Attached Link: http://www.digitaldreamsds.net

Ok, I've searched and searched, and I have gotten no where. I still have trouble using the forum search... lol I want to make conforming and dynamic clothing for V4 and... well all the figures eventually, and I need to know where to start. I can do the modeling for the most part... but what comes after that has me dumbfounded... SO... Anyone that has tutorials, tips, hints suggestions PLEASE send me some info.

eek, that's the hard part. I'm pretty sure that bot philc and dr. geep have some tutorials out there, I can't remember where, but I'll look. Personally, Phil's tuts are myfavorite. They're VERY easy to follow, so if you can get one of those, you'll be set.

yes, there's definately a tutorial at phil's site. http://www.philc.net/tutorialsIndex.htm

he's a great artist and has GREAT customer service.

From what I gather, as I have also been wanting to learn to model my own clothing articles for Aiko, those that do know like to keep it a well kept secret. as I have googled  until im blue and come up with nothing. I have the texturing part down, Im lost at how to make the actual clothes, I  know some in lightwave, but again, I have googled beginner tuts on clothing modeling and ive yet to find anything that relates to making clothes for poser figures

Well... I can't help much with conforming clothes, I hacn't gotten that part figured out myself yet, but for dynamic, you need the clothing to be all one object without body parts or anything like that. For some reason, I always put them into OBJ format, but I can't remember if you have to do that or if I'm just doing it out of habit. Anyway, once you have the object in one big figure, import it into the scene with V4. Make sure that there are few if any little bits where her skin shows through. Then you just pop into the cloth room like with any other clothing, and go eat dinner while it calculates ; ) . Those are the easier kind, but you just don't get that look that you get with conforming. I'll let you know if I ever figure it out, I'm working on a pair of overalls for Laura.

(The above pic is just to show what can be done with dynamic clothing, even by a total ham-fisted babboon like myself...)

Regarding (just) the modelling of clothes...

1. You need a separate modeling app. It can't be done in Poser (except for making dynamic Poncho's by using the grouping tool to cut a hole in the he-res square...)

2. Wings and Blender are both free modelers, and links for them can be found in the relevant forums here at 'Rosity.

(I don't use either, 'cos I've got Hexagon 2, which I picked up very cheap a year or so ago, but since both Hex and Wings are primarily box-modelers, the following should pertain to both..)

1. It's much easier to create dynamic clothing as opposed to conforming. For dynamic clothing, the only real requirement is to keep the mesh polys failrly uniform in size and fairly small. For conforming, you need to have extra polys around the areas that bend, and you need to separate it into different bits which you the combine back together in the set-up room, complete with all the bending info that is needed. So start with dynamic. (I prefer dynamic anyway - although it takes longer for a pose to be transferred to the cloth, the results are, IMHO, better. Mostly.)

2. The "How". In Poser, load the figure you're going to make the clothing for. Zeroise it (don't forget to turn off IK before you do that). Possibly use Figure->"Drop to floor" after zeroising. Export the result as a Wavefront .obj file - this is your mannequin, around which the clothing will be built.

3. Close Poser, open up your modeling app. Import the mannequin. To save memory, you can then select and delete any parts of the mannequin that aren't relevant (eg, if you're doing  short-sleeved dress, you can get rid of the head, most of the arms, and some of the legs, depending on how long the dress is going to be). If you know in advance, you can speed things up by not exporting those bits from Poser in the 1st place..)

4. If you modelling app supports it (most do), lock the mannequin so you don't affect it by mistake.

5. Continuing with the "create a dress" paradigm, create a box/cube and position it near the middle of the figure, usually centered on the belly-button. Scale the box such that it completely encloses the figure (no poke-through). At this point, keep the box totally regular (that is, a perfect cube, all sides square). Don't start too big, just enough to cover the waist area.

6. Extrude up and down for the length of the dress. Try to keep the size of the extrusions uniform. You will be sub-dividing soon, and the object here is to keep the mesh "even".

7. You have a series of cubes that extend from approximately the top (neckline) of the dress down to the bottom (hemline) of it. Using orthogonal views, pull the horizontal edges in or out to approximate the shape of the figure. You don't need to be too exact yet.. If your modeler supports it, symmetry and/or mirroring can be a great help here (for the front view, at least).

8. Subdivide. This will split each polygon into 4. Depending on the app and/or the subdivision method applied, it may also "round" bits. Regardless, start tweaking. Move the vertices closer to the mannequin (or outward if necessary). Either at this stage or after the next subdivide (it varies), you'll need to remove the faces the cover the neck, arms, legs. As nd when that shoul be done is dependent on the model being created. If you're doing a long-sleeved dress/shirt, then you should extrude those along the arm first. The idea is to create a fairly "coarse" image of the clothing required.

9. If  you've kept up with me so far (remember - this is for dynamic clothing), then the next thing you should probably do is to tweak things to give the neckline. This can be difficult, but sinnce each neckine is different there's no hard-and-fast rules. I still have problems with this area (and with sorting out the shoulder, among other things).

12 - there is no 12 (I've run out of alcoholic inspiration - and the alcohol too.). But basically, after you've got it all roughed out it tends to be "subdivide, tweak, tweak, tweak...subdivide, more tweaking...) til it looks right.:-)

Rather longer post than I intended, but there you go (some secrets revealed)...

Cheers,
Diolma

It will work best with single-sided continuous meshes.  If you have a clothing prop with breaks in it, the breaks will need to be welded either in the conversion process, or if they are too large, in a modeling app.  Things like metal rings holding parts together, e.g. on the panties that come with V4 Complete/Pro, will not work very well (the "metal rings" will act like cloth and will not hold their shape).  Clothing with an inner and outer later of polys right against each other will not work very well either.

Good luck!

Diolma, thanks for your insight, Im using lightwave so Im making an attempt to apply what you have said to it. in the screen shot of what I have done so far, I have that wicked uneven neckline and bottom of shirt line, that Im trying to figure how to make even.

I create Dynamic clothing in 2 apps.

First I start in Poser.

Like above I take the figure, zero its joints, but instead of exporting the object I render an image of the front and side cameras (filling the entire vertical of the render with the figure.

Then I jump into Milkshape3D.
this is where I create my base mesh and shape. I use milkshape 3D simply because Im used to it (from modelling objects for TES:Oblivion)
this is basically just a simple version giving the basic shape only. export to obj.

next I jump into zbrush2 and increase the mesh density by 4 or 5 levels and smooth it out and and any folds etc I want and export it to obj again.

Back in poser, I import the object, scale and position on the figure, and then use magnets to push and pull the cloth into position around the body in the way I want. depending on the type of clothing object, I might go between poser and zbrush a few times, using zbrush to add realistic details to the cloth mesh.

the final step, once Im happy with the model is to head back into Zbrush and paint a texture on the mesh and create a bump map.

dunno if this helps you any though LOL

Hi sweetpegster..

I don't have Lightwave, (can't afford it) so I don't know what it can do.

However, from the screen-shot you provided (btw - did you know that you can get images directly into your posts here via the "Attach a File" entry, a bit below the Reply box? - makes things easier if you know that), errmm - where was I? Oh yes, now I remember- your shirt.

IMHO, it's too close to the figure, and too complex. Think of the way that cloth actually drapes (this works for both conforming and dynamic). Cloth makes "short-cuts" in the geometry. - IE - it doesn't follow the figure's outline precisely (unless it's a latex body-suit, in which case it's better done via other methods, such as second skin, but that that's not we're on about here..)

You don't need to model the cloth so that it follows the exact outline of the figure (especially from top to bottom). Take a walk outside and look at girls wearing T-Shirts (a wonderful excuse - you're researching..:biggrin:)

The cloth below the breast-line doesn't follow the figure's shape - it drapes down to the next lower profile. Similarly, between the breasts, the cloth doesn't follow the undrlying body, it stretches between the two sides.

Think "Cloth". Look at some real Tee-shirts - see how they're "constructed" - where the seams are, how the (real) cloth is structured. Imagine how the clothing would fit the figure t's intended for.

Umm.. I have lots more to say on his subject, but I really, really must go to bed now. 'cos I'm a) drunk and b) past it...

Cheers,
Diolma

Hope that helps..