How to pose character?

[Oscar]

Hi there all. The question in the topic of this thread is not exact with what i wanted to ask but close enough i think..
I wanted to ask, how U guys manage to pose Your characters. I know that in Mudbox we have Grab tool but we all know it's not the best way to pose character.

So I tried yesterday to do some sculpt on a new character i wanted to do some base in 3dsMax, then sculpt it just to get the right proportions and to make it symetrical, then i exported it back to max (the lowpoly ofcourse), rigged it and posed (nothing fancy, just rough rig), and then (no geometry was changed) i thought that if i export it back to Mudbox as layer it all blew up.
So I wanted to ask, what workflow do U use (Wayne i'm counting on U :) ) ? I want to make a character in mudbox, but then pose it and get back with it to Mud to finish detail.

Thanks in advance for any replies :)
Oscar

[Hulahuga]

I'd say that after you've post it in Max. You should try exporting it as an obj. Make sure the obj is posed.
Then you just import it into Mudbox as a new geometry.

This is just what I should have done. Perhaps someone would do it in another way. But this I know should work.


Hope this works for you.

[Oscar]

What U say is pretty obvious... but it makes U do a lot of map import/export stuff. So i thought tahat maybe there's more efficient way of doing that.
Oscar

[Hulahuga]

Maybe morph it?
Of possible.
Or make it a shape.
But those two I don't know how to do.

But if I understand it correctly, you just want to make a layer of it, right?
So you can interchange between a couple of poses?

[Oscar]

nope, i just want to sculpt my character in neutral open pose. and then i want to pose it and refine the detail. I'm aware of sculpting with displace map but thats a lot of tweaking and so on. so i thought that maybe after sculpting character i would be able to refine lowpoly in max/pose it and then import it back to Mud and keep on sculpting .
Oscar

[Hulahuga]

That would probably need some sort of plugin/connection thingy. Which I'm quite sure doesn't exist, yet.

[Wayne]

Whenever you pose a charcter thats been sculpted in a bind pose, you are always goingto need to do corrections to the anatomy. Some muslces wil be etended while others are contracted etc.... So there no real way around that part without a full rig. If you characters pose is vastly different to your bind pose then using the sculpt with disp map option can have the best results. (It also give's you an extra element of control as welll which is a plus point.)

In max of course you could use CAT plugin to easily rig a character so that you could pose it etc....


Wayne...

[musashidan]

You can use the skin utilities "extract skin data to mesh" in Max. So if you rig your low poly>extract the skin data>snapshot the mesh>scupt in Mud>import into Max>import skin data to mesh>pose the character> snapshot the mesh>export to Mud.

[Hulahuga]

Cool. Is there a similar thing in Maya?

[musashidan]

I'm sure there is.But i use Max.

[Hulahuga]

;).

Thanks for the info dudes :).

[steelsky]

Wayne, do you use the CAT plugin, bones or character studio etc? when doing such rigging... just curious, as ive heard ya mention a basic bon rig (i think on your blue head project).. and above the cat plugin.

Ive been looking at CAT for a while but not got around to trying it... ya have a preference?

[Wayne]

Wayne, do you use the CAT plugin, bones or character studio etc? when doing such rigging... just curious, as ive heard ya mention a basic bon rig (i think on your blue head project).. and above the cat plugin.

Ive been looking at CAT for a while but not got around to trying it... ya have a preference?


I use a mixutre to be honest. For heads etc I'll use a very simple bone rig.. for characters whatever I feel like at teh time.... as I find rigging about as interesting as watching paint dry. So sometimes the max biped, sometimes CAT.

Wayne...

[steelsky]

haha, fair does.. im not a fan of rigging stuff in max.. only done it once if i remember correctly... have done a lot with XSI in the past tho, thats why CAT appeals a little more.

Cheers for the info

[Rollotomasi]

Oscar - the method you have described is correct, and it should work.

As you said - export the low-poly version from Mudbox into Max, pose it however you want (without adding or deleting any edges), then export the mesh as an obj back into Mudbox (Go to the lowest subdivision level and Import as Layer)

Are you saying that this makes the mesh blow up?

[Oscar]

@Rollotomasi - not exactly blow up but sure as hell far from desired. The mesh is very deformed and even if it changes the pose it looks horrible...i guess i'll stick to one of two concept. Either I'll simply sculpt none symmetrical mesh or I'll pose it after sculpting and then sculpt with displacement and correct errors... still a lot of time comparing to Zbrush...but mudbox'es interface wins ten times:)

[musashidan]

@Rollotomasi - not exactly blow up but sure as hell far from desired. The mesh is very deformed and even if it changes the pose it looks horrible...i guess i'll stick to one of two concept. Either I'll simply sculpt none symmetrical mesh or I'll pose it after sculpting and then sculpt with displacement and correct errors... still a lot of time comparing to Zbrush...but mudbox'es interface wins ten times:)


Did you not read my post? I explained how to do exactly what you wanted between Max&Mud. The other thing i would suggest is to use the method i've described,but skin the mesh to a biped and take advantage of snapshotting and .bip files.

[Oscar]

sorry musashidan, i did read your post but not sure if i get it right. so first i create lowpoly, rig is, then export skin which creates another mesh, then i export the new created mesh or the original skinned one? and then i sculpt with symmetry. then i export low poly from mud to max, pose it as i want and export skin again, right? and then i export posed one to mudbox as layer? if not, where does the information about higher subdivision levels come from? i would be greatfull if u could explain it more step-by-step way :)