Best way to import Clothes for non-standard character


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic447837.aspx
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By Evey Fawkes - 4 Years Ago
Hi,

Last week I finally managed to import my non-standard character into iClone, through 3DX and with the help of forum members (THANK YOU AGAIN!).
Character works fine, moves great.
Now I want to make him a set of clothes (the modelling isn't a problem).
As I can not import my character into CC3 and import clothes from there (CC3 crashes each time I try), what is the best way to go about this?
Do I make my clothes in Blender, import them with my character through 3DX and send the clothed character to iClone?
Are there better ways?

- I tried importing a pair of custom made pants into iClone as an OBJ.
That didn't work, because the pants stayed attacked to the characters rootbone, but did not follow his legs etc.

Thank you for all your help.https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/788ea68e-eb09-42ba-b063-7263.png





By planetstardragon - 4 Years Ago
haha! cute character! 

unfortunately the clothing aspect doesn't work through 3DX

think of iclone like 3 systems,  there's the rig,   then the face / head -  then the weight mapping

3DX allows 3rd party characters to integrate with the bone / rig system -  but that's about it,  so any clothing you want to make would have to be re-imported as a new model in 3DX  ( technical process name is re-targetting ) 

CC3 on the other hand,  when you import another character -  you don't really import the character -  you morph a base model in iclone - and this is how / why you are able to use the clothing system. - which is why this works well with Daz -  you are using the weight mapping system from a pre-existing iclone model - so you are really importing shapes ,  not meshes. - the face count on the model mesh have to match or it doesn't work.

if you want to use the Iclone Clothing system Your best bet would be to either recreate your character in Daz using their shaping tools,  or creating and importing morphs to shape the base cc3 model or exporting a base model from cc3 and reshaping it ( without altering the face count )  then re-importing it back through cc3. - again,  the whole reason for this is to keep the face count cc3 needs to work with it's weigh map system.

at least,  last I looked that's how things worked.

Good luck! Smile

By Evey Fawkes - 4 Years Ago
"any clothing you want to make would have to be re-imported as a new model in 3DX"

I don't understand what you mean.
Do you mean that if I want to have a clothed Pepe, I would have to make a clothed version and import him as a new character?
I see people import all kinds of non-standard human characters into iClone through 3DX. 
Zombies, monsters etc. 
How do they (in general) go about their creation?
Do they make a character, rig it, weight paint it, and duplicate the skin so that the armature is copied to the skin, push and pull vertexes until they have nice clothes, and copy the weights from the bones to the clothes and send the clothed character to iClone? Or do they go about another way?
If so, please let me know the best general workflow I need to follow. Will do my research from there.
Thank you.



By 4u2ges - 4 Years Ago
Do they make a character, rig it, weight paint it, and duplicate the skin so that the armature is copied to the skin, push and pull vertexes until they have nice clothes, and copy the weights from the bones to the clothes and send the clothed character to iClone? Or do they go about another way?

Well, that is one of doing things. Other way is just import some existing cloth object (FBX/OBJ) into 3D modeling app (Blender), fit to to the character, weight to bones.. etc.
There is no specific advice. Bottom line is, the model should arrive to the 3DX fully dressed. If you need another version with different cloth, you have to do the same. Fit the close and import into 3DX.. The most you can do to character in iClone, is to apply hair as an accessory.
By planetstardragon - 4 Years Ago
basically 3DX is focused more on retargeting rigs / bones and importing morphs for that specific rig  -  where as character creator is more about things related to the mesh, weight mapping / basic modeling / morphing and creating new morphs.    - cc3 is limited to characters and meshes compatible to it's system - ie daz
where as if I wanted to import a character from say like a game rip -  I'd need 3Dxchange.

if you want to make custom clothes in iclone,  then you need to use the cc3 approach to have access to the clothing system,  as 3DXchange has no tools to alter the weight mapping.   -  if you want to model in blender -  then you'd have to export a mesh that already conforms to the iclone system,  and Mod that mesh without altering it's face count ( which the iclone weight mapping system depends on ) 

One possible thing you can do to not lose the work you've done so far,  is to find a way to use it as a morph object,  so you can wrap the iclone mesh to it - some programs allow you to do that - such as Poser -  where you can import any kind of mesh,  then have poser wrap it's proprietary mesh to the custom model you created. 

one possible way to keep the work you've done so far in blender is https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/deform/shrinkwrap.html
where you import a standard cc3 mesh -  and shrinkwrap it to the model you created.



By Evey Fawkes - 4 Years Ago
IT WORKED!!!!!

I am so happy and so proud.
Took me months, and I needed a lot of help from you people.... But Pepe IS ALIVE!
He can dance, he can talk, he can smile and he has clothes.

What a wonderful day!
Thank you all.https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/7fdcf5cc-3781-4468-a290-f9e8.png
KEK
By mrjmwolff - 3 Years Ago
Hey Evey,
Just wondered which method you used in the end to put clothes on Pepe? Nice job by the way.
Thanks,
Jonathan
By Wilby - 2 Years Ago
How? Hope you can share your successful workflow. TIA.