Martial Arts Animations using Poser

The figure I use is the Business Woman figure already provided by Zygote. By simply changing the colors of the clothing (and not using the supplied texture map), the suit looks very much like the martial arts uniform that I wear.

The high-heeled shoes were a problem, though. Karate is normally practiced in bare feet, or possibly martial arts shoes. I used Rhino (it was in Beta at the time) to amputate the feet from the Nude Woman figure, imported them into Poser as props, and used Replace Body Part with Prop to give Business Woman bare feet. Suprisingly, the toes bend normally; this allows kicking techniques to be accurately shown. For more details, see the Foot Transplant tutorial.

I recently used the Business Woman texture map to create a texture map for the Karate Woman figure and another texture map for the replaced feet. The details are in the Texture Map tutorial.

Eventually I plan on making a more realistic belt. For now, it's just Mr. Torus, suitably reshaped.

Based on a tip from the Poser mailing list in one of the "Figure Proportions" threads, I recently rescaled the limbs. The upper arms and legs were shortened by 10%, and the lower arms and legs were lengthened by 10%. This helps somewhat with getting the figure into the desired poses, although I still have some problems. For example, I haven't been able to position the figure into a correct back stance; the rear knee extends past the foot, unless the foot is moved out of line with the front foot.

The figure is shown below, executing a side kick:

Foot Transplant

This is a description of the process I used to transplant the bare feet from the Poser 3 Nude Woman Figure onto the Business Woman Figure. The reason was to create a figure more appropriate for martial arts posing. While I doubt that anyone else has the need to do exactly the same thing, the details may be helpful in performing similar tasks.

Since I didn't have Ray Dream Studio at the time, I used Rhino to perform the amputation. Rhino also has the advantage of layers, which make it much easier to work with multiple objects while keeping them distinct. I'm not aware of any equivalent feature in the RDS Mesh Form Modeler. Also, Rhino has better multiple views than RDS. Since Rhino cannot import an OBJ (Wavefront) file, it was necessary to export the figure from Poser in another format, rather than simply using the models in the Poser geometry directory.

The basic procedure is to export Nude Woman from Poser to Rhino, cut off the feet (more or less), import the feet back into Poser, and put them on Business Woman as props. Business Woman is also exported to Rhino, so that it can be used as a reference.

This description assumes that you are acquainted with the basic features of both Poser 3 and Rhino.

Steps 1 through 4 are performed in Poser.

1) Place the Nude Woman figure in the document window in the default pose.

2) Export the figure from Poser using 3DS format (File/Export/3d Studio...); in Export Range, select "Single frame"; save as NUDE.3DS; in Export Options, select "Export object groups for each body part".

3) Change the figure to Business Woman; select "Keep current proportions".

4) Repeat step 2, but save as SUIT.3DS.

Steps 5 through 8 are performed in Rhino.

5) Import NUDE.3DS and SUIT.3DS into Rhino, placing them on separate layers. Use different colors for the layers so that the figures can be more easily distinguished. You may want to save the Rhino file (.3DM) at this point, so that you can restart here if a mistake is made.

While working in Rhino, it is important not to move, rotate or scale the figure being modified. Only the view may be adjusted. In the illustrations here, however, the figures were repositioned for clarity.

Since each figure was exported from Poser with separate object groups for each body part, the individual body parts can be selected in Rhino. By selecting a corresponding foot on each figure, it is apparent that Business Woman's feet actually include part of the lower leg (shin), while Nude Woman's feet do not. So it will be necessary to include the lower part of Nude Woman's shin, along with the foot and toe, so that there won't be a gap after the body parts are replaced on Business Woman.

This image shows the difference between Business Woman's Feet and Nude Woman's feet.

6) Lock the layer containing Business Woman so that it cannot be selected. Select and delete all of Nude Woman's body parts except for the shins, feet and toes.

7) Select Nude Woman's left shin and turn on control points. Use the rectangular or lasso selection tool to select and delete most of the shin, leaving enough of the lower part that adjoins the foot so that there won't be a gap after the body parts are replaced on Business Woman. Turn off control points, and select the remainder of the left leg (partial shin, foot and toe). Export the selection as LEFTFOOT.3DS.

The image on the left shows the original shin, foot and toe of Business Woman and Nude Woman. The image on the right shows the same parts after most of Nude Woman's shin has been removed.

8) Repeat step 7 for the right leg, exporting as RIGHTFOOT.3DS.

I exported the objects from Rhino as 3DS, rather than OBJ, because of problems with surface normals and with imported OBJ props. The Poser upgrade may remove these problems, so that the OBJ format could be used instead.

This completes the work requiring Rhino.

Steps 9 through 13 are performed in poser.

9) Ensure that Business Woman is the current figure in the document window, in the default pose, as in step 4.

10) Import LEFTFOOT.3DS (File/Import/3D Studio...); in Prop Import Options, uncheck all the boxes. The imported prop should appear in the correct position on top of the figure's left foot. Select the figure's left foot, then use Figure/Replace Body Part with Prop to replace the figure's foot with the prop. Set the figure's toes to invisible.

11) Repeat step 10 for the right foot.

12) Change the color of the new feet to match the figure's skin color.

13) Save the modified figure in the library.

The modifed figure should now be the same as Business Woman, except that the feet are bare. The toes even bend normally!

This image shows the difference between Business Woman (on the left) and the modified figure.

Texture Map

The texture map for Karate Woman was made by using Paint Shop Pro to lighten the colors of the clothing. The pieces of clothing lightened were the shirt, jacket front and back, pants front and back, buttons and cuffs. This was done by selecting the desired area of the image, and then using the Lightness control in the Colors -> Adjust -> Hue/Saturation/Lightness dialog box.

The image on the left is the original texture map for Business Woman. The image on the right is the texture map for Karate Woman. These images are reduced from the actual dimensions of 700x700 pixels.

Since the feet are props, they require separate texture maps. A single map was created using the Clone Brush tool in Paint Shop Pro to copy the coloring from the hand top portion of the Business Woman texture map. The shoes portion of the Business Woman texture map was used as a reference for determining the dimensions of the new texture map.

The image is the texture map used for each of Karate Woman's feet. The image is enlarged from the actual dimensions of 90x78 pixels.

Please feel free to send questions or comments (positive or negative) to me about this tutorial. If you found it useful or interesting, I'd like to hear about it, so that I'll know whether it's worthwhile to contribute similar material in the future.