How to Create a Hedge Prop Using UVMapper Classic and Poser

If you are a fan of Poser then you have probably considered making your own props, but maybe thought it would be too much trouble, or too complicated. The fact is though that just using a freeware called UVMapper Classic and Poser you can create your very first 3D model. While 3D modeling can be a bit daunting at first, it really is not all that difficult to create simple models that can then be turned into props that you can use in your Poser renders.

In order to keep things simple I have chosen to show you how to create a hedge prop for those renders where say you have a mansion, or house in the background, but not much of a yard, then this hedge prop could come in very handy.

You will need to go here to download UVMapper Classic before beginning this tutorial, and of course you must have Poser. If you also use Daz Studio which is a freeware 3D art program from Daz then you should also be able to download the completed prop to that if you choose once you've created it.

Here is how you can create a hedge prop using UVMapper Classic and Poser.

Step 1: Open UVMapper Classic. You do this by clicking on the little icon that should be on your desktop now that you've downloaded the program and clicking on Run. The nice thing about UVMapper Classic is that it does not eat up a lot of hard drive space.

Step 2: Go to the File drop down menu and choose File, New Model, Box. You will then get a Box Dimensions box. Leave everything alone except for the dimensions and change Height to 3 units, Width to 5 units and depth to 2 units. Then click OK. You will then see six squares laid out. These are the six sides of your hedge. The reason they are laid out this way is because UVMapper is primarily used to create texture maps for 3D objects, although as you're about to see it can be used to create simple 3D models as well.

Step 3: Using your mouse draw a square around the top square. This should turn the square inside red. If it doesn't try again until it does. Then going to the Edit drop down menu, select Assign, and then Material. This will bring up a box that will allow you to name the square you have selected. Label this square side1. Be sure that you do not put any spaces between side and 1 because Poser will not recognize that the prop has 6 sides if you do, it will treat all sides as being one thing rather than six things. This is fine if you want to give each side the same colors or textures which in this case we are, but I want you to do it so you have all the sides labeled in case at a later date you want to color or texture each side of the prop differently.

Step 4: Going from left to right, repeat this process with each square and name the side appropriately, and then of course do the bottom square once you've finished the middle row.

Step 5: Now you need to create a file in Poser for you to save your models to. Go to C:\\Program Files\Curious Labs\Poser 5\Runtime\Geometries and then create a My Models file. If you have a newer version of Poser this should still be the same for the most part. This is where you will save your Wavefront Obj which is the format the model we are creating is in.

Step 6: Now you're ready to save your model, I called mine Long Box. Go to the File drop down menu and select Save Model and you'll get the Objects Export Options. The only things that should be checked are Export UV Coordinates, Export Materials, and Export UVMapper Regions. Uncheck Export Normals or anything else that appears as being checked and hence selected, then click OK. This will bring up a window allowing you to save your model in your My Models file.

Step: 7 Now you need to create a My Models folder in C:\\Program Files\Curious Labs\Poser 5\Runtime\Textures so that you have a place to save your texture map. I called mine the same as the wavefront obj, Long Box.

Step 8: Again go to the file drop down menu and select Save Texture Map. Don't make any changes to this window and click OK. This will bring up a window allowing you travel to your My Models file in Textures.

Step 9: Okay, so now you've saved your new wavefront obj and its texture in Poser. So the next step is to open Poser. Make sure you delete any figures that pop up automatically. Then go to the File drop down menu and select Import and then Wavefront Obj. This will bring up a window that allows you to find your My Models file and then select the wavefront obj you saved there earlier. Go ahead and select it and this will bring up a final window with several possibilities. The only things that need to be checked on this are Centered, Place on Floor, and Make Polygon Normals Consistent, then select OK.

Step 10: Now I'll bet you're looking at your Poser window and thinking, "But there's nothing there!" But you'd be wrong it's there it's just too large to fit in the window. In the parameters window you're going to want to scale the object down to 12% and then put Y Tran on -9.376. Now you should be able to see your model. But we have a little problem, the Poser window is so small that it's going to make our hedge look a little too small for a hedge, so we need to enlarge the Poser window. You can do that by going to the Window drop down menu and selecting Document Window Size and making the width 650 and the length 388. You should also rescale the model to 13% and set the Y Rotate to 32%, and your Y Scale to 82%. I'll bet you're now seeing how this model could make an ideal hedge!

Step 11: Okay, now we've gotten to the part where we are going to need the Materials Room in Poser. Don't be daunted if you've never used the Materials Room before, it's actually quite easy and makes it possible for you to alter all sorts of models by giving them a different look and feel. You will see different tabs along the top of your Poser window below the drop down menus, the second one is titled Materials, so go ahead and select it with your mouse. A Room Help window will pop up, and this does have some very useful information, but for today let's go ahead and close it. You can always go back and read what you'd like there later.

Step 12: Now Poser comes with some materials already when you purchase the software package, and you should have a folder in the menu to the right labeled Basic Materials, double click on it and you will find textures inside. In that folder you should find an icon labeled Grass 1. This is the texture that I'm going to use because while it is grass, strangely it gives our object the appearance of a hedge or shrub rather than actual grass. You of course can choose whatever texture you'd like that will make your model appear to be a hedge. I chose Grass 1. If for any reason you don't have the Basic Materials folder, you can go to Renderosity and do a search for "grass texture" under 2D, and you will find pages of them that are free to download.

Step 13: Our next step is to apply this texture. You will need to apply the texture to each side of your model. To do this look at the window in the Materials Room. You will notice that the model is already selected, but then there is another small menu next to it called Materials. When you click on it you should see all the sides of your model listed. You will need to apply the Grass 1 texture to each side. You do this by using your mouse to select Grass 1, and then going to the bottom of the right hand menu and selecting the check mark. If you look at the picture in the Materials window at the bottom you should now see the grass texture there. Repeat this step for all six sides. Now you are ready to render your image. You will need to return to the Pose Room to do so.

Step 14: To render your image go to the Render drop down menu and select Render. Now you should be able to see your hedge in all its glory! Now if you're like me, you'll want to save this prop in your Props menu so you can use it later. To do this make sure that first you go into C:\\Program Files\Curious Labs\Poser 5\Runtime\Libraries\Props and create a My Props folder.

Step 15: Okay you've created your My Props folder in Props and you're ready to save this great hedge prop that you've created. In the menu on the right hand side select Props and then find your new My Props folder and open it. Of course there is nothing there now but there will be. Go to the bottom of the menu and you'll see a plus sign, go ahead and double click on it with your mouse. You'll get a window that says Set Name, just name your prop "hedge" or whatever you want and select OK. Now you're probably thinking, "Hey I don't see my prop." You have double click on the blue folder at the top with the arrow, which will back you out of the folder and then go back into the folder to see your prop. Still the picture in the menu doesn't look very nice, does it? That's because it is the unrendered version.

Step 16: Your final step is going to be creating the thumbnail picture for your model. Go to the Render drop down menu and choose Render Options. This will open up a special window that you can use to change different aspects of how Poser renders your image. Select the Poser 4 renderer first, and then go down to the Image Output Settings and select Render to a New Window. Unselect Constrain Aspect Ratio, and then make the Width 91 pixels and the Height 91 pixels, then click OK. This will close the Render Options window but just reopen it. All your settings will be as you just made them. Go ahead and select render. You will see a very small rendered image on your screen, go ahead and close it and this will open up a new window allowing you to save the image. This will open a new window where you will see a png file with the same label as your model, go ahead and select it. Poser will tell you that the file already exists and will ask you if you want to replace it, select yes. Now you'll have to back out of the My Models folder again and then go back in, but once you do you should see a small picture of your hedge model.

So, there you have it, you've just created your very first prop and it wasn't that hard at all!