Can Anyone Do It? Make Your Own Clothing!
Ashfire45
Posts: 126
I'm sure this question has been asked a MILLION times, but I have another question to go along with it:
1) How do you learn to model your own clothes for Daz?
2) Can anyone do it...? I feel like I have no advantages. I can't even draw, really. I have no idea how to rig. I'm bamboozled at the thought of texturing. I feel like there is no one in the world more ill equipped to learn how to make 3D clothing for their figures.
... But I'm so tired of being limited. Because I use pre-made content, I feel just a touch guilty, and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to unleash my own creativity by making my own outfits!! I think Hexagon should be my program of choice. I know that there's no easy answer as to what program I should use, because it's individual to the person. But any advice you guys could have would be absolutely wonderful. I adore Daz, but I want the art to be more... mine. :<
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Comments
I use Blender; not a fan of Hexagon, but some PAs love it. I don't make to sell, just for own use.
... But if the item for sale, costs less than the time I spend making it, then I buy.
Absolutely! If the outfit suits my character, then I have no problems with buying it, but I'd love to be able to design my own clothing for my cast. :) I have absolutely, aaabsolutely no idea where to start, though. I've purchased Hexagon and the Genesis Starter Bundle, but I don't know if that'll help cause I use G3F... >.>
There are tons of tutorials out there for Blender. And a number for Hexagon. Learning 3D is time-consuming; first learn the interface of the app you're using, do that by learning modelling, just basic items.
If you go the Blender route, learning the short cuts will greatly speed up your workflow. They aren't essential, but searching the relevant menus takes time, and breaks concentration. Blender is free, it's 64bit and not prone to random crashes; some consider Hexagon more user-friendly. I'm not one of the 'some'.
I just started poking at Hexagon.. when I got stuck at making body morphs I refered to this tutorial: http://www.daz3d.com/classic-bikini It's quite good for beginners to Hex and DS rigging. by the time I bought it I have already produced quite a few items but it still taught me some tricks I didn't know in both programs.
I started by searching the internet for tutorials. There are loads out there. OK some are old now, but the basics are the same. Once I was confident enough I started to put them out for free. Now I can't make enough for people!
I use Silo, which does all I need it to, and it's relatively cheap. There are some free ones out there - blender etc - but I can't get on with them, I always go back to Silo.
Modelling the clothes is quite straight forward. I'm a complete stumblebum with no talent but found it to be (almost) easy. I use Blender and downloaded a million (no...really!...there's millions out there) tutorials for making clothes (among lots of other stuff). There are also lots of tutorials for UV mapping and making bump maps and textures and materials. Most of this can be done in Blender itself with the help of any decent image editor (Gimp is free and fully functional). Getting the item into Daz is another matter and you should follow this thread by Patience55...
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewreply/31140/
...and this one...
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/12921/help-with-creating-clothes-for-genesis-steps-involved/p1
I do all my rigging in Poser for the Vicky Four character. Daz opens Poser formatted items just fine. It's not that Poser is any better (lets not go there folks), it's because Poser has been around for twenty one years and is well documented with a ba-zillion tutorials for making clothing. Vicky Four has also been around a l-o-n-g time and has an extensive (massive/huge/gargantuan) wardrobe.
I can't recommend Blender strongly enough. While it's a bit more complicated, it has a massive userbase (half a million downloads each month!) who have produced an almost limitless number of excellent tutorials and populate many (many, many) forums. 'Blenderites' are an active and enthusiastic bunch. Blender itself is updated every few months and has numerous plugins.
I sold my first decent item for a bit (some years back) but quickly pulled it when it showed up on a pirate site.
You can do it! I prefer blender too. Always lots of tutorials on YT searching "modeling a ....in Blender".
Finding whatever software you find most comfortable with will help a lot.
if you can get past the terrifying interface and there are tutorials galore to help Blender is light years more powerful than Hexagon and very stable.
Keep in mind blender is not something you can learn without tutorials and 3D modeling is an exercise in patience. Dont expect to honeing steampunk armor in a few horurs and rigging it.
I wish I had saw all these comments before I purchased Hexagon! :( Not that it's expensive, and with the use of that Genesis tutorial, I feel like I'm really liking Hexagon! However, so many of you like Blender, and I feel there will be much much much more tutorials available for that... Hmmmm... >.>
I'm getting along the tutorial nicely, and the shirt was perfect, but I tried something very silly and now I've completely distorted the shirt. Rather than start again, I'm continuing on with the botched shirt - because I'm still learning how to create wrinkles, weld things, etc. etc.! I never, ever, ever thought I'd be able to make something that looks VAGUELY like a short, but here we are, lol!
You people are wonderful, thank you! <3
Strat, I appreciate your comment; because that's something I really need to keep in mind. I suppose it's like learning to draw - you have to keep practicing, and keep practicing, and producing crap. But one day, I'll be able to make my own outfits - so it's worth it. :B
I -think- I'm going to continue along Hexagon, just so I can get my footing. When I feel like I'm capable of creating things, I'll move to Blender and start that learning curve!! Thank you folks!!!!!
A good thing about hexagon is the bridge to daz (last time I tried it)
Yeah DigiDotz makes a very good point.. even if you move on to Blender for modeling knowing how to use Hex for quick fixes and stuff through the bridge can save you tons of time.
Yeah...sometimes I really miss that I haven't reinstalled Hexagon...
modeling is modeling and all modeling apps share common traits. Find what works best for you and go from there. keep in mind, you need to learn "modeling" before you even thing about creating clothes or anything having to do with DAZ in general. Creating the mesh is a small part of the whole process. Rigging is the hard part, LOL.
I was gonna include this at the end of one of my readmes a while back, but I thought if I altered it slightly... Or alotly, it might help out...
A simple step by step guide to making 3D clothing*
Phase 1- An epiphany
1- Become disillusioned by what is currently available for purchase and declare "I've had enough, I'm making my own stuff!"(usual way)... Or "Myve ad emuff... Eym mayging my owm stumph!"(alternate way, assuming you have been drinking heavily and are face down on a suspiciously damp carpet while having this epiphany).
2- Seek advice from the general public at large on an appropriate CGI forum.
3- Collect random bits of possibly helpful facts and information from the helpful strangers on said forum (example: The first known pie was found to have been baked by Neanderthals in a cave in France 117,000 years ago).
4- Sort through said information, write down and investigate the most useful leads (example: not the previous example, I just made that up).
5- Decide which avenue of this new endeavor you wish to pursue... Personal use or Commercial use.
6- Experience a brief delusion of grandeur and decide you'll do both.
7a- Start trying out assorted modeling program demos and become more confused and disillusioned until you randomly select one as your program of choice.
7b- Try one and decide that was enough effort and stick with it.
Note: Upon choosing a modeling program, one must realize they have made a lifetime commitment... Like marriage, but weirder... Not only is there no going back but you'll have to defend its honor, stupid GUI and usability forever... Every other program is peasant-ware and salvation can only be found in this one program.
8- Depending on your level of commitment, you are now ready for phase two...
Phase 2- Gathering information and understanding the basics of modeling.
1- Start reading all the relevant tutorials available for your chosen program and after reading both of them, realize it's time to start watching YouTube tutorials because nobody writes stuff anymore.... Note: Video tutorials range in quality from "Hmmm, I think I got that..." to "Holy crap, that was the suckiest suck thing that ever sucked at sucking"...
2a- Seek out a Jedi master or old hermit on some mountaintop to help train you in the art of cursor following, mind reading and mumble speak, because you are gonna need it to get through a lot of these videos.
2b- Alternatively, if you have chosen a really old or ridiculously expensive modeling program, you may be able to find a book, books or magical scrolls detailing its use and functions. This is just personal opinion, but if a book is available, just shut up and buy it, because anything is better than sitting through a dozen useless fifteen minute long videos trying to figure out how do something simple like "undo" only to have the video instructor gloss over it at some random point in the last two seconds of the video. With books and magic scrolls, you can just go to the index and look up "undo"... Plus there is the bonus that some magic scrolls or books occasionally have a glossary too.
3- Join any and all forums that are pertinent to your chosen program and begin reading up on and asking all the questions that should have been answered by the beginning tutorials the programmers/vendor never wrote and is instead relying on forums to provide the information on.
4- Be prepared for lots of: references to outdated tutorials and videos that don't exist anymore, references to using Google to find information, aggravation that this question has been asked a thousand times and helpful answers by people who clearly didn't read what you asked and jumped to a conclusion on what you meant right after the word "hello...".
5a- Armed with all this assorted information and hopeful guessing, begin attempting to model a simple box or a chair, like the person in the one clear video is doing...
5b- Armed with all this assorted information and hopeful guessing, begin attempting to make a precision engineering model of the U.S.S. Oklahoma, down to the exact number of rivets on the boiler, which despite the voiceover being in an obscure Lithuanian dialect, is the clearest video you can find.
Phase 3- Frustration, anger and resentment.
1- Complex instructions, hidden menus and features, oddly structured GUIs or lack of detailed information can all lead to confusion. Confusion leads to resentment, resentment to anger... This is your first step on your journey to the dark side... Or a natural side effect of trying to learn CGI.
2- Learn to calm down, find a pace and work stuff out on your own through trial and error... Sit back and do something that relaxes you.
Phase 4- Recovery from mental breakdown related to CGI induced stress.
1- Often one may find themselves wearing a straightjacket or sitting in some sort of padded cell after trying the trial and error method. The stress of such pursuits may manifest itself in a total mental breakdown or "freakout" and usually it will occur in a public place. This is one of the indicators that perhaps creating 3D models is not really a great use of your spare time or a promising career path.
There are probably a bunch of outreach programs available that I haven't made up which are out there to help you through this difficult time. Probably.
Phase 5- Understanding Cloth
1- This probably should have occurred to you sooner, but mostly it's around this point that some people discover that clothing is different from regular 3D modeling. Being there is no real world equivalent to use as an example, one must think of 3D clothing as being similar to a shell of geometry layered over a particular model's form, which must follow the mesh as it bends, folds, expands and makes awkward sexy poses.
2- Without any way to study how 3D clothing should behave if it existed in the real world, it is best and cheapest to purchase several bags of baking potatoes and collect as many old socks as possible and use the socks to make interesting costumes for them. It is helpful to name the potatoes as well as draw faces on them and give them interesting backstories when necessary. This serves several purposes... One- it gives you an understanding of what fashions look good on potatoes, two- one can easily envision how cloth would bend and drape, as well as good ways to unwrap 3D meshes for mapping, and lastly it provides you with many good friends that you can legally eat should this whole thing fail to work out and you are living in a tent in the woods with your creepy potato collection.
Phase 6- A breakthrough.
1- After months of study, diligent research, ongoing therapy, and clothing an army of sexy potatoes, you finally make and rig your first piece of truly sucky and disappointing 3D clothing. Not surprisingly it looks better on a potato then a human, but it sort of remotely looks somewhat like you kinda envisioned it and had you not followed some idiot's advice about sewing costumes on potatoes, might not have been that bad.
2- Taking what you have learned, you start crafting better and better 3D potato costumes until one day one actually fits a rigged non-potato human figure.
Phase 7- Your first Freebie.
1- Enthusiastic about how clever you are and afraid that you don't know squat, you decide to release your first creation as a freebie to see if you are going down the right track and if people like your style.
2- Unfortunately it has been three years since you first began this, so the original Mk III figure you were using to model your clothing on is now up to Version 12, so you'll be dealing with fewer living users of that figure and might have a harder time getting feedback.
3- After starting several threads at various forums you evaluate your findings and are surprised to find an alarming number of requests for erotic-wear for 3D potato figures.
Phase 8- A new calling.
1- You continue to work diligently on your human style clothing, but in the meantime the several potato based outfits you have are just collecting virtual dust, so you decide to release them as freebies figuring that they are of no use to you and the poor saps who inquired about such items might just enjoy them.
2- They are wildly successful with thousands of downloads and rave reviews. Apparently unbeknownst to you there was a whole potato fetish subculture that was just waiting for someone to come along and fulfill their needs.
3- Begrudgingly you decide to make a few erotic paid potato outfits, which are just gobbled up by your fans. Despite finally perfecting your craft, your human clothing line is practically unknown and instead must take a back seat to you potato line.
Phase 9- Resolution or something like that.
By this point you have found your groove and become a successful 3D artist. It may not have been the direction you first envisioned, but you were after all probably lying face down on a suspiciously damp carpet, muttering stuff about something when you decided to pursue this path... And after all, it's a direction none the less and nobody can ask for more in life then to have some sort of path to follow.
Unfortunately just when you are at the height of your career, you get a "Cease and Desist" order from the makers of Mr. Potatohead because your work infringes on their (little known) line of erotic wear for Mrs. Potatohead. Overnight you are ruined and your years of work go out the window... Your six divorces and wasabi pea addiction were for nothing... Penniless, you gather up your only friends- your old moldy practice potatoes and head for a cave in the mountains to begin your new life as a crazy old potato hoarding hermit.
*Disclaimer: This guide is meant as a general and somewhat confusing guideline and some, if not every single step listed is an approximation of what certain individuals in this, if not other mostly parallel universes may experience under certain unique circumstances or through very poor decision making events. As in any guide to success, one must judge the possibility of personal outcome based on suggestions to vary wildly due to multitudes of unforeseen and comical factors which can, will and most definitely render said guide a huge waste of time. This guide is not meant to substitute for actual knowledge or sound judgement and was in part sponsored by the National Coalition for Potato Erotica and the Idaho Potato Growers Union.
Unfortunately I was drinking coffee when I read McGyver's post and now may have to visit the ER for drowning on Green Mountain Half-Caff.....
Laurie
What makes me feel slightly guilty is that... McGyver's phase 1 really really really summed me up. Especially that delusion of grandeur, lol!!!!! Oh lord...! I don't know if I feel better or worse reading all that!!!
That's such a good point that didn't dawn on me. I need to learn to model before I can model -clothes- of all things. I was trying to run before I could even crawl. >.> Still... I really hope I can be successful with this journey, but there's a reason not every Tom Dick and Harry creates their own clothes. ;-;
I started modeling for the very same reason you are. I did model some clothing, but only dynamic cloth for Poser so far. All my years of modeling have not gone to waste tho: I find modeling props much more fun and make those regularly and unleash them as freebies on a willing public. LOL. I use Wings primarily, but I switch back and forth between that and Hex because Hex does some things that Wings can't.
Laurie
..keep sliding back to phase 4!
McGyver summed it all up, LOL.
The following thread details my experience going through McGyver's 9 phases of content creation.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/65357/the-male-content-creation-mutual-support-group-thread/p1
But seriously, if you have genuine interest in creating some of your own content (and why not?), then look through that thread starting at the beginning. SickleYield and several other professionals not only point to their tutorials, they also generously describe and explain important tips and pitfalls. Also, I wax poetic about the difference between a crappy mesh and a quality mesh. The modeling program does not matter. Some examples are in Hexagon, some in Blender, and some are even in Carrara. Just find a modeler that you like. The concepts of a quality mesh are the same, and you can get there with pretty much any modeling program. Some have more tools than others and are easier to use than others. Use the one you like.
I'd really emphasize the "creating some.." You don't have to stop buying store bought content (and you won't) if you like the product and it would save you time, but it is nice to not be limited to what is currently offered.
Regarding freebies, I advise not even having a donation box.
Because if you DO take donations, it may really really depress/anger you how few people donate anything. You are presumably not doing it for the money... so my suggestion is just skip even bothering to set anything up. Encourage people to alert you to cool renders of your stuff, instead.
So... As a reward for everyone's wonderful support, I'm going to allow you to laugh at my attempts to follow that tutorial I purchase, give up because of the UV mapping and then just throw it into Daz Studio. One way to deal with failure, I find, is with humor.
(Image edited. Please limit the width option to 800 px.)
Oh, I'm certainly giggling at this! XD AT LEAST. AT -LEAST-. I CAN ONLY GET BETTER FROM HERE. XD It was going wonderful until I made a mistake with the collar, and then the whole simple shirt seemed to fall through, lol!!
Enough Hexing for today, I think. :p
*sigh*
I got slammed by the; "But I *need* a such-and-such, and I can't *find* one!" issue. Fortunately, what I needed was a character and not a piece of clothing. I suspect it was vastly easier to build a rigged sawhorse than any kind of a piece of clothing (other than maybe a hat prop).
Apropos of which; I see that Littlefox's modeling tutorial (the whole thing) is in today's featured items at a *steep* discount.
Admittedly, I doubt that many beginners have access to Modo, but there are bound to be good points and it's a .pdf so you can print it.
Can anyone do it? Yes.
Should everyone do it? No.
Hmm... Can you expand on that?
I followed that tutorial using Silo, and it was easy. Most tools are very similar in several modellers.
While anyone can technically learn anything, we all have different skills and abilities and learning how to make the best use of them in the time we have each day is useful.
I'd recommend that one too, it's a steal at only $4 ($3 with purchase of new item) - the 'collection 1' includes modeling part 1-3 for Poser/DS and there's 'hair collection' includes part 4-5 of the separate tutorials:
http://www.daz3d.com/modeling-with-littlefox-part-collection1
http://www.daz3d.com/modeling-with-littlefox-hair-collection
I think it even includes basic rigging, but take care, some featured items don't make it another day in the sale it seems, so better buy today if interested.
... With that price, how could I refuse?
I've managed to make a dress attempt, following a free youtube video, that's a little less laughable! HOWEVER, let me say right now - I cheated by draping the dress through Virtual World Dynamic's program to get a better fit and feel a bit better about it. And no, I don't know what happened to the texture. :p
I can't believe I've managed to make a piece of clothing. A terrible, terrible, terrible piece of clothing, but I managed to make one!!!!! I did it!!!!!!!!! I've also got Littlefox's tutorials to work through still - I just cannot believe I managed to produce something!!!! I have such a gigantic way to go, but... Maybe my future's looking bright in that direction after all!!
Yes! absolutely! Learning anything is a great experience, even if you're old and retired and borderline senile and you have to pee several times overnight.
The first piece of clothing I've attempted is... a four armed shirt.
Because I'm an idiot, is why.