Mortem Vetus: TerraFirma4

Thank you for purchasing TerraFirma4. We hope you enjoy using this product, and this User Guide is intended to just help you get the most out of your purchase. Mostly, this guide will be covering the basic operation of the items included in the pack.

This pack is intended for use with Poser9 and newer. It will work in Poser 8/PP2010, but we feel the results are not as good as Poser 9 and higher.

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 TerraLuna2 items will be in:

:Runtime:Geometries:RDNA:TerraDome2:TerraFirma4:
:Runtime:Libraries:Pose:! TerraDome2:TerraFirma4:FullBodyMorphs:

:Runtime:Libraries:Pose:! TerraDome2:TerraFirma4:Morphs+:
:Runtime:Libraries:Camera:TerraDome2:TerraFirma4:FullBodyMorphs:
 

This pack is an add-on for TerraDome2, and will require TerraDome2 installed.

So to begin with, we want to load TerraDome2, as shown in image1 below. You can either drag and drop the thumbnail into the document window, double click the thumbnail, or highlight it and click the double tick symbol, 'Create New Figure'.


Image 1: TerraDome2 loaded

At this point, we're going to switch to the TerraDome2 sun, as shown below in image 2.


Image2: Loading the TerraDome2 sun

Next, we want to load our TerraFirma4 morphs on, so we're going to apply '! INJ TerraFirma4ALL'. This applies all the TerraFirma4 morphs to TerraDome2.


Image3: Load TerraFirma4 morphs

As always with morph packs, we would recommend trying each morph on it's own at a strength of 1.000, to see what they all do. In image4 below, we've applied the Landsedge morph at full strength. This is the tallest and most dramatic morph of this set, and was intended to be really huge and imposing. This particular morph affects ostly just the outer edge of the BZoneLg, whereas the other morphs affect both zones significantly.


Image4: Applying a morph

Before we go any further, we're going to add some materials and we'll render it to see how we're looking, which we can see in image5 below. We've used Moorland-01 on the A and BZones, and Life Of Pi on the Skydome.


Image5: Add materials

Because the Landsedge morph affects mostly the outer edge of the BZoneLg, we can add some other morphs to change up the the terrain, or we could leave it as is to have a large open area to build a massive scene in. As we're just building a landscape scne, we're going to add some additional morphing. which we've rendered in image 6 below. We've added bits of 3 additional morphs.

*NOTE* When applying multiple morphs, it is generally best to keep their combined value to 2.000 or less. You can get away with a larger combined value on some combinations, you will find some combinations that do not work together very well.  Try to keep multiple morphs at lower values because they all add together. The combination we've used add up to 1.900.

We've also added a Water, plus the TerraDome2 IBL and we've now got a nice varied terrain leading back to the imposing Landsedge cliffs.


Image6: Multiple morphs

There are also 49 cameras included in this pack. These cameras are set up to give you a quick view for each morph.

*NOTE* The cameras are set up to primarily be used with the morph they're named for, at full strength, 1.000. So please be aware that when using multiple morphs, these cameras may not work perfectly.

So when using the cameras, take note of which morphs are active, as the cameras for these are more likely to result in a good camera view. In the same way we loaded the figure, the library entry can be applied by dragging and dropping, double clicking or selecting and clicking 'Apply Libray Prest', the single tick symbol. Unlike other library items, you don't need to select a camera, the preset will apply to whichever camera you are currently viewing through.


Image7: Applying cameras

By using Crossroad01 camera, we can see our view has shifted significantly. Try the cameras with the morph they're named for as well as multiple morphs and just see which give the best results. Usually, the camera presets serve as a good starting position, and then can be moved to suit your scene.

*REMEMBER* When using multiple morphs, cameras may be adversely affected.

As always, we recommend just getting familiar with what everything does and how the various morphs all interact together.


Image 8: Dialling back a bit

In image 8 above, we've dialled things back a bit, so we've got Landsedge at 0.8 and LakeGorge at 0.6 and then we're going to load a second instance of TerraDome2. We're going to apply the TerraFirma4+ALL inject from the TerraFirma4:Morphs+ folder, as we can see in image9 below. Now please remember this is an experimental concept, and we will be refining it if people like the idea. This is something we do on a regular basis in our own artwork, usually with custom morphs.

Alternatively, you can use a seperate AZone and/or BZone. To load the Morphs+ onto these, apply them in the same way as a full TerraDome2, and they will load their relevant parts of the morphs.


Image9: Applying TeraaFirma4+ morphs to a second TerraDome2

We're going to dial up the +1 versions on the second TerraDome2, to the same values as the first TerraDome2. So we're going to apply 0.8 to the Landsedge+1 morph, and 0.6 to the LakeGorge+1 morph. At the same time, we're going to turn off the Skydome on the second TD2, both of which can be seen in image10 below.

*TIP* Try very slight adjustments to the +1 morphs. This can produce some interesting results and multiplies the number of potential  results that can be achieved.


Image10: Setting up the second TerraDome2


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 store for the dark side of Poser.





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