While playing around with other 3D software, I notice that my character is a different size based on the program and format.  OBJ looks proper sometimes and gigantic sometimes, or FBX or both... I have been demoing a ton of things lately LOL.  Being that I have some highly morphed characters, and I do compare to the base characters exporting both to iClone to put side by side to check, height, proportion  and so on...  get them as close to a standard character size....   For example... props.  I bought this pickup truck that looks HUGE next to any character but they fit inside proper. Almost, I think I had to reduce a couple of characters when I first bought it.  So, if I am exporting to make clothing for these oddly deformed bodies, I would like to know that the clothing I export will still be the proper size in CC3.  

Also... I am still having issues getting FBX keys to properly import.  Even using the create clothing feature.  I can bring the item in as an accessory, can it then be converted to clothing?   I made a simple skirt, and it imported and fit fine as an accessory, but could not get it in as clothing with FBX.  Always errors.  Something about attached to wrong bones.  I have no idea what that means, I just put an object over the model and built around it, not to it or on it.

I made a basic skirt.... Where this skirt fits well in the T pose, any other pose the legs extend the fabric.  It is an accessory so not sure if that can be put on and manipulated like cloth. I cannot create cloth from the fbx.

Maybe I should have lead with this question since I can rarely import FBX without error and have it work.



Graphic Design, PHP Programming, More - Applebite Media
(www.applebitemedia.com)

I am not an expert, but this I do know, in order for the clothing to work on the avatar, you have to transfer skin weights in CC3.
You need CC3 Pipeline to transfer skin weights, when you make your own clothing. 

If you want to import clothing, hair, shoes or accessories then you use the same process to start with. That is go to Create > Accessory from the Menu Bar. Once you do this follow the instructions given on the page below depending on the type of content you are importing. Note: You don't use the option Create > Cloth, Hair, Acc (With FBXKey) for importing 3rd party content or content you have created yourself from scratch.

https://manual.reallusion.com/Character_Creator_3/ENU/3/Content/Character_Creator_3/3/08_Creating_Custom_Assets/Creating_Assets_with_Transfer_Skin_Weights.htm

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

The height of a selected character is displayed in CC (Ctrl-F toggles the display for that, I believe).

The standard unit in iClone and CC is centimeters, so the default grid is 1x1 meter. 

---

This is good information, thank you!!!

Ok, so using the create clothing from fbx is out..... But now I wonder, if you cannot use that to import self created clothing, what can you import with that?

I did use Create/Accessory to import a top I have made.... but I did not make it form fitting, I wanted something baggy/sloppy.... I did apply the weights to the cloth but did not fine tune as I have seen in a video... and was getting the body passing through the cloth. It did seem the rest of the top worked well... I imported into iClone and it moved with the body and bounced with the breasts.  I am assuming that there is no way to set collisions outside the clothing to get the arm to brush over it and not go through it.... is that correct?

I noticed that it was 2 days since my last post when I posted this yesterday.... I cannot believe I lost 2 days.... I have literally been spending 16+ hours a day trying to get a grip on this.   Mostly demoing different software.... but that is pointless since I will most likely be sticking with blender.  Although I did watch a video for Cinema4D that said the clothing in there was not as bad as the rest of the program LMAO.... another here mentioned that it was not that great...... but for 3500.00, I want something that is more than "not that bad!"  hahaha.

And although I may not purchase that program or rent another... it was very helpful watching all the different methods in making garments.....  and although the procedures may be different, there are enough common factors that have transferred between software that have helped me understand the method in the current software I was trying at the time.

Thanks again... any other tips would be awesome!!!







Graphic Design, PHP Programming, More - Applebite Media
(www.applebitemedia.com)

I'm not really into clothes-making, but I have reused old G5 iClone clothes and used the OBJ format for exporting and reimporting.

Hopefully there's a guru out there to give you some further helpful tips.

---

Ok, so using the create clothing from fbx is out.....

Ever since first version of CC I've been using FBX to make cloth. Long before CC acquired rigging feature (there was simply no other way).
You just have to be careful with avatar, armature, modifiers and make sure you do not change anything before exporting from Blender.
Also make sure you do not leave any non-rigged mesh before export. Worse yet if you leave a curve, it would come up with fail to import in CC.
Just properly attach your cloth to armature and transfer weight paint from body.
And the only thing you need to tick off in export settings is "Add Leaf Bones" (with Blender Auto Setup is it automatic I believe, but I still use regular way for modeling).

About baggy cloth, it is always a problem with arms. It would go through the body regardless.
All you can do, is to try to  fiddle with weight paint and mesh edit until you get more or less satisfactory fit with movements.

There is also cloth physics. But that is another story. For upper body/arms, it is hard to set it up properly.
A lot of playing with collision shapes, B/W gradient weight maps and physics controls tweaking would require.
And with inappropriate UV islands (too curvy and sparse) and some weird topology, it sometimes not possible at all.

And one more thing. You can make cloth corrective morphs (very easy to make multiple morphs in Blender with FBX).
Then use them at extreme poses during animation, where it is hard to control baggy cloth movement with weights and physics.

Finally, you can do cloth simulation in Blender (a bit harder to setup than in Marvelous Designer), but quite possible, specially with Auto Setup (there is a tutorial somewhere).
Export as alembic and import to iClone.

Wow... there is more to do than I am doing LOL.  I think I need to learn the attaching to body.  I have been trying this one video, step by step and mine fall off, his does not.  No mention of attaching, just collision.

Thank you for all of that, I will need to research some of that as a lot is beyond my skill set yet.... But it makes sense.... in a way... especially about the importing FBX and failing.  I did get a wrong attachment message once, I did not mess with any bones just made a top.... not sure why I received it.  And the curves make sense... sometimes I think I miss vertices when moving and things get all messed up... maybe I am not correcting things properly.

I did download a demo of CLO....  Honestly, it's an exact of Marvelous.  Or vice versa....  Are they owned by the same company?  I mean except for the name and that CLO has 2 exports that Marvelous does not, they are the same program.... down to the icons.

Anyway... aside from having to measure things out... this seems pretty easy.  Of course, rent ware.... UG!!!!!  But it seems really easy.  So after a day and a half of playing, I was able to make this....





It's very basic and not complete....  I want to add more detail to it like I have a delicate piece of semi-transparent silk trim around the bottom of the skirt.  It needs a waistband, and the entire outfit needs some edging details so not to look so fake.

I have a couple of rough spots on the seam.... and the seam does not want to stay together.... I am sure it's my lack of experience or the fact that it's a demo or both causing this.... but other than that... it looks pretty good (IMO) for just starting to learn all this 5 days ago    What I don't like is that if I take this object into blender, I cannot sculpt the seam together, it seems to widen.  I am sure there is a way to connect the vertices but not quite sure where to do that yet.

I do have some work to do in CC3 and need to watch and re-watch the video for attaching clothing and setting it properly.... I am getting poking in poses other than the default pose it was created in.  I tried it in iClone and it is giving the same problem.... only the legs though... the top contains everything nicely.  Actually, the top works flawlessly.... not sure why the skirt is not.  Maybe because the legs have more extension and movement to them.  IDK..... Still green lol.

I gotta tell you... I think I like this more than animating.  HAHAHA.   I really enjoy creating characters and dressing them up.  My favorite part of any video game that have these features.  Kinda sucks that after today all this becomes hobby.  This Covid thing is proving to be a barrier for me and getting my business going...... so, off to work for the man again.  Maybe. LOL.... I still gotta pass the interview.  I need a roof and electricity and possibly 50.00 a mo. ( I think... I have looked at so many over the past 5 days.) if I decide I like this program or try to find an OpenSource one that is similar.... Blender is actually similar in a way.... I basically take the plane, shape it, extrude it, delete faces, and sew.  Very similar.  I do like extruding the faces to get more detail vs. creating and stitching another measured piece as layered fabric.  Extruding the faces goes along the same form so it's already measured LOL. I also watched another that uses the shrink wrap method.  That one worked better for me as it stuck to the body.  Also, the detail of the fabric is there but you have to zoom in real close to see the texture.  Polly count too high?   Maybe once I get better at this I can get a content store here    Although I cannot give this the 16 hours days I have been for the past week. 

My next project is bib overalls.  I need that for an animation project.... been looking for months and not really finding what I need.  I need to be careful what I buy as my characters are very oddly shaped.  I have had to return a few things here that would not work with my characters....  

Anyway..... thanks again for the tips, I really appreciate it!!!!  Any other tips/tricks are also very welcome and appreciated. 



Graphic Design, PHP Programming, More - Applebite Media
(www.applebitemedia.com)

So couple of tips for today I suppose
Whenever you export out of MD (CLO), follow those settings to avoid mesh split and seams:




Still if you have seams in Blender you join them with M tool (merge).
You have to select either whole mesh or just seams edge loops (preferred), hit M > Dy Distance and look at the bottom where it would say how many pairs were merged.
If pairs are too far from each other you control a merge distance also at the bottom left with Merge tool pop-up. But do not go crazy with distance as there might be
other vertices in solid areas which are close to each other. That is why it's better try to select 2 adjoining edge loops with Alt+LMB (might be tricky sometimes)
You can also manually merge by selecting 2 or more vertices, then M (at first , at last ... etc).

About skirts, you have to try to tweak weight paint, and then try more and then try again....
And for bottom part, play with physics, weight maps and collision shapes. Search for cloth weights and cloth physics tutorials on RL site.

Thanks 4u2ages!!

I do like CLO... don't like it's rent ware so on the fence on this..... it is pretty easy to use... at least for the basics.  I have been making some simple lingerie for my female toons.  One thing that the content store lacks for characters of my shape.  I tried an older package but they would not conform so I returned them.  I have 4, and each have progressively gotten better. The seams are staying put but the OBJ file has no color, just texture.  I have been manually adjusting the color but that is not as good or I am not getting the proper color using the sliders and not a specific value.  But they still look good. 

I do still have legs poking through... but I am sure there are settings in CC3 I am not doing that need to be done so not worried.  Funny it's just in spots and not where you would think it would poke through.  I am making a short video of the 4 fashions I will put on my Youtube page.... I cannot post it here... well, not with my models LOL.  I could post a pic and pixelate the naughty bits hahaha.

Anyway, I did get this new job, start on the 20th.... so if nothing else... I am getting good enough that once I refine these 4 outfits or so... I might get a content store page and sell some basic lingerie.  I did do a nice business type dress that was not that difficult either.... I am no Scanlab or RPublishing... those guys do some really good stuff....  but I have purchased worse on there in the 5-7.00 range LOL.  I am not there yet.  Not till I can get all the bugs worked out.  I know how I am when I buy something... I want it to work when I use it so I will not even think about this until they are flawless

Ok, back to the grind... I have a week of freedom and want to cram as much info and time into this as I can.

Thanks again



Graphic Design, PHP Programming, More - Applebite Media
(www.applebitemedia.com)