This
is an older tutorial and mostly relates to how Poser used to be,
I will work on updating it soon. See the link below for a more
up to date version of how to do this with Daz studio and our morph
kits.
Techniques
to create Poser and Daz Studio characters
I find it is helpful to start with a picture of a person, though
I often don't :). The best characters happen for me when I start
with an idea even if I don't stick with it.
So now to make the 'morph' transformation happen there are two
ways to go about it. If you are just starting out, you can use
the existing morphs that come with the figure or those you have
downloaded. If the morphs are included on the figure, such as
with Daz Victoria, you can just turn the dials and save your
result. This way is very easy and the pose (.pz2) can be distributed
or sold. If you use morphs you have downloaded, these belong
to the artists who created them and they generally cannot be
distributed or sold without permission of the artist but they
can be great for personal use and for rendering. All our morph
kits are ok. for commercial use in creating new characters for
sale and they make creating new work for sale a snap. Create
a combination that you like and then save and export it as a
combined morph.
Then there is the second way, creating custom morphs. This is
the method I use. There's a lot to be said for it. You can get
a more precise look, your character won't look just like everyone
else's and most importantly you will learn more by doing it
that way. Custom morphs can be made in Poser or with another
3d program. The way to make morphs in poser is to use the 'magnets'.
The magnets are very intuitive and easy to control once you
get the hang of it. Don't be thrown off by the peculiar shape
of the giant magnet, it is possible to get very precise results
from this tool which can be viewed real time in poser.
To make a magnet morph you begin by selecting a body part and
then go to the 'object' menu, select 'create magnet'. You will
see two items appear, one is a sphere and the other is a giant
horseshoe magnet (Don't ask me) on a yellow base. Anyway the
sphere represents the area that you want to be effected by the
magnet. It has a gradual falloff so that the effects you create
with it will be smooth and organic looking. This falloff zone
can be manipulated by double clicking on the sphere and selecting
'edit falloff graph'. You'd use this if you wanted a more dramatic
falloff effect rather than a well blended one for instance.
I don't edit the falloff much myself. The 'Magnet' itself is
the tool that you use to scale or translate the area within
the sphere. The magnet base is how poser determines where the
effect starts. (This bit is hard to explain, the best thing
is to experiment with it 'till you see the effect.) Once you
get the desired distortion you just select your body part, go
back to the object menu and select 'spawn morph target'. Type
a name in the field like 'big nose'. A whole character is usually
gazzilions of these morphs combined, the figure should be saved
as a cr2 when you have it how you like it, or periodically so
as not to loose your work. You should probably save your individual
morphs to use in other characters later. The easy way is to
leave them on your figure and save as a Cr2, you can use Morph
Manager to transfer them to a new figure as needed. You can
save the morphs as .obj but that's very time consuming and impossible
to 'browse' in that format. If you leave them in a cr2 you can
just load it to view the morphs. So that's the tools but of
course there's more to it than that.
The first instinct is just to do what looks good to you, and
more or less that's all there is to do, but it pays to analyze
exactly why certain things look good before using them. I'm
going to talk in terms of faces but the same principle applies
to any part. The face communicates a great deal of information
to the viewer. I have read a lot about the meaning derived from
various characteristics of the face. Some indicate youth or
age, some indicate the presence of testosterone (masculinity,
like a square jaw) some of estrogen (flat brow, oval face, big
lips etc.). Then there are those things that fall into the category
of facial expression. If the brows are drawn close together
the face will appear to be scowling whereas wide set eyes and
brows look placid and trustworthy etc. Facial characteristics
absolutely all mean something, or evoke a certain predictable
response in the viewer. I could probably write a whole volume
on this alone but a girl has to keep some trade secrets ;-).
Mainly it is important to try, to the best of your ability,
to make sure that what you are communicating with your face
is a message that makes sense.
Next is proper proportion. It is helpful to use the time honored
methods to figure out proportions. The basic figure is 7 to
8 heads tall. Each part should fall in a specific place to be
in proportion. It's OK to make a character that's out of proportion
but remember that you are communicating something to the viewer
with each variation from the norm. For instance fashion drawings
often elongate the figure so that the legs, instead of being
about 4 heads tall are made up to 7 heads. That's also done
a lot in anime. Anime is a good thing to study if you want to
make younger looking characters. Another way to get your characters
more realistic looking is to try to account for the bone structure
below the surface, especially with noses and jawlines. In other
words- if someone dug up the skull that would be under this
face, would it be classed as human ;-) (or whatever your intent)?
Always make sure it looks good in profile and 3/4 angles too.
Try to account for your figure's muscle structure. This can
be a bit of a pain and the daz figures are mostly correct with
few exceptions. If you are unsure about muscle structure it's
probably best to leave it alone, because any bulge the eye sees
that is not where a muscle would be is picked up as fat or possibly
an alien life form about to emerge ;-). On the other hand the
best way to learn is by doing. I strongly recommend 'Human Anatomy
for Artists' by Elliot Goldfinger as it has bone structure,
muscles shown relaxed and flexed and from several angles each.
Worth 10 of every other anatomy book I've seen.
Another way to express a character's individuality is with clothing
or costume. If you can't make clothing for Poser there are lots
of items already created that can be adapted to suit your needs.
Last is texturing, a custom texture can give your character
a new level of uniqueness, there is no substitute for a good
texture. There are lots of tutorials available on the specifics
of texture creation so I'll leave it at that for now.
I'm sure there are as many ways to create characters as there
are people and the most important thing is always to follow
the dictates of your own personal muse.
poser
character 3d artwork poser models
The
Daz base figures most of our characters are for-
Vicki 4, Michael 4, Laura, Kids and many more, follow the link
to Daz3d-