Clothes-Making For Dummies

[Plotinus]

Kinboat's Paperdoll is a great character for unit creation, and the conforming clothes and props that he and others (especially utahjazz7) made for it are extremely useful and versatile. In fact with a bit of ingenuity it's possible to put together most outfits that you could want out of these. But sometimes the right item doesn't seem to exist. If you're a modelling genius, you can make one yourself. But most of us aren't. Luckily, there are two ways in which it's possible to cobble together a conforming clothing figure with nothing more than Poser itself and a bit of ingenuity.

The first method is to create a dynamic cloth simulation in the Cloth Room, and then turn it into a conforming figure in the Setup Room. In this way you can create billowing robes, cloaks, and similar items at the cost of only your time and sanity. At some point I shall do a tutorial for this if people are interested.

The second method is the one I shall describe here. You simply take an item of clothing that someone has made for another character (such as Michael 3) and turn it into one for the Paperdoll.

Clearly, most conforming figures work only with the character they are designed for. This is because a conforming figure has to have the same bone structure as the character wearing it, so that the computer knows which bits to move when he adopts different poses. This is why you can't just conform some figure designed for Michael 3 to the PDM and hope it will work. It will distort horribly and be useless. And this is annoying, as there are masses of items of conforming figures out there for Michael 3 and the other popular figures (especially the female ones, but let's not go there).

My cheaty method has two parts. In the first part, you shape and distort the item of clothing so that it fits the Paperdoll. In the second part, you rebone it so that it will conform to the Paperdoll.

Themanuneed has very helpfully made a pdf version of this tutorial. You can download it here.

 

[Plotinus]

First, open up the figure you intend to work with, and open up the PDM as well. Parent them both to the Universe (and do NOT conform the figure to the PDM!). Position the figure over the PDM as closely as you can, as if the PDM were wearing it. It probably won’t fit. In my example, I am actually adapting something for the PDF, rather than the PDM, but the principle is exactly the same. It is a dress that someone made for a different female figure. Clearly it doesn’t fit the PDF at all.

Create a spotlight and position it behind the PDM, shining at it. This is so that each side is illuminated, so you can see clearly all around just by rotating the camera, without having to rotate the figure.

The first task is to get the shape of the figure right. That means stretching and squashing it so it fits the PDM. Ideally, the PDM should look as though he is wearing the figure. You may need to rescale the whole figure, and you may need to rescale various parts of it. For example, perhaps the character for which that figure was made has proportionately longer arms than the PDM. Select the arms and reduce the xScale. You may need to Bend or Twist various parts to get them to fit. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the Taper option, which may be necessary to get some parts looking right. Rotate around the figure and zoom in close to check that no skin is visible through the fabric.

Eventually, the figure should match the PDM. This is what the dress looks like after I've spent some time squashing and stretching its various parts:

The next task is to turn this conformable figure into a rigid prop. For some reason, Poser can’t do that. You can turn parts of figures into props using the Grouping Tool, but not whole figures. So we work around it this way. Go to the File Menu and select Export, and choose 3D Studio. Choose Single Frame. Now it will present you with an object tree. Click the box next to Universe, to deselect everything. Scroll down until you get to your figure. Click the box next to it, to select the whole thing. Note: if there are some parts of the figure that you don’t want, this is the time to deselect them. Choose not to export object groups for each body part.

 

[Plotinus]

Having saved your 3DS object, you now need to import it right back. Choose Import, 3D Studio, and load it back up. Your prop should appear. Now you may find that it doesn’t look exactly like your resized figure. It may be too big or too wide. As you can see, this has happened to me:

If this happens to you, this is what you should do.

Move the prop into position over the PDM and the original figure. Resize it so that it matches perfectly. Of course, this is a rigid prop, not a figure with parts, so this is much simpler than your original reshaping of the original figure. You can check that it’s just right by making the original figure invisible; if they are exactly the same size and shape, and in the same position, there should be virtually no discernible change.

Now keep the prop selected, and open the Grouping Tool. Click on New Group. Call it whatever you like. Click on Add All. The entire prop should turn red. This means you have created a new group within the prop, which contains all of the prop’s facets. Now click Create Prop. This function takes the currently selected group and copies it into a brand new prop. You can use this function to “break up” props – for example, if you have a hat prop, you could use the Grouping Tool to create a group within it containing only the brim facets, and then you could use Create Prop to make a new prop that would be just the brim. In this case, we are creating a new prop that is identical to the old one, since our group contains 100% of its facets. That would normally be pointless, but this new prop will retain the dimensions that we have just applied to the old one. Call it whatever you want.

Close the Group Editor. You should now have the original figure, the prop that you imported as a 3DS, and the prop you have just created – all occupying exactly the same space. Parent the new prop to the Universe, and delete the other two. You have now completed the first part of the process – the creation of a solid prop that fits the PDM. The next part of the process consists of turning that prop into a conformable figure.

 

[Plotinus]

This is the tricky part, but don’t worry, it’s not really as tricky as it seems, although it will probably be tedious and time-consuming. Ensure that you have the PDM and the prop standing so that it looks like the PDM is wearing the prop – although the prop should be parented to the Universe. Also, ensure that the PDM’s xTran, yTran, and zTran are set to 0. The prop’s will probably be, too, unless it’s some strange asymmetrical garment or something.

Select the prop, and enter the Setup Room. Tremble at the dire warnings. Now the first thing to do is create a skeleton for the figure. This is easy to do, because the skeleton will be identical to the PDM’s skeleton – if it weren’t, it wouldn’t be possible to conform the figure to the PDM. Open the Library and load the PDM, exactly as if you were importing him into your scene. Instead of the PDM appearing, his skeleton will appear, inside the item of clothing. This is how you apply a pre-existing skeleton to a new figure in the Setup Room.

If your item of clothing isn’t an all-over bodysuit, there will probably be parts of the PDM skeleton that don’t correspond to parts of the outfit. In my example, the outfit has no arms, legs beneath the knee, neck or head. It is simplest at this stage to delete those parts from the skeleton. Just select the bones you don’t need and delete them in the normal way.

The figure has a skeleton, but it doesn’t know which facets of the model are matched to which bones of the skeleton. Open the Grouping Tool again. Select Auto Group, at the bottom. This very useful function looks at every facet in the model and assigns it to the bone it thinks it should have. It divides the figure up into body parts – one for each bone – and puts the boundaries of the body parts where it thinks they should come based on the shape of the skeleton. The result is usually rather patchy, but it gives you something to start with.

Now comes the tedious bit. You have to open each body part in the Grouping Tool, one by one, and correct it. Keeping the Grouping Tool open, select the body parts one by one in the drop-down menu at the top. Each one you open will appear in red on the figure. You can see how the computer has assigned the facets. It is good at dividing up arms and legs (it generally gets the location of the joints about right) but it is bad at the hips and shoulders. Usually, it has the Right Shoulder and Left Shoulder eat into what should be the Chest area (I have avoided this problem in my example by removing all the arm bones from the skeleton, so those regions can’t go to anything other than the Chest to start with). It does the same thing with the Left Thigh and Right Thigh, which often extend up into what should be the Abdomen, as you can see in my example. For some reason it also seems to think that the Hip should have no facets at all at the front, and lots at the back.

It may be a good idea to examine the PDM carefully before beginning all this, and seeing where the joints come. Note, in particular, the shape of the chest, abdomen, and hip, and see where these body parts join on to those next to them. If you’ve done much unit creation you should be pretty familiar with the PDM’s body parts and how they move anyway.

 

[Plotinus]

You need to try to replicate the body parts of the PDM on your new figure as closely as possible. You have the PDM’s skeleton to guide you. The simplest way is to select a body part. In my case, I select the Hip. Make sure the + button at the top is highlighted, not the – button. Now, on the figure, select the facets that should be in that group. All facets you select that belong to another group will simply be reassigned to the current group. So if, as in this case, the Thigh groups go too high and use facets that should be in the Hip, simply select the Hip, then select those facets, and the problem is solved. If you make a mistake and select facets that should be in another group, DO NOT click on – and deselect them. You could do that, but then those facets won’t be in any group at all. When you move on from this group and choose another, you might well forget those facets and not get around to assigning them to a group. And having facets that don’t belong to any group is a Very Bad Thing. If you select a fact that shouldn’t be in your group, just open the group it should be in (or wait until you get around to that group anyway) and select it then. It will be obvious to you because the facet in question will not be highlighted like all the others in that group.

In this example, I've been over-enthusiastic in selecting facets for the Hip, and I've selected some that should be in the Thigh:

If I change group to the Thigh, it's easy to see the missing ones, so all I have to do is add them in here:

Note that there is a group called NO BONE. Select this to see if there are any facets that have somehow become assigned to no body part, and track them down.

You will probably need to swap from group to group quite frequently. If your figure has folds in it, be sure to get the facets all around it. Rotate and zoom to make sure your groups are just right. Here, for example, you can see that I almost missed some facets that were hiding behind a fold:

Be aware of which body parts have joints with which. You can work it out logically from the skeleton. For example, each thigh is attached to the Hip, but not to each other. That means that there will be an intersection between the Left Thigh and the Hip, and one between the Right Thigh and the Hip, but not between the Left Thigh and the Right Thigh. If you have some facets assigned to one thigh, and adjacent facets assigned to the other thigh, then there will be a split between them in the final figure. You may not want this. In my example, I am assigning facets to the two thighs, but I don’t want a split between them (this is a sort of dress, not shorts). The answer is to extend the Hip between them. Where each thigh meets the hip there will be a flexible boundary, not a split. Now this will look odd if, for example, the figure moves its legs wide apart – there will be a rigid bit of fabric going down from the pelvis. But as long as the figure sticks to fairly normal movements, this will work acceptably well.

 

[Plotinus]

When everything seems to be more or less right, go back to the Pose Room. Hopefully you won’t get the fearsome message telling you that there are facets unassigned to any bone; if you do, go back to the Setup Room and hunt them down. In the Pose Room, you will find that your new figure is called PDM1 or something similar. This is because the new figure takes the name of the source of its skeleton, not of the original prop. Rename it something more suitable. Save the scene.

The PDM that you used to model the prop should still be there. Conform your new figure to the PDM in the usual way, not forgetting to zero it in the Joint Window and then check each body part in turn to make sure its settings are all at zero.

Now try moving the PDM’s body parts. Your new figure should move with him in the proper way. If there are facets which somehow found their way into the wrong body parts, you will see them flying in the wrong direction. If anything is wrong, go back into the Setup Room and correct it.

Finally, save your new figure to your Library. And then post it on CFC so other people can use it too!

 

[Plotinus]

To show that it does work, here is the finished figure from my example. I did this quickly mainly to illustrate the tutorial, but it should work. Note that, somewhere along the line, a small sphere appeared underneath the dress (around the feet) and became part of it. How did that happen? I don't know, but I have applied an invisible texture to the sphere so it can be safely ignored. If this happens to you when you make a figure, do the same thing.

 

[odintheking]

Nice tutorial, man!

 

[Stormrage]

Am I the only one imagining a hot nekkid bald chick while reading this?

Thanks for the tutorial Plotinus! You rock!

 

[Red Door]

I'll be reading the tutorial later, it looks great, but I must say Plotinus has a
Facebook. That is quite unexpected.

 

[Rob (R8XFT)]

Looks great and definately something I needed. I'll take a more in-depth look at it later, but thank-you!

 

[Plotinus]

Am I the only one imagining a hot nekkid bald chick while reading this?

I believe, or at least hope, that you are.

I'll be reading the tutorial later, it looks great, but I must say Plotinus has a
Facebook. That is quite unexpected.

Hey, I'm not completely unhip and without-it, you know...

 

[Rm80]

cool stuff I will try it out as soon as I get a hang on the basic stuff. Thanks for posting this.

edit: btw the female paperdoll I saw in the picture did you make that one yourself?

 

[Stormrage]

The hot nekkid bald chick? Kinboat made her along with the Paperdoll Male, its in his figures and props thread

 

[Vuldacon]

Plotinus... Very Good of you to post this Tutorial for people and it should also help the PDM users to gain more clothes as others upload what they make for it.

 

[Olorin0222]

Thanks Plotinus! I will use this a lot...

 

[flamescreen]

Hm, uses bones which I'm not too familiar with. But it's informing, so
I hope in succeeding.

 

[rifleman]

Nice tutorial Plotinus

Not that I'm totally incapable of doing this myself, but are you planning on packaging this into a PDF or other file? It would be a great thing to DL.

 

[Plotinus]

There is one now - check the first post.

 

[rifleman]

Great! Thanks Plotinus