G2 Centaur Set Release 1.0 of 4-Aug-07 Copyright (c) 2007 by David A. Wallace (davewa) based on material copyright by Electronic Frontier. This package was distributed as freeware and can be obtained from http://www.wa1gsf.net. Please do not re-distribute. Commercial use permitted. DESCRIPTION This package uses the Poser 7 Horse and any of the "Generation 2" adult human figures to create a centaur. The key elements for performing this task are a "chimera" pose for the human figure which hides body parts and scales and re-positions the figure to match the lower body and a modified version of the CR2 file for the Poser 7 horse which calls for alternate mesh for the neck (the "adapter") and hides some body parts. Because the mesh and the CR2 of the Poser 7 horse were used in creating the centaur set, the file HORSE.OBZ is used as the key for decoding the "payload" files. INSTALLATION Package Contents: G2_Centaurs_Readme.txt - This file G2_Centaur_Mare.jpg - Demo render of the female centaur G2_Centaur_Stallion.jpg - Demo render of the male centaur G2C_Payload.rte - An encoded ZIP file containing Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\Centaur_adapter.bmp - UV Map for "adapter" Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\G2F_Cent_Lower.cr2 - Female centaur lower body Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\G2F_Cent_Lower.png - Female centaur lower body Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\G2M_Cent_Lower.cr2 - Male centaur lower body Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\G2M_Cent_Lower.png - Male centaur lower body Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\CentaurFem_adapter.obj - "adapter" for G2F Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\CentaurMale_adapter.obj - "adapter" for G2M Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\HipMare.obj - hip for G2F Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\HipNoGen.obj - no-gen hip for either Runtime\Libraries\Character\Poser 7\Animals\G2_Centaur\HipStallion.obj - hip for G2M Runtime\Textures\Animals\G2F_Centaur\AdapterC1.jpg - Texture for G2F adapter Runtime\Textures\Animals\G2M_Centaur\AdapterC1.jpg - Texture for G2M adapter Runtime\Libraries\Pose\G2\G2 Female\Chimera.pz2 - Chimera Pose for G2F Runtime\Libraries\Pose\G2\G2 Female\Chimera.png - Chimera Pose for G2F Runtime\Libraries\Pose\G2\G2 Male\Chimera.pz2 - Chimera Pose for G2M Runtime\Libraries\Pose\G2\G2 Male\Chimera.png - Chimera Pose for G2M 1. Unzip the package into your Poser 7 directory. This will create the subdirectory G2_Centaur_Set which will contain the two demo renders, this readme file and the file G2C_Payload.rte. 2. Use RTEncoder to decode the rte file. The key file is horse.obz. The result file is G2_Centaur_Files.zip, which should be saved in the G2_Centaur_Set directory. 3. Unzip G2_Centaur_Files.zip into your runtime. 4. You may want to save the G2_Centaur_Files.zip file to make re-installing this package simpler in the future. If so, the G2C_Payload.rte file may be discarded. WORKING WITH CHIMERAE FIGURES -- GENERAL COMMENTS Since chimerae figures are made from "chopped" versions of two figures, the upper body and the lower body are loaded separately and then the upper body is parented to the lower body. Usually, the meshes don't match well and the seam must be hidden by an accessory clothing item or a careful choice of pose and camera angle or must be retouched with post-work. The lower body and the upper body must be posed separately. A certain degree of compromising takes place in this process, as an extreme bend or twist of the body parts on either side of the "boundary" between the two figures will result in really poor appearance. Likewise, the chimera must be textured by creating a texture for each of the component figures and carefully matching the two textures (which often have radically different mapping) at the "boundary". WORKING WITH THESE CHIMERAE The workflow for one of these centaurs is similar to the workflow of chimerae figures in general. Specifically, start by loading a lower body figure. Apply its textures (which will be the texture for the horse body, except that the head is invisible and the neck has been replaced with the "adapter", which requires a separate texture). Then load a G2 figure of the appropriate gender. Apply its texture (no modification is required to the G2 texture). If your figure is to have hair or conforming clothing, apply these now and parent/conform them. Apply the appropriate chimera pose to the figure. This will hide all body parts from the hip down, scale the figure up to match the scale of the horse and position the figure to where it joins the adapter. Now parent the G2 figure to the lower body adapter (called "neck" in the heirarchy). You may now pose the figure, using the general chimera techniques. SPECIAL FEATURES 1. Genitalia Since the mesh for the G2 Male is shaped considerably differently from that of the G2 Female and since the figures differ in size, separate chimera poses and adapters were required. It therefore seemed simpler to supply two complete "lower body figures" (horse derivatives), rather than trying to geometry-swap on a "unisex" horse. I therefore elected to provide genitalia alternate hip geometry, with a hip-no-genitals alternate. So the lower body for the G2F centaur uses "HipMare.obj" or "HipNoGen.obj" and the lower body figure for the G2M centaur uses "HipStallion.obj" or "HipNoGen.obj". 2. Fitting morphs Each "adapter" has a "FitTo" morph to optimize the adapter shape for the target figure. The "FitTo" morph strength has been preset to a value that is probably correct, but the morph dial is left visible and enabled -- play with the setting and see if you can get improved fit. Additionally a set of "adjusting" morphs are provided whose purpose it is to compensate for mesh re-shaping due to posing. This compensation will not be perfect, so some "pose hiding" or post-work may still be needed.