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Making original Cloth / Accessories for a HUGE character?

Posted By Alon Dan 8 Years Ago
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Making original Cloth / Accessories for a HUGE character?

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Alon Dan
Alon Dan
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Hey All!

I'm trying to get back to iClone whenever I have some spare time to continue my project.
And I understand that the latest version of Character Creator, iClone, 3DXchange are much more dynamic and open that it used to be and that's wonderful!

I've followed some of the latest video tutorials from Reallusion and from other amazing members from the community to get the idea of how to merge my original content modeled with Blender to one of my Character Creator creatures.

Since I'm using Blender, there are some things that may be confusing to me and not work exactly as I wish while I'm still testing and learning how it's done.

The main problem I'm getting is that one of my Character Creator's creature is really BIG (about 3+ meter tall)
and when I'm trying to make clothes for this character using Blender, I'm getting many problems and errors when importing.
Errors something like... the bones won't match or something like that (sorry I don't remember).

I've tried to make cloth for one of the Templates and inside Character Creator saved it as individual custom item so I can just drop it on my HUGE 3 meter tall character... but it is not even close to what it should be and almost impossible to fix manually inside Character Creator with the mesh edit and the conform... 

If it was up to me, I wouldn't make the character 3+ meter inside Character Creator but scale it inside iClone for much easier life... but I couldn't scale the character in iClone (scale disabled for some reason, maybe I'm not doing something right).

BTW - It was super easy to add Shoulder Pads, Helmet or anything I could just Parent inside iClone... but cloth with physics... that's a bit more challenging for this huge character, I'm still doing tests in order to get it work.

So... what do you suggest me to do in order to make it work?
I just want to make original cloth and accessories to my characters with 100% success and no errors so I can finally start animating my project. 

Thanks ahead and sorry about my bad English.


Some early W.I.P. while I'm working on one of my favorite characters, still lots of things to do... 
https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/2cc3b3d7-945a-4010-b6fa-a31e.png
Alon Dan
Alon Dan
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Hey sw00000p!
Thanks for helping me in this.

OK, so forget about the scale thing I just used the character as already done in Character Creator.
I'm trying to follow your instructions.

Starting with Exporting from CC without the animation (if I understood that was why I got the errors)
I got the FBX + KEY files.

1 - Nevermind scaling (I skipped this, the character is already big)
2 - Modled the cloth (simple Vest, nothing fancy) perfect for the Character size.
3 - Adjust the skin weight in Blender, Done.
4 - EXPORT the new FBX with the cloth in Blender (with all the needed properties so it should work, I followed the tutorials) 

So far so good, Now...
Back to Character Creator, I import the FBX with the cloth from Blender, used the KEY file that CC created originally.

I even tried the original Templates of BaseMale.fbx from Reallusion... so I know it's nothing specific on my character.
I also double checked all my CC, iClone and 3DXchange are updated and have the latest versions.

But...... I get the same CRITICAL errors as I posted on my other thread. Sad

Did you ran into this?  I'm really confused,
I thought it will be simple to bring my clothes back to CC but no luck at all for me, if you have any ideas please guide me step-by-step if possible... I must be doing something wrong.

Thanks ahead!

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/67a635cb-f307-4799-ab52-2705.png
Rampa
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Did the materials get stripped out somewhere in your design process? The base materials must not be removed or have their names changed. Your cloth also must have at least one material.

Double check your materials in Blender.

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/999198d9-06a4-4b92-ae75-9a1a.jpg
Alon Dan
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Thanks for trying to help in this Rampa! 
BTW - I LOVE your tutorials on YouTube, very helpful! Smile

OK, so I'm afraid it's not the problem I took a screenshot to show maybe I missed something and you can see it.
In all the process I didn't touch the materials of the character at all, the only thing I've added a material to the Vest (cloth) and a simple ugly temporary texture while I made the UV's... maybe that's the mistake?

What's confusing me is that this error happens not only for this specific character, but also for the templates that came from Reallusion so I don't even know what I'm doing wrong but I know that it's NOT the character's fault, or a versions problem as I've mentioned earlier.

Any other solutions will be very helpful and appreciated!

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/522eba90-3887-4c23-a5eb-2263.png
Edited
8 Years Ago by Alon Dan
Alon Dan
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Yeah, I actually tried it with 3DXchange but then I get the Vest (cloth model) combined with the character, and it's coming to iClone as a Prop and not CC Character anymore... that's a huge problem for me, I can't use the vest as Physics Cloth (that was the idea).  and I can't really manipulate, edit, change the character or change it's cloth if I want... it's like using an old limited version.

I'm really trying everything I can so many experiments and tests even with the Factory Preset characters... but this error and the other Fail error are hugging me all the time, it makes me sad that I can't really keep on creating and model my characters and start the part that I'm waiting for: ANIMATING!

I can't just animate simple, boring characters, I have a vision in my head and I want to make it... but these errors stop me. Sad

Yeah, it may sounds like I complain but all I'm looking for is a solution to make it work, I know it works for everybody else.
I was super excited when CC 1.5 released: Finally I could make my very own original character designs!  

Sorry about my bad English, if you guys still have any ideas I should try to just make it work normally without going around (I believe that 3DXchange is not even needed in this specific workflow) PLEASE share your ideas and solutions with me! 
I appreciate it a lot, thank you all for your time! Smile

Alon Dan
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Thank youf or the encouraging kind words Sw00000p! I appreciate it a lot Smile

The thing is that I really want to animate inside iClone, and not in Blender so baking in Blender (I didn't try it yet but I think Alembic is now a new feature in Blender). may works with 3DXchange FBX... (again the all Character Creator dynamic idea will not be available for me which is kind of sad, I love this tool a lot for Humanoid characters.)

But this idea is something I really want to test, especially with anything that is not Humanoid... may be complicated for me right now but when I'll get there, I know that you can guide me since you're already experienced with it! BigGrin

So... I wonder if anybody else ran into this issue? and how do they solve it... I'm curious maybe something in my installation is wrong.
Just to be sure I uninstalled everything and Re-Installed fresh most updated downloaded files from Reallusion and tried again so... I don't know what's really the problem and why it works great for everybody else.

I'm not giving up yet... but I'm running out of ideas YAY! :|
Alon Dan
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Ban? LOL! My friend, you're honest and I think everyone in the RL community appreciate your AMAZING help!
You are a real TREASURE for this community and a very honest person from what I got, and I like it a lot about you.

I totally agree with the FREEDOM in software such as Blender (I know it's no 3DS or Maya etc.. but I already fall in love with it a few years ago and still learning it whenever possible).

But as an animator (I'm originally 2D Animator as my professional for 10+ years) Animating in Blender is nice, but not yet close to the FUN and FAST animating in iClone, that is why I chose to make my upcoming project in iClone.

Since Blender's "realtime" isn't that fast even with all options and what not, it's not the same... and rendering OpenGL tests every time I want to check the timing is a very time consuming.

Also, I'm very impressed with the upcoming PBR rendering that will probably come to the future version of iClone and that will may even convince me to not import to UE4 at all, but just do even more inside iClone and I'm very excited about what Reallusion cooking for us.

So, what I'm saying is... I agree with you, it seems weird that RL take some freedom from the Import / Export and make it much harder and even in my case... not working at all (for now until I'll find a solution) BUT I do understand their model, they are thinking about the protection of the workflow between all their software connected, that's why the KEY files came with CC 1.5 so it make sense to me and I respect their way.   it doesn't make it should be like that, because yeah... it looks like a longer way to make export/import works but if somehow it will work for me, I'll be happy to start animating.

This week I've said to myself... Why won't I just start animating the characters naked... with the factory clothes... but sorry,
I can't give up yet, I actually have a vision in my head how exactly things should look, what clothes they have, accessories etc...

I even modeled a full Temple in Blender for the scene and was excited to start animating on it...... ehhh, unfortunately instead of animating I found myself fighting with errors and fails that I don't even know how to pass.

I still have a hope that one of the official RL members are already familiar with these errors I get and will be able to point on the issue that I just did wrong and tell me how to fix it easily.

I'm pretty sure that there is something I'm doing wrong, but after following all the video tutorials that are there related to CC and Blender... it works PERFECT for everybody but not for me, so I'm getting sad because my freedom of creation is limited by errors. Sad


Again, Sorry about my bad English.
Rampa
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Are you able to get a non-clothed character to import properly into CC? Import the FBX base into Blender and re-export it. If it works, your problem is half solved. If it does not work, then we know where to start searching for the problem. Smile

Alon Dan
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rampa (9/29/2016)
Are you able to get a non-clothed character to import properly into CC? Import the FBX base into Blender and re-export it. If it works, your problem is half solved. If it does not work, then we know where to start searching for the problem. Smile


Yes, I can import from CC to Blender and back (without the cloth or any extra model) with no problem.

I've just tested again exporting FBX from CC > Export to Fbx > Clothed Character (creating KEY file) to Blender, and back.
Because my character is already very modified (sculpted and such as seen earlier on the screenshot).

* I've tried with and without the Animation when exporting to Blender, I don't think that matters in my case, same results.

What I do after this step is like in the tutorial of the Pirate by Reallusion, all the skinning works perfect as I follow along.
Then... importing back, well... you already know the errors I get.

So without clothing or extra model it works fine, any other ideas will be very helpful, Thanks ahead Rampa! Smile
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8 Years Ago by Alon Dan
Rampa
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Something seems to be going wrong with the clothing step.

On a related note, I have found that scaling a character extremely large in CC causes quite a bit of distortion in the clothing. This is also the case if you try and put normal size CC clothing onto a huge imported character. So you are doing the right thing making the clothing huge in Blender.

Have you successfully imported a normal-size avatar with clothing into CC?



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