Need Tutorial for Making Clothes for Victoria 4.2
jktarwater_8568c339b9
Posts: 8
I have been looking all over the Internet and these forums for such a tutorial, but I cannot find one. Everyone is about Genesis these days or the old tutorials that did exist their links are now broken and I cannot access them. The problem is that the props I use only work on the V4 and V4.2 model, not Genesis. The Transfer Utility Tool does not work with V4.2, so I need a detailed tutorial on how to get clothes modeled in Maya to work in DAZ 4.7 for a V4.2 figure.
I am a student 3D character artist, but even I don't have enough time to create a character and rig it from scratch sometimes (it takes forever to do so). I know how to model, texture map and paint and even do basic rigging, but I need to know how to create clothes that can then be converted to use for a V4.2 figure in DAZ 4.7. If someone can provide such a tutorial or point me in the right direction (as long as the page actually exists or the link isn't broken) would be highly appreciated. Thanks.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
The internet archive wayback machine might help you open those broken links
I found a link to a cool pdf by Chris Schell in a thread for DS3 that may help
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/10352/P15
DS4.7 may be a tad different but I too will look at this as I want to legacy rig stuff for older figures.
Thanks. The PDF is helpful. However, I still have a question about groups. Lets say that I want to create a T-shirt and thus it covers the abdomen, the chest, and the shoulders. Do I need to separate the single mesh of the T-shirt into separate meshes in the modeling software (such as Maya or Blender) and then place them under their own groups for the skeleton setup in DAZ to work?
Hello? Does anyone know how the groups work? Please look at my previous post.
I used to make some clothing in Hex for V4 years ago, and I had to use the Extract tool in Hex to create separate mesh pieces for import to DAZ Studio. So they need to be separate pieces if that answers your question, but only for Generation 4 and below, not for Genesis or Genesis 2.
I used to have a V4 model I called 'Mannequin' which had all the polygon groups in different colours to make selecting the polys in the clothing easier, using transparency.
I used to make some clothing in Hex for V4 years ago, and I had to use the Extract tool in Hex to create separate mesh pieces for import to DAZ Studio. So they need to be separate pieces if that answers your question, but only for Generation 4 and below, not for Genesis or Genesis 2.
I used to have a V4 model I called 'Mannequin' which had all the polygon groups in different colours to make selecting the polys in the clothing easier, using transparency.
Usually works to just have separate poly groups within the same mesh if your modeling program can export those.
Okay, so I need to model the mesh, UV map it, texture paint it, then extract them into pieces and then place them under groups with the exact same names as the bones in DAZ. Then export it as an OBJ (FBX won't work because it doesn't maintain any separate objects) and use the skeleton setup tool in DAZ to rig it to the correct bones.
Such a pain, but I have no choice since the specific prop I am using only works with V4, not Genesis (mostly due to all of the JCMs in the mesh). Thanks everyone, I will post again if I run into more problems.
There may be an easier way,
if just for renders
do it on genesis with transfer utility
if you have the V4 clone for genesis you can make her invisible and set collision in smoothong modifier to V4 and pose both the same
Yes, but I'll lose all the morphs if I use Genesis and I am not willing to do that. The Morphs++ and the props I am using only work on V4, not Genesis, else I would have done that already.
Okay, here's the deal: i am using a custom V4 figure using props that is specifically designed ONLY for V4, NOT Genesis. I need to make custom clothes because the character is supposed to have a unique look (plus I don't have money to be buying outfits which in my opinion I could create better designs in my free time). Apparently I need to create polygroups. The only way I believe you can make polygroups in Maya is to extract your mesh into pieces and place them under group nodes. If I am missing something, let me know. This is why I am asking for a detailed tutorial because the process is very confusing.
re-read what I wrote, you WOUD be using V4 too just a hidden genesis in scene wearing clothes
that said I just did something awesome
I set my G2F character to V4 (have Mallenlane clone) and posed her to match V4
exported her clothes as obj with both hidden so only clothes geometry
made V4 triax
used TU on reimported clothes
exported as a cr2
the cr2 fits legacy V4 not triax and poses!!!
explodes in PoserPro sadly but works in DAZ studio
transfer active morphs works on the clothes too, just tried bulk
so for DAZ studio at least I can rig clothes to V4
Interesting. I'm going to have to try that. Thanks for all of the help. I don't mean to sound frustrated or mean, it's been a very bad week. Again, thank you very much.
Well, I just tried to do this but my custom clothes loaded up invisible, so I don't understand what I did wrong. Exported clothes as cr2, but when I import back in onto my custom v4 scene file it says vertex weight out of range and it doesn't load the mesh.
EDIT 1: Nevermind. I discovered that I had to save the clothing as a figure asset as well (a .duf file) as a .cr2. So now it works. Thanks everyone for your help.
EDIT 2: Okay, I have the clothes mesh working, but now I can't figure out how to get materials into DAZ. The mesh is one piece with two UV sets. How do I use those UV sets in DAZ?
Okay, I think I finally have everything working. Since there is no tutorial anywhere on how to do this, I might as well list the steps I did here:
1: Model your clothes in a 3D application like Maya or Blender.
2: UV map the mesh and assign your UV sets.
3: Back in the same 3D app, after you UV map, select the sets you will be using for each material group and assign a new material to those faces. I know in Maya it is not necessary to separate the mesh. I don't know about Blender but it may follow the same principle. The reason for this is because Daz will read each material as a separate surface. This allows you to use those UV sets in Daz later. (EDIT: Blender requires you create vertex groups. On export, make sure the .obj has polygroups selected.)
4: Paint your textures and save them in a Daz runtime/textures directory.
5: Export your mesh from your 3d app as a .obj file and place it in a runtime/geometries/clothing folder. This allows Daz to generate the cr2 later.
6: In Daz, load up your custom V4 character and convert the rigging to Triax.
7: Import your new clothes .obj geometry. If your scale is correct, it should load in the correct place.
8: Now use the Transfer Utility tool. The source should be the custom character and set to current. The destination is your clothing mesh. Leave the option there as default and then hit apply. This will rig the new clothes, but it is still not compatible with V4 yet.
9: To make it compatible, first export the newly rigged clothes as a .cr2 to your correct runtime directory where your clothes .cr2 files would be located at. I actually had to create a new folder under runtime/libraries/character and since it was clothes I named it DAZ Clothing. While saving it may not find the original geometry. If that's the case, browse and select the .obj mesh you had exported out to the runtime/geometries/clothing folder. It must be that folder, else the .cr2 will not generate.
10: Now you want to make sure that your clothes mesh is still selected. With it selected, you want to save as a figure/prop asset in a .duf format. Save that file in the same folder you did the .cr2. When you save, it will open a dialog box with the option to make the mesh compatible with the 4th generation Victoria. Hit save, leaving the other options alone.
11: Exit and reload your original custom character (the one with the original rig, not the triax conversion). Go to your content manager and navigate to the folder where you saved the .cr2 and .duf file. They will show up as one file in the content manager. Double click it and it should load correctly without the vertex weights being out of range.
12: Now right click the clothes mesh in the scene tab and have it fit to the custom character. It's up to you if you parent it, I do just so everything is organized. You now have a rigged mesh for your character! It is not fool proof, you might still get clipping depending upon how you modeled the clothes and how dense your mesh is compared to the V4 mesh. This may not be good enough for animation but it is good enough for me because I am just rendering out a bunch of stills.
13: This isn't the end however, there is still no textures! Remember the materials that were set up per UV set earlier in your 3D app? If you go to your surfaces tab with the clothes selected, you will see each UV set has its own surface and you can plug in your texture maps there. Once your textures and shaders are set up, you're ready for rendering or whatever stuff you need to do. Yay!
I hope this proves helpful for those new to DAZ but are using legacy characters like V4 instead of Genesis.
In Blender create vertex groups check Polygroups on export from Blender and these will import in to Studio, no need to cut the mesh in to separate objects.
Good to know, thanks. I updated my previous post with the information.
Okay folks, here's a longer version.
n.b. different 3D programs read each others instructions differently. I'm using Hexagon, and this is how it works using Hexagon.
http://patience55anotherone.deviantart.com/art/Legacy-Rigging-Clothing-pdf-tutorial-515391438