Hexagon Progress

Well, DAZ have made a couple of updates available for Hexagon - one to fix problems with version 2, and one to update it to 2.1 (free for purchasers of 2.0). So far so good, I can open the program and use it without any problems, but haven't really had time to play around with it properly.
Have been busy backing up everything on my computer - models, pictures, documents, everything - onto CDs. It's something I've been meaning to do for a long while, just because if my PC explodes or crashes, there's a lot of irreplaceable stuff on there, particularly my Wings models. My disk drive, however, is decidedly un-compliant at times, and only reads CDs or DVDs when it feels like it. I've had to contact the Dell support line and ask for help - having paid for the computer's warranty, it seems foolish not to take advantage of it. They got me to download new drivers for the disk drive, which hopefully will fix the problem.
Finally, an update regarding my lizard character. Have started texturing, using the UV mapping facility in Wings. It's about the closest you can get to real-time mapping outside of one of the expensive packages - create texture from figure, export it as bitmap, open it in paint program, make changes, then save bitmap and refresh it in Wings to see the results. It's painstaking but fun - a bit like doing a jigsaw. You have to try and work out which of the little bits and pieces on the map corresponds to which patch of the model. The most practical way I can think of to do that is to colour each bit, one at a time, a really loud colour, like bright pink, then look for that bright pink patch on the model. Having located it, it can then be painted the correct colour.

Mighty Morphin' Power Freak

My first experiment with using SharpConstruct to produce morphs for a Poser figure - specifically the Freak. I've added morphs to the head, chest, shoulders and forearms, to produce a fishy character. At present I'm working on another set to turn DAZ's troll into a rhinoceros-like creature.

SharpConstruct

Have made some progress with SharpConstruct. The program has been throwing up the following problems so far:
(1) When I import one of my own Poser figures from Poser 6 (as in, one of the ones I have made in Wings, imported into Poser as an .obj file, and rigged, then export it as an .obj file and open it in SharpConstruct, it turns invisible - well, bits of it, anyway.
(2) When I export part of another Poser figure as an .obj file (for the purpose of using SharpConstruct to make morphs for that figure), the body part appears in SharpConstruct facing in the wrong direction, and rotating the part causes it to fly off the screen.
(3) When I make a figure in Wings and then export it into SharpConstruct, it appears left of the centre, so that modelling symetrically doesn't work.

I have, at least, managed to find a way around problem number 2. When I have tried exporting part of a Poser figure, say, the head, and opened it in another program - Photobrowser (a handy little utility for viewing 3d objects and images) - it opens facing the same way that it does in SharpConstruct. However, when I try opening the same file in Anim8or, it displays the right way up.
Why this should be, I don't know. It also appears that when I export a part of a Poser figure like that, it is retaining the part's location in relation to the rest of the figure. This is probably why, when I try to rotate around the head in a program like SharpConstruct or Anim8or, the part moves off the screen, because the program thinks it is rotating around the entire model rather than just that part.
Anyway, the way round this, as I found last night through a lot of trial and error, is:

1) Export the body part (head) from Poser.
2) Export the entire figure from Poser as a separate model (there is a reason for this).
3) Open the head in Anim8or.
4) Rotate the head forwards 90 degrees so it is facing you.
5) Choose Edit - Locate - Centre about origin.
6) Export the head.
7) Import it into SharpConstruct. Produce your morph.
8) Export again.
9) Import the entire figure that was exported from step 2 into Anim8or.
10) Import the morphed head into Poser
11) Cut and paste the morphed head into the same object window as the entire figure. The head will be lying, face down, between the entire figure's feet. Now rotate the head backwards 90 degrees so that it is facing you. Then move the head until it is in the same position as the head of the entire figure.
12) Delete the entire figure.
13) Export the head.
14) Import the head into Poser as a morph target. Hopefully, this will now work with the figure in Poser.

Hexagon and SharpConstruct

Well, so much for Hexagon. It doesn't work on my computer, and if the posts on the bug tracker forum are anything to go by, it's not too good on other people's computers either. The displacement mapping function and the painting function don't work at all.
As for SharpConstruct, I'm sure it will be fantastic once it's been developed a bit, but at present there are issues - one in particular with importing models from Poser. One of the things I'd like to be able to do with this program is produce morphs for figures, but the program won't display them properly. I might post something on the SharpConstruct forum to ask if the developer could build in some kind of function to centre the model in the window.

2 more programs

Have started using two more programs recently. One is Eovia's Hexagon 2 - Eovia have recently been bought by DAZ productions, and they're doing an offer where members of their "Platinum Club" can get the download version of the program for $1.99 (about a quid in English currency). The attraction of this program for me, the intriguing-looking modelling features notwithstanding, is a function for "painting" detail onto models, and another function for painting textures. Also the UV mapping feature looks very interesting. Texturing is something I've avoided like the plague so far, since the whole business of trying to paint a flat texture for a 3d figure is SUCH a fiddle. (There is, apparently, a program out there called Deep Paint 3d that allows you to paint textures directly onto models, but it is very expensive.)
Alas, these things are never without their drawbacks, as I discovered once again on trying to use the program this week. The "Paint" window, which is supposed to be a part of Hexagon's interface, has disappeared, and nothing I do can bring it back again, thereby making it impossible to do any painting onto models with it. There are other bugs as well. I've emailed the technical support people for the software, but that's about all I can do until they release a new version or service pack to address these issues.
The other program was brought to my attention by someone on the Deathfall website - it's an open-source modeller that's supposed to be similar to ZBrush. Again, it allows the user to paint detail onto models, but it's still in the developmental stage, so there are issues with the interface and other things. However, my fiddling around with it has yielded some promising results, and I can't wait to see what the programmers do with it in the future.
Work is progressing, on and off, with my lizard character in Wings. I gave him some teeth last night.

Progress report

Progress report:
Been focussing on modelling lately, as opposed to setting and rendering scenes in Poser.
Still working on lizard guy model in Wings, fiddling with bits here and there. At some point I need to make him some teeth and eyeballs or he's going to have trouble finding a lady lizard to go out with.
Going great guns with Shade. I'm really enjoying using this package and have so far produced a space gun and a rocket pack for one of my Poser characters with it. The nice thing about it is that everything I've made with it so far has come out looking clean - and the fact that you can draw shapes with it instead of box modelling really speeds up the modelling process.
Fiddled about a bit with Carrara last night. Have had it installed on my pc for months but haven't done anything with it yet.
Searching for 3d lego men to use in one of my jokey pics, came across a package on the internet called LDraw. It's fantastic - a whole software package, complete with a huge library of parts, to build 3d lego models. I get the impression that there is a big, cultish following of grown-up kids using this software and producing parts for it.
The down side: Used it to make a model, used another program to convert the resulting .dat file into .obj format, but when I tried to import it into Poser and Wings, it looked all wrong. Bits missing, leaving square-shaped holes all over the place.
The strange part - I imported the same model into Anim8or, and it looked fine. Tried exporting from Anim8or, and into Poser and Wings, and the holes appeared again.

Lizard guy

This is the model I mentioned in my previous post. Having got over the hurdle of modelling characters in Wings, I'm now being a bit more ambitious and attempting to produce a character whose mouth can be opened and whose expressions can be changed.