By Lisa Casler

Most tutorials I have come across that tell how to import a Poser3 figure into Bryce3D explain that you should import the WaveFront Object as a single object. I have found that importing the obj into Bryce with separate meshes works better and gives you more options in changing the skin/clothes textures.

First you must create a figure in Poser3, like I did here:

After you create the figure, pose it the way you like, you should save the Poser file. I also save the pose, if it's one I created, in the Poses area.

Now to export your figure. Select export, Wavefront OBJ....single frame....export object groups for each body part. It will be slow going if you have a slower machine, but fear not, it is working. Walk away, grab that Bryce3D Manual and read it, listen to some good music, make a sandwich. When you get back, it will probably have completed saving your figure.

Now open Bryce3D. Select import from the file menu and head for where you saved your OBJ figure. This will also take a few minutes, good things are worth waiting for.
The Imported figure
After your figure has been imported, you will need to smooth it. Click the U button on the side of the figure to ungroup the meshes. Keep them all selected however. Click on the E button, select Solid Boolean when Rendering and click on the Smooth Sphere and it will smooth it for you. This will also take a bit of time, there are a lot of objects, most of mine have around 54.

After the smoothing, deselect all and select just the hair. Click the A button (attributes) and name it "Hair". Click on the M (Materials) button and we will add some texture and color to the hair. I use my own hair that I created in Photoshop, but you can use the hair texture that came with Poser3.

In the Materials Lab, click the button next to "Diffuse". Click the P in the textures box, it will bring up the picture textures. Load the hair texture located in Poser\Runtime\textures\Poser 3 Textures dir/folder. Click the copy button under the picture and paste it into the alpha channel box. It will ask you if you want to delete it, say yes. In the third window you should see the poser texture colors with the white being invisible. Click okay (you should save the picture list, you will probably use it again) Make sure it is set on Parametric, put the blue buttons into Diffuse, Ambient, Diffusion - around 100, Ambiance - around 20, Bump Height - around 2 and Refraction on Air - 100. You can adjust all the settings until you get the look you want. I usually change the diffuse color from the blue button to just a color. Brown works good. Click okay when you have it looking like you want.

Now select all the meshes, hold down the shift key and deselect the hair. Group all the remaining meshes together by clicking the G button. Click the M button to get back into the Materials Lab again. Load your poser texture - Look in the Poser\Runtime\textures\Poser 3 Textures dir/folder. Click the copy button under the picture and paste it into the alpha channel box. It will ask you if you want to delete it, say yes. In the third window you should see the poser texture colors with the white being invisible. Click okay (you should save the picture list, you will probably use it again) Make sure it is set on Parametric, put the blue buttons into Diffuse, Ambient, Diffusion - around 100, Ambiance - around 20, Bump Height - around 2 and Refraction on Air - 100. You can adjust all the settings until you get the look you want. Click okay when you have it looking like you want.

You should have a figure covered in a nice Poser texture. You can now deselect all the meshes and choose what you want covered with another texture. Even the eyeballs are separate meshes, so you can make new eye colors. (the eyeball, iris, etc are all one piece however)

Here is an example of a Poser3 figure I made, imported into Bryce3D and added textures. The zebra strip is a material created in the Materials Lab, applied to the upper arms, upper legs, neck and torso. I then applied a shinny black material to the lower arms, hands, lower legs and feet. The face and eyes get their texture from the Poser texture and the hair from the Poser hair texture.

Tutorial created by Lisa T. Casler
http://www.mochamadness.com/lisa/bryce/