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Pose Manager User Guide

Added 2022-01-18 01:03:32 +0000 UTC

Pose Manager allows us to change the poses for one, two or more characters without changing the scene, optionally with the toys and objects we desire. It also allows to save the poses and selected objects from any scene or paused animation, allowing to create an endless library of fixed poses.

Installation

Add as session plugin
You only need to download the last version of the plugin (remove any previous version if necessary)
Important! The first time you open the plugin, press the Install button to set up the built-in pose library. You need to do this on the first run and after any update.

Setting up the Spawn Point

Before loading the poses, the first thing you need to do after loading any scene of your choice is to define the place where the poses should be located (if you don't, they'll reside around the 0,0,0 point).

To start press the Setup Spawn Point button, this will generate and select a small blue sphere. Move this sphere to any place you like and press the Hide Spawn Point button (or you can just load a pose) to confirm the location.

Some Notes

You can change this location every time you want. Just repeat the process.
All poses will be located around and above the center of the position of the blue sphere.

A little advice

Try to locate the spawn point in wide places without nearby objects that can collide with the assets created by the plugin. The height of the spawn point is very important, it has to be at least at ground level to avoid colliding with the floor (if any).

Loading poses

Pose Manager comes with a built-in pose library ready to use. This library will be expanded regularly.

Press the Load button to load a pose from the library. Select any pose you like from the dialog box that appears. The plugin will set up the pose and create for you any assets associated with it.

Some notes

The plugin will create and delete the assets every time you select a different pose. If for some reason you want to keep the assets from a pose (for instance an object attached to a hand that you want to reuse again) temporarily uncheck the Clean Up checkbox before loading another pose. Just be careful because assets from different poses can collide and lead to unexpected results. If you encounter any error just reload the scene and start again.
The plugin will create actors if there are not enough people in the scene (the default female).
If you just want to load the poses without the assets related to them, uncheck Spawn Objects before loading the pose.

Modifying current pose's position

Sometimes it can happen that we may load a pose that is not well aligned with the environment, in this case the plugin allows us to make small changes in the current pose without modifying the global spawn point.

Press Move around to move the pose and assets in unison, this allows you to change the position and rotation of all objects belonging to the pose by manipulating a small invisible object.
Move to Origin and Move To Camera View are less popular options that allow you to move the pose approximately to those certain places.

Troubleshooting

The most common issue you might encounter when loading poses is to get an error due to collisions between the existing objects in the scene with the objects that Pose Manager creates. This error happens due to the way VAM handles object collisions.

There are two ways to deal with this error, in both cases you will probably need to reload the scene first

1) Readjust the position of the spawn point to a new spot where the pose is successfully loaded.
2) Disabling physics before loading the pose.

To follow this second method:

Press the Disable Physics button (it will temporarily avoid collision problems)
Load the conflicting pose, press Move Around, and move the pose to a place where there is no visible collision
Then press Enable physics, hopefully the pose will load successfully.

Saving poses

You can create your favorite fantasies with VAM and save them with Pose Manager for quick loading anytime, anywhere. for this you need to follow these steps:

First select the actors and optionally the assets before saving in the bottom drop-down menus. You can select more than two people and two assets by creating more slots using the Add Person Selector & Add Object Selector buttons. Create as many as you need, don't worry if you create more than needed, just leave them empty.
Second, press Save , Write down a name, and take a screenshot.

The pose you just saved is now available to open whenever you want.

Saving poses compatible with the Spawn Point (advanced)

This is a bit of a tricky concept that takes some work to pull off, but you only have to do it once.

If you want the poses you save to be compatible with the spawn point feature, that is, to appear around and above the spawn point, you need to follow a few tips depending on the origin of the poses:

If you have made the poses yourself

Simply remember to make them around and above the (0,0,0) point. That's it.
The plugin includes a scene called PM_Couple, which has a small sphere at the origin that can serve as a guide. Center your pose around this point. A small red and blue spheres show the X and Z axes orientation, respectively.

When you save poses from a third party (paused) scene

First save them in the original scene where they are as explained above.
Load the PM_Couple scene and Disable Physics (this scene is not mandatory, you can use any scene where you recognize exactly where the point 0,0,0 is).
Load the pose you just saved and press the Move around button to move the pose towards the origin point (0,0,0).
Enable Physics and save it again (overwrite the file).

Keyboard Shortcuts

The following is optional. You can set up this feature only if you want it.

You can set up keyboard shortcuts to some popular Pose Manager actions, for this you need to install a third party plugin: Keybindings.

Keybindings is an Acid Bubbles plugin that allows you to assign keyboard shortcuts to the most common actions of third-party plugins and to more than 200 Virt-a-Mate commands out of the box.

You can download the plugin here:

https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/keybindings.4400/

Instructions