Question: Rigging Skyrim exported Obj. File Clothes in Carrara to fit and work with V4 or M4

Rhian-Skyblade

I got my hands on a couple of obj files from the Elder Scrolls Game Skyrim and would love to make them useable in Carrara.

I know from some "modelling" tutorials that most clothes get more or less "cut" out of the skin of V4 or M4 - making certain that the proportions are right.
Since these come from a game, these most likely don't have the proportions of V4 or M4. Is there any way, to make this work?
I am not really any good with modelling clothes... and those clothes and armors from skyrim simply look just great. I wish there had been more like that for M4 and V4 in the past ^^

3DAGE

HI Rhiana :)

Game assets are usually low polygon, which in the case of editing, is a good thing..

One problem with doing the rigging in Carrara is that Carrara's bones don't transfer into DS or poser,. so,.. you'd be better to rig it in DS or poser... if you want to have the clothing working in DS / Poser / Carrara.

If it's only intended to be used in Carrara, then you can. rig it in carrara,. but a Rigged object is not a "conforming" object.
Only Poser or DS made items will be conforming, and follow the figure they're fitted to.

Carrara allows you to edit the model in the Assembly room,. and that allows you to work with the clothing on the figure model, just like a tailor, or dress maker, would work with a mannequin.

Also,. Selecting parts of a figure, as a starting point for making your own clothes,... isn't always a good idea.
It's a short-cut for people who don't want to spend the time modelling, or learning,..

It's much better to learn simple box modelling techniques, and start from a simplified shape, like a box, sphere, rectangle, or circle.
then extrude and divide as required.

Use "Smooth" like a switch,... to preview the simple box model as a much softer shape,. then model the un-smoothed box model as required.

:)

evilproducer

You can use the object file without having to rig it in Carrara, D/S, or Poser. What you would do is bring it into Carrara and go through the steps Andy outlined above to fit it to V4. In the Assembly room, select both the .obj you want for clothes, and the hip of your figure. Go to the animation menu and select Attach Skeleton. You will most likely have some collisions and poke through, but most of these may be able to be solved by weight painting the bone's influence on the clothing object. Those that prove troublesome can be adjusted by editing the mesh of the figure or object, or hiding troublesome body parts.

Rhian-Skyblade

Thank you for the hints. I will try that. If I can get those clothes to work in that would be grand beyond measure.
I just saw, that i also will have to rework the textures. It looks awfully coarse in Carrara :D

WendyLuvsCatz

for just the clothes, I used to select hip and attach skeleton in Carrara.
but now with Genesis
I use the transfer tool in DS4.5 beta and save a clothing .duf asset which works in both!
you use "send to Hexagon" to translate and resize it to fit as via Carrara you would need to import it exactly fitting Genesis by default load.
then send back as a prop, keeping the original if needed for adjustments.
use the transfer tool
choose Genesis as source
your clothing as target
open advanced
choose a bodysuit, shirt, skirt etc as the template for boning
tick reverse from whatever (not on computer at moment, sorry) add a smoothing modifier if you wish but it will not work in Carrara unfortunately.
press ok/transfer/whatever (again, sorry, no on computer)
voila it is rigged
save as clothing asset or figure.
you can import the .duf into Carrara and it will fit to Genesis, I go via file but if smart content works for you. it will be there.

Rhian-Skyblade

Is there anywhere a good tutorial for weight painting clothes, so I can get started?

Somehow I can't manipulate the mesh in "animation mode" within the Vertex room. I am quite sure that I saw some sort of tutorial looooong ago, someone using this to fix broken meshes and clipping. But can't find that video anymore :-/

Somehow I can't get into the weight painting option and see the bones I want to edit and all that...

evilproducer

In the first image, the only tool not grayed out is the brush tool. Try selecting that, then there should be a pull down menu on the right with a list of the bones, such as hip, etc.

Rhian-Skyblade

Thankee.
I was tooo focused on the right panel =_=

evilproducer

Glad to be of assistance! I should warn you that if you detach the clothes from the skeleton to fix something, and then re-attach it, you'll have to start the weight painting from scratch.

Rhian-Skyblade

So far I am happy how it works. (editing now the texture, since game textures tend to be low resolution)

Is there a way to save the weight painting somehow? I looked this up at several forums, yet all said they haven't found that option.

I know that i saw a you tube video before C8 Pro... and there someone fixed the collision problem of a bikini top on V4 - by turning his changes into a "morph".
He could really tug and push (like in the vertex room) at single dots to bring the mesh in the right position without breaking.

Dartanbeck

Found it...Right Here, pjotter gives a good list of things with weight map painting. Not sure about saving weight maps, since they are usually a very solitary thing - each mesh will need it's own. Saving the Figure will save its weight though...

Rhian-Skyblade

Ahh yess!!! That's it. Thank you so much Dartanbeck.

WendyLuvsCatz

the advantage of a .duf clothing asset created in Daz studio is you can reuse it on other figures

Rhian-Skyblade

The thing is, I do not use DazStudio at all and if I can help it, I also try to avoid working in Poser for the very same reason (GUI Handling).

For now, I stick to V4 and M4, anyways. Until Carrara 8.5 isn't released, Genesis is no option for me :-/ so I try to do as much as possible in Carrara :D

WendyLuvsCatz

I will post this video here rather than in your other thread where more pro help might post! :red:
while it is nothing you do not know already, it does show my workflow for attaching mesh.
one thing I would also strongly suggest is adding smoothing to your Skyrim mesh in the vertex room and tick the box enabling smoothing subdivision under the modeling tab.
The low poly mesh would not bend very nicely with the bones otherwise.
This would contribute to your pokethrough and deformation
I also weightpaint with my figure in a star position and along the timeline in several poses.

Rhian-Skyblade

Awwww now come on. I am sure you are far better than me when it comes to the clothing stuff. I can't even do animations.

I will try your workflow. How do you get your figures in star position? (never found out how to save only a pose or morph-setup in carrara for re-use.)

Does it also help if I add a few more polygons to the mesh, so it becomes more flexibility?

wendy♥catz said:

I will post this video here rather than in your other thread where more pro help might post! :red:

while it is nothing you do not know already, it does show my workflow for attaching mesh.
one thing I would also strongly suggest is adding smoothing to your Skyrim mesh in the vertex room and tick the box enabling smoothing subdivision under the modeling tab.

The low poly mesh would not bend very nicely with the bones otherwise.
This would contribute to your pokethrough and deformation
I also weightpaint with my figure in a star position and along the timeline in several poses.

WendyLuvsCatz

pose your Daz figure, that simple, do several along the timeline
you can rotate joints or use pz2 poses from the content browser.
yes, adding polys will help but it might destroy the uv mapping, smoothing with subdivision does the same without changing the mesh visibly.