Under Breast Mesh Abberations

dlm4001

I am working on a sleep set for Genesis 8 Female.  I created the mesh objects in Marvelous Designer 8 and converted to quads prior to export. My work flow is Import the object with G8F in Default A pose->Convert to Sub D->Transfer Utility->Pose Test

The pants work fine and I put them through a barrage of pose tests. They are not finished but seem to working well with respect to posing. However, the top has under breast mesh aberrations when I bend the lower chest forward or side to side. I used the weight mapping smoothing brush to smooth the weight mapping transitions and this helped a lot, but it still looks a little odd when bending G8F's lower chest. 

I created a simplifed to test top garment to remove random folds from draping and simply the mesh so the problem is obvious. (There are no hemmed edges as it is just a test. top)  See attached.

I know vendors must deal with the all the time. Can someone who shed some light on the process to deal with this?   I have seen products in the store that were created in Marvelous Designer, so I know it can work. 

1. Is there something I need to do to the mesh prior to rigging? 

2. Does it have to do with Thin or Thick option in the Marvelous Designer Export options? 

3. Do I have to retopo in external product like Blender or ZBrush?  (I am already using quads)

4. Is there a better rigging template than the default Transfer Utility Template?  (I will buy a merhcant resource if it is avaiable, including a thrid part rigging transfer tool if there is one that works better).

5.  Would creating a JCM tied to the G8F lower chest help, or would the problem still occur in the JCM morph mesh?

Sorry for all the questions.  I have spent hours reading and testing and not getting the results I am after. I need some help from people who do this routinely.

thanks

 

Daywalker Designs

You'll probably need to do some adjustments in something like Hexagon to pull the mesh away from the breasts in that area. You'll also want to do a few body shape morphs so you're not totally depending on Autofollow getting the shape right in every case.

Causam3D

dlm,

In DS, change Edge Interpolation from Sharp Edges to Soft Corners And Edges.  Then add a smoothing modifier if it hasn't already been added, and run the smoothing iterations way up until this goes away.  What is happening is that DS is adding a 'sharp' under the breasts and in the cleavage (you can see this if you export the garment as obj and look at it in Blender - it appears as a light green line).

IsaacNewton

Causam said:

dlm,

In DS, change Edge Interpolation from Sharp Edges to Soft Corners And Edges.  Then add a smoothing modifier if it hasn't already been added, and run the smoothing iterations way up until this goes away.  What is happening is that DS is adding a 'sharp' under the breasts and in the cleavage (you can see this if you export the garment as obj and look at it in Blender - it appears as a light green line).

I have noticed very similar distortions caused by AutoFit. Do you think that the cause is the same or related?

Causam3D

IsaacNewton said:

Causam said:

dlm,

In DS, change Edge Interpolation from Sharp Edges to Soft Corners And Edges.  Then add a smoothing modifier if it hasn't already been added, and run the smoothing iterations way up until this goes away.  What is happening is that DS is adding a 'sharp' under the breasts and in the cleavage (you can see this if you export the garment as obj and look at it in Blender - it appears as a light green line).

I have noticed very similar distortions caused by AutoFit. Do you think that the cause is the same or related?

I think that AutoFit is a blunt instrument - not because DAZ doesn't know how to code, but because the infinite permutations of possible shapes necessitate that a "base line" be drawn.  Otherwise, the product would never get out.  So in short, I think the cause is not only related but is in fact the same.

Having said that, I do feel that certain types of distortion should be addressed by adding correctives which are salient to the end user, rather than having to sift through the sand to find the flecks of gold, so to speak.  Breast deformation of shirts and other upper body wear are one of those distortions.

EDIT: It's important to remember what DS is, and is not, intended to be.  I view it as a prototyping tool, no more and no less.  I once heard it described as "a useful program for dressing dolls" and that is pretty accurate, though not in any perjorative sense.  I'm not a renderer, it is simply not what I do with my time although it's fun to put one out every now and then.  If I want to be serious about the render, I prototype the elemenst in DS and export them to another program where I can fine tune.  For instance, rather than mucking around with dForce to arrive at a final fit and look for a garment, I'll fit the garment in DS once I have arrived at a final pose, then export the garment and the posed model to Blender, run simulations such as fluid or cloth or soft body, then export THAT back into DS or simply use Cycles in Blender.  DS is a very useful program to save enormous work on the front end but IN the end, other tools will have to be brought to use in gaining a final image.

Seen in that light, it's easier to gain the proper perspective when evaluating AutoFit and other DS tools which are properly the purview of more powerful programs for those specific tasks.

IsaacNewton

Thanks for the full and frank answer, Causam; very useful.

I think I may need to learn how to use Blender properly. Any good Tutorial archives for Blender?