Ok wolfy is a go, back to Nosferatu… 
OK, now I have Nos, the way I like him.
Now to put them together for the Halloween thread and my ecard.
heh-heh-he… such great fangs.
Hi Jason, this has been a favorite thread recently.
I’ve tried copying your last zsphere setup, can’t seem to get the geometry identical.
Maybe after the holiday you can do a quick and specific tut?
Me wanna play too.
How many polys is he at the lowest level, and at the highest level btw?
Hello joe_seig, glad your enjoying this.
At level 1 he is 96, and at level 6 he is 96258 zspheres/polys.
Here is a clearere look at to what has ended up a great setup for zspheres. The difference between earlier setups is the extra zspheres to provide the chin/lower jaw for those who want a little more control over posing.
If it’s still not clear, just holler.
Note: Ires 5, Mbr 2, Mc on, that should so it.
I’ve posted this on the Halloween 2005 thread, but decided to add it here as it shows all the boys together.
Great collection Jason, all from the one posable zsphere structure, nice work.
I decided to try your set-up this morning, here’s the result.
[attach=24303]Joe_Seig_LowRezSetup.jpg[/attach]
Following your settings, (put in before drawing the initial zsphere) I arrived at 94 polys for the base (you have 96).
At level 6 I’m showing 94,722 (you have 96,258)…
Are you using TVeyes’ xyz script somewhere?
Notice the 3-sided polys marked at the mouth, I’m not seeing this geometry in your images.
Super lightweight setup you’ve made, tried rotating the bottom neck sphere, works great.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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joe_seig, my humblest apologies. Let me re-state.
The main zsphere off the face representing the mouth area has a small zsphere inset into it at the top, one at the front as well (inset), then the bottom one extends down below the chin and the last extends up again. So you need the master head that the ears and neck and eyes are attached to as well as the master face. To the master face you add the little nose, little mouth and lower jaw which consisits of 2 zspheres. And, the master face does have xyz script applied to it at 1 1 1 - just that zsphere.
My apologies, I just remade it again to be sure of the step I missed in my earlier explanation. I hope this rectifies the issue.
Other than that I’m glad you seee it’s usefulness thus far. 
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Guess I scared everyone to death!
Well, I just had to do ole Ichabod Crane.
Maybe Mr. Headless, next…
Cool looking characters!
and that’s a smart ZSphere set-up you’ve put together there, Jason;
gonna give that a whirl soonish, and see what cooks:)
thanks for sharing 
Chris
Anytime Atwooki, glad your enjoying this and hope to see something cool from you.
[attach=24321]Jason_Belec_Posable_zSphere.jpg[/attach]
Jason it works!
Same zsphere setup drawn three times, posed by rotating only the lowest neck zsphere.
Still working on the jaw, (the exact position of the geometry as it relates to the zsphere).
This is great!
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Hey joe_seig, glad it’s working for you. Also glad you can consistantly reproduce things with this approach as well. Great start, looks very similar to how each of mine starts and I’m very happy with how fast I can consistantly and reliably whip up characters.
This s where adaptive skinning begins to exceed my patience and/or ability.
As soon as I end up with overlapped geometry and attempt to adjust the global ires, or individually adjust zsphere parameters I end up with the snowman effect. 
I, for one, will welcome our new 2.5-mesh-generation-zsphere-tool-thingy overlords.
billrobertson42, I think I know what your issue is. When working with zsphere’s you mist store the zsphere morph - BEFORE - any modeling. If you do not, very strange things happen.
So layout your zspheres, store morph, then head to preview mode and model away. The other technique you mention in the upcoming release is only good if you already have the model. This technique may seem weird, and it can be until you understand the principles like anything else.
I have been working towards greater zsphere integration since version 1.5 was released and I have thousands of tests, many that died a gruesome death. Howevere these days it is by far the tool of choice for more reasons than their are negative’s. However opinions vary, as does mileage…
I think the new technique will work over zspheres as well as existing meshes.
–
I do store MT’s before modelling. Let me give you an example of my latest and not so greatest failure.
I was trying to model a spider like head. I wanted two sets of eyes (four in all). I put the middle pair on slightly up from the first pair, and closer together, and pushed them into the head. There were also feelers, mandibles and a mouth (so 9 children altogether)
The adaptive mesh that came out apparently had the middle pair of eyes in the same group, and they were so crossed over each other that I could not extricate the mess and straighten it out.
I wish I had the kind of time to experiment like you have.
Haha, time, who said I have time. I work in production, I have to adapt new techniques and perfect them - usually on the fly. One of the reasons I rarely post what would be deemed final work. I’m just a fixer, magician, wizend wizard, all the time holding it together.
All you need billrobertson42 is the xyz script, which allows you to alter the parameters of the zsphere to prevent the group crossover issue. We all use it, my absolute favorite tool. We all went through your fustration, that is why I do try to post interesting threads on this subject to help people out, as I have been forced to solve a lot of this in production.
I must also thank Aurick, Ryan Kingslein, Glen Sutherlan and many others who have posted things that may not have solved the issues, but definitely forced me to look at other avenues to arrivea t the results i can repetively generate these days.
Post us an image of your zsphere spider and we’ll happily help. Post it right on this thread, so I can se what you have and offer the best advice I can.
In the mean time, here is a little more detial, to our terror stricken friend…
Have to agree with you to the help given selflessly by all those mentioned
above Jason, and of course thanks to TVEyes wonderful XYZAdust script
too 
Hey Atwooki, nice preliminary armature! I’ll have to post one of mine in a few days, similar to the girl character I’ve used over the last year and a bit for testing. Can not wait to see your character!
Cheers, Jason
Didn’t quite have time to lay into the morph target/levels etc. yet, but it
looks to be a manageable zif
time will tell 
Chris