Another use for Xara - Poser

[stlewis]

I'm still getting my head round it, but I've proved that Xara is very useful when creating texture maps for Poser figures.

Poser is that tool for creating 2 and 3-D people.

Clothes are constructed from a specification of size and shape (not within Poser) and then modified with a combination of, among several things, 'bump maps' (the relief pattern on a surface), and 'texture maps' (the colour and surface pattern).

With Xara's layer, transparency and brush abilities, it is a good tool for creating new maps; you place the default map in one layer, and then draw on new layers. After exporting to TIF or JPG, you then render the person etc in Poser, picking up the new map files.

I am expecting to use Xara too when post-processing files - adding details and shading over the top.

Has anyone else tried this? Or perhaps this will be a thread for the new 3D forum.

www.thelondonhouse.co.uk

[stlewis]

I'm still getting my head round it, but I've proved that Xara is very useful when creating texture maps for Poser figures.

Poser is that tool for creating 2 and 3-D people.

Clothes are constructed from a specification of size and shape (not within Poser) and then modified with a combination of, among several things, 'bump maps' (the relief pattern on a surface), and 'texture maps' (the colour and surface pattern).

With Xara's layer, transparency and brush abilities, it is a good tool for creating new maps; you place the default map in one layer, and then draw on new layers. After exporting to TIF or JPG, you then render the person etc in Poser, picking up the new map files.

I am expecting to use Xara too when post-processing files - adding details and shading over the top.

Has anyone else tried this? Or perhaps this will be a thread for the new 3D forum.

www.thelondonhouse.co.uk

[JZiehlke]

Hi Simon,

I've used Xara for a while with Poser figures. It really works great together.

Joan

[gnurf]

I have been thinking about using xara with poser too (but haven't got the time to really try it yet).
Could you please post some examples - both maps and final results would be great.

-Paul

[stlewis]

I need to do one or two serious examples first.

www.thelondonhouse.co.uk

[stlewis]

Some weeks ago I reported on some initial experiments with Poser and the use of XaraX to customise clothing. I promised I would document my findings.

These are very basic comments – and quite probably not quite right – so you may be able to set me straight and add further tips.

As I understand it, in Poser a scene consists of, among other things, one or more Persons. Each Person consists of at least one Figure, either a Body or an item of Clothing, or a Body and several items of Clothing, and may also be joined to one or more Props, for example a sword.

Each Figure is divided into one more Elements and it is these which can be tailored for each use. For example, one arm can have a different colour from the strap on a dress. As well as Colour, an Element may have a Texture Map, which defines surface patterns and colours, a Bump Map which described relief patterns above and below a surface, a Reflection Map, and a Transparency Map.

Figures, Props, Cameras and Lights may be grouped to form an Object, and also, in a general sense, an Object is a general term for one of these components.

As well as the various Maps, an item of Clothing can be customised by layering Clothing, combining one or more items to form a new garment, or new items of Clothing can be created with other 3D tools (a whole new ball game, I guess).

XaraX can be used to create the Bump Maps – for which you only need greyscale colour, and the Texture Maps. In the attached example (see the layers) I created a rectangle to match the original Texture Map jpg, filled it with a bitmap and then created a lace brush, using this to draw a border. The resulting rendered figure is layer Render 1. The Bump Map (see layer) was created by tracing the template supplied with the dress, filling it black and then adding white patterns. Black and white give the most extreme effect possible – you can see it gives only a slight relief (Render 2).

The XaraX file is attached. It’s rather large as it contains several bitmaps.

To give credits, the dress is long dress 3 from Serge Marck (or perhaps Marck Serge), plus the Women’s Dress Shirt that comes with Poser.

www.thelondonhouse.co.uk

[Flyboy]

Thanks for the info. I also play around with Poser, and I intend to study your file very closely indeed [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]