Advice needed: Where to start for creating clothing

westernnomad

I really want to learn how to create clothing for Daz, but I'm on a Social Security Disability budget. so I'm dependent on freeware.

The tools I have - Daz Studio, GIMP and Blender, and an i7 processor with GTX-970 GPU.

Experience: I create basic props in Blender for use in Daz - meaning they're always unrigged and usually untextured - stuff like landscapes, houses, starships and martial arts weapons in Blender. My experience with GIMP is... well... I have GIMP... My experience with Daz is mixed. I make my own poses - the hard way. I'm skilled at shading, I can get into the hidden settings to extend my control over morphs, however I don't know how to add properties to an existing mesh, texture or shader. I have no experience with tool settings window or dynamic cloth. 

With all this in mind, please point me to the tutorials and additional software that I'll need to get started - and if it can all be done in Daz - all the better. I just need to know how to start from nothing to create anything.

 

FSMCDesigns

With the tools you have, modeling/UVmapping in blender and then back to DS for rigging. There are tons of tutorials for modeling in blender all over the web, doesn't have to be DS specific, you just need to learn how to do certain, basic/advanced modeling things in the program first. There are basic rigging tutorials at Youtube from DAZ to help with rigging and items in the store for more in depth learning. It's all about learning to use the 3 tools you have, blender, DS and Gimp, good luck!!

algovincian

I recently began exploring clothing creation myself. Here's a few links (mostly about JCM creation in DS) that I've trapped:

Adding JCM's to Clothing
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/publishing/adding_jcm_clothing/start

Writing JCM (Joint Controlled Morphs)
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/models/models-gen49

Advanced: Creating Joint Controlled Morphs (WIP)
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/assembling/tutorials/creating_joint_controlled_morphs/start

Advanced: Creating Morph Controlled Morphs (WIP)
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/assembling/tutorials/creating_morph_controlled_morphs/start

Enhanced Remote Control (ERC)
http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/wiki/user/rbtwhiz/technotes/content/erc/start

Creating and Hooking Up a JCM

Creating Joint Corrective Morphs on Clothing

Using Rigidity To Exclude Corrective Morphs

By no means all inclusive, but hopefully it'll save you (and others) some time.

- Greg

JOdel

Littlefox has a set of tutorials for modeling and rigging a dress for V4. She uses Modo, but if you know your own modeler well, it should be doable to translate the Modo terms into whatever your modeler's lingo uses for the same functions.

Knittingmommy

You can make clothing for DAZ figures in Blender since you are already familiar with it.  Here are a few videos to get you started.  I don't know of any written tutorials for making clothing other than the excellent tutorial available her in the store by Lady Littlefox.  It's old and uses V4 as the figure and she uses Modo, I believe.  It's been awhile since I had it up.  However, I used G2F and Blender when I followed the tutorial and it worked quite well.  Here is the link to the bundle but each part is also available separately if you want to purchase one part at a time.  Unfortunately, I don't know of anything comparable that is free.

Modeling with Littlefox

These videos use the base mesh of your figure as a starting point for clothing.  Keep in mind that you should only do this for clothing you don't plan to sell or share and is only for personal use as it duplicates the polygons of the original mesh.  My understanding is that we aren't legally allowed to do this when creating clothing to share or sell.  Once you know the basics using this method, go grab the free starter clothing meshes from JoeQuick on ShareCG.  You can start with these meshes and use the same techniques to fine-tune the clothing meshes.  I'm not aware of any starter meshes for G3 figures yet.

G2M Starter Mesh
G2F Starter Mesh

First in a series:
 

This one uses an avastar model because the final product is going into a different program.  You can still follow the tutorial by exporting your figure from DS and importing it into Blender to use as a figure for making clothing. Shrinkwrap method also first in a series:

Box Modeling:

Those are just to get you started.  There are a lot of videos on YouTube for making clothing.  A good reference thread is The (Male) Content Creation Mutual Support Group Thread.  There are lots more links on the first few pages for making clothing.

I would suggest trying all of the different methods and finding the one that fits you best.  Good luck.

edit: fixed spelling