Using parts of G3F as base mesh for clothing?

CrissieB

Hi all,

I'm working on some clothing props and I wondered if anyone has tried extracting parts of the G3F mesh to use as your clothing's base mesh. The workflow I have in mind is:

(1) Set G3F to Null Pose and Mesh Resolution to Base, and export as obj file.

(2) Import the G3F obj into a modeling program (I use Blender) and make a copy.

(3) Select the copy, move into Edit Mode, and select the polys that cover the same area as my clothing.

(4) Separate those polys from the G3F copy and rename them as the clothing item (e.g.: CollarAndBra).

(5) Scale them out 2-3mm on their normals.

(6) Tidy up edges lines/vertices to form smooth, garment-like curves, then extrude in and roll under to give the item a 3D look.

(7) Set material zones, UV map, and make a hi-res copy by subdividing all faces twice.

(8) Export the low-res and hi-res meshes and texture in Substance Painter.

(9) Import the low-res mesh in DAZ and apply the Substance Painter textures, then use Transfer Utility to rig the mesh to G3F.

My questions:

​Will this method make too dense a mesh?

Will the triangles in G3F's mesh create a problem?

Will the Transfer Utility rig the clothing so it auto-adapts to G3F character morphs?

​Can I add extra rigging for parts of clothing or items on clothing, e.g.: rig tassels so a user can rotate them to hang vertically regardless of the model's pose, or blow in the breeze?

​If this is a lousy idea, I know I can make begin with simple primitives (cylinders and/or cubes), subdivide to get a dense enough mesh to work with, and fit the mesh to hover just outside G3F's skin. This just seems like an easier way to get to the same place, especially as I plan to model undergarment shapes.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice you can offer,

Crissie

Chohole

Regardless of anything else,  if you use this method it can be for personal use only.    If you tried this and wanted to redistribute the files, even only as freebies, you would be contravening the Daz 3D EULA.

CrissieB

Hi Chohole,

Would this clause of the EULA cover it?

Three Dimensional Works. Daz wishes to encourage the expansion of the catalog of Content available to its users. Accordingly, User may access, use, copy, and modify the Content to create one or more derived or additional three-dimensional works provided that:
 

 

• any such derived or additional three-dimensional works are designed to require or encourage the use of CRT Content available through the online Daz store either by (i) requiring the use of such CRT Content to function, or (ii) allowing only limited function when not used in conjunction with CRT Content from the online Daz store; and
• upon receipt of a written request from Daz, User immediately ceases any and all distribution of the art that User has created from the CRT Content, if Daz has determined, in its sole discretion, that (i) such art is substantially similar to or is a clone of existing Content; or (ii) such derived or additional work fails to require the use of Content available through the online Daz store.

The clothing would "require or encourage the use of CRT Content available through the online DAZ store," as it wouldn't be or do anything unless it's on a G3F-based figure. I guess DAZ could determine "in its sole discretion" that my clothing was "substantially similar to or a clone of existing Content" because the original mesh was extracted from parts of G3F, even though I would have removed some faces from the extracted mesh, smoothed and rolled edge lines, added textures and wrinkle sculpting, and rigged it to auto-fit G3F (including some morphs I've made).

If so, that raises the question, can anyone except DAZ's in-house artists create geograft clothing like the Victoria 7 Vigilante Pants? Indeed any morph is made the same way, by modifying G3F's base resolution mesh, and what I have in mind involves a lot more original work than making a morph.

Thanks,

Crissie

CrissieB

Hi All,

Well, after chatting privately with Chohole and Richard Haseltine about the legal elements, I'll go ahead and model my garments from primitive cylinders or cubes.

That still leaves these questions unanswered:

Will the Transfer Utility rig the clothing so it auto-adapts to G3F character morphs?

​Can I add extra rigging for parts of clothing or items on clothing, e.g.: rig tassels so a user can rotate them to hang vertically regardless of the model's pose, or blow in the breeze?​

Thank you all for your help.

Crissie

mjc1016

cris_brown said:

 

That still leaves these questions unanswered:

Will the Transfer Utility rig the clothing so it auto-adapts to G3F character morphs?

​Can I add extra rigging for parts of clothing or items on clothing, e.g.: rig tassels so a user can rotate them to hang vertically regardless of the model's pose, or blow in the breeze?​

Thank you all for your help.

Crissie

Yes...as long as AutoFollow is not turned off, morphs will be generated, but it is often better to manually create them instead of relying on the autogenerated ones.

For the extra bones, that's no problem.

CrissieB

Thanks for your reply, mjc1016,

I guess my question was, when would I add the extra rigging?

Let's say I'm modeling a wrist cuff like this, which is now just a prop:

I want to rig the lock to open and close, and to rotate around the buckle cylinder so it can hang downward no matter the wearer's arm angle. To rotate properly, the lock must be positioned precisely with its shackle fitting into the groove in the buckle cylinder. Would it be better to:

(1) Model the cuff and lock as separate props, with the cuff Transfer Utility-rigged as a wearable item and the lock rigged independently? That should be a fairly easy rig for each, but I would need Pose Presets so users could fit locks precisely to each cuff in the Null Pose, yes?

(2) Model the cuff and lock as an integrated prop, again with Transfer Utility rigging to make the cuff a wearable item, and add the lock as an extra bone? I'd need a separate Lock prop that could be shown on a table or in a character's hand (with the Cuff's Lock-bone hidden). This wouldn't require Pose Presets to fit a lock to a cuff, as locks would be modeled in the correct position around the buckle cylinder, but the Lock-bone would still be rigged to open-close and rotate.

I'm inclined to favor the second, because the cuff will be Transfer Utility rigged to fit G3F characters and AutoFollow character morphs. If the Cuff has a Lock-bone, AutoFollow will resize the Lock-bone along with the Cuff and both will still fit. But if the Lock is a separate prop, it might not precisely fit into the Cuff's AutoFollow-resized buckle cylinder groove. That's not really an issue for wrist cuffs as wrist sizes don't change much. But the product I have in mind would include other restraints where AutoFollow resizing could be enough that users would notice the shackle of a separate Lock prop doesn't precisely fit into the AutoFollow-resized buckle cylinder's groove ...

... unless I can be sure AutoFollow does not​ resize the buckle cylinder. And to do that, I'd need to manually create morphs to replace AutoFollow for every relevant G3F body morph, yes?

Regardless, to do the second I'd need to add a Lock-bone to the cuff and I'm not sure when to do that. If I make it a separate vertex group in Blender and a bone in Figure Setup, will the Transfer Utility override that? If so, how do I recreate the Lock-bone?

Thanks to all for your help!

Crissie

Richard Haseltine

You might want to look at Rigid Follow Nodes - they are separate, so won't distort in response to morphs (assigning to a Rigidity Group will also help with that), but unlike parented props they will follow their attachment to their parent node as the item morphs.