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Importing and Editing Poser Models Inside Animatek World Builder (AWB). World Builder 3.1 includes a special Poser™ Pro-Pack™ importer plug-in that allows you to import Poser files ( *.pz3 ) into World Builder scenes. It also allows you to modify and save some of the Poser object parameters that are essential for the World Builder scene: the Poser model position, scale and materials. This tutorial is based on the Frog animation project that is available here: http://www.digi- element.com/tutorials.shtml In order to start working with Poser object inside World Builder you'll need the following: - Poser and Poser Pro-Pack should be installed on your system. The Poser importer plug-in will not work if Poser and Poser Pro-Pack are not installed. - Poser project that contains Poser model and animation - *.pz3 file - Poser importer plug-in for the World Builder. If your version of World Builder doesn't include the Poser importer plug-in then you will need to download an upgrade from Digital Element’s web site: http://www.digi-element.com/support_upgrades30.shtml Import of Poser model into World Builder. Step 1. Press the PZR button on the creation toolbar on the left (marked as '1' on the picture below). You can also go to menu Create and select the Poser File Mesh. The Poser File will appear in Object Tree (2). Step 2. To load a Poser File into a World Builder scene you need to press the 'Load' button on the property page for the Poser File and select the *.pz3 file that you want to use (3). After loading the Poser file you can use the usual Move, Scale and Rotate tools for placing the model in the scene. Figure 1

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Importing and Editing Poser Models Inside Animatek World Builder(AWB).

World Builder 3.1 includes a special Poser™ Pro-Pack™ importer plug-in that allows you to importPoser files ( *.pz3 ) into World Builder scenes. It also allows you to modify and save some of the Poserobject parameters that are essential for the World Builder scene: the Poser model position, scale andmaterials. This tutorial is based on the Frog animation project that is available here: http://www.digi-element.com/tutorials.shtml

In order to start working with Poser object inside World Builder you'll need the following:

- Poser and Poser Pro-Pack should be installed on your system. The Poser importer plug-in will notwork if Poser and Poser Pro-Pack are not installed.- Poser project that contains Poser model and animation - *.pz3 file- Poser importer plug-in for the World Builder. If your version of World Builderdoesn't include the Poser importer plug-in then you will need to download an upgrade fromDigital Element’s web site: http://www.digi-element.com/support_upgrades30.shtml

Import of Poser model into World Builder.

Step 1. Press the PZR button on the creation toolbar on the left (marked as '1' on the picture below).You can also go to menu Create and select the Poser File Mesh. The Poser File will appear inObject Tree (2).Step 2. To load a Poser File into a World Builder scene you need to press the 'Load' button on theproperty page for the Poser File and select the *.pz3 file that you want to use (3). After loading thePoser file you can use the usual Move, Scale and Rotate tools for placing the model in the scene.

Figure 1

Summary of Figure 1:(1) Poser File import button on the creation toolbar(2) The Object Tree contains a list of all the objects in the Scene. This is where you select objects

for editing, grouping, and manipulation.(3) 'Load' button on the properties page for the Poser File object(4) The current frame in Poser animation(5) The Track Editor: The Track Editor is a special area of the screen that contains tools for

managing animation tracks and their keys.(6) The Camera window.

Now we'll take a closer look at Poser File properties page:

Figure 2

Load button – loads the Poser model and animation file (extension *.pz3) into World Builder.

Reload button – will reload the Poser File shown in the 'Poser File' information box.

Remove button – will clean the ‘Poser File’ information box and will delete Poser object from thememory.

Poser Frame – shows the current frame of the Poser model animation.

Import Scale – scales the Poser object during the loading.

Load on project open - if this box is checked then Poser model will be loaded during the openingof the World Builder project. If this check box is not checked then Poser model will not beautomatically loaded. This is done for saving the time during the opening of the project. If you'llneed a Poser object you can just press Reload button.

Rotate model – Poser axis Z is oriented horizontally while in World Builder it faces up. Check thisoption on to rotate Z of Poser model up on import.

Loop animation – loops the animation of the Poser object.

Setting Up the Animation of the Poser Model in a World Builder scene.

Once the Poser object is positioned in the scene via the standard Move, Scale and Rotate tools wecan start setting up the animation. If you don't know how to use Move, Scale and Rotate tools it isworth browsing through the Quick Start guide.

The body animation of the Poser model should be done inside Poser. The imported object will beanimated but will not yet be moving in the 3D space according to the World Builder scene. Youhave to animate the translation of the model manually. Follow the standard procedure that webriefly describe here. Please refer to quick start guide for more details.

Step 1. Select the Poser object

Step 2. Switch to the move mode - use icon on the top toolbar

Step 3. Turn on Auto key mode – click on the icon in the lower right corner. When you arein Auto Key mode the icon color changes to red.

Step 4. Move the object to the desired initial location while World Builder remains in frame 0.

Step 5. Move the time slider into the last frame of the animation.

Step 6. Move the model into the final location while remaining in the last frame.

Replay animation to make sure that the model is aligned with the terrain. If you have the slidingeffect, adjust final or initial position of the model. Remember that you need to be in Auto key modeso that changes apply in the key frames.

Now with the model animated and properly placed into the scene you can build the rest of thescene.

We suggest that you always start with the animating object in Poser and bringing it into the defaultscene in World Builder. If you start with the World Builder scene you might end up having hardtime fitting the animated object into the ready scene. It is easier to build scene around the objectrather that tweak the animation to fit the scene.

For example, in the project with the frog, if the frog starts to move in frame number 100 insideWorld Builder, that means that frame 0 of the frog animation corresponds to frame 100 in WorldBuilder scene. In our case the frog is already moving forward in the Poser animation, so all we needto do is to set the position of the frog in the start and the end frame of the frog's animation. You cancheck the position of the frog in each frame by dragging the Time Slider on the animation toolbar.

Poser Object Materials in World Builder.

This is a material dialog for Poser models inside the Poser program:

Figure 3

And this is a material dialog for a Poser model inside World Builder:

Figure 4

Lets take a look at the difference in terminology:

Ambient/Diffuse in AWB corresponds to Object Color in Poser.Self-Illumination in AWB corresponds to Ambient Color in Poser. If this value is set to 0 (black)then Poser objects will not glow in the dark. If this value is set to some non-black color then the

Poser object inside World Builder scene will be lit with this color mixed with Ambient/Diffusecolor.Glossiness in AWB is a constant value that doesn’t correspond to any parameter in Poser

Shininess in AWB corresponds to Highlight Size in Poser. If the value of Highlight Size in Poser isset to 80, then the value of Shininess in AWB will be 20. So the value of Shininess in AWB can becalculated from Highlight Size in Poser by this formula: Shininess = 100 - Highlight Size

Specular in AWB corresponds to Highlight Color in Poser.

Texture Map in Poser corresponds to Texture1 in AWB. See the picture below.

Texture Map in Poser has the parameter Strength . Strength corresponds to Value in AWB asshown on the picture below:

Figure 5

Opacity in AWB corresponds to Transparency in Poser.

Editing Poser object materials inside World Buider.

On the image below we see the Poser Materials page inside World Builder. The Poser Materialspage contains the list of the materials corresponding to the different parts of the Poser model.

If the checkbox ‘Substitute materials’ is checked then the Poser materials that weremodified and saved into the World Builder project will be applied to the Poser model, otherwisematerial will be loaded from the poser file (*.pz3).

Figure 6

Lets take a look at one of the materials from this list (see Figure 7). On the page we see thename of the material (<Figure1><skin>), the name of the Poser model (<Figure 1>) and the nameof the Poser model part to which this material is assigned (<skin>).

For each Poser material there is a corresponding page where we can edit and save theparameters of this material. For example ,in our list we have separate materials for the skin, eyes,pupils and the inner mouth.

Figure 7

In order to start editing the Poser object materials you need to select it from the list and onthe property page of the material check the option «Editable».

After that you'll get a material properties sub-tree for the material [Figure 1].[skin] (SeeFigure 8) . The difference in terminology between Poser and World Builder materials wasdescribed above.

Figure 8

We can convert Poser materials into World Builder ones, so it'll be more convenient forWorld Builder users. Right=click on the Photometry page and select the Convert option asshown in Figure 9.

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 10 is the look of the page with the converted Poser material.

Lets go back to Poser material dialog (see Figure 11). If, after the editing of the Posermaterial, you want to revert to the original Poser material then all you need to do is press'Reload' button on the dialog. It will return the original Poser material in the AWB scene.

Figure 11

In order to save modifications in the Poser material in the AWB project, you need to makesure that the checkbox 'Editable' is checked.

Using Poser Model Hierarchy During The Importing Into World Builder.

Objects in Poser have a certain hierarchy. For example, in case of the frog there are thefollowing parts: body, head, front legs, back legs, etc.. The Poser importer plug-in allowsto import Poser object into AWB according to selection in the hierarchy list. That meansthat we can select one or several parts of the Poser object and load only these parts intoWorld Builder. Below is the description of how to do that.

Figure 12

In the properties of the Poser File there is a page called 'Hierarchy Selection’ shown onFigure 12. If you press ‘Select…’ button on this page you will get the ‘Hierarchy Selection’window as shown on Figure 13. Select for example ‘Head’ and press OK.

Figure 13

Figure 14

In Figure 14 we see that after selecting the head from the list, the imported Poser objecthave all the parts except the head. If on the 'Hierarchy Selection’ dialog we will uncheck theoption ‘Don’t import selected object,’ then during the import World Builder will get onlythe parts in the hierarchy that were selected. In our example that means that only the headwill be imported into World Builder scene. You can see the result on Figure 15.

Figure 15

This is all for now. The more sophisticated tutorials about interaction of the Poser modelswith World Builder scenes will be posted in the tutorials section on the Digital Elementwebsite: http://www.digi-element.com/tutorials.shtml .

Poser and Poser Pro Pack are Registered Trademarks of Curious Labs.