Forestals by MortemVetus and IslandGirl. Thank you for purchasing Forestals. We hope you enjoy this product, and appreciate any feedback you may have. This pack is intended for use with Poser8 and newer. For the purposes of this guide, we'll be using PoserPro 2014, but there is nothing we'll be doing that can't be done in Poser 8 and above.  And initially, pretty much everything is in default, except Render settings. Once you've installed the product, your new Forestals items will be in: Runtime:Libraries:Character:IGD_MVS:Forestals:Old Oak M4 Runtime:Libraries:Character:IGD_MVS:Forestals:Sapling K4 Runtime:Libraries:Character:IGD_MVS:Forestals:Tender V4 Runtime:Libraries:Pose:IGD_MVS:Forestal_Characters Runtime:Libraries:Pose:IGD_MVS:Forestal_Poses Runtime:Libraries:Props:IGD_MVS:Forestals:Old Oak M4 Runtime:Libraries:Props:IGD_MVS:Forestals:Tender V4 This pack covers Michael4, Victoria4 and Kids4. We'll deal with each of them one at a time. We're going to start with Michael, he's our favourite and his outfit is the most extensive of the three.  So we want to load up Michael, and then from our Old Oak M4 folder we'll select the first item, which is his head piece and conform it. To conform it, we need to make sure the head piece is selected, then go to Figure>Conform To... and in the new dialogue box, select Michael4 from the drop down list. We'll repeat the same process for each piece as we can see in image 1 below.

Image 1: Loading Michael's outfit

Ok, so we've got all his pieces on, but he looks a bit daft in his default skin and boxers, so let's get his forestal skin on, as well as applying his morphs. These can be found in Liraries/Pose/IGD_MVS/Forestal_Characters/M4/ Apply both the Head and Body INJ poses, plus !_M4_Base_All to Michael. On each of the figures, on BODY, you'll find a dial called 'FBM-Forestal' Setting this to 1.000 adjusts the clothes to fit as they do on default Michael.  However, because of the way the texture runs through from the figure to the 'clothes' you can dial this to less than 1.000, and deliberately allow Michael's mesh to show through. This is particularly useful for making them seem as though they are part of the same object. In this case, it is our opinion that M4's mesh showing through is actually a good thing and creates a smoother seamless blend between figure and additional figures, which after all is the point, to make the characters look as if this is the way they're growing. So we personally think that the morphs are best used at less than full strength, to produce a better blending. However, we must stress this is a matter of personal preferance. Ok, we've still got a few extra detail props to add, but before we do, if we look at his hands, we can see Michael's fingers poking through the Forestal hands. If we go to our pose library, and into the folder M4 Utility, and making sure Michael is selected, apply the 'M4 Hide Hands' pose, his hands are now gone. His new Forestal hands conform as far as the bodypart 'Hand' but because the fingers are so much bigger, they require posing independently of the figure. We have included a selection of hand poses for the Forestal Hands. These can be found in Forestal_Poses/M4/ and there are two sub-folders, WoodHands-Left and WoodHands-Right. We've also included a Hide Feet pose, just in case any naughty toes peep out through in any pose. :) *TIP* If V4 or K4's toes misbehave, the Hide Feet pose also works on them. *IMPORTANT* Make sure you have the correct hand selected for the pose you're applying! Let's take a look at this. In the image below, we've applied 'ForestalM405a'.

Image2: Applying Michael's textures

Ok, That doesn't look too bad, but his hands aren't really doing a lot. So we'll select his right hand (OldOak_RightHand) and apply the pose 'Right-Fist' from the WoodHands-Right folder. As we can see in image 3 below, he's now got a nice fist on his right hand. You'll instantly see if you've applied the wrong hand because the hand and fingers will all shoot off in weird directions. *TIP* Always apply Michael's pose first, then the hand poses. Because we can't anticipate all the combinations that could be used, some of the hand poses might require you to move Michael's arm a little; these adjustments will only ever be quite small, just to overcome the fact his hands are so much larger than his original hands. When Michael is wearing his replacement hands, some small adjustments may be necessary to avoid his new hands poking into things (such as his own head!). We had to decide whether to make the poses for Michael without the clothing, or with it. Well, we figured that not everyone might want to use all the pieces at once. So we opted to set the poses up for Michael without the outfit on. Likewise, some small adjustment may be needed on the legs in certain poses, if Michael is wearing his boots. If he isn't, then there won't be any need to adjust anything. The above also applies to V4 and K4, when they're wearing their boots, and in V4's case, the Leg Leaves too. On the subject of poses, as you'll have seen by now, these are more intricate and complicated textures than most, and because it isn't just plain skin, you may find distortions caused by the mesh that aren't normally visible with a plain texture applied. This may be most noticable on the thigh/hip area, and the shoulder/collar area. Usually, the skin in these areas is quite plain, so distortions aren't noticable. As you can see though, this is a thoroughly detailed and intricate skin all over. Please be aware of this when posing.

Image 3: Using the independent Wood Hand poses for Michael

We could use him quite comfortably like that, but we've also got a few additional detail props. If we look in the OldOak M4 props folder, we see a selection of props to choose from. These are all named for which piece they are going on. For example, select the Head piece, and load the HeadTwigs prop. These props are all parented to the outfit piece that they are named the same as. So let's go through and select each piece and load the corresponding prop. *TIP* In most instances, it doesn't actually matter if the props are parented to Michael, but it is preferable for them to be parented to the correct figure.

Image 4: Adding Michael's props

Aah, now that's better, now he's really looking the part. So next, let's take a look at Victoria. We'll go through and add all her conforming 'clothes' and conform them all to her, as we can see below. Victoria has 4 figures, left and right boots, and left and right boot leaves. Conform all of these figures to Victoria.

Image 5: Loading Victoria's outfit

Again, she looks somewhat daft in default, so we'll apply her base skin, and her prop, the Leafy Hair. In the image below, we've also applied one of her poses for a little interest.

Image 6: Added Victoria's textures, plus prop and pose.

The process for K4 is the same as the others, but the Sapling only has 3 conforming figures and no props. Each character has a wide selection of poses to choose from (20 each plus mirrored versions). As mentioned earlier, Michael also has 2 sub-folders with his hand poses.

We hope you enjoy using this product and we look forward to seeing what images you make with it. Happy Rendering Andrew and Tracey (Mortem Vetus) Lora-Ly (Island Girl) :)

Mortem Vetus store for the dark side of Poser.

IslandGirl store for poses that inspire.