Size and Scaling of Props

[StudioMartillo]

No doubt many members here will have good techniques for scaling props but thought I'd put out this simple idea. I model with Lightwave, which is kind of crude but familiar. Transfer the geometry via OBJ to Poser and finalize the prop in Poser. When I want to make a prop for use with a certain character I have 3 simple geometries that I use. A 1 meter diameter sphere, 1 meter cube, and 1 meter x 1 meter cylinder. These were done as described above. They cover a wide range of shapes.
I just put the most appropriate one in the scene with the character and scale it in X,Y and Z to work with the pose.
So if x is at 18%, y is at 31.7% and z is at 12% that gives me the overall size of the prop in cm i.e. x=18cm y=31.7cm and z=12cm.
It works great and the prop fits perfectly.

 

[English Bob]

Great minds think alike. Scale Modelling with the Construction Props

(Yes, we know what fools do. No need to bring that up. )

 

[StudioMartillo]

PNU is it then? Ha! Well those funny fellows, which I call simply PU are the very reason for doing as described above. What struck me right off using Poser is that the numbers on the translation dials have no practical relationship to the objects or characters in the scene. So, not suprisingly, I think of them as relating to nothing but the Poser Universe. The virtual world of Poser/DS needs no reference to the real world. It is another place altogether you see and it's best to come to terms with what you have where you are. It's all fantasy. The key to my method is OBJ units. One unit in an OBJ file exported from Lightwave equals one meter. Also, 'internally' so to speak, to Poser the dimensional units are the same as OBJ. When editing .pp2 files, or .pz3 files one would see these values, not the values displayed on the translation dials. I work with the .pp2 files quite a lot because many tasks in preparing props are much easier done with a code editor. I use MS Visual Studio. The format of .pp2 etc is much like script and is literally CODE. Things like setting limits for bends and rotations which is tedious and time consuming in Poser, can be done in the wink of an eye using the 'find and replace' tool in the editor. To move a prop relative to it's own dimension in the Poser workspace it happens that one OBJ meter yields 103.20 PU. But in practice, building scenes is an artistic endeavor and the is best left behind. There it's all about how things look. I also use another method of relating to DAZ's characters in the modeling environment which is achieved by transfering the geometry into Lightwave and measuring parts and thinking of them as they are. I've found with V4 for example these parameters:

V4 Anatomical points
{
height: 73.75 cm
shoulder height: 62.75 cm
croch height: 36 cm
knee joint height: 21.25 cm
skull back to forhead: 8.5 cm
head vertical length: 10 cm
top of skull to eartop: 4.25 cm
skull width: 6.3 cm
shoulder width: 16.6 cm
bottom of breast: 51.6 cm
width of hip: 14.6 cm
abdomen to glute depth: 9.2 cm
arm length (relaxed) 27.6 cm
nose height: 67.25 cm
}

V4 Hand (fingers straightened)
{
width: 3.6 cm
length: 7.2 cm
middle finger length: 3.6 cm
middle finger width: 7.5 mm
thumb free length: 2.5 cm
}
These could also be useful if you can get used to centimeters. It looks a lot nicer in Lightwave than feet/inches which get real hard to work with.
There are a lot of props around which, when loaded into Poser are at some monstrous scale and need adjusting to work in the scene.
I like to make things that are fun.

 

[ockham]

@StudioMartillo: I love your ModPods furniture and use it all the time.

For convenience, I sized a Poser box prop to the proper height for desks (about 32") and saved it as a separate prop. Good for desks, tables, stoves, etc. Also saved a box for a standard door (about 80" high and 32" wide).

 

[StudioMartillo]

Thanks ockham. Nice to know my toys are having fun. I used these factors for designing the furniture:

V4 seated at desk or table
{
chair seat height: 19 cm
chair seat width: 16 cm
chair seat depth: 20 cm
chair back height: 41.5 cm
desk/table height: 32 cm
}

V4 reclining bed or chase
{
height: 20 cm
length: 90 cm
width: 75 cm (Queen bed)
width: 35 cm (chase)
width: 60 cm (Double)
}

V4 standing working
{
counter height: 42 cm
counter depth: 20 cm
counter width: 60 cm
}

Dinette Table
{
diameter: 64 cm
height: 32 cm
}

I hope these props work well for Dawn and Dusk. I really need to download Dusk and work with him a little. Only I'm in the middle of my Jazz Trio Project. I am making bass player poses for M4 right now for 13 jazz scales, which will include the root through 10th probably for each scale. That will be 130 poses, which boarders on insanity. Or maybe runs well into that territory. But for a lot of users it's hard to get detailed poses just right, and for something like playing an instrument, well, you need to know how to play to do it. The fingering will be correct for each scale. Actually some of it is duplicated. Such as the 5th of the E Major scale is the same fingering as the 2nd of the A Major scale, and so on. But they will be duplicated and have the two different names so the bassist can be correlated to the pianist. The piano poses will include the same 13 jazz scales and consist of 60 jazz chords, and will be designed for V4, which is the base of my lovely pianist Louise Quise. Maybe this is getting a little ahead of where things are at but these are my current goals. The piano is almost done, just needs some textures and rigging. Then the drum kit. Oooof!