Zikeo Armor X/Y (AKA Iron Man) - Poserfying problems

Aremis

OK - I have been working hard trying to make Zikeo's Iron Man figure 100% poser ready. Im not just taking his figure as is and assigning a skeletal structure to it for Poser (Which would be relatively easy), I'm attempting to make it Mike 3 conforming, form more versatility, as well as making it so that the "broken" pieces that appear invisible or don't show parts of the mesh until render appear properly prior to render.

But having some headaches, and looking for input, if there is anything further I can do to elliminate my problems.

First I opened the entire figure in the latest D|S beta. Then I exported each individual piece (i.e. Helmet, Visor, Left Thigh, Right Shin etc.) as individual pieces.

Next I exported the entire model as a solid OBJ file as a placeholder to know where to place the individual OBJ files.

I loaded up M3, and posed him to match up to the full Armor X model, then began to import the individual pieces.

Once everything was in it's place, I modified each to better match M3's size (i.e. Arm length, leg width, chest depth etc.).
When I was done, as you can see in my gallery post, it turned out decent. But I wanted to go further.
Some of the meshes aren't properly developed for full use. Examples would be that some areas appear transparent/broken/jagged. They look great when rendered, but not priot. This makes setting up a scene a pain in the behind, not to mention a nuissance for those of us who do animation.

So my next steps were:

• Exported each OBJ file, and opened in UVMapper. Remapped the parts better for texturing for those who like going high end with their work.

• Brought each piece back in individually. Some still seemed broken/transparent.

• Tried to modify using Shade 8, exporting using double sided poly's. This elliminated the broken/transparent pieces, but when rendered, caused a very bizarre look to the render.

• I found that if you turn off shadows and backfacing poly's, that it renders ok, but whats the point without being able to use Shadows? Waste of time.

• So I tried again, without using Shade in the scenario. Export from Poser, Open in UVMapper, remap, export a new OBJ file and import.

• Attempt 1, I import into Poser turning on Making Poly's Normal and Flip Normals. The result was the following:

• As you can see, the figure renders fully, although in the un-rendered window, the area you see as dark grey appears transparent. When I render (no colours assigned, no textures assigned, a flat white mesh), the transparent portion appears dark grey. You can see this on the rear of the leg, and the ankle where there's a gear on the inside shin.

• So I imported with all options in the Poser import window turned off, and the following is what I get.

• Now you can see that with those items turned off, the image appears the opposite, more darker areas.

Overall, each mesh has a combination of flipped and unflipped normals. I tried merging one of each, but get that weird looking render from the first post. Nothing I have tried works. And since there are so many poly's to the individual OBJ files, trying to manually create a new OBJ file from the original is nearly impossible.

If someone has some input, let me know. Otherwise, Im going to just make conforming figures based on the original UV mapped versions, which means colour or maps assigned, will not be 100% (Appear darker in areas that are invisible in the un-rendered window once rendered).

If Rattler reads this, take a look if your comp is back up and running at the OBJ files - I can even pass you on the UV mapped versions, and see what you can maybe come up with in that insane brain of yours brother =)
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Aremis

OK since I decided to move on and use the meshes as they were created with inverted poly's and all, along with a new UV map for all parts, I have completed the first conforming figure part.

Armor X Boots

As you can see, if you look at both legs, right beneath the knee armor, you can just make out that the colour is slightly darker than the rest of the red - as per y first post. Without pulling the entire mesh apart, I havent figured out a way to fix the backfacing poly's, so its being left as is.

Next up will be the thighs as a conforming figure. Should have those done by tomorrow night. At this rate, I should be done come Monday night, if all goes well, and have it ready for download.
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Aremis

OK - Thighs are done quicker than I anticipated.

You can see the color difference in the boots better in this render, where the backfacing poly's are giving me a headache and caused me to give up on them
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Aremis

OK - I know I said in the first post that the thighs would be done by tomorrow night - and those are none, and now I have the briefs done as well. So sue me. I'm sure the quicker I get it done the happier some people may be =).

So, without further adieu - Here are the Iron Panties...err....Briefs...Hip...whatever...

I turned off Shadows on this render, and you can see now in the boots, that the backfacing poly's appear closer in colour to the rest of the boots. I'll leave it to those who download him later, to choose if they do it or not.
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Aremis

And...the real Abs of Steel.

I might even get the chest done before I pass out.

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Aremis

OK - Last update for tonight.
Chest is done and ready to go. Another lucky break that I also managed to fix the backfacing poly's on this one. Wish it would have been that easy for the shin portions. Oh well...

This is it until either tomorrow night or Saturday night. Going to get my wedding license with the soon-to-be Mrs. Muskateer, then off to see some former colleagues of mine for brunch, then off to our new house to paint for the rest of the day, so if time permits when I get home, and Im not too tired or sore, I'll work on the shoulder pieces and get those done at least.

I will be away for my father's birthday on Saturday, and more painting, so again, when I get home, if it's not too late, Ill get the upper arms done.

If all goes well, Sunday I can finish off the forearms, and the helmet, and be done with it.

Love to hear any comments about how its looking in terms of size/shape in reference to the original one from Zikeo.
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cybrweasel · Forum Newbie Joined: Jun 03, 2002 Posts: 6 Location: Earth

This looks incredible, glad someone was able to "poserfy" the armor. Will you be releasing this in the free stuff here?

ZIKEO · Forum Newbie Joined: Oct 29, 2005 Posts: 1

Hell Man!!

It's really nice to see someone taking on a project that I loved modelling.
And seeing it spread out across the webb from humble beginnings of a Hobby Guy is Brilliant!!
Keep it going Dude, I want to have a play too.

Z

Aremis · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 6:07 pm Post subject:

Zikeo brother - If this is a Hobby Guy project, I fear to think how much I would spend on your products if you did it for a living lol. You did an amazing job. You should see the posts in the forums here alone for people that have been looking for a movie adaptation of the Iron Man suit. And you nailed it brother. Big time.

As for an update tonight - I spent 11 hours painting our new home - still a few areas that need their second coat tomorrow. So tonight, no Iron Man work. Way too sore and tired. Think Ill go play some Rock Band instead. Easier on my arm lol.
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Ratteler · Forum Member Joined: Jun 10, 2002 Posts: 548 Location: NYC

Hey, just got here.

Dayum Aremis!!! You're moving way faster than I even can!!!

I've been working on it myself... although I'm taking the approach of positioning the armor to match M3 in the OBJ, and then modding his skeleton to make it work. This way you won't have to waist the memory and render resources on having to load M3 to hold him together.

I'm also going to try and make all the "flaps" work. :twisted:

Cause I'm cool like that. :wink:

I mean, Zikeo went to all the effort to model them as separate details, least I can do is make them work in Poser. (And consequently in Daz Studio.)

I want to be able to animate that "putting the Armor on" segment from the movie, and use the same CR2 for animating action.

With the "flaps" motivation, I tore the hell out of the exported OBJ in Lightwave, separating each part, and I'm scaling them to fit M3's base OBJ as I go.

I didn't run into that patchy flipped normals problem like Aremis did, but there were inverted sections all cleanly flipped the wrong way.

There's also a VERY TINY offset in the symmetry which I fixing by deleting the offending half, forcing the edge to center, and mirroring. Except for the back flaps which are actually different geometry, this should fix a lot of details.

Without heavier modeling artillery, I really would have no clue how to clean up reversed normal problem. You "might" be able to do it UV Mapper Pro by selecting the polygons in those exact section, and then manually flipping their normal direction.

If you want to send me your boot OBJ's, I'll see what I can do.

The UV's were an awful mess. Sorry Zikeo.
I debating if I even WANT to mess with them.

I would LOVE to see the wire templates of the UV's you did, Aremis.

I'm hoping I get it done before the DVD is out!!! :lol:

rduda2 · Forum Newbie Joined: Dec 20, 2006 Posts: 1

Wow! that all I can say, wow!!!!!!

Aremis · Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 9:12 pm Post subject:

Thanks Ratt - Appreciate the comments. Cool to hear you're going to all that trouble with the flaps. I'm not going that far - No money in it, no sense for me to put that much effort into it lol. I considered having some of my staff here rip it apart and rebuilt it using the meshes and doing like you are, but again, I'm not paying them to have fun lol.

I do have a version of just the OBJ's already aligned with the M3 Skeleton already, did that first - But I like the versatility of being able to remove parts ect, and have the figure showing beneath.

But as Zikeo said, the more the merrier working on this lol.
Can't wait to see what you come out with brother.
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Aremis · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 7:42 pm Post subject:

Alrighty - Im Home...I can't sleep...so back to the work.
I was going to try Ratt's suggestion of trying to reverse the backfacing poly's that are giving me headaches, like the lower knee on the shins, the left eye, and a few other tiny little pieces. Unfortunatly, UV Mapper pro only exists for Windows (Which I avoid at all costs).

So tonight, just as a thought, I brought the mesh back into Shade 8, and voila! Figured out how to reverse just the headache portion.
So for those few pieces, I need to rework them for a 50th time, to keep the UV Mapping I built intact. But I should have the completed file ready online late tomorrow night.
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Ratteler · Forum Member Joined: Jun 10, 2002 Posts: 548 Location: NYC

Sweet. Glad I could be a tiny bit of help. ;-)

Aremis · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:07 am Post subject:

I wouldnt consider it tiny by any means brother lol. Your suggestion of opening in UV Mapper Pro, and slecting just the portions that are backfacing, gave me the thought to try the same thing just using a different app.
So a big thank you for that one.
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~Live the dream, experience the nightmare
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