the latest attempts by me
UV mapping of the cloth seems the most important factor along with one material zone on clothified bit
I set up collision shape (and save the preset) for all the body parts on the Avatar under settings
then in PhysX choose edit weight map and select mostly lowers, uppers are usually a mess, hair is good or on a DAZ figure a cape or skirt if one piece and flatmapped
I use the gradient falloff map for my weightmap which one depending on cloth UV, lowers mostly black on top fading to white below.
a solid pinned one tends to break up too much
I did sideways versions of the two supplied as well, the darkest end being the pinned bit.
adjusting contrast and brightness usually needed but iClone realtime makes this easy in by frame mode.
self collision checked is usually needed too but my cloths will not collide well with each other.

I have started playing with this as well, so a thread to share experiences will be very helpful.

I ran into a problem with one DAZ dress, where iClone complained that the mesh to be created exceeded 20,000 polygons or something after applying the weight map. So apparently there is a limit.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that getting the collision settings right can also be quite a challenge.

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When it doesn't look real it looks unreal and contrived.

Is it good enough? Probably acceptable enough since it doesn't get any better.

yes a lot of my DAZ clothes too many polys
most are far too complex
yes I agree even silk a bit stiff but lessening the weightmap it goes all stretchy and messy
is a fine line, reason I want this thread, to share settings on parameters, others to try and share etc, maybe mesh itself needs a certain quality like triangles not quads though iC triangulates it anyway.

Could you explain...:unsure:

There is no EZ button for soft cloth, so as with everything you have to put effort in it. That is the purpose of this thread, so you are welcome to post your own contributions and experiences once you have actually used it.

The best results in a particular situation are obtained when running the soft cloth frame-by-frame as a simulation and then baking the animation. This is an improvement in IC6. In IC 5 you could not bake the animation.

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Marvelous Designer 2

http://www.marvelousdesigner.com/

I am a 3D character modeler at a gaming company, how can I best use Marvelous Designer in my workflow?

Most 3D character modelers at gaming companies use Marvelous Designer to model characters’ clothing quickly. After creating a character using your 3D software, you can easily import it into Marvelous Designer as an OBJ or Collada format and create and drape clothing onto it. When you have completed creating the clothing, you can export everything as OBJ to bring it back to your initial 3D software. Marvelous Designer also supports raising or lowering the number of polygons, so you can freely optimize the number of polygons for your characters’ clothing.

I am a 3D character animator at an animated film studio, how can I best use Marvelous Designer in my workflow?

Marvelous Designer can be integrated quite simply through importing/exporting OBJ and cache files. For 3D character animators, Marvelous Designer is able to provide the different importing/exporting formats according to the 3D software you use; Users can import/export the character animation as a Maya cache format for Autodesk Maya, point cache 2 format for 3dsMax and Soft Image, and mdd format for Lightwave, Cinema 4D, Soft Image software. Animators are are able to work on their 3D clothing animation freely.

I am a DAZ / Poser user, how can I best use Marvelous Designer?

Most of our DAZ/ Poser users enjoy creating and draping clothes for their character models. You can import your character as OBJ format and learn how to create 3D clothing with the series of tutorials on our website. Also, feel free to join in on user discussions on our forum.

Can I make my own avatar?

You can import an avatar using OBJ, Collada, and STL file formats.
When importing your avatar, make sure to set the scale to "CM (Centimeter)" because the default scale in Marvelous Designer is "MM (Millimeter)".

Can you make bags, beds, etc?

Yes, you can, in fact you can create anything to do with fabrics. Here is a tutorial on how to make bags in Marvelous Designer. http://vimeo.com/18261988

Does Marvelous Designer support quad mesh feature?

No, we do not support the quad mesh feature at the moment, but we are working to release this feature soon.

Are there any pattern presets that I can use? Where can I get them?

Yes, we offer many types of basic pattern templates that users can start with.
Please download here: http://211.191.168.213/data/ETC/cloth_web_Free_stuff.zip

You rent the program $30 per month or $360 for one year in advance payment, otherwise $60 per month

I'm not sure if you can still purchase 2. I did way back the small business version that came with the animation plugin also. Oh how I wished then I could get point cache out of max and into iC5. As MD will export that data to max.

I skipped Marvelous Designer 3 as I saw not great incentive to upgrade, but have only a month ago upgraded to Version 4 as you also have the option now to use either tri's or quads on your export meshes.

It is not cheap but is good at draping cloth. Wendy I know a lot (not personally) that use MD for creating cloth for use in Daz and Poser.

You could always download the trial version and see how it goes if I can help with any questions with my limited knowledge just shout :)

Duchess Designs Store 

If you look at the V4 specs it now supports quad mesh.

There is also a Licence Perpetual which is a one off payment I think it is $550 then that is a unlimited lifetime purchase for that version, during the first year you will get all the updates etc.

After that you would need to upgrade somewhat like iClone does it.

This is a mesh I did the other week.

Duchess Designs Store 

Duchess it is really cool you are into this.

I will certainly be looking for your clothing items for IC6.

Since, I've not had any time to work with IC6 characters I no idea what is going to happen with clothing for IC6.

It will be good, if clone cloth is a thing of the past. Developers that use tools like MD, should really be positioned well. It might be easier to develop clothing within Daz or Carrara, passing through 3DXchange to iclone a completed clothed character.

Sadly I already used up my trial of MD a couple years ago and did not get very far, was too busy doing other things.