The title says it all. I know I've seen this on here, but for the life of me, I can't find the thread.

Also, some tips on modeling it might be nice. I am using Wings 3D and Poser. My skill with Blender is non existant.

Thanks!

Nevermind!

I found it after I changed the parameters of the search...

It's done with a morph, which I haven't figured out how to do yet...

Fugazi1968 has a nice tutorial about the modeling part. He uses Silo. I use Silo as well and love it. You can find it online for about $100-ish and it's worth it.

Fugazi's zipper tutorial:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/the-digital-tailor-zip-modelling-set/88229

I know how to model it. I've done it before. I just want to create one that I can zip and unzip.

I can't spend money on new software. Not in my budget. That's why I use free software like Wings and Blender.

But thanks for the response.

if you model the clothing with zipper closed you may be able to use magnets to pull the seam apart to give the appearance of being open. You will also need to move the zipper part to the point of closure.  You can then spawn a morph from that.

Oh sorry about that. You said "some tips on modeling it might be nice" so I thought you were interested in that, too.

Personally, I handle zippers via morphs and I think a lot of other people do, too. But I'll let others chime in.

Thanks for the replies.

@andolaurina: markschum's reply was what I meant when I said modeling tips. Sorry, I should have explained myself better.

I am still trying to wrap my head around creating morphs, but I will look into it when I am ready to bring the clothing into Poser.

Well, you can morph in Poser (which I typically prefer for other types of morphs--but NOT zippers) or you can create your morphs in your modeling program or Zbrush.

For a zipper, a lot of people prefer to model a garment with the zipper closed. You can let the zipper pull be a smart prop (easiest way if you want people to be able to move it). Rig the overall garment. Then take your obj (without welding) into your modeling program. Change the zipper to open by pushing/pulling your vertices in your modeling program. Save the OBJ and use it as a FBM (Full body morph) for your jacket. You can also create a couple of intermediate zipper unzipped locations and pull those in as FBMs. 

Thanks!

I will see what I can come up with. I have never done a morph before, as I stated, so a new learning experience coming up...

The concept behind doing a simple zipper morph isn't complicated.  A morph is simply a change from one position to another.

So start with your clothing item with the zipper in one position.  Let's say its zipped up already.  Okay that's your default model.

Now you want to open the zipper with a morph.  Here's where using your modeling software comes in

Import the object mesh into your modeling software.  Now imagine how you want it too look fully unzipped.  Move the vertices so that it is in that shape.  You're rescuplting the mesh so that the zipper is in its final open state.

IMPORTANT - you must NOT add or delete ANY vertices.  If you do, you won't be able to create a morph.

Once you have the clothing item resculpted in your modeling software with the zipper open as you wanted, save it as an object file.

Now go back to Poser.  Load the original clothing item.  Go to the properties tab and click Load Morph Target.  For file, load the obj file you made with the zipper open.  Name it "zipper open" or something.

Now go back to your dials and there's your morph.  Dial it from 0 to 1 and watch it unzip.

That's it, at least for the basic concept.  Now if you want a fancier shape unzipping with lots of curves and effects you've got a lot of practice and experimenting to do, but that's the above is the basic starting point.

Hope that helped.

Oh, and in some cases, say with a clothing item that doesn't have a mesh you can pull apart for a zipper, its easier to modifiy the mesh first, and then export that back to Poser as a new version of the clothing item.  If you were careful to keep the UV Map positions the same you can still use the same texture maps, but it'll effectively be a new clothing prop that you can now add all the zippers to you want.

NOTE - if you bought the mesh, its still basically someone elses mesh so you can't resell it, its considered a derivative work and still their copyright.  Your morphs can't be exported because they won't work with the original unmodified mesh and I don't know of any way to export the changed mesh without violating their copyright.  But its fine for personal use.

Thanks for the overview. I will look into it later today.

I don't buy anything, I create my own meshes. I haven't downloaded even a freebie in quite some time.

I will post any progress I make...

If you're that used to making meshes you'll probably be cranking out morphs in no time.  I think that's what stops most people from doing more morphs, they don't know how to directly edit the mesh and resculpt it.

Look forward to seeing what you come up with.  I'm hoping to start making clothes myself eventually but I've got a few other things I want to improve my skill level with first.

Oh, one other thing about morphs that might help you.  A morph is basically an instruction to move a vertice from point A to point B.  That's all that is really happening (which is why you can't add or delete verts when creating a morph target).  It does this in a linear fashion, a straight line.  That's something to keep in mind when making your morphs.

You're first zipper will probably open in a simple V   But you may notice that in the real world zippers don't usually open quite like that, there are curves in the shape of the zipper and fabric as they opens.  That's where things get complicated, but once you understand the basic process and that things move in straight lines then its a matter of giving it multiple instructions... that is.. multiple morphs

So you might make a zipper partially unzipped with some nice curls in the fabric.  Then a second morph say 1/2 down with more curves and changes in the shape.  The more morphs you add the more detail in your unzipping.  Then in Poser when actually using them, apply each morph in sequence, and you get a more realistic effect.  That's the real trick, the ability to get things to move in a way that makes sense and looks realistic and that's where the real skill comes in. 

There might be a simpler way of doing that, if there is I'd welcome anyone chiming in cause the above is the only way I know to do it and if I can improve... well sure!

You may try the cloth room. If you assign the verties of the zipper as  a series of groups which you can assign to decorated or a group with very low stretch stiffness and make the facets invisible, you may get the effect of a zipper.    

My first effort didn't fair well.

But I do have a really nice body suit for Sydney as Black Cat...

I may release it as is, without the zipper morph. The fur is my next hurdle. I am playing with doing it as a prop vs the hair room. I think it would look better and not be a system killer.

No renders until I am happy with it, sorry.

You can create a shader for the fur using displacement.

Whenever you're ready, we're looking forward to seeing a render. :D I'm glad Sydney's getting some love. Those G2 ladies get ignored too much.

Thanks. I got into Poser with Poser 8, and Sydney was the most interesting of the figures, so I used to use her a lot. Since Poser 9, I have been doing a lot of stuff with Miki, but I figured I would go back to Sydney and see what I could do for her. Once I get a good shader for the fur, I intend to apply it to her hair too, to get that platinum blonde look. If it works.

However I couldn't make it work as a single morph, because it would have to follow the curve of Victoria's leg and, as noted above, morphs move only in straight lines. The options here were to have five morphs and only use one at a time, or go for geometry switching. In the end I settled for the latter, but that's a whole new can of rigging worms. ;)  

The zipper I am modeling doesn't have to move that far, only about 6 inches in real life, so I think I can get away with a morph.

I had decided to shorten it after my first attempt didn't fair well, and then gave up on the idea all together.

I think I will just leave it as is, and come back to the zipper morph when I have a little more time and patience.

To get past the limitation of a morph only working in a straight line, you can stack a series of morphs to move the zipper. This should be fairly easy to set up with Poser 8+ where you can use the dependency editor to link the morph succession to a master dial. The morph stack will perform like the key frames of an animation when the zipper dial is used.