Hello this would be my first post here, tho i have been a merchant here for a while. I was sick for a bit but now I am back and ready to go. I would like to learn to model footwear. I have been working with Maya 3ds and Zbrush for quite some time yet I fail to get the result i am looking for with details. every tutorial I have come across gives me info on gym shoes and military boots and such. I would like to create sexy heels and outlandishly high heeld boots:P.

I do create clothing but am not sure how to package it for poser and  here properly.

I work in second life as well (I know its a bad word here) but I am an honest creator and have actually sued due to copywrite infringment (Asri Falcone as seen on OWN documentry "Life 2.0"). I want to create shoes for both there and poser I just need a bit of help. I can create them now just my poly count is off the charts and some of the detailing I am a bit backward on.(buckles , belts.laces ect...) Mentor is what I am looking for. I cannot afford to pay as of yet but I hope to be able to in the future. If anyone has any suggestions plz don't hesitate. thank in advance!Kisses.....

The approach i generally take when wanting to make something is: study the mesh that's already been made. That's an excellent place to start.

Fugazi has some brilliant tutorials (on shoes specifically!) in the marketplace... he works in Silo, but the principles would translate quite well to Maya or 3DS i should think.

Well for the mesh density problem, you could retoplogize creating a more efficient mesh. As for detail I would think that photo referneces (google) would be a big help on detail and design. I'm certainly no expert but I wish you luck.

i started with a photot reference. then retyoing but i cant quite get the hang of that.however I have come up with some great result using photo reference and box modeling. Where I fall short is on how to create the straps/ laces/belts/buckles/zippers ect and make the flow into the model. then how to conform the so I can share them.

msdiva1 - you have mail

You might want to try finding a tutorial by Alex Alvarez (Intro to 3d Modeling with Maya).  He creates a Grey Alien figure that is good exposure to topology.  Especially when it comes to weight maps.

Also Alphaseed (formerly part of AerySoul) has a tutorial floating around for the details like buckles and straps.

I've had some success with copying the faces of where I want the laces, pasting those faces in place.  I hide the original object, leaving my partial selection.

Then I retesselate them to what I want, for example 'x' for the laces. Then select the lines going along one axis, copy, paste, the apply thickness. For the laces that will overlap, I select the lines going in the opposite direction, copy, paste, readjust the vertices so it will go over my existing laces (cylinders), than apply thickness.  Warning, you may need to be careful of what vertices you delete by reshowing the original mesh and seeing what intersects back into the model.

Then again you can just 'free hand' the lines then apply thickness or extrude the lines.

For buckles, I've made the metal portion and the part that loop through it separately , then positioned them in place where I wanted them.  Then I connect them to my clothes.

Hope this was useful,  good luck.

I was wondering if you could try a technique for me.

For high boots you need to have a 'bodysuit' that covers the feet and up to the knee.  I've found that the box method with 8 vertices works well for the ankle upward. UV map this portion.  Apply a bizarre texture of swooshes or swirls (black and white) that wil serve as a template for the design.  Retessilate the mesh using the texture as a template. Delete all unused faces. Smooth the mesh. And make a boot from that mesh.

I believe that's how some people are creating the body forming metal braces or armlets.  I just haven't had the time to experiment this technique.

By the way PhilC Designs has a boot template.  I've used some of the items from his clothing designer as well, but prefer to custom build my own meshes.  Also Gnomon Workshop has some useful tutorials as well as Digital Tutors.

Quote - By the way PhilC Designs has a boot template.  I've used some of the items from his clothing designer as well, but prefer to custom build my own meshes.  Also Gnomon Workshop has some useful tutorials as well as Digital Tutors.

hmmm im gonna try these techniques....thank you and i didnt know philC had a template im gonna have to look that up. spoke to philC a couple years ago about a similar issue tho nothing came of it. lol but i havent given up yet!! sorry took so long for a reply guys holidays were a beast.... happy holidays btw I hope everyone had a great one.

PhilC Designs has a site at www.philc.net/. 

I've tried his Clothing Designer, OBJ2CR2, and his Scissors tools.

Clothing Designer allow you to create simple clothing in Poser.

OBJ2CR2 allows you to create the body groups on your mesh to correspond to the body groups that it sits over on the model in Poser.

The Scissors tool allow you to perform boolean cuts on the meshes in Poser.

As far as ZBrush, Gnomon Workshop has a tutorial for Character Modeling for Next-Gen Games.  It show you how to create in Zbrush, export high mesh object to Maya, create low mesh object using ZBrush obj model as template.  It's geared towards modeling for games (low poly count) and controlling what areas should get additional geometry.

For those who have Blender, this is on offer. Free, of course. Most Blender stuff is.