pushed in little area on the clothes. I guess she can be a nudist.
Anway, I feel like I did something right, so now I can concentrate
on making clothes for her.
Once again, thanks for all your help.
Bill

[themysticalone]

I don't suppose these are likely to work in Poser 4, are they?

[Warlokk]

Actually they probably would... they're nothing fancy, just basic magnet sets, and I don't think the magnet format changed at all from version to version.

[wayneout]

I have used Xenos magnets in Poser 4 without problem. Don't
know about Poser 5, (I have it but I like Poser 6 better)

[Warlokk]

They definitely work in 5, it's what I had when I started.

[themysticalone]

Okay... I guess I need more help than I expected to need.

I exported a top mesh as top.obj, XYZ.  I imported it to Poser, then added in the magnet and I get what you see in my screenshot... the magnets nowhere near the chest.  How do I manuever the figure to get it where it needs to be? It's been ages since I used poser, so I'm rusty as all get out.  34A Top magnets, btw.

Planning to use Meshtool.

Thanks in advance

EDIT: Whoops! Okay, I have the model rotated right now. I just didn't read the posts in this thread carefully enough.  Next question (the stupid one): How do I actually apply the magnets?

EDIT: I had the magnets at the back instead of the front (had the wrong rotations), so now the magnets are showing their effect.  Hooray for solving my own problems, eh?

Yep, once you apply the magnets, you go to the Object menu and Spawn a morph, then delete your magnets, and set the morph you created to 1. That will give you the shape you created, and also allows you to combine different ones.

Okay.. I get the figure roatate correctly, so that I see my 34A chest.  I then Objects...Spawn Morph Target and name it something.  Then I delete the magnets.  Then what does setting the morph to 1 mean? WHen I delete the magnets, it goes back to the old shape, and I'm not sure where I set this to 1.

[Warlokk]

Once you've created the Morph, it should show up on the list of dials somewhere with whatever name you chose.  It will be at 0, set it to 1 to turn it on.

If you're using Mesh Tool, make sure you re-rotate it back to lying down before you export the obj, since that's where it expects it to be.

[themysticalone]

It does show up in the dials (for the Parameters of top), however if I delete the magnets, the morph disappears.

EDIT: OR, if I set it to 1, THEN delete the magnets, it stays.  I feel dumb now.

Thanks for the help.

[themysticalone]

Seems to have worked for the top... sorta.  But my hands end up weird.  Gonna go through it again and see if the weld when importing is the culprit, since I followed Xeno's tutorial to the letter.

[wayneout]

I had the same problem with the hands. Don't know what is causing it
for sure. I know that Xenos had talked about the black spot at the
bottom of the mesh.  Also, check the neck of your figure. My figure
has a pushed in spot at the base of the neck. (where the neck joins
the chest area) I can't tell from looking at your figure.
Bill

[themysticalone]

I was just looking at Zenman's poser magnets thread and saw this note:

1. The Poser 6 object export function seems to do strange things to the poly order for the figure. This can result in loss of "smoothing" for certain polys, causing strange shadows to appear. I was able to solve this somewhat (but not completely) by importing into a 3D mesh tool (such as MilkShape), applying a smoothing function to the mesh, and exporting. You do not have to do this, but your figure may look a bit strange in Bodyshop and in the Sims2 game. Perhaps a 3D mesh expert out there can explain why this happens, or provide a better solution.

UPDATE: Dr. Pixel (below) recommends unchecking the "Import Normals" checkbox for the Sims2MeshTool in the Settings dialog. This would be done before importing the modified mesh (the first button). I've tried this and it does seem to solve the problem.

If this problem persists for me (using Poser 7), I'll try that and see if it works for me.  Otherwise I guess I'll have to download milkshape.  I let your know if that's the case, so that we can both not have this problem.

UPDATE: Yup, unchecking the import normals in meshtool fixed the issue for me.  My neck lines up, so it looks like I was successful. Whoo.

[wayneout]

Did you check and see if your neck has a problem?
I think I will try what Dr. Pixel said and see if that works for
the neck as well.
Bill