Help with poser magnets

[Gadget Girl]

So I understand the basics of magnets, and I've found a lot of tutorials that go over these basics, but now I'm having trouble putting all the stuff in my brain together to make them useful. Here's what I'm doing (or trying to do):

I have these leggings I've made, which are fully rigged, but they don't have any real movement, which I'd like to add. Everytime I tried to add extra bones for the rigging, it just messed up the existing rig, and caused the entire mesh to 'jump' out of place when I'd conform it. So I thought I'd make some morphs for movement instead.

You can see here I've made one such morph using a magnet. Now, I know I can save the new shape as an .obj and import it back in as a mesh, I've done that before, but I'm wondering if that's needed, because it almost seems like the magnet created a morph on it's own.

Here's the bigger question though. Let's say I have the morph saved. Now I want to 'flip' the magnet, to make a similar morph for the other leg. Is there an easy way to do that? Also if anyone knows of a tutorial that covers things like this I'd love to know. Most of what I found just covers creating a magnet, and doesn't go beyond that.

 

[kobaltkween]

You can always make a single morph of anything you've done to a mesh (simulation, Morph Tool, etc.) by using Object > Spawn Morph Target. Both the convenience and the thing to watch for is that it makes a morph of all changes you've made. So if you have, say, a cloth sim drape, two magnets, and some Morph Tool work, it will combine all of those into one morph target.

No biggie if you're only making one morph, but if you're making a set, you have to make sure that everything you don't want in the particular morph you're working on is zeroed.

If you want to flip the magnet, you can do it by hand. Magnets have 3 parts, so you'd have to change each one appropriately. In general, you'd have to mirror X position, Z rotation, and Y rotation of each piece (magnet, zone, and base). That said, there should be a script out there to do it for you. Here's a couple of free ones I could find quickly:

MirrorMags32 by LesBentley
Magnet Mirror by Ockham (it's down there on the page, beneath a morph mirror that also looks useful)

Hope that helps!

 

[Gadget Girl]

You can always make a single morph of anything you've done to a mesh (simulation, Morph Tool, etc.) by using Object > Spawn Morph Target. Both the convenience and the thing to watch for is that it makes a morph of all changes you've made. So if you have, say, a cloth sim drape, two magnets, and some Morph Tool work, it will combine all of those into one morph target.

I had forgotten about that option and how useful it is. Thanks for the reminder.

If you want to flip the magnet, you can do it by hand. Magnets have 3 parts, so you'd have to change each one appropriately. In general, you'd have to mirror X position, Z rotation, and Y rotation of each piece (magnet, zone, and base). That said, there should be a script out there to do it for you. Here's a couple of free ones I could find quickly:

MirrorMags32 by LesBentley
Magnet Mirror by Ockham (it's down there on the page, beneath a morph mirror that also looks useful)

Hope that helps!

Ah, I was wondering if I had to do it by hand for all three parts, or if there was an automatic way to move a complete magnet. I'll take a look at those scripts, that looks like a much better way to go about things, or at least a quicker way.

 

[Ken1171]

You don't need to export OBJs to create a morph with magnets. Just do as KK has suggested, and spawn a morph from the Object menu. If you are serious about magnets, I suggest Netherworks Magnet Toy, which includes a 1-click mirror copy of any magnets, among other things that nowadays I cannot live without. It makes life easier, and the only gripe I have with it is that it doesn't support weight maps in magnets. Looks like the feature was not available in Python, so I have worked with SMS to have that added, and they did it in the current 11.0.5 version. Now it's just a matter of Joe to add it to his wonderful Magnet Toy. ^^

 

[Miss B]

IIRC, that's one of Joe's toys I have on my wishlist.

 

[Ken1171]

Let's also not forget that we can SAVE magnets to the props library to reuse later. ^^

 

[Miss B]

Yes, I believe that's how Joe set up his Hair Conversion presets for the different characters.

 

[Gadget Girl]

Let's also not forget that we can SAVE magnets to the props library to reuse later. ^^

I had no clue you could do that. That would make things much easier, especially if I want to go back and tweak stuff.

 

[Ken1171]

Exactly - and you can also reapply it to other cases as a starting point. THE POWER OF MAGNETS!!!!

 

[English Bob]

Just a quick reminder - when saving magnets, select the magnet base first (not the magnet itself, or indeed the magnet zone). Although the base / magnet / zone trio are presented as parented props in the hierarchy, the magnet base appears to have some hard-coding associated with it. For example, if you delete it, it automagically deletes the other magnet parts too, which is not the case with other parented props.

You may (or may not) find this add-on useful: Utility Downloads

 

[Ken1171]

When we save things to the props library, I think we can choose what we want to be saved from the scene. That list allows us to save multiple magnets at once, which in my case is the typical scenario. In that case, it doesn't seem to matter what part of a magnet is selected.

However, when we delete a magnet, there used to be a bug in Poser where some parts of a magnet would remain in the scene and not be deleted. This has been fixed in 11.0.5.

 

[English Bob]

When we save things to the props library, I think we can choose what we want to be saved from the scene. That list allows us to save multiple magnets at once, which in my case is the typical scenario. In that case, it doesn't seem to matter what part of a magnet is selected.

Thanks Ken, I may be remembering behaviour from a previous Poser version. I haven't tried it recently, but it used to be the case that when you save multiple props at once, they couldn't be smart-propped which is important for magnets.

However, when we delete a magnet, there used to be a bug in Poser where some parts of a magnet would remain in the scene and not be deleted. This has been fixed in 11.0.5.

I'm still seeing some odd behaviour with magnets, but not able to replicate it reliably enough to report. Sometimes applying a magnet from the library seems not to work properly.

 

[Deleted member 325]

Let's also not forget that we can SAVE magnets to the props library to reuse later. ^^

I could use a little help with this... I am trying to save a magnet that modifies a prop parented to a figure... but I can not seem to get it to save or work properly when reloading. I have been reading over magnet tutorials the last few days, and have not found any covering this specific issue that provide a solution.

 

[Ken1171]

Thanks Ken, I may be remembering behaviour from a previous Poser version. I haven't tried it recently, but it used to be the case that when you save multiple props at once, they couldn't be smart-propped which is important for magnets.

I could use a little help with this... I am trying to save a magnet that modifies a prop parented to a figure... but I can not seem to get it to save or work properly when reloading. I have been reading over magnet tutorials the last few days, and have not found any covering this specific issue that provide a solution.

English Bob & KageRyu: I have a suggestion that GREATLY simplifies working with 1 or multiple magnets, and then saving them to the library. Joe (Netherworks) has something called the "Magnet Toy" that has helpers to do all that. It allows you to create and manage multiple mags using a nice interface, with options to save 1 or as many of the mags to the Poser Props library for later use. Some of the most fancy automations include mirroring mags to the other side of the figure and snapping the mag zone to the base location, which are some of the operations I use the most.

The only catch is that mirrored mags will not carry any weight maps you may have created on the mag zone, but we can still copy & paste them from one mag to another using the default weight map tool from Poser. I strongly recommend the Magnet Toy if (like me) you are serious about magnets in Poser.

 

[Deleted member 325]

English Bob & KageRyu: I have a suggestion that GREATLY simplifies working with 1 or multiple magnets, and then saving them to the library. Joe (Netherworks) has something called the "Magnet Toy" that has helpers to do all that. It allows you to create and manage multiple mags using a nice interface, with options to save 1 or as many of the mags to the Poser Props library for later use. Some of the most fancy automations include mirroring mags to the other side of the figure and snapping the mag zone to the base location, which are some of the operations I use the most.

The only catch is that mirrored mags will not carry any weight maps you may have created on the mag zone, but we can still copy & paste them from one mag to another using the default weight map tool from Poser. I strongly recommend the Magnet Toy if (like me) you are serious about magnets in Poser.

I am not seeing it in his store - but right now I am short on funds as is.

 

[Ken1171]

I think I've bought it at RDNA, but I know Netherworks is a member here and has products on the store.

 

[FlickeringLight]

Ockham has some great free Python scripts that can help with some of the issues mentioned above, there are Mirror scripts for Morphs and Magnets
Ockham's python

 

[Ken1171]

Ockham has some great free Python scripts that can help with some of the issues mentioned above, there are Mirror scripts for Morphs and Magnets
Ockham's python

That is definitely a great collection of useful Python scripts, but still no substitute for the Magnet Toy if you can get it.

 

[Miss B]

Magnet Toy? Sounds like one of Netherworks goodies, but I don't recall it, and it's not in his store here, or at Renderosity.

 

[Ken1171]

Magnet Toy? Sounds like one of Netherworks goodies, but I don't recall it, and it's not in his store here, or at Renderosity.

Yes, it's said earlier above that is was at RDNA. That's where I've bought it from, and it's awesome. I have used it today on a commission job. Have to ask Joe to put it here too.