Test renders with Poser Scatter Tool. Having SO much fun!

[Minyassa]

Since the Customer Images plugin is broken in the store I wanted to share some of the fun tests I'm doing with this new Poser Scatter Tool by @Ken1171. I LOVE this thing!!! I've been really into landscapes recently and this is going to really be a game changer. No real art renders yet but check out these doodles, I'm having a blast today.

 

[Ken1171]

Hey that's quite some interesting ideas, Minyassa!

Here's an extra hint for those who would like to scatter over FIGURES. Below is the popular Terradome2, where I have scattered 100 red cubes over the terrain. But wait - Terradome2 is a figure - how did you do that? Super easy! Just select the "AZone" from Terradone (the part you want to scatter over), open the Grouping Tool, and click the "Create Prop" button. That's it - now just scatter over the new prop version you have just created! It automatically inherits all materials and morphs.

 

[Minyassa]

That's going to be awesome for doing things like spiky segments of skin on creatures.
Here's another experiment from this morning...actually prompted me to go whip up a little plant model, my first, so yay for prodding me to learn more modeling techniques. <3 I pushed the limits to see what would make my Poser crash and what it would tolerate as far as numbers all at once and in increments.

Still working on trying to do a disco ball. For some reason it does not like flat objects! If I squish a cube down to 10% Y scale, it just sets it on an edge to align with the prop instead of aligning it with the Y axis. Got to figure out why it doesn't like that, will make a flatter square object to try it with. But that is for later...right now I am making a chia pet. xD

 

[Miss B]

Since the Customer Images plugin is broken in the store I wanted to share some of the fun tests I'm doing with this new Poser Scatter Tool by @Ken1171. I LOVE this thing!!! I've been really into landscapes recently and this is going to really be a game changer. No real art renders yet but check out these doodles, I'm having a blast today.

The Customer Images tab on the product pages in the store have never worked. I think it requires some additional scripting for the store that wasn't implemented. I seem to remember Lisa or Alisa mentioning something about it back when we got this new store software a number of years ago.

As for your renders, I'm loving the Tentaball. Having started in 3D close to 20 years ago with Bryce, I too have always considered myself a landscape artist. Now-a-days however, I spend so much time beta testing, I rarely get time to do any landscape renders anymore. Maybe that'll change now with this cool Scatter Tool.

 

[Ken1171]

If I squish a cube down to 10% Y scale, it just sets it on an edge to align with the prop instead of aligning it with the Y axis. Got to figure out why it doesn't like that, will make a flatter square object to try it with.

The surface alignment option relies on the objects having been creating with the Y axis pointing up, which is how things are expected to be in Poser. If models are modeled in a different axis system, like it is with 3DSMAX (Z points up), I have to use the export options to convert the axes to Poser standards, so Y points up, X to the right, and Z towards you. When we enable surface alignment in the plugin, it will align the model to the surface's Y axis (normal vector), so if the geometry has different axes orientation, things will flip around.

Another thing is that objects need to be modeled as "sitting" on top of the origin (0,0,0). If we model objects with half the object sunk into the ground plane, or floating at a random place, it will not align correctly in Poser. Depending on what 3D modeling software you use, the process to center objects and reset the origin point may differ.

For example, if I model a prop in 3DSMAX, and then move it to sit on top of the ground plane afterwards, the origin will still be incorrectly placed. We have to "reset x-form" and then move the origin to (0,0,0). Otherwise, whenever I "reset" the object, it will sink into the ground again, because it was originally modeled in that location.

Hope this helps.

 

[Minyassa]

Now I'm really proud of myself. Experimentation pushes me to make stuff I would never think to try making otherwise. This has about 1600 scattered props on it that I did in "shifts"...started with 300, added another 100, then added 50, for each of three different sprout props. It got very very very very slow toward the last additions or I would've kept on, but eh. Chia pets never look completely covered anyway.

 

[Minyassa]

The surface alignment option relies on the objects having been creating with the Y axis pointing up, which is how things are expected to be in Poser. If models are modeled in a different axis system, like it is with 3DSMAX (Z points up), I have to use the export options to convert the axes to Poser standards, so Y points up, X to the right, and Z towards you. When we enable surface alignment in the plugin, it will align the model to the surface's Y axis (normal vector), so if the geometry has different axes orientation, things will flip around.

Another thing is that objects need to be modeled as "sitting" on top of the origin (0,0,0). If we model objects with half the object sunk into the ground plane, or floating at a random place, it will not align correctly in Poser. Depending on what 3D modeling software you use, the process to center objects and reset the origin point may differ.

For example, if I model a prop in 3DSMAX, and then move it to sit on top of the ground plane afterwards, the origin will still be incorrectly placed. We have to "reset x-form" and then move the origin to (0,0,0). Otherwise, whenever I "reset" the object, it will sink into the ground again, because it was originally modeled in that location.

Hope this helps.

Gotcha, thanks. I have no way of telling how the Poser primitive cubes were made so I'll just make my own and make sure they are Y-up and zeroed. I'll export it from Poser after dropping it to the ground and then re-import it so it starts out in the right place.

 

[Ken1171]

Chia pets never look completely covered anyway.

One thing you can do is to scale up the props to have more coverage using less instances. Or increase the 2nd scale dial to allow some instances to be much larger than the others, which also help with more coverage.

Gotcha, thanks. I have no way of telling how the Poser primitive cubes were made so I'll just make my own and make sure they are Y-up and zeroed. I'll export it from Poser after dropping it to the ground and then re-import it so it starts out in the right place.

That works too! ^^ I find the Poser box primitive bad for scattering because it has too many polys for just a cube, so I had to make my own, too, with only 8 vertices. That one scatters SO much faster. ^____^

 

[Minyassa]

More experiments with the Poser Scatter Tool. How many verts your base prop has and where they are smallest and most concentrated can have a big effect on how the scatter props are distributed. If I was going to refine this to put in my gallery I would probably do some hand-weeding in the more clustered spots. I did prevent some worse clumping by removing some of the tinier fiddly parts and internal structure first.

 

[Ken1171]

Looks lovely! When dealing with spheres, I recommend a GeoSphere, which has an even vertex distribution, so nothing gets crumpled at the poles. The GeoSphere is a primitive object in 3DSMAX, and probably available in other 3D applications as well. I have used this sphere in my video tutorials, and it's easy to see how the vertexes are well spaced from each other. A more common IcoSphere could work as well. Anything BUT the sphere that comes with Poser.

 

[Miss B]

Yes, Blender has that as well, so I suppose I could export it for use in Poser. I'll have to try that.

 

[Ken1171]

Yes, any kind of topology with even-spaced vertexes will be good for scattering.

 

[raven]

So, from the Python Scripts panel -> Prop Samples -> Buckey Ball. Would that be a more usable item? No external programs needed if so.

 

[Minyassa]

Yes, Blender has that as well, so I suppose I could export it for use in Poser. I'll have to try that.

I tried Blender's icosphere and it was a no-go, at least with my attempts. Maybe you'll have better luck...if you do, I will be interested in your method!

 

[parkdalegardener]

Both the Poser Bucky Ball and the Blender icosphere work fine. The Bucky Ball will allow 60 instances and the icosphere 42. The vertices on each are equally spaced as expected.

Export the icosphere as OBJ from Blender with the icosphere selected in the Scene Collection. Tick only the Objects as OBJ Objects box an it will export just fine.

 

[Miss B]

Export the icosphere as OBJ from Blender with the icosphere selected in the Scene Collection. Tick only the Objects as OBJ Objects box an it will export just fine.

OK, that was easy, but I noted too things. First leaving the origin as is, it loads in Poser half way through the ground, so I reset the origin to the bottom vertex, and then when it's imported into Poser it's sitting right on the ground.

Also, since the sizing in both apps are very different, I always make sure I check to import at 100% of Standard Figure. If you use Original Size, it's going to come in huge, probably like the Construct, if not larger, and I always uncheck any other options.

 

[parkdalegardener]

You are correct MissB. Load size and location can be set in the import dialogue of Poser. Since the idea was to get the icosphere out of Blender as a scatter surface I just figured one would adjust those parameters as necessary for the scene while inside Poser itself.

 

[Rae134]

the chia pet is so cute

 

[Miss B]

the chia pet is so cute

I agree.

 

[Ken1171]

I am posting my all-quads GeoSphere from 3DSMAX here, plus my optimized cube for those who don't have a 3D modeling program. The GeoSphere is low-poly, so if you need more vertexes, you can subdivide it, export to OBJ, and then import it back for scattering straight from Poser. This is already in a runtime with split geometry and PP2s, so it's ready for using.

For those who don't know what this is, it's the GeoSphere and optimized cube I have used in my video tutorials. You are free to use it in your own scenes for scattering or anything else you may want.