Well, not exactly everything you wanted to know. I'm hardly an expert. However, I do have a fair amount of general 3D modeling experience and few poser clothes projects under my belt, so I may be able to share some info. I'm starting this thread to separate it out of the Victorian Village thread :)

For starters, there is a show and tell thread on content paradise, where you guys can see progression of a whole project. A wizard robe fopr Apollo Maximus which is almost finished now. If you have patience to cruise through 40 some pages, there's a lot of workflow information in there.
http://www.contentparadise.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6151&page=43

Now, while I'm trying to figure out what else to say... please do feel free to jump in with questions!

Wooeee! That was quick! Great stuff connie!

Thanks very much for sharing

Yeah, thanks.  I've already looked at the content paradise thread - well 3/4 of it before content paradise died.

One thing I wanted to know was how you actually start.  Do you need to have a figure in the modelling program in order to model something for that figure?

Also how do you decide what to model?

In terms of ease of modelling, that is.  Like what sort of clothing is easy to start with yet gets you into the right way of doing it - it's no point modelling a scarf that could easily be draped over the shoulders of any figure with minimal adjustments.  I mean a real - and useful - piece of clothing?

How do you do morphs?

Hey guys and gals :)
I'll try to anser one question at the time...

**HOW DO YOU START?

**Once you decide whic figure you want to make clothes for, you DO want to have it inside your Modelling application. Think of it as your "sewing dummy".
Just like in the real world, when you make clothes, in 3D you also need a model to know where in space to put things, and how to size them.

There are several ways to get your figure in the modelling application, but the basic concept is about the same. You either take a "zeroed" figure from poser and export an OBJ file of it, or you look for the figure geometry in poser's geometries folder.

There are scaling and grouping details that one has to pay attention to, but I'm not going to get into those. They won't kake a lot of sense untill you try it a few times hands on, and for that, you're best off following a tutorial which is specific to your application combo.  There are several tutorials here on rendo getting into deatils of it. (I'll look for a few as well)

*Few tips:  
-If you are modelling a body piece, like a dress which will not flow around the head, fingers or toes, feel free to delete those meshes from yor sewing dummy. They are likely to get in the way, or eat up system resources.

-Create more then one sewing dummy. I have Torso only, Torso with arms and legs (but no fingers or toes), Head only (without tongue, teeth or eyes - for clothes modelling thye just eat up resources). Shins and feet only, for shoe modelling. Hands and forearms only for gloves.

-If your application allows it, as soon as you import your sewing dummy, lock it in place. This way you will NEVER... hopefully never accidentally move it out of place, and have clothes not fall in the right place when you finally bring it back into poser. This is not the end of the world, but if you're not at home with coordinate systems and scaling, it's been known to cause headaches ;)

-Personally, I like to either weld together or group various poser groups into one, on my 'sewing dummy'. That way I only have one object worry about accidentally moving or messing up and fewer colors to get in the way, visually, when I'm concentrating on creating a piece of clothing. 
I save a different sewing dummy to use as a grouping template.*

About inspirations and how to decide what to model.

Inspiration can come many ways. Somethimes it's something you see in stores or in a magazine that inspires you, somethimes it's something you designed from scratch, sometimes you feel like following a popular trend. I particularly like seeing what people in the forums are asking for, and then picking an item that trips my trigger.

My moods change, so does what inspires me.  Being that this is a hobby, I allow myself this luxury. I don't want to turn it into work, where I'm obligated to stick with a project on a deadline. I already have a full time job like that. Artsy side of 3D is an outlet for feelings and ideas that don't get attended to at my regular work.

Very often there are several things at once that I can ge inspired with. Which one to actually model depends on who much free time I have in the near future. Another consideration is difficulty level. I like to tackle things that will make me learn new tricks. Again, provided I have time.

*Tips:
-Keep a notebook for ideas and inspirations, and keep it handy. Get yourself a favorite pen. Jot down ideas, clip things out of magazines and glue them in the notebook, print things out, write down snippets and quatations that trigger your interest. Play with it.

-When you're having a bah-humbug creative block, don't worry yourself. It shall pass. When in that mood, you can a little time to thumb through the notebook. Sometimes it happens to be one of the old ideas that renews the enthusiasam.*

I got loads of notebooks... and a lot of favourite pens, mostly shades of purple. Lol.

I put newspaper/mag clippings into a box, and have a little notebook in my handbag!

I put newspaper/mag clippings into a box, and have a little notebook in my handbag!

LOL, I just randomly opened one of my old notebooks, and the first thing I saw was a quote "Mever miss a good chance to stay silent"
I think it's trying to tell me something :blink:

ROFL!

Fran, since you asked about UV mapping in the other thread, and UV mapping is a part of making clothes, I'll make a suggestion here.

Thake a piece of clothing that you were going to throw away (old jeans or a t-shirt or a blouse).

Write on each piece what it is... Pants front - left leg, pants front right leg, left pocket, right pocket etc....     Now, take scissors or a sharp knife, and tear it along the seams till it's in single pieces.
Turn it all face up and laying nice and flat. Arrange it so it all fits in a square area. Make note of the direction of material grain.

It's even better if you draw some lines across the seams before tearing it up, so that part of the line is on one side of the seam, and the other half is on the other piece. Make each line different color, or number them.

When you're laying your piece flat, see where those halves of the lines are now. They were touching when the piece was together.

Yes, I do understand patterns in a dresmaking sense.  Used to make clothes for my kids. (Not that they were very good mind you!) Lol.

The difficulty starts when lots of bits are a similar size and shape once UVMapped, but you have no idea which piece is which or where it goes...

I hear ya, when someone else UV maps things, and gives you a template that's not labeled, it can be anyone's guess what things are.

One remedy top that is to have an OBJ and open it inside a UV map capable modelling ap (hexagon in my case) and explore. Highlight different parts of the object, and see where on the UV map they lay.

As far as painting textures, painting on a flat UV map template for anything but simple objects is a pain. This is one of the reasons why applications which allow you to paint directly on an object (and in a background create UV based flat image for you) are getting more and more popular. It's easier and often faster too.

Is Hexagon one that does allow direct painting onto an object?

Hexagon does allow painting texturing and bumpmapping an object. As much as I love hexagon for modelling, and UV mapping, I can't say that I used it for texturing.
I always find myself switching to Deep Paint (mostly) and to Zbrush for those tasks. 

I think familiarity has something to do with it. I just happened to learn texturing in Deep Paint and Zbrush before I got Hexagon. I've seen other people do some fantastic texturing in Hexagon.

There are few other apps that will do this, I think Modo and Silo do it. I hear there are some free ones out there that work similar. I think Blacksmith may do this too, but I can't say I followed what blacksmith is all about.

Well as I have Hexagon (even if I haven't yet been able to use it) and I don't have any of the others, nor the money to buy any others, I guess Hexagon it'll have to be.

I do have Cinema4D, but not bodypaint for it... sigh.

You'll be able to do a lot with Hexagon!
I use it for all of the modelling and UV mapping, in spite of having several other apps (including Max).  I'll have to experiment with it's texturing abilities too. 
The work I've seen done with it is very high quality

Hmmm, I have hex too when Daz was selling it for $20. I think I will load it onto my new laptop when I get it and have a play. Is the UI easy to understand Connie? I was also wondering if it can do 'sculpting' as in creases and bumps etc that we see with silo and other apps?

I just can't get past first base with Hexagon - I could really do with some basic to middling tutorials - basic to get me familiar with the interface and then middling to get into modelling.

Quote - Hmmm, I have hex too when Daz was selling it for $20. I think I will load it onto my new laptop when I get it and have a play. Is the UI easy to understand Connie? I was also wondering if it can do 'sculpting' as in creases and bumps etc that we see with silo and other apps?

Yes, it can do sculpting and bump mapping.
Hexagon UI reminds me a bit of Cararra. For some reason it clicked with me.
There's a set of startup videos that came with hexagon, if you look through your installed program files, they're in there.
I have them in C:Program FilesEoviaHexagon 2datadocdata

Watching those really helped me a lot.

I haven't installed Hexagon on this new hard drive yet - did those videos come with the download version?  I don't remember them from before.

Yes, the videos come with the download version. It's the only one I have :)

Theoretically, videos are accessible through help and documentation, but for a lot of people, videos don't start playing when you go through help.
What I described is the 'back way in' which worked for everyone i talked to

Those videos are great, but not very many people know they're there.... Their existance probably should have been emphasized more, somewhere in the program.

i will check them out when i download it. Thanks Connie.

Attached Link: wxWidgets

The hexagon readme mentions you can download it, but I dunno what it is, I certainly don't remember it from when I first downloaded it.

It also mentions a GLEW Library - a what???

Insert intense puzzlement smilie here

Also the link to the wxWidgets library download - is also very puzzling, there's a load of stuff there, but I have no idea how to figure out which one is appropriate for me.

Help?

Quote - do you know what a wxWidgets library is?

It's a software library, nothing to do with modelling.

Quote - It also mentions a GLEW Library - a what???

It's another library -> http://glew.sourceforge.net/

I think the mentions in the ReadMe are to libraries that are used to make Hex, not something you need to download (unless you want to make your own programs with them).

It's a programming thing, looks like something for people wom may be interested in making plug-ins (in a broad sense). I don't know much about it.

Quote - > Quote - do you know what a wxWidgets library is?

It's a software library, nothing to do with modelling.

Quote - It also mentions a GLEW Library - a what???

It's another library -> http://glew.sourceforge.net/

I think the mentions in the ReadMe are to libraries that are used to make Hex, not something you need to download (unless you want to make your own programs with them).

Gawd, no.  Thanks Nruddock, I needn't bother with it then.

Damn, I can't see the tuts - windows says it can't open them... bl**dy Bill Gates! :cursing:

Okay, about Tutorials...
I'm not the best to recommend them, because i seldom have the attention span to actually go through one. The learning curve for me is more like hinting and pecking, picking up bits and pieces hereand there, and making up stuff in between.

But there are places i like to go to for those bits and pieces... Don't worry too much about being software specific. Lot of modelling concepts are very similar from one3D software to the next. It won't hurt you to scan through things done in other software.

http://www.polyloop.net/
http://mystic-nights.com/poser/tutorials/offsite/Hexagon-tuts.html
http://www.3dtotal.com/

And of course, let's not neglect renderosity's own tutorial section.
I happen to like videos from speed modelling sessions. It's nice to see how people approach making things. One of the best things you can do (among other things) is to befrend your software's user manual. I'm guilty of forgetting it exists a lot more often then I care to admit.

Youtube has a growing collection of video tutorials too.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=3d+tutorial

Oh, and DAZ tut's and forum is worth while: http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/tutorial/0/-/?tut_cat=12

thanks connie, that is great stuff. Jen

sneaks quietly into the classroom :biggrin:

"

Quote - sneaks quietly into the classroom :biggrin:

"

And boofy throws a pencil at your ear....rats! Missed!.:tt2:

Ack! gets out her trusty straw and tissue

:scared: 
I surrender!!

Attached Link: C4DCafe Tuts

I do understand that a video showing proceedures in 3dsmax can be similar to processes in Wings, but when things are in totally different places and called by totally different names - it's just adding to the confusion.

YouTube vids may be interesting to watch as entertainment but are usually way too fuzzy to really distiguish what's going on as a tutorial.

I can however recommend one lot of tutorials - but only if you happen to have Cinema4D, and these are the 3DKiwi tutorials, he is so clear and his speed is not slow exactly but he makes sure you can see where his cursor is and explains why he's doing it...  He just makes it all seem so simple.  And following these tuts - is!

Having had to reinstall everything I'm off to re-download his tuts and start following them again, it's been a while since I did much with C4D.

3DKiwi's tuts are at C4DCafe: you have to be a member but it's free to join, or I wouldn't have been able to... (see link)

I agree that some of Rendo's and Daz's tuts are good.

I'm going to take a look at those mysticnights hexagon tuts that you mention, it would be so nice if I finally found something to help me understand that prog.  The interface is so confusing.

Thanks Connie for the links.

Are there any simple Hexagon tuts?  I've just tried to follow those MysticNights tuts, and it's impossible - they assume prior knowledge.

Quote - Are there any simple Hexagon tuts?  I've just tried to follow those MysticNights tuts, and it's impossible - they assume prior knowledge.

Fran-

You should check these new tuts out if you haven't already. They were done by E-Z and are fairly easy to follow.

John

forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php

John, I watched couple of videos - briefly. They are wonderful!!!
Thanks a milion for sharing!

**JohnMalv,
**
I hope they are easy, cos getting the tuts visible was a total pain - seems there was a missing .dll file in windows media player.

I tried about 3 different sets of instructions before I found one that worked....

Finally I can see the videos.

The good news is that this will hopefully mean that I'll have no further problems viewing tuts online... (hollow laughter)

Don't you just hate starting afresh with a new hard drive?

Thanks for the link, JohnMalv.

Conniekat8 - Glad they helped. I know I enjoyed them :)

FranOnTheEdge - Sounds like a codec problem but glad you got it figured out. Frustratin', ain't it?

I've gone through 3 hard drives this past 1 1/2 year. I'm in no mood to even talk about it haha. JohnOverTheEdge!!

Just a suggestion and no pressure for sure, but if you get a moment, you's (that really should be a word!) might want to drop a small "thank you" message to E-Z as he put a lot of time into those tuts. Hopefully he'll do some more :)

John
**
**

sticks her head back in looking for Connie

I don't have Hexagon, but have been playing around with Wings3D and Anim8tor {and of course my Zbrush and Poser 7} and cannot for the life of me figure out what thickness the clothing object needs to be....:crying:

And I used to be able to create texture maps with no problem in UVMapper....now all of a sudden when I apply the mapped texture onto my clothing item inside Poser, no matter what size the map, I always have stretched white seams on the sides of my clothes...~sniffle~

Any tips/pointers/smack upside da head....is most welcome :laugh:

*"Don't you just hate starting afresh with a new hard drive?"

Don't I just Know it! Transfering, downloading, uploading, and all the bits and peices in different spots! Add to that all the websites have to be logged into again....sigh...nearly done though.

Nearly done?  Heavens, it takes me months and months!

"Nearly done?  Heavens, it takes me months and months!"

Now I dont feel nearly as bad! I guess because I knew I was going to be getting a new laptop I started transfering stuff to discs early. I have most of the main stuff on, it is all the little bits and peices and my photos that will take the most time...sigh...

I think it's the websites that take the longest, I always forget to save the bookmarks often enough, or else I forget to import the saved bookmark file for ages and ages.

In fact I just imported the old one last week, luckily as I didn't save it often it wasn't that big, so it didn't take too long re-organising the new and the old.

But there are still programs I haven't installed and probably won't until I suddenly need them - and then can't find 'em!

Lol!

*I think it's the websites that take the longest, I always forget to save the bookmarks often enough, or else I forget to import the saved bookmark file for ages and ages.

Yeah! I go to the websites manually and then get so busy with the info and stuff that I forget to bookmark it.....until next visit....maybe???

I am trying very hard, not to do that!

Lol.

Dang, I didn't get any ebots telling there's been a chatter in this thred LOL...
I finally submitted the Wizard Robe to Rendo, for testing and passing into the marketplace (cross my fingers)!  Few more days before I can exhale!

On a different note, I was cruising DeviantArt just now and discovered some cool clothes related Hexagon tutorials I want to share here: http://lelu.deviantart.com/gallery/

hi Connie and co. I am still alive and kicking, just working OT and cant post at work anymore. connie can i ask you with the wizard robe, how did you take it from a closed 'dress' type of prop to an open robe?

Jen

I have attached a pic of a 'lab coat' i am doing a texture on for a friend and also wondered if you would know how to have the front open at all? Any info would be welcome.

thanks heaps.

Jen