So I finished a coat. It's rigged. I am not sure if I like it or not. But now only the belt and suit are dynamic.

The coat looks good. How does the rigging perform with poses applied?

It seems to work out pretty well. And I was able to adjust the thigh and shin bones on the coat to give it a more natural stance. There are some areas I had to hit with the morph brush to fix, but I will take those into account when I make the next coat. I downloaded the demo version of Marvelous Designer, and I am giving the tutorials a go through. I know I can't redistribute anything I make in there, but it will give me a great reference to model my own clothing. I just change the mesh from tris to quads.

I'm liking this coat, though I would just leave the collar wrapped around the neckline to the front of the coat. I'm not particularly liking the extra "lapels" below the collar. They don't really add anything to the design of the coat.

Miss B posted at 11:48PM Sat, 06 February 2021 - #4412156

I'm liking this coat, though I would just leave the collar wrapped around the neckline to the front of the coat. I'm not particularly liking the extra "lapels" below the collar. They don't really add anything to the design of the coat.

Yeah, that was a modeling error when I subdivided it. I didn't want to waste time cleaning up a model I am only using as proof of concept, so I left it in there.

rokket posted at 2:52PM Sun, 07 February 2021 - #4412164

Yeah, that was a modeling error when I subdivided it. I didn't want to waste time cleaning up a model I am only using as proof of concept, so I left it in there.

Ahhh, OK. I like lapels on a jacket or coat, but not having them attached in one corner just looks odd.

Yeah, that's where the subdivision split them because I made that gaff

Well at least you know what caused it.

Yeah.

I need a good UV mapper. One that UV unwraps. I've been trying in Blender, but I still can't get good results because I still don't really know how to use it. I don't have enough flexibility in Wings. And Roadkill isn't really good enough. I used to use 3DS Max, but my student license expired and I can't renew it.

UV Mapper Pro was suggested, but I can't purchase it because they don't have their secure server set up. It's been months. UV Mapper standard, the free version, doesn't allow you to relax the UV's.

I tried Ultimate Unwrap, but the demo version doesn't allow you to export, and I can't make heads or tails of the UI...

Ugh. All of the Blender tutorials are done by people with really thick, very hard to understand accents. Sheesh...

I've been using Blender for years, so I'm used to its UV Editor. Offhand, I can only think of one person who does good tutorials, and he's a member here, but most of his are for 3DMax, and some he also does for Blender, but I don't recall if he's ever done any for the Blender built-in goodies such as the UV Editor.

OK, I just checked his YouTube Channel, and I don't see anything like what you're looking for.

Miss B posted at 5:58PM Mon, 08 February 2021 - #4412318

I've been using Blender for years, so I'm used to its UV Editor. Offhand, I can only think of one person who does good tutorials, and he's a member here, but most of his are for 3DMax, and some he also does for Blender, but I don't recall if he's ever done any for the Blender built-in goodies such as the UV Editor.

OK, I just checked his YouTube Channel, and I don't see anything like what you're looking for.

Thanks for looking. I have been playing with Blender for a few hours. I am making progress. I just have to get resolute about learning Blender and stop going to Wings 3D by rote.

rokket posted at 8:06PM Mon, 08 February 2021 - #4412348

Miss B posted at 5:58PM Mon, 08 February 2021 - #4412318

I've been using Blender for years, so I'm used to its UV Editor. Offhand, I can only think of one person who does good tutorials, and he's a member here, but most of his are for 3DMax, and some he also does for Blender, but I don't recall if he's ever done any for the Blender built-in goodies such as the UV Editor.

OK, I just checked his YouTube Channel, and I don't see anything like what you're looking for.

Thanks for looking. I have been playing with Blender for a few hours. I am making progress. I just have to get resolute about learning Blender and stop going to Wings 3D by rote.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm assuming you're playing with the latest Blender 2.91? I'm still using 2.79 because I'm so used to the UI, I hate to start learning a new one. I will have to eventually, because they have some new tools for 2.8 and 2.9 which aren't available for 2.79.

I know there's a great Blender class at Udemy, where I've been taking it, though I spend more time on the forums the instructors set up, then actually finishing up all the projects. If you're interested, let me know, as they have sales often, so somewhere in the $9.99 to $12.99 range for lifetime access. I just passed my 4th year back in November.

I will look into things like that after June. I am still sailing, and my internet access on the ships is very limited. Once I quit this job and start working on a land job, I will have more time. But i can start figuring out Blender now... Yeah, I am on version 2.91 now. I can do a few things with it. I know how to use the shrinkwrap utility, and I can navigate around my models, but I don't know how to model with it yet. I've seen a lot of tutorials, but sometimes they go too fast and I don't really see how they are doing things. So I have to sit down and figure that out first. There are a lot of things about Blender that I can't do in Wings. I think I should learn the modeling aspect first, then I can move into the rest of what Blender can do. And it's A LOT.

Yes, that's why I'm recommending this particular class, though there's another one I'm thinking about, but you do need to start with the simpler things first, and then slowly add more complex things to your workflow.

Meanwhile, here's a link to the course I'm talking about. https://www.udemy.com/course/blendertutorial/

This way you can get an idea of what's available, as a lot is included. There's different instructors now than when I first started, but the projects these students are coming up with are really amazing, most of them done by folks who have never used Blender before. Just scroll down the page to the Course Content, and you'll get an idea of what's covered. There's over 35 or 36 hours of videos, so you can imagine how much is gone into for each project.

The forums are on another site, but I would suggest you buy the course at Udemy when you can, as they're a little cheaper. Let me know when you'll be able to take the class, and I'll keep an eye out for the sales, as I get emails from them almost daily about one sale or another.

I think, in 5 or 6 months, utilizing the web when I can, and the tutorials I already have, I should be pretty solid with Blender by the time I get quit my job. I know I will have plenty of time to learn it. I just have to get off my butt and actually open it instead of always defaulting to Wings.

EDIT: But I will check out that link. I remember you mentioning that course before. But time and money were always out of sync.

So after a couple tutorials and a few false starts, I finally figured out how to do the basics of UV mapping in Blender. This is the result. It's just a quick texture, and I have no inclination to do anything with it. But at least I figured out something else in Blender...

Here is the UV map I was able to create. I am not crazy about how the legs are splayed, but I was still able to work with it. Once I figure out how to get them to stay straight, I can do a better texture map.

OK, in Blender I always "mark seams" so I get separate pieces. For this jumpsuit, I would suggest marking seams at the shoulders so the sleeves are separate pieces, and again at the top of the thighs, so the legs are separate. Give me a little time, and I'll show you what I'm talking about.

Well, turns out I don't have any jumpsuits that I've created, so I can't really show you a screenshot of what it should look like, so I may copy your UV map above and mark it where I think you should add seams.

Or, if you want, you could send me a Site Mail with the OBJ, and then I can mark it so you can see it.

OK, this is really "thrown together", but it should give you an idea of where to mark the seams.

I included a seam for the collar area, but that's more for giving you the option of texturing it separately, or possibly making it invisible with a transmap if you want at some point.

As for the side seams, I usually start at the cuff of the sleeve at the underside of the sleeve, and continue down to the hem of the pants in one long seam. I then also mark a seam around the top of the sleeve that goes around the whole sleeve which, together with the seam cut down the whole side of the bodysuit, will give you a separate island for each of the whole sleeves.

Lastly, I cut a seam at the center top of the shoulders, but ONLY from the seam marked for the sleeves up to the top of the collar area. Since you would already have set up a seam for the underside of the sleeves, you don't need one across the top of the sleeves, as that gives you a couple more islands in the UV map you don't really need, UNLESS you were planning some special texturing down the top of the sleeves, and then I'm not sure I'd cut separate pieces for that in any case.

OK, I hope this helps. I don't usually make my UV maps larger than 4K, but 4096 is OK, and it gives you a lot of room to place each of the pieces with enough space between them to ward off color bleed when texturing. I would, however, check the mesh as in some places it's not looking smooth, especially in the front of the crotch area, where it looks like one of the verts is loose.

I thought about cutting the legs and sleeves from the body already. I was going over what I normally do in other apps, and that came to mind. If I was going to do the tops of the sleeves, I would normally just do a mirror of the pattern on the back. I don't like breaking my models up into too many pieces because it makes lining up the different elements a real pain. If I do break them up to get them flattened as much as possible, I tend to stitch things back together afterward. This is the first time I was able to even use Blender, so I was proud of that accomplishment. I still don't know how to resize the map. I don't know how to preview what I am doing to check for stretching or anything else. I was just happy to get what I had. I will keep plugging away at it until I am as familiar with it as I am Wings 3D.

Miss B posted at 5:23PM Tue, 09 February 2021 - #4412399

OK, in Blender I always "mark seams" so I get separate pieces. For this jumpsuit, I would suggest marking seams at the shoulders so the sleeves are separate pieces, and again at the top of the thighs, so the legs are separate. Give me a little time, and I'll show you what I'm talking about.

Marking the seams is exactly what I did. Every program I have ever used to create UV maps requires that, or you will get less that desirable results. I mark around the neck and the openings of the sleeves and legs too. I had to fix the model a few times because Blender's UV mapping isn't very forgiving of bad topology. That area of the crotch you were talking about is bad subdivision in Wings 3D, and I didn't notice it until you mentioned it. I had created this body suit for Roxy way back when she first came out, and I hadn't been modeling with topology in mind at that point. I didn't UV map it, and I figured that since I wasn't going to use it for anything, it would be a good model to practice with in Blender.

rokket posted at 5:54PM Tue, 09 February 2021 - #4412411

I thought about cutting the legs and sleeves from the body already. I was going over what I normally do in other apps, and that came to mind. If I was going to do the tops of the sleeves, I would normally just do a mirror of the pattern on the back. I don't like breaking my models up into too many pieces because it makes lining up the different elements a real pain. If I do break them up to get them flattened as much as possible, I tend to stitch things back together afterward. This is the first time I was able to even use Blender, so I was proud of that accomplishment. I still don't know how to resize the map. I don't know how to preview what I am doing to check for stretching or anything else. I was just happy to get what I had. I will keep plugging away at it until I am as familiar with it as I am Wings 3D.

OK, here's a link to a mini-tutorial I had done back in 2016 in response to a HiveWire member who was having issues with Blender because she wasn't used to using it. Needless to say, it might be slightly different in 2.9 as the general UI is different than my 2.79, but it might work.

Viewing Edit Mode and UV Editor Together

This is how I work with the UV Editor in Blender all the time. Check it out and see if it helps. I'm sure there must be a YouTube video, or two, about the different parts of Blender 2.9's UI, and where to find everything.

As far as resizing the map, once I have all the islands laid out the way I want them, I select them in the UV Editor window, and then click Ctrl+S (or whatever you use on a Mac instead of Ctrl) and resize it. Moving it inwards (I think) makes it smaller, and pulling it outwards makes it larger. Just leave enough space around the top, bottom, right and left sides of the UV map area.

That said, I wouldn't resize individual islands, as they have to be proportional, so resizing it all together is the way to go. When I've modeled a prop or environmental object with a lot of parts, I lay everything out even beyond the UV map area, select it all at once, and resize it down to fit in the UV map area, so doing the resizing of all pieces at once works well.

Thanks! I'll check that link out and give this another try, with another model.

I can't access Hivewire. I have been trying for days. I can't get in there.

The store is closed because HW is moving all their products here to Renderosity, and most of the CAs are doing the same with their products.

The forums, however, are still there, and will continue to be there. Hmmmm, I wonder why you can't access it. I know you haven't been there in a while, but that shouldn't make a difference. Anyway, I'll try to do it up again, and zip it up for you.

I don't really know what is going on. I haven't been able to get on the forums either in a few weeks now.

to get to the hivewire forums, you have to use https://community.hivewire3d.com/ rather than hivewire3d.com. Don't know why. The direct link MissB posted should open for you, at least it did for me. If you're still having problems, you might want to check your firewall incase the changes they made affected how your firewall is handling it.

RedPhantom posted at 1:02PM Wed, 10 February 2021 - #4412448

to get to the hivewire forums, you have to use https://community.hivewire3d.com/ rather than hivewire3d.com. Don't know why.

I think the "Home" page of the site was tied in with the Store, and when access to the Store ended suddenly, the Home page became non-accessible. I think they're working on getting the Store pages visible again, but I'm not sure when that'll happen.

RedPhantom posted at 8:05PM Wed, 10 February 2021 - #4412448

to get to the hivewire forums, you have to use https://community.hivewire3d.com/ rather than hivewire3d.com. Don't know why. The direct link MissB posted should open for you, at least it did for me. If you're still having problems, you might want to check your firewall incase the changes they made affected how your firewall is handling it.

I don't have a firewall up. I still can't access the link she posted. I don't know, maybe it's Firefox.

I was able to access the site using Firefox private browser. I bookmarked it again, but I don't know if I can access it, let me try.

EDIT: nope. I can't open it in a regular window. Kind of upsetting.

But I did view your tutorial, Miss B.

rokket posted at 8:47PM Wed, 10 February 2021 - #4412481

I was able to access the site using Firefox private browser. I bookmarked it again, but I don't know if I can access it, let me try.

EDIT: nope. I can't open it in a regular window. Kind of upsetting.

But I did view your tutorial, Miss B.

That's odd, as I'm using Firefox as well, and have been using it since version 4 (IIRC), and haven't had a problem visiting the HiveWire forum since it opened approximately 7 1/2 years ago.

I'm glad you did get a chance to see the tutorial. I did work it up as a web page, so if you want it, I can put the files in a zip file for you, so you can still have it for reference. Just let me know.

No, I think I can figure it out from this point. Version 2.91 is quite different than 2.79 that you were using, but the concepts are the same. I am going to give it a try in a bit, and I'll post the UV map when I get done with it.

Here is a suit that I made for Miki 4's turn as Supergirl. I took it into Blender and added a Decimate modifier to it, then cleaned up the topology a little bit. From there I added the seams as you suggested and then unwrapped it. This is the point in my workflow where I would take it back into Wings and start adding details and do a final subdivision. Eventually, I want to be able to do it all in Blender, but one step at a time... I have to get comfortable modeling there first, and that will be my next adventure.

One question? How do I view the effect of the UV map on the model in real time to make changes to the UV map like fixing seams or stretching, and be able to refresh the map to see changes taking place?

OK, and yes I know the UIs are different between the two versions, but I thought the "method" might be the same, or very similar.

Also, in case you don't have it already bookmarked, here's the latest Blender 2.91 Manual. As they get new versions, that link will show the most recent version of the Manual.

rokket posted at 10:27PM Wed, 10 February 2021 - #4412490

Here is a suit that I made for Miki 4's turn as Supergirl. I took it into Blender and added a Decimate modifier to it, then cleaned up the topology a little bit. From there I added the seams as you suggested and then unwrapped it. This is the point in my workflow where I would take it back into Wings and start adding details and do a final subdivision. Eventually, I want to be able to do it all in Blender, but one step at a time... I have to get comfortable modeling there first, and that will be my next adventure.

One question? How do I view the effect of the UV map on the model in real time to make changes to the UV map like fixing seams or stretching, and be able to refresh the map to see changes taking place?

Oh see now that looks nice. As far as how you would see it, you would have to "save" that UV map, set up a material file, and apply it to the suit. I can't think of any other way to test a UV map, other than to use it. You can apply simple colors to each piece, and see how they look. There might be another way, but I can't think of one offhand. Check the link I just posted for the Blender 2.91 Manual, and see if they suggest something better.

Edited to Add: One thing to remember . . . if you're using an overall fabric pattern, you should have the sleeve island on the map lying down from left to right (or right to left), OR be careful how you place the texture. That way the pattern on the sleeves will flow down as it will on the front and back of the suit.

Thanks! I didn't even think to try that. I'll download it and take a look. Yeah, your methods worked. But I still don't know how to see the results on the actual model. I know how to make materials, and I know that I can use a checker pattern that Blender already has. But I don't know how to preview the texture as I am working on the maps. That's what I am going to look for.

Take note of the paragraph I added to my last post about how to place overall patterns on the UV map of that suit.

I am going to go play with Blender a little bit more and see if I can figure things out. The manual wasn't much help...

Miss B posted at 10:38PM Wed, 10 February 2021 - #4412494

Take note of the paragraph I added to my last post about how to place overall patterns on the UV map of that suit.

I'll go back and read that...

Miss B posted at 10:42PM Wed, 10 February 2021 - #4412494

Take note of the paragraph I added to my last post about how to place overall patterns on the UV map of that suit.

Unfortunately, that button no longer exists in 2.91. I have to go down the rabbit hole on YouTube and see if I can find a tutorial on UV mapping in 2.91. Older tutorials won't help me much right now.

If you're going to be perusing YouTube, a good tutorial person is Grant Abbit. In fact, he teaches at Udemy, so checking out his tutorials would give you an idea of what kind of instructor he is if you decide to consider doing any of the Blender classes there later this year.

Another is Blender Guru. I've watched a number of his videos as well.

I found a pretty good one. I picked up a lot of tips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTd8NBg8EZU

I am going to check on Grant Abbit.

This was just a quick render done to see if I did things well. This is pretty cool. I haven't subdivided the mesh or anything at this point. I applied it to the render, but the original prop is still only around 1200 verts. The texture map was just thrown together. I didn't really spend any time on it. But now that I see that it will work well, I am going to go full blown on this and see what I can do with it. It's the Supergirl suit for Miki 4.

I kind of messed this one up. I am going to try it again tomorrow. It was going along fine until I started adding all that yellow piping...

This is better, but still not looking quite right. I can't figure out what is bugging me about it, but I will. The costume is twisted because she is. Maybe if I straighten her pose out, it will look better...?

Better...

I noticed that seam in her crotch. That isn't there by anything I did. It's because the texture I chose wasn't really meant to cover the UV island. So I picked another texture that was rendered seamless by me in GIMP. And it works. I am done with this now. I guess no one is really looking at my posts anymore. Oh, well...

Sorry I haven't been able to get back to you sooner. I'm having issues with getting to a few sites on my laptop the past couple of days, Renderosity being one of them. Right now I'm on my tablet, so can't get much done with it.

Anyway, I'm liking the way this turned out in the last render, so you are surely making progress with the Blender UV Editor.