Creating form-fitting clothes for G2 figures?

Jedilaw

Hello all,

I've been trying to wrap my head around how people model form-fitting bodysuits for the G2 figures. I've seen quite a few of them in the marketplace for the G2 female. I'm looking to make something similar to the G1 Supersuit, but with different material layouts and some different shaping.

I had originally planned to just open a G2 in Max, select the poly faces that would be covered by the suit, and copy those to a new object. Problem being, the topology of the G2 meshes isn't really conducive to that approach. Poly-modeling clothes around a zero-posed G2 is a pain, because the limbs are posed somewhat off-axis relative to worldspace. I suspect spline-modeling to create NURBS surfaces could work, but that's never been my forte.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this process that they'd like to share? Is there a particular app that you've found useful for projects like this? I have access to Max, Maya, Softimage, Cararra, Hexagon, and Blender.

Thanks in advance,

-JL-

SickleYield

Hi!

This is not an easy process and there is not an easy way to do it. The EULA does not allow for copying any polygons from the base figure anyway. Mec4D has a tutorial on doing that, though, so I'm guessing if you use Zbrush to extrude from the figure, then use dynamesh and remesh, it's okay (because the final polygons will not even slightly resemble those of Genesis or G2).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6n9Z6c3RG0

togs

There's a Genesis 2 Starter Suits package that would give you a starting point.

http://www.daz3d.com/merchant-resource-genesis-2-females-starter-suits

Otherwise, it's a matter of a lot of pushing points!

Jedilaw

I saw that content starter pack, and I must admit I'm tempted. Problem being, right now most of my work is with M6/G2M, because I'm using it to render poses for a comic book superhero. I could swear I saw that same pack offered for G2M, but now it's only showing for G2F.

Kattey

For your own personal use you can extract polygons from figure for clothes as long as the result isn't redistributed in any way, shape or form to anybody else. From what I recall EULA even allows some polygon extraction for redistribution of such things as geografts.
Also you might want to look into Geometry Shells (in DS) and texturing. If all you need is skin-tight bodysuit, second skin (i.e. character texture painted as clothes) might be a solution. Geometry Shell accepts the same texture as the make figure and you can paint your bodysuit without going through modelling. Example is GIS biosuit. As G2M can use G2F textures, it might be easier to create something that fits both characters. To create a better illusion of clothes, you'd might need to make some smoothing morphs as well.

You can try free G2M starter suit or G2F starter suits and see how it does.

Jedilaw

Thanks for that link! That set of starter suits may be exactly what I was trying to create myself.

I've not heard of geometry shells in DS. I'll have to check the documentation and read up on them.

Kattey

Jedilaw said:

Thanks for that link! That set of starter suits may be exactly what I was trying to create myself.

I've not heard of geometry shells in DS. I'll have to check the documentation and read up on them.

Basically, Geometry Shell is a 'offset' shell of your figure that follows your figure exactly (morphs and poses and such) and can use same textures. It might be used in such cases, for example, when people have second skin bodysuit which they want to use but don't want it to be too tight and want it to have a bit of thickness. Instead of loading the second figure with all its morphs and bells and whistles, such people might want to use Geometry Shell, which is much lighter on your computer in terms of demanded resource and can fulfill the same function. Geometry Shells can be made for almost any geometry and have built-in functions for offset and comfortable turning on and off of bodyparts. You can create one from top meny Create –> Geometry Shell with any geometry selected in Scene tab.

Steven-V

Jedilaw said:

I've been trying to wrap my head around how people model form-fitting bodysuits for the G2 figures. I've seen quite a few of them in the marketplace for the G2 female. I'm looking to make something similar to the G1 Supersuit, but with different material layouts and some different shaping.

Would G-Suit 2 HD be what you are looking for? It is very similar to the Supersuit (I have both, and use the Supsersuit for Genesis and G-2 for female Genesis 2 figures). Although where the suit section demarcations are located are not equivalent, they are very similar in terms of how they work. In fact I actually like G-suit 2 better.

http://www.daz3d.com/g-suit-2-hd

Jedilaw

I've considered the G-Suit 2, but I'd prefer a version for the G2 male, not out of sexism but because I'm working with a male character for my comic book project.

Last night I sat down with the geometry editor tool and took the hands, feet, head, and neck off of a G2M and exported that figure as an obj. I'm going to try to work up a suit from that in either 3DS Max or Mudbox. Of the two, Mudbox is probably better suited to clothes detailing, but I'm a lot more familiar with Max.

I did try out the geometry shell tool, but I couldn't get it to make a copy of less than the whole G2M figure. I wanted just the parts that will be covered by the suit.

Kattey

You can turn parts of Geometry Shell invisible, in Parameters tab

Jedilaw

Thanks, I'll take a look at that.

From what I can tell, it seems like geometry shell is intended for use inside of DS itself. It doesn't seem to present any advantages for exporting geometry to another app for editing. Am I missing something?

Harry Dresden

Most modeling apps these days have what is known as a 'Shrink Wrap' tool which is what most content creators likely use for those spandex type outfits. Of course nobody really talks about it because it's sort of a grey area in terms of the whole copyright and EULA thingy but don't let that fool you. Everybody use some form of shrink wrapping at some stage. The basic consensus is that as long as you create the base mesh from scratch all by yourself before shrink wrapping it you're okay as far as the legalities go.

You'll have to consult you app of choice's documentation or online help for more details on how to manage this but it basically entails taking your not so tight model and, using the character model you're designing for as a reference, letting your modeling program do the tight fitting.

MODO is an excellent app for this kind of stuff but then again I'm a MODO fan. :D

Edit - As have been mentioned, if it's only for a render you're doing then the legalities don't apply obviously so feel free to copy pasta bits and pieces of a model to get the perfect look.