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

Aremis

Alrighty then. From the many emails that have clogged my inbox, the PM's sent to me here and at 'Rosity, I can see people are clamoring for this to be ready (Me and my big ideas lol).

So here is the first final piece of the armor. I was going to make it all individual conforming pieces (boots, pants, top etc), but found periodically that I was getting some disjointed areas where they either didn't conform properly, or if you posed them in certain ways, some of the mesh would pull in the opposite direction.

So instead, I decided this will be 3 conforming figures. 1 for the bottom half, one for the top, and a third just for the helmet, with the Shoulder Guards and Visor being kept as parented props so they can manually be adjusted to suit the users tastes.

The bottom half is completely UV Mapped, with separate maps for every piece, such as the red map for the thighs, the gold map for the thighs, red for the shins etc. The map templates themselves aren't needed to make him look like Iron Man, but I'm sure those who like the high-end look (Damage to the armor etc) will find these templates useful, in 2000x1500 pixel format, which will be a separate download to make the file a little easier to download.
As you can see, just beneath the knee section, the back-facing poly's are gone (Thanks again to Rattler for the input and tips for fixing this).

I'm off to finish the second one, which is the top half. Should be done shortly.
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Aremis

OK - So here is the conforming top for what I am calling Armor Z (Zikeo named his Carrara version Armor X, then renamed his D|S version Armor Y - So Z makes a lot of sense...to me anyhow.)

Again, as mentioned with the botom half, there are a ton of materials for this top portion, as you can see in the sample image. Each has it's own UV Mapping, with associated template, at 2000x1500 pixels, so you can improve on the look as much as you want.

The only problem you will notice right off the bat with this, is the chest emblem thingy. Since this is a conforming piece, if you twist the chest, the emblem twists too, so some poses, you will want to do some postwork.

I will also of course be releasing all the individual parts as parented props, so you can always turn any particular material for the top or bottom transparent, and use the parented prop instead. It will be your call.

Yes, that means a lot of pieces, lots of downloads. But again, since this is a freebie, you can't expect perfection (Unless you are Rattler, then you can go and create perfection =) lol)

All thats left is to do the head, visor, and parented the shoulder guards, turn all the templates into JPGs, and done and finished with. Should be up in a few hours time.
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Aremis

OK - So the legs, top and head are all done.
Visor is parented to the head figure.
Shoulder guards are parented to the collars of the top armor figure.

For now - I'm done. I will release this either late tonight, or tomorrow morning when time permits between meetings. But you will have it tomorrow for sure.

What remains to be done:
• I need to modify the CR2 files to call to external OBJ geometry
• I need to make a couple of quick MAT files to quickly assign the reflections I use in my image (if people want them, they will be there, if they don't...too bad, you still get them)
• Make a MAT file to hide parts of M3 so there is no poke-through (I ain't about to start making morphs to cover up those areas)
• I need to make a slight change to the UV Map template for the feet and for the two collar plates, as I messed up with assigning material names to them, and rather than having an individual material for each left and Right, its one material for the collar pieces and another for the feet.
• Figure out what I am going to do about the hands.

The hands are the worst because of the fingers. Trying to get them lined up in a zero pose to match Michael 3's frame is impossible. I tried to straighten them out in Daz Studio, but that function/ability is not there, the fingers cannot move from what I can see. If I can't figure out what I am going to do, then I will leave it to everyone else to choose what to use for their own respective hands. I will make the hand blasters available as parented props, so you can use those with any set of gloves you want, or, if you are lucky enough to have Rattler's Iron Man, you can always try using the hands from that figure.

Zikeo - If you read this - let me know if you are able to modify your Armor Y hands into a flat palm (I can share an image of an example of what I would need), and send me an OBJ for both Right and Left.
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alf · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 2:30 am Post subject:

Hi aremis !

I am simply amazed by the work you have done on this model. I have upload the original armor from zikeo and I don't even think that I will be possible to poserize it since all the part where unlinked.

And now I don't know what to do with my Poor Old Not Yet Finished Iron Man Armor (if I even released it one day I will call it the fabulous PONYFIM Armor ;-)

or maybe the headashe armor... )

I also work on the original model (the carrara version X armor) using a demo version of carrara. You can donwlaod a full fonctionnal vesion limited to 30 day at DAZ. This may help you because the model is fully rigged in carrara.

I also noticed that both hands were in zero pose. If you want I can send it to you in obj format.

regards.

Aremis · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:04 am Post subject:

Omg god Alf - that would be fantastic. Yes, please do, brother, if you wouldn't mind sending me the hands, I would be in your debt =)
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Aremis · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:04 am Post subject:

Oh and you can email it to
jorange@muskateergraphics.com
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Aremis · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 11:19 am Post subject:

Well, a huge HUGE thank you to Alf for sending me those Armor X hands in OBJ format today. After a little tweaking in Shade and UV Mapper, was able to load them into Poser. Just need to realign them with the M3 joints, and they will be good to go to add to the whole package.

Thanks again Alf. you rock brother.
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Aremis · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 1:47 pm Post subject:

Latest Update:

The gear-head positioned at the top of the shin meshes, which still had backfacing poly's in it, has been corrected, and now renders properly.

The red portion on the outer thigh meshes that had backfacing poly's in in has been corrected and now renders properly

Next Steps: Fixing the helmet poly's
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Aremis · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:14 pm Post subject:

OK - Update time.
Fixed all the BF polys in the helmet. Done.
Fixed all the BF poly's in the forearms. Done.

All Poly's are now fixed in the OBJ files I was already working with.

Now moving onto lining up the hands with M3's skeleton, and then removing THOSE BF poly's. Once THAT is done...The work will be done.

Taking longer than planned...but its' coming.
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Aremis · Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 6:38 pm Post subject:

Just realized gonna have to do a little patchwork modeling on the hands. Got the BF poly's fixed, but then it dawned on me that Alf sent the Armor X hands, which was similar but different than the Armor Y (Daz Stuido) version, which was built to be Iron Man specifically. So the Armor X hands don't have the top plate nor the blasters. So going to have to pull those into the hand OBJ's manually.

More steps until completion. Sorry for the delay.
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alf · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:56 am Post subject:

Sorry bro'

I thought that blasters were parented to the hand but they aren't in carrara.

To be forgiven i send you back the two hand in obj format poser ready : with blaster, plates and no BF poly

Aremis · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:21 pm Post subject:

Cool brother - I really appreciate it. Got the email, and will get to work on it later this evening.
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Aremis

UPDATE - THURSDAY SEPT 4th

Alright, been a day or so since I've done an update.

I think I'm done with the work on the main figure. I've given up trying to make it three conforming pieces for M3. Either the top and head would conform perfectly, but the mesh in the legs or feet would distort in weird ways, or the feet would work, but the chest blaster would squish badly. Was just giving me headache after headache.

So went with a solo, stand alone figure. Easier to load, easier to pose and render. The old idea would have required that you load M3 first, then conform the Armour to him, then turn M3 transparent in the materials room. This way, all that is bypassed.

I've left both the shoulder plates and the shoulder guards as parented props, since when I merged them with the figure itself, they bend in bad bad ways.

The visor is also just a parented prop, so you can lift or close it. Although there is nothing inside, it can help you if you want to add a separate head to reveal Starks face or something.

So the figure itself is ready. The OBJ files are ready.

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Aremis · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:11 pm Post subject:

NEXT STEPS

1) Clean up the CR2 file to remove references to materials that are not being used (For some reason, the setup room always adds whatever figure's bones your use to the mesh, so it shows all the M3 materials, but they cant be used, since the Armour has it's own materials.)

2) Fix the CR2 file so that it references an external OBJ file rather than having one inbed into it.

3) Redo the UV Map templates for those who like to make their own textures. This is relatively quick and easy to do.

4) Begin work on the hands that Alf so graciously sent me recently. Probably be the biggest pain in my tookus, since lining up M3 bones into irregularly shaped and sized hands can be a real pain.

Then its done and ready. Wont take it further than this, since I do have work to get back to that pays my bills lol.

Keep watching.
Same muskateer time....same muskateer channel.
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Aremis · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:58 am Post subject:

Now that this project is done and finished, Im going to lock the thread. Thanks to all. It was a blast.
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~Live the dream, experience the nightmare
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