About the Setup Room

The actual process of creating a poseable figure involves a greater number of detailed steps, each of which is discussed in this chapter. Briefly, the Setup room figure creation/modification process is as follows:

1. Use props that are included with Poser, or create the geometry for your new figure in your favorite 3D modeling application.
2. Import your geometry as a prop using the File > Import command. Once the geometry is complete, enter the Setup room.
3. Create and/or modify your figure’s bone structure or skeleton. Like a real skeleton, your figure’s skeleton is the underlying framework that determines where bends occur. You can import a skeleton from a similar figure or create your figure’s skeleton from scratch.
4. Position the skeleton and joints to match your figure. This step is critical to ensure that your figure bends as accurately as possible.
5. “Put meat on the bones” by grouping the various portions of your figure and assigning bones to those groups.
6. Fine-tune the figure’s joints, and then exit the Setup room to test your new figure and complete the figure creation/modification process.
7. Assign IK chains using the Hierarchy Editor, set favored IK angles and joint limits, and memorize this information.
8. Readjust your figure’s joints if necessary, and then save your new figure to the Library palette.

Exiting the Setup room during the figure creation process may cause you to lose some recent changes. A warning will appear if exiting the Setup room will cause data loss.