You can get the SVN with this feature at Graphicall.

Sample of what it can do starting from simple primitives and Victoria 4:

And then we turn on the modifier...

As you can see, the biggest shortcoming of this method has to do with symmetry and with the neck and armpits.  

The former problem can be solved by using the mirror modifier and a half-mesh until all the symmetrical details are finished.  The latter one is helped by the fact that, while the modifier is on, you can still make changes in edit mode (as usual for Blender).

With a bit of smoothing and scaling:

It's by no means a magic bullet, but it is quite a tool to add to the modeler's arsenal.  This simple dress took 30 seconds to make, and looks it, but with a bit more time and effort invested you can get quite nice results.

I used this to help create my Wrath of Athene product, particularly the breastplate and sandal soles; the skirt was made using the cloth physics.

Read the EULA from DAZ more carefully.  Using any shrink-wrap of re-topology function is not allowed for clothing that are going to be distributed (sold or just given away free).  Its okay for your own personal use though.

Hey, that's awesome! I would not have known about it, so thank you!

VRG.

Umm...how can daz tell if it was done by hand or shrinkwrap?

Good question.  :D  But I will look at the EULA again - that seems an odd rule but of course I want to comply with them (since I'm hoping to sell products for their figures).

I would think that doing shrinkwrap in blender or by hand in other apps, would be deemed "lots of handy work and skill"...and thus be ok to use for "products for their figures"?
Also..the final obj file code would be the same!  And conforming the cloth would have to be done also.
And your not copying geometery from daz figure to the dress point by point...from what I can see.
Could we see a better close up image of the wire frame in the 2nd screen capture you uploaded?
Are the vertices in the dress,in the same exact location/size as the vertices on v4?
Just wondering....I'm new to blender(3 months)...have not learned how to use the shrinkwrap modifier.

Sorry, it's on my other computer - I didn't keep the file on this one since it's too simplistic for a real product. :D 

But certainly there is no copying of geometry whatsoever.  The cylinder/boxes do not have the same poly count or vert arrangement as V4 (in fact, causing them to HAVE the same count/arrangement would be nearly impossible, especially by this method).  You can choose to have the shrinkwrap shrink to the nearest vertex, but that produces screwy results - the above was made using a snap to "nearest surface point" so many verts will be in the middle of V4's faces instead of lying vert-to-vert.  This effect is greatly magnified after scaling, smoothing and subdivision have been applied.  

In other words, there is no conceivable way ANY DAZ geometry could be extracted from any product made using this method, so I can't imagine why it would be a problem (though again, I will comply with their EULA once I've reviewed it).  

Thanks for the reply...
I just looked at the eula...I do not see anything there that states this usage will be a problem.
Parts dealing with restrictions and use:

*4. GENERAL RESTRICTIONS AND TERMS OF USE. The 3-D Model(s) may be copied in whole or in part for User's exclusive use. Unauthorized copying of the 3-D Model(s) is expressly forbidden. User expressly agrees to include DAZ'S (and third parties, if any) copyright notice(s) and proprietary interest(s) on all copies of the 3-D Model(s), in whole or in part, in any form, including data form, made by User in accordance with this Agreement. The 3-D Model(s) is provided for User's exclusive use. User does not have the right to pfrovide the 3-D Model(s) to others in any form or on any media. Specifically, you (the User) may copy the 3-D Model(s) onto the storage device of an unlimited number of computers; provided that all such computers are physically located at your business, or if you are a residence, your place of residence located at a single specific street address (or its equivalent).

You may (i) access, use, copy and modify the 3-D Models stored on such computers at such single location in the creation and presentation of animations and renderings which may require runtime access to the 3-D Model(s), and (ii) incorporate two dimensional images (including two dimensional images that simulate motion of three dimensional objects) derived from the 3-D Model(s) in other works and publish, market, distribute, transfer, sell or sublicense such combined works; provided that you may not in any case: (a) separately publish, market, distribute, transfer, sell or sublicense any 3-D Model(s) or any part thereof; or (b) publish, market, distribute, transfer, sell or sublicense renderings, animations, software applications, data or any other product from which any original 3-D Model(s), or any part thereof, or any substantially similar version of the original 3-D Model(s) can be separately exported, extracted, or de-compiled into any re-distributable form or format. Subject to the foregoing limitations, and the rights, if any, of third parties in or to the objects represented by the 3-D Model(s), you may copy, distribute, and/or sell your animations and renderings derived from the 3-D Model(s). All other rights with respect to the 3-D Model(s) and their use are reserved to DAZ (and its licensors).

1. INFRINGEMENT WARRANTY. DAZ warrants to the User that, to the best of its knowledge, the digital data comprising the 3-D Model(s) do not infringe the rights, including patent, copyright and trade secret rights, of any third party, nor was the digital data unlawfully copied or misappropriated from digital data owned by any third party; provided, however, that DAZ makes no representation or warranty with respect to infringement of any third party's rights in any image, trademarks, works of authorship or object depicted by such 3-D Model(s).

2. OTHER RESTRICTIONS. This Agreement is your proof of License to exercise the rights granted herein and must be retained by you. User shall not give, sell, rent, lease, sublicense, or otherwise transfer or dispose of the 3-D Model(s) on a temporary or permanent basis without the prior written consent of DAZ. DAZ'S 3-D Model(s) and/or contracts are non-transferable and shall only be used by the Licensed User. User may not reverse engineer, de-compile, disassemble, or create derivative works from the 3-D Model(s). These restrictions do not pertain to rendered images or pre-rendered animations.*

And from what you say about the resultant geometery on your tests...I do not see how any claim could be made for violating the eula.
I also remember some dicussion about this about 3 years ago that daz said this wouyld not be a problem for them...in essance...there is no copying of the daz geometery modeling this way.
And you are selling an item (Waith of Athene) modeled this way and renderosity allowed this with no problem.
I just do not see how this type of modeling can violate any copyrights.

I don't think I'll worry about it, then.  Because there really is no way that any part of V4's vertices, faces, UVs or textures can be extracted from my existing products (whether my one for sale item or my freebies).

This is the part of the EULA that seems to give them the right to say no to shrink-wrapping.*
"**any substantially similar version of the original 3-D Model(s)"

There was a lengthy thread on their own Forum about this.  A rep of DAZ finally responded.  He pretty much admitted it would be hard in most cases for DAZ or anyone else to tell if these tools had been used.  The final impression I got was that this is forbidden simply because they don't want give someone an opening to skirt copyright.  You know the old saying, "Give them an inch they'll take a mile."

**

**

Lol,  first of all SickleYield, don't ever be worried over what DAZ thinks, says and or does. If that company were any more full of sh!t, they would have to apply for a sewage treatment plant license to stay in business. Jetsmart has a good memory, Daz did put up a stink, I remember the thread. It was about clothing design and how to make clothing meshes. Someone brought up using retopo and shrink wrapping tools to build the mesh, and the moderators flipped out. They were like "oh that's stealing from Daz, and that's cheating the company and the customers" and all kinds of  Daz Kool-Aid crew speak. Typically they ended up losing the argument and basically had to eat their own words.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Daz has every right to protect it's property, however as pointed out, no geometry is used. Shrink wrapping produces a wholly different mesh with different vertice counts and locations. Then the argument moderators tried to make was "well if it copies the exact shape of the mesh than that is stealing". By that logic anyone who makes tight fitting clothes for a Daz model is stealing from Daz. What difference does it make how or what tools were used to make the mesh. As long as you don't copy their mesh and or alter a copied version of the mesh, they have nothing but the hollow sound of their own empty threats. Their argument pretty much fell completely apart at that point of the thread.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Besides look at PhilC's Poser tool box, it has a shrink wrapping type script that uses primitives in Poser that shrink nicely to the Victoria line. The clothing can then be redistributed, including for commercial purpose. Daz hasn’t tried to sue good ole’ Phil out of business (not yet anyway), seriously I wouldn't worry to much about it if I were you.  

Quote - Lol,  first of all SickleYield, don't ever be worried over what DAZ thinks, says and or does. If that company were any more full of sh!t, they would have to apply for a sewage treatment plant license to stay in business.

putting on coordinator hat  Renderosity does care if you violate DAZ's or anyone else's license agreement/copyright.

That said, I personally don't think this could tool produces anything similar enough to the mesh you're shrink-wrapping for them to complain about, or at least no more than any other method of clothing creation.

just to say...

many of their own clothing creators have long used dynamic clothing sims in various apps to produce realistic shape and morphs.  Aery Soul has long explicitly stated that they use Maya's dynamics to produce their clothing and its morphs.  i don't personally see how this type of shrink wrapping is qualitatively different than taking that same primitive and running a soft body/clothing sim on it.   i mean, different effect, yes, but not meaningfully different.

my guess is what they didn't want is competition in the catsuit department, nor anything else  full body that could be used without their figure entirely.   or maybe i'm wrong, and it's an emotional reaction that some how sees this type of development as worst than copying their figures' JPs, which is necessary for conforming clothes.  but i'm also betting some type of surface detection is being used on 90% of clothes.

That's what I thought! 

Anyway, there's no possibility that I will EVER make anything from which ANY DAZ geometry could be extracted, and I'm certainly not going to make any catsuit-type clothing (I hate catsuits, no offense to those who make them) nor clothing from which other people are meant to make their own meshes.  I'm not out to rip anybody off or violate anyone's copyright or EULA.  I just want to use the tools available to me to make a good product.

And if AerySoul can get away with it in Maya, I can't imagine how anybody could object to a vastly-less-sophisticated Blender script. :lol:  AS will always be the team to beat (or at least to respect and envy) when it comes to modeling and texturing.

oh realy?  i think maya is overrated and that blender rulez.

Oh, I love Blender!  Otherwise I wouldn't be stalking Graphicall for new SVNs. :)  I did buy a 1-year student license of Max 9 once, but honestly I didn't care for the interface (EVERYTHING is a modifier and it's a click-heavy program, much harder to use with shortcuts than Blender).  Cost was also an issue since to make anything I could sell  I would have to pay more than I have invested in my entire computer at the moment.  

Maya and Max undoubtedly have advanced features Blender does not, but Blender is completely adequate to my needs at the moment - and isn't held in charge by people who want to make it as hard as possible to obtain and use their product. 

Quote - > Quote - Lol,  first of all SickleYield, don't ever be worried over what DAZ thinks, says and or does. If that company were any more full of sh!t, they would have to apply for a sewage treatment plant license to stay in business.

putting on coordinator hat  Renderosity does care if you violate DAZ's or anyone else's license agreement/copyright.

  That said, I personally don't think this could tool produces anything similar enough to the mesh you're shrink-wrapping for them to complain about, or at least no more than any other method of clothing creation.

                     Don’t forget the Daz brown nose, it seems part of the standard uniform for Rendo Moderators/Coordinators, plus it goes nicely with the hat.  Again, this whole episode stems from a heated thread discussion at Daz forums, not Daz3d’s EULA. It’s comical, your second paragraph completely contradicts the first one. Your second paragraph is loosely along the same lines as my argument. As long as a person does not redistribute Daz’s legal property (their meshs), Daz does not have a leg to stand on in any justified argument. If some one uses a retopo tool to create exact vertex by vertex copy of a Daz mesh than that would be a clear violation of their EULA, they have every right to not allow that. That is stealing their property, no different that just simply copying the mesh (just  a lot more time consuming). That is not the case here, or in any similar argument. They can bitch and moan all they want, there is nothing illegal or unethical about shrink wrapping. They do not have the right to impose on the 3d world what tools we choose to use, regardless of what Rendo cares about.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  My god man, who died and made Daz the lord emperor of the 3d world. What should we do when Daz comes down from the mountain to issue their commandments. Shall we all lay down in the street and wait patiently for Dan Farr to come by and run us all over with his riding lawnmower, please. You can drink their kool-aid all you want, I’ll pass, Thanks.

O.o  I would have said exactly the same thing no matter who you were talking about.  I personally have never purchased a DAZ product, nor do I care much for most of them.  Just reminding everyone that no matter what you think of the vendor in question, copyright violation is still copyright violation.  I also happen to think that this is not a case of that.

I apologize for creating such a fuss.  I just wanted to point out that DAZ does have an official position about certain modeling techniques (and there is wording in EULA that could be used to support their position).  But as I tried, and apparently failed, to explain is that DAZ took this position to prevent unscrupulous individuals from doing an end round around copyright.

Consider this little scenario.  A couple of game makers decide to reduce their work load by using some DAZ models, they just need to reduce the poly count.  Except this definitely against the EULA.  So they  come up with a conning plan.  They create their reduced models, but then break them into separate parts, a pair of gloves here, pair of tights there, and so on.  They then make these 'sets' available free and without restrictions .  A  co-conspirator then collects the 'sets'.  While 'experimenting' with them he 'notices' that the edges and vertices of the individuals part line up perfectly and come to the 'conclusion' that if they where welded together they would make a complete figure.  You could see how he could try to argue that this isn't a derivative of DAZ's model but a perfectly legal use of some free models.

No worries. Yeah, that would be a problematic use.

By the way, SickleYield, thanks for pointing out this tool, it does look useful.

You're welcome. :)

And as for the "problematic use" -

This is a labor-saving method, but it is NOT a magic bullet.  Doing something like you describe would not be particularly easy and would certainly screw the UV and cause considerable surface distortion.   A person who wanted free body models to use that they were going to have to re-map anyway (and UV mapping curved surfaces is not the easiest thing in the world, particularly when you're working with a render engine that shows seams more readily than Poser does) might as well use the free and opensourced MakeHuman and run a couple of subdivisions instead.

I like it!  That's a Daz Studio plug in?  I have Poser Pro, will it would with it too?

Does anyone have a link for ShrinkWrap?  Thanks...

Quote - Does anyone have a link for ShrinkWrap?

It's a new modifier.
As the OP indicated it was available in the latest source, as that was in September it might have made it into 2.47
If not, it will likely be in 2.48

I gave a link to the SVN at Graphicall in my very first post.

 Shrinkwrap as stated above is a modifier that is included in the 2.48 beta release. It can be downloaded from the main blender site

And here I didn't even know the beta was out. :lol:

Sweet.

I'm sorry, I thought I read somewhere that it was a Daz Studio plug in.

i couldn't find the 2.48 release at all on the main blender site.  i'm probably dense, but in case you have a similar problem, here's the link to the GraphicAll site where i did find it.
http://graphicall.org/builds/index.php

and here's the link to the 7-Zip tool i needed to actually unzip it.
http://www.7-zip.org/

if anyone has suggestions or instructions on using the Shrinkwrap modifier, i'd love to hear them!

Direct link below to the official release FTP page for the various OS downloads for anyone whose OS isn't represented on GraphicAll yet.

http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.48rc/

Does shrinkwrapped actually use figure geometry? It doesn't look all that different from basic shape extrusion that is often used in modeling clothes. Wouldn't you still need to tweak the geometry? This is in relation to the concern over this being similar to retopology or creating bad uv's. Understand I have just heard of it. Thanks.

You would indeed still have to do tweaking.  Shrinkwrap does not give instant perfect results, especially in areas of folds or very detailed geometry on the underlyling mesh; it also tends to give odd-looking things around the armpit area that have to be corrected afterwards.  I generally find it most useful in combination with mirror (it never gives symmetric results otherwise) and subsurf (for fewer surface irregularities). 

It is not extrusion as I understand the term, but that might just reflect technical ignorance on my part.  In extrusion you move out from existing verts; shrinkwrap moves your new verts in where they fit right over the old ones (meaning those of the target mesh).

Well technically I can see it does appear like loop extrusion, but I couldn't see a legal issue with using it, so was trying to get that. Thanks for the info.