I have modeled a dress - the dress seams are made of this "V"-shaped groove that I don't want smoothing in Poser to affect: I want it to stay sharp.
Someone recommended MarkSharp, then Modifier->EdgeSplit... but I kinda wonder how that affects UV mapping, since the splits may not always be on a Blender seam (created with [CTRL E] - as opposed to my clothing seam).
Does Blender3D support beveling?

There's a bevel option in the W key menu, but that will bevel all the edges in the model.  There is a python script that will bevel just the edges you have selected (Scripts->Mesh->Bevel Center).  It can do some strange things sometimes that require manual tweaking, but should be fine for what you're doing.

you might could separate the actual mesh at the V seams, this will ensure that poser wont smooth it.

oldskoolPunk's advice is probably sound with Poser. 

If you want very precise beveling with good quad based mesh (may not apply to your needs here), one way is to use Loop Subdivide and then use Slide Edge to move new edges close to "beveled" edges. I'm not very good at this but I have seen some Blender videos which show the power of these tools... Can't remember now where I have seen them though.

Quote - There's a bevel option in the W key menu, but that will bevel all the edges in the model.  There is a python script that will bevel just the edges you have selected (Scripts->Mesh->Bevel Center).  It can do some strange things sometimes that require manual tweaking, but should be fine for what you're doing.

Thanks for that, HaloedRain... I tried it. I think I don't understand the parameters of bevel, as it essentially blew up... distorted the entire mesh beyond recognition: turned it into an asteroid.

Suppose I should preface with what my intentions are: what I'm trying to do is make clothing seams look like clothing seams, and clothing folds and wrinkles look natural. Somewhere along the line - perhaps during the Poser smoothing process - the carefully manipulated geometry ends up looking lumpy and weird. I know that it can be done - other modelers have managed: just look at that wonderful free example by As Shanim... "MyShirt" - and I certainly can't imagine or accept that Blender wouldn't be able to do something so rudimentary.

The strategy I've chosen at this point is to make a loop cut (using [K] ) just adjacent (as in, on either side of) the geometry that makes up the clothing seam... so:

...which gives Poser a bit more mesh to chew on. I hate adding geometry - especially since my mesh is fairly high as it is... in this case, 10,568 verts - but I don't see an alternative. Here's what I get:

I consider that a relatively satisfactory-looking seam. However, it's not just about seams... if I want to add folds and wrinkles in clothing, Poser's smoothing makes them look more like lumps than folds, as you can see. I'll try some additional strategies that will hopefully not end up placing tris on my mesh. I'll let you know how I go.

For the bevel script, you probably want to have the value on the slider bar very low--I often use .01 or so.  The numbers on the left and right of the slider just are the end points of the slider, you can change those to make it more usefull at larger or smaller values.  The recursive value is how many times you want it to be beveled, so one just bevels the original edge, 2 bevels those new edges to get 4 edges, 3 bevels those 4, etc.  This number isn't applied until you push the "recursive" button, which you should do after hitting the bevel button.

Quote - The recursive value is how many times you want it to be beveled, so one just bevels the original edge, 2 bevels those new edges to get 4 edges...

So, I take that to mean that the bevel tool actually generates new edges? Kinda like what I did manually (see above example), except I didn't generate a curved edge... just some very narrow polys for Poser to chew on so it would try to smooth those and fail, I guess.

BTW, I take it that you create models to use in Poser or D|S in Blender3D... so you understand the dilemma of Poser's smoothing I'm referring to...

Yep, it does basically the same thing you did, I think.  I've used poser a bit, but I used to use Bryce a lot and it has the same problem.

You can get unexpected results with Bevel if you are in Vertex Select mode instead of Edge Select.  Also after the bevel is done the new faces created are not set to 'Smooth', I usually select all, recalc normals then set smooth after using bevel.

I think those wrinkles look pretty good !

Sadly can't help you but I am very interested in using Blender for Poser and D/S clothing. Your work looks quite good already IMHO.

Maybe small folds and X and Y formed wrinkles could be done with an additional displacement map ?

To Admin or Moderator: I would be most grateful to have a good solid (read idiot proof :)  ) tutorial on the whole - export character mesh from Poser, build clothing in Blender, import back and use - process. This could also be cross linked to the DAZ and Poser forums.

Quote - I think those wrinkles look pretty good !

Thank you - that's enormously validating... and very lovely of you to say! Your comment embodies the first time anyone has said anything good about my modeling... and Thank YOU! I wasn't sure I should post this item - the cheerleader dress - on the freebies area... didn't think it met standard. I think I will do, now. It still has a long way to go: the UV map file is very average, there's no morph capability as yet... and when you bring the arms down, don't focus your camera on the pits - not a good look. Otherwise, it seems to work okay, and the exercise has been a good one. Got some good strategies worked out.

If you're keen, let me know. Happy to share it with any and all. It's not ready for prime-time, but I'm sure it will serve someone well.

I guess I'm a bit of a perfectionist... not a good thing...

Quote - Your work looks quite good already IMHO. Maybe small folds and X and Y formed wrinkles could be done with an additional displacement map ?

Thank you for that... and the displacement map is an excellent idea - hadn't thought in that direction.

Quote -
I would be most grateful to have a good solid (read idiot proof :)  ) tutorial on the whole - export character mesh from Poser, build clothing in Blender, import back and use - process. This could also be cross linked to the DAZ and Poser forums.

Actually, the process is really quite simple if you have the right tools. In the past, I would export my model from Blender as an .obj file, then import the obj file into Poser, bring it into the setup room, and try to deal with bones, groups and all that. What a bloody pain. Now I do the following - and I do this on the average of about 8 - 10 times a day, so it's something I kinda know by heart.

First of all, here are the tools I use. This set of step on how I do it involves the use of these tools, without which the whole exercise is pretty much meaningless, but without which tools the entire process is laborious and unnecessarily painful, so for the small investment, GET THESE TOOLS.

Blender3D - FREE ... you probably already have this. For this I'm still using 2.45

Object - to Cr2 Converter (Obj2Cr2) - by PhilC - available here:

www.philc.net/OBJ2CR2_page1.htm
Believe me, been over this road a number of times, and this utility is worth its weight in gold - if you've ever been in the setup room and spend ages assigning polygons to groups, only to have the whole bloody thing cave in when the curtain is meant to rise, you'll agree that your sanity is well worth at least the price of this utility!

I'm not going to pretend I have the complete end-all, be-all solution for you here. I'm just going to tell you what I do... and if anyone sees a glaring flaw or omission, feel free to jump right in: I have a very thick skin (when it comes to criticism) and am quite keen to learn.

In Poser, load, zero and export the model you are going to base your clothing item on as a Wavefront OBJ file - in this case, I used Victoria 4 Base. I would export only the parts of her that my clothing will actually touch. This export process has been covered in so many tutorials I won't go into any great detail here - just save it somewhere you'll find it easily in Blender.

In Blender, import the model obj file - I generally put her in layer two, and my model in layer one. That way, if I need to scrutinize my mesh and don't want to see polygonal flesh-tones, I just select the first layer. Key point - once you've got your Victoria (or whoever) model in Blender, DON'T move it. Just don't. It will give you heaps of grief when trying to import into Poser if you do.

After I've finished modeling the mesh, the next thing to do is create material areas, as Poser will see those areas with the name you've given them and you can base your UV map on them too. To do this, you use the Links and Materials Panel of [F9]. Under "Vertex Groups", click "New", then highlight the name "Group" and replace it with something more meaningful. Highlight the vertices that will be associated with this vertex group - this is the tedious bit - and when you are certain every vertex is highlighted that you want part of this group, click "Assign". If you find you've missed a vertex or two, you can always highlight it and click the "Assign" at that point. Once you've got all your vertices assigned, you can [A] and click the "Select" button to check that your vertex group includes all vertices that are meant to be part of that group.

Next to the "Vertex Group" stuff is the Material stuff. Here's where you assign the material, which name will actually show up in Poser, believe it or not. This is why I make the material name descriptive of the part you are assigning material to, rather than what sort of material that part is made of. For instance, for the item I was creating, I wanted to be able to have the ability to assign a different colour to the front of the bodice vs the back, so I named the material "FrontBodice"... you do this by clicking "New" in that group, then going to the Material section [F5] and under the Links and Pipeline panel, in the Link to Object dialog, replace the name given - usually "Material.001" or "WhatEverMaterialYouHadBefore.001" - with the name of the area of your mesh... in this case, I named it FrontBodice:

Do this for your entire mesh until all vertices are assigned to a vertex group and, more importantly, a material - which for Poser will be an area.

Do your seams - there are some great seams tutorials out there, not the least of which by EnglishBob on his Morphography.co.uk site:
www.morphography.uk.vu/uvmapping.html

Once the seams are done you can generally create a UV map - Obj2Cr2 requires a UV map of some description, and Blender does an okay job at making them, particularly if you follow this tutorial:
blenderartists.org/forum/showthread

You might want to make your UV map a bit more spiffy using UVMapper by Steven Cox, available here:
www.uvmapper.com/

Now that you've got all vertices assigned to materials (named after the regions they cover) and a UV map created, you leave your model in "Set Solid" mode -- as opposed to "Set Smooth" -- and making sure the item you've just modeled is selected do:
File -> Export -> Wavefront (.obj)...

The name of the obj file will default to the name of your .blend file - usually works for me. Click [Export Wavefront OBJ] in the upper right-hand corner, which will give you a dialog with these options:

These are the default settings, and I have yet to find a reason to change any of them. If anyone has another view or perspective on this, feel free to contribute.

Your Blender model is now ready to import into Poser.

On a blank Poser page, load the same model you used as a basis for your mesh - in my case, V4 Base. Zero and turn IK off - probably not entirely necessary, but that's what I do, just to be on the safe side. Then:
File -> Import -> Wavefront OBJ...

In the ensuing Import Options dialog box, untick everything and click OK. Locate your mesh OBJ file, highlight it and select "Open".
Take a few minutes to ensure that your mesh has nil breakthrough points you might have missed prior to export. It should fit your model exactly - if it doesn't go back to Blender and fix it.
Now, at this point you can try to tackle the Setup Room... or you can use Obj2Cr2. I'm not even going down the frustrating, fraught-with-disappointment path of the Setup Room... have a look at this:
www.philc.net/OBJ2CR2_page1.htm
and you can see just how easy and satisfying the process can be. Believe me, as many times as I've had to re-work my cheerleader dress:

• and re-import each time - I'd have given up on mesh modeling by now if I had to do the Setup Room each time.

Did I leave anything out?

RobynsVeil:

This is above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you so much for your tutorial!

I'm on 2.46 already and so far have only been scratching the surface. Building a ww1 aircraft at the moment and am still learning all the modeling and mapping tools.

But as I have Studio and Poser I was thinking about the ability to create clothing.

Thanks again for your precious time.

You are quite welcome, Mannixman.

You will find that the setup room actually works fine for things without groups, as your aircraft will do. I would export and import into Poser any part of the aircraft as a separate obj that you want to have move, such as the ailerons, rudder and elevators - and even retractable landing gear.

You would import the bulk of the non-articulate part of the aircraft first, then parent the other bits to it, with inherit bends of parent ticked. Then, I would open the joint editor and adjust the axis of movement for each part so the rudder pivots on the y-axis, with the pivotal section the bit closest to the vertical tail stabilizer. Easy enough to do, and a cool effect, too. You can even set limits how far the rudder and ailerons and all that will turn.

Have fun with it, mate...

RobynsVeil:
That would make a great addition to the tutorials section :)

Quote - RobynsVeil:
That would make a great addition to the tutorials section :)

:ohmy: Are you serious?!? Wow! I could flesh it out a little - do a few more images and write a synopsis of the other tutorials I referred to...

Very important point: these are just the steps I take to accomplish the task. I worry that it may not be the right way: that I might have left something out, or made a bad selection in the dialog boxes.

So, if you think I have a sufficient handle on doing this, I'll be happy to submit it. Would you be willing to kinda go over it first, though? I know you're terribly busy and everything... and there's no rush: I would just feel so much better about publishing it if you were to review it first. Must be the nurse in me: "always check with a colleague before..."

There's probably people over in the Poser forum who could give better advice, but I wouldn't mind going over it--I made some pants for Aiko once, but it's been a while and I think I did it the hard way (no obj2cr2 for me...)

Quote - You are quite welcome, Mannixman.

You will find that the setup room actually works fine for things without groups, as your aircraft will do. I would export and import into Poser any part of the aircraft as a separate obj that you want to have move, such as the ailerons, rudder and elevators - and even retractable landing gear.

You would import the bulk of the non-articulate part of the aircraft first, then parent the other bits to it, with inherit bends of parent ticked. Then, I would open the joint editor and adjust the axis of movement for each part so the rudder pivots on the y-axis, with the pivotal section the bit closest to the vertical tail stabilizer. Easy enough to do, and a cool effect, too. You can even set limits how far the rudder and ailerons and all that will turn.

Have fun with it, mate...

Actually, for mechanical things such as aircraft, you don't even need to touch the setup room and you can export/import everything in one go as long as the objects you wish to move are made as seperate objects in the modelling program. When I export from blender I selection only off (exports everything), edges on (removes any edges that do not form a polygon) and object groups rather than objects only. Then use then the hierarchy editor to do the parenting and hit the create figure, bones done. Don't use the the inherit bends option as things tend to go all over the place sometimes. Just set bends to 0 either by going through the list or using a text editor on the cr2. Interesting that M is doing a WW1 plane. I was wondering whether the new cloth simulator in Blender could be used to stretch the fabric over the wings. Dangit... you got me wondering now....

Case in point, isn't it? Good on ya, TouchWood, for pointing out a better way - will make importing my sailboat heaps faster.

When I describe the way i do things, I hope fervently someone has found a better way and shares it... like you've just done. And Thank You.

Thanks for additional ideas Touchwood. Being a 3D newbie I have lots to chew now.

As to the cloth simulation another artist did so with the Cinema4D cloth engine. Here is a link to a 3D thread on a  dedicated WW1 aircraft site: http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/art/33116-fokker-dr1-remember-me.html

That was the thread which got me started to build a plane. Maybe with a few generic spars and ribs the new cloth function could be tested?

Anyway sorry for diluting the clothing thread. Of course I am also interested in making clothing for the beautiful Poser women :) .

Quote - There's probably people over in the Poser forum who could give better advice, but I wouldn't mind going over it--I made some pants for Aiko once, but it's been a while and I think I did it the hard way (no obj2cr2 for me...)

I kinda focused on the Blender side of the process and left the actual Poser importing for PhilC to explain - no point in re-inventing the wheel. The tutorial is hosted by R'osity, and has a tag "pending approval" on it. I tried not to make the thing sound too much like a plug for Obj2Cr2, but it's hard not to be enthusiastic.

Mind you, I've had a few issues with how shoulders deform when the arm comes down - this is after I've conformed and magnetized the article to the model (in this case Vicky 4) so my enthusiasm for Obj2Cr2 is not unequivocal. Indeed, the issue didn't resolve until I ran the cr2 through Wardrobe Wizard 2, with "re-group all" ticked. Phil himself says there's no single solution to creating optimal conforming clothing: joint parameters may still need to be addressed.

I did try to create a morph target for an arm-down shoulder in Blender... one of the problems I encountered was in using proportional edit when trying to manipulate mesh folded on itself. The mesh deforms nicely, but the proportional edit also affects the adjacent mesh against which I'm trying to fold. I guess it's because the "force field" of proportional edit is spherical, not circular: wish there were a few more options there.
Maybe for Blender 3.00?

Hooray, a new tutorial!  It all looks good to me, so it's approved now.  Did you mean to have the link title be your user name, though?  Looks like you've got another name in  there on top of the tutorial, so I was wondering if that was a bug.

I can be such a ditz... sheesh! I've changed it... at the field called "name", I thought it was asking for my user name... instead of the name of the article.

Good job these tutorials are modifiable... thanks for pointing that out, Pam...

Heh :tongue2:

Quote - ........... Interesting that M is doing a WW1 plane. I was wondering whether the new cloth simulator in Blender could be used to stretch the fabric over the wings. Dangit... you got me wondering now....

Try this build or one of the related builds in this branch if it hasn't been tried already since I'm a day late reading this thread.

http://graphicall.org/builds/builds/showbuild.php?action=show&id=669