Which one should I do?

[GaryChildress]

Which graphic for a heavy mortar looks the best or most realistic; A, B, or C.

I've got three possibilities thus far.

A: 1 guy loading the mortar and the other guy ready to hand him another round.

B: 1 guy loading the mortar and the other guy getting ready to plug his ears.

C: Just the plain mortar with no additional props in the scene.

[ernieschwitz]

Some constructive critique. The legs look too long on the pictured soldiers. Maybe they should have longer shirts? I am not entirely sure. Maybe their pants should be more loose. Especially the 2nd guy.

[GaryChildress]

Some constructive critique. The legs look too long on the pictured soldiers. Maybe they should have longer shirts? I am not entirely sure. Maybe their pants should be more loose. Especially the 2nd guy.

Hmm. Now that you mention it, they are pretty lean. I know Michael 4 (the Daz/Poser character I use) is notoriously one of the skinnier ones but I didn't realize he was that lean until you mentioned it. I could try to use morphs or something but then I might run into some clothing issues, I don't know. I'll see what I can do.

[GaryChildress]

Some constructive critique. The legs look too long on the pictured soldiers. Maybe they should have longer shirts? I am not entirely sure. Maybe their pants should be more loose. Especially the 2nd guy.

I adjusted the "camera" a little so that it makes the figures look a little stockier. Does this look a little better? It's an incremental adjustment so I can do more or less if that will help. However, if I adjust it too much in one direction or the other it'll start to distort the figures noticeably.

[lion_of_judah]

I think B works the best, but yes the legs are a bit too long on the troops, but B

[GaryChildress]

I think B works the best, but yes the legs are a bit too long on the troops, but B

When you say the legs are too long, do you mean in proportion to the width of the legs or do you mean that the overall geometry of the figure I'm using is skewed disproportionately with respect to upper versus lower body?

If it's the former, then I can remedy it a little bit by adjusting the camera height to where it crunches things slightly along the Y axis, making everything shorter and thus wider in proportion. However, that has its limits. If I adjust too drastically it'll make the figures look unrealistic as the heads will be squashed down compared to the rest of the body. But I can adjust them a little.

If it's the latter, then I'm afraid there's nothing I can do. Most of the figures and props I use are not made by me and I'm at the mercy of the content creators, how they designed their figures, and how much I can modify the figures without overly distorting them and shooting myself in the foot.

I use the Poser figures, namely Michael 4 because he has the most WW2 gear created for him by the content community. I also have managed to convert a lot of other gear into fitting his format. There are newer figures such as the "Genesis Male" models and such, but the content for them is more limited for my purposes.

[GaryChildress]

One thing to note about the uniforms is that the belts are a little higher than where normal civilians wear their pants buckled. I'm not ex-military but I was under the impression that that's pretty common with military gear, to have the belts ride higher around the waist to give better load bearing capacity and comfort. So maybe that makes it look as though his hips are much higher than they actually are.

This is the actual figure, I use-- Michael 4. To me, it looks as though the legs and upper body are in a good proportion to each other. However, the belts I'm using come with army fatigues and ride high on the waist. He is a little lankier than some figures on the market. However, as I say, Mike 4 is also one of the most represented figures in WW2 genre props and uniforms. If I switch figures, it'll mean retooling my entire catalogue of figures and props in response. And I have a lot of stuff I would have to adjust.

[GaryChildress]

Here's the belt as positioned on him. Everything is proportioned to each other and if I change the height of the belt, I'll have to completely redo the suspenders and most of the clothing. The clothing is pre-fitted with a crease in the middle where the belt is supposed to go. It's beyond my expertise to change everything so that clothing pieces aren't clipping into each other.

[GaryChildress]

Here he is in full uniform. The uniform was made by a content creator named "Tannenbaum". Tannenbaum's clothing is by far the most realistic and life-like clothing on the market right now. I use it for all my figures and just change textures or colors to fit a different nation each time. It keeps my graphics looking crisp and as professional as I'm able to make them. Sometimes I'll resort to other clothing I have, but you can tell the difference between TAnnenbaum's clothing and the other clothing very noticeably. The other clothes tend to look chunky and featureless.

[GaryChildress]

Here's another set of clothing that I sometimes use. You can look at the comparison and see the difference in quality compared to Tannenbaum's set above.

[lion_of_judah]

Yes, the first part regarding width...

[lion_of_judah]

these new images for ATG you are making are awesome, and thank you for doing this.

[ernieschwitz]

I think what is mainly causing the "long thin legs" look, is that the jacket/shirt doesn't go down as much as I'd like. In other words, if it covered more of the lower body, I think it would be fine. When looking at the figure, I can't help to think that his shirt has shrunk in the washer/drier.

[GaryChildress]

I think what is mainly causing the "long thin legs" look, is that the jacket/shirt doesn't go down as much as I'd like. In other words, if it covered more of the lower body, I think it would be fine. When looking at the figure, I can't help to think that his shirt has shrunk in the washer/drier.

I have to agree. I wish I could change the overall fit of the jacket, but it would probably involve reworking the whole jacket in the Poser "fitting room" and that's something that is beyond my expertise.