How to Package Freebie Clothing? [Solved]

3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276
edited January 2021 in The Commons

I'm trying to learn how to make clothes in ZBrush and made an outfit as a learning project. I think it's cool but my skills as a clothing maker are not Daz Store worthy yet. So I decided to give it as a freebie. My problem is that I don't know how to package clothing for sharing. Could someone tell me what all I need and how to package clothing items? How to save them for sharing? Do I need the OBJ for each article of clothing or is there a way to save it without that? I know, these are probably dumb questions. Excuse my ignorance - I'm learning. :)

Here's the outfit I made, it's an 80's style workout outfit for G8F:

 

Any help you can give me on how to package it would be much appreciated! :)

 

EDIT - This is a really old thread that still keeps popping up. lol This was a freebie I did years ago before I became a PA. It has issues but I'm glad that there are people still finding it helpful. :)

Post edited by 3Diva on
«1

Comments

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,890
    edited August 2017

    Remember this freebie product?

    Leotard for Genesis 3 Female

    I would look at the DIM package file for that product & package your freebie similarly, but renamed in a way that reflects you as a PA, even if you are making freebies for the time being, and in a way that reflects what your product is.

    I've included 3 screenshots of the DIM to show how to get that information.

    Now, it seems to me though that somebody actually made a freebie that, once you created your product's relative folder & file structure & got it ready, would take that as input & actually create a DIM Product Install Zip for that freebie. You just copy the freebie Product Install Zip to the location where DIM looks for Product Install Zips downloaded from the DAZ Store. That would give you the advantage of being able to easily uninstall & update your freebie too. Maybe someone will come along and inform us where that Product Install Zip creator can be obtained.

     

    1.png
    675 x 543 - 20K
    2.png
    676 x 590 - 29K
    3.png
    675 x 543 - 47K
    Post edited by nonesuch00 on
  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,714

    It looks, apart from the breast area; that looks like its been spray-painted on. Just adjust in zbrush. :)

  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited August 2017
    1. Save any texture files in a folder called Runtime/Textures/divamakeup/productname
    2. Make sure the textures on your item have been loaded from that folder
    3. Save your item using File > Save As > Support Asset> Figure/Prop Asset
      1. Browse to your product libary/People/Genesis 8 Female/Clothing/divamakeup/productname
      2. Name the product whatever you want to call it and hit save (see bullet points below for suggestions)
      3. Change vendor name to divamakeup (or whatever you want to use)
      4. Change the product name to whatever you want to call the outfit (see bullet points below for suggestions)
      5. Change item name to the name of the piece being saved (see bullet points below for suggestions)
      6. Click Accept
    4. You will need to copy the following three folders, and everything in them, and put them in a new folder to be zipped up: /data/divamakeup/productname, people/Genesis 8 Female/clothing/divamakeup/productname, and Runtime/Textures/divamakeup/productname. People usually call the top level folder that gets zipped  something like "content" or just the name of the product.

    So you will end up with a folder called content. Inside that folder you will have a folder called /data with just the subfolders for this product, a folder called /people with just the subfolders for this product and a folder called /Runtime with just the sub-folders for this product. If you want to include a readme or UV templates, put folders for those in new folders under the same top-level folder. Then just zip the content folder and upload to wherever you want to share it from (Sharecg in your case).

    You don't need to include the OBJ files (although you can if you want to) - when you save as a support asset DAZ Studio will create its own version of the geometry files and save them in a folder it creates automatically inside the /data folder.

    • Your product name should include your vendorname (or an abbreviation of it) and the name of the figure it is for. Example: "diva 80sWorkoutOutfit G8F"
    • Each item/piece should have the same abbreviation plus an abbreviation of the outfit name. Example: "diva 80sW LegWarmers."

     

    Any help you can give me on how to package it would be much appreciated! :)

     

    Post edited by MarkIsSleepy on
  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276
    MDO2010 said:
    1. Save any texture files in a folder called Runtime/Textures/divamakeup/productname
    2. Make sure the textures on your item have been loaded from that folder
    3. Save your item using File > Save As > Support Asset> Figure/Prop Asset
      1. Browse to your product libary/People/Genesis 8 Female/Clothing/divamakeup/productname
      2. Name the product whatever you want to call it and hit save (see bullet points below for suggestions)
      3. Change vendor name to divamakeup (or whatever you want to use)
      4. Change the product name to whatever you want to call the outfit (see bullet points below for suggestions)
      5. Change item name to the name of the piece being saved (see bullet points below for suggestions)
      6. Click Accept
    4. You will need to copy the following three folders, and everything in them, and put them in a new folder to be zipped up: /data/divamakeup/productname, people/Genesis 8 Female/clothing/divamakeup/productname, and Runtime/Textures/divamakeup/productname. People usually call the top level folder that gets zipped  something like "content" or just the name of the product.

    So you will end up with a folder called content. Inside that folder you will have a folder called /data with just the subfolders for this product, a folder called /people with just the subfolders for this product and a folder called /Runtime with just the sub-folders for this product. If you want to include a readme or UV templates, put folders for those in new folders under the same top-level folder. Then just zip the content folder and upload to wherever you want to share it from (Sharecg in your case).

    You don't need to include the OBJ files (although you can if you want to) - when you save as a support asset DAZ Studio will create its own version of the geometry files and save them in a folder it creates automatically inside the /data folder.

    • Your product name should include your vendorname (or an abbreviation of it) and the name of the figure it is for. Example: "diva 80sWorkoutOutfit G8F"
    • Each item/piece should have the same abbreviation plus an abbreviation of the outfit name. Example: "diva 80sW LegWarmers."

     

    Any help you can give me on how to package it would be much appreciated! :)

     

    Oh Awesome! That's EXACTLY the information I needed! THANK YOU SO MUCH, MARK! :D  

    I packaged it and uploaded it here: http://sta.sh/01mi609l3avt

    I was wondering if someone would test it for me to make sure I did it right before I upload it to ShareCG and Rendo?

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191

    I tried to download it, Diva and just got a stash OOPS page.  Can you double check the upload?

  • frankrblowfrankrblow Posts: 2,052

    Divamakeup, there were no problems with downloading, extracting or installing this outfit for me. With Genesis 8 in a non zeroed pose, everything except the leg warmers automatically fit-to the character, and with the leg warmers, I just selected fit-to, which is perfectly fine.

    Nice job, and looks good. Thank you.yes

    Frank.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191

    Strange.  I wonder why I can't download it? I'll try from a different browser and let you know how that goes.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191

    Okay. Very strange.  Downloaded in Firefox just fine.  First time in Chrome, I got a download failed and an OOPS page.  After downloading in Firefox successfully, I went back to Chrome and it downloaded just fine.  Anway, off to install and test it out.

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276
    edited August 2017

    Divamakeup, there were no problems with downloading, extracting or installing this outfit for me. With Genesis 8 in a non zeroed pose, everything except the leg warmers automatically fit-to the character, and with the leg warmers, I just selected fit-to, which is perfectly fine.

    Nice job, and looks good. Thank you.yes

    Frank.

    Great! Thank you for testing it! :) I'm glad I did it right.

    Post edited by 3Diva on
  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276

    Okay. Very strange.  Downloaded in Firefox just fine.  First time in Chrome, I got a download failed and an OOPS page.  After downloading in Firefox successfully, I went back to Chrome and it downloaded just fine.  Anway, off to install and test it out.

    That is strange. I'm glad you got it downloaded though. Let me know if there are any issues. :)

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191
    edited August 2017

    The file installed fine.  It's a nice little outfit.  There is some stretching in the groin area in extreme poses.  I think this is a rigging issue, but not positive as I haven't rigged any of the clothing I've made yet.  You might want to research JCMs which I believe is what you need to know to fix the issue.  However, turning smoothing way up also kind of fixes the issue.

    You might want to think about giving some thickness to your outside edges to sort of imitate hems.  It gives it a nice professional touch.  

    Very cute and not bad for a first effort.  It is certainly better than my first outfit which was quite disastrous.  You'll get better the more outfits you make. Keep it up.

    Diva80sOutfit01.jpg
    1000 x 1300 - 326K
    Diva80sOutfit02.jpg
    1000 x 1300 - 328K
    Post edited by Knittingmommy on
  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276
    edited August 2017

    The file installed fine.  It's a nice little outfit.  There is some stretching in the groin area in extreme poses.  I think this is a rigging issue, but not positive as I haven't rigged any of the clothing I've made yet.  You might want to research JCMs which I believe is what you need to know to fix the issue.  However, turning smoothing way up also kind of fixes the issue.

    You might want to think about giving some thickness to your outside edges to sort of imitate hems.  It gives it a nice professional touch.  

    Very cute and not bad for a first effort.  It is certainly better than my first outfit which was quite disastrous.  You'll get better the more outfits you make. Keep it up.

    Thanks for testing it. :) I don't know how to do JCMs, that's something I need to learn how to do. I think I know how to fix the crotch area though for next time - maybe just make the area a bit narrower so it doesn't go into the leg area as closely (worth a shot anyway lol at least until I figure out how to do JCMs). As for the edge thickness - everything has edges except the shirt. The shirt was pretty much a big boo-boo. lol I spent about half an hour sculpting in folds and creases which didn't end up showing up in the final product anyway. And I need to learn how to make shirts without mesh extracting, as when you try to smooth it you get (as you can see in your render) weird boob shaped fold/sag even though I thought I had smoothed that out. 

    Thanks again for testing it. I have a long way to go. Whew, making 3D content is hard. So much to learn, so little resources to learn from. Or maybe I just suck at searching. lol For now it's just a ton of trial and error and, though I don't drink, being tempted to start drinking. haha

    Post edited by 3Diva on
  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496

    @divamakeup - awesome! Glad it worked for you; I always worry that I'm accidentally leaving out steps when I try to give instructions for something, especially when I've only done it a couple times myself. It's a really nice first outfit. :)

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,890
    edited August 2017

    I always thought JCM, MCMs, and whatever rigging you need for clothing you make was done by using the Transfer Utility to transfer the rigging, JCMs, and MCMs, and morphs and so on from the target DAZ character the clothing is meant for.

    Post edited by nonesuch00 on
  • BlueIreneBlueIrene Posts: 1,318

    If you're willing to spend a bit of money in pursuit of knowledge, blondie9999's rigging tutorials are half price at the moment. They were made for an earlier version of Daz, but 99.9% of things are still in the same place and are very easy to find when they're not. I've found them to be very thorough and even though they're old I would still recommend them.

  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited August 2017

    I always thought JCM, MCMs, and whatever rigging you need for clothing you make was done by using the Transfer Utility to transfer the rigging, JCMs, and MCMs, and morphs and so on from the target DAZ character the clothing is meant for.

    A lot of those do get put in automatically by the transfer utility, but sometimes you don't want the clothing doing the exact same thing that the body is doing, so you need to add your own, especially around the shoulders and upper leg/pelvis area.

    In addition to the blondie9999 tutorials recommended by Astracadia, there was a recent set of Digital Art Live webinars with Arki on rigging complex clothing (https://www.daz3d.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-creating-complex-outfits-bundle) that really goes into some great detail on this whole process. If you can't afford the whole bundle, the 4th session is available separately and covers the creation of your own morphs, FBMs and JCMs in a very clear way. If you can afford two of them, I'd get sessions 3 and 4, which focus on the rigging parts.

    Post edited by MarkIsSleepy on
  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,890
    MDO2010 said:

    I always thought JCM, MCMs, and whatever rigging you need for clothing you make was done by using the Transfer Utility to transfer the rigging, JCMs, and MCMs, and morphs and so on from the target DAZ character the clothing is meant for.

    A lot of those do get put in automatically by the transfer utility, but sometimes you don't want the clothing doing the exact same thing that the body is doing, so you need to add your own, especially around the shoulders and upper leg/pelvis area.

    In addition to the blondie9999 tutorials recommended by Astracadia, there was a recent set of Digital Art Live webinars with Arki on rigging complex clothing (https://www.daz3d.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-creating-complex-outfits-bundle) that really goes into some great detail on this whole process. If you can't afford the whole bundle, the 4th session is available separately and covers the creation of your own morphs, FBMs and JCMs in a very clear way. If you can afford two of them, I'd get sessions 3 and 4, which focus on the rigging parts.

    thanks

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276

    Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Sadly the recommend tutorials are all full price right now. I've put them on my wish list though. I'm hoping to find some free tutorials as I'm on a really tight budget, but maybe these will go on sale and I'll be able to score them at a good discount. :)

    Thank you for testing my first outfit and giving me some valuable advice and feedback. I appreciate it very much! :)

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,890

    Here is a freebie pointed out to me by Tottallou in this thread to help create DIM ready ZIP archives for quick install & uninstall of freebies:

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/189806/creating-daz-install-manager-ready-zip-archives-for-freebies

  • algovincianalgovincian Posts: 2,562

    Whoa . . . you've been busy. I'm on an iPad at the moment, so I can't DL anything, but it looks great, Diva!

    - Greg

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,859

    Just wanted to say I think you did AWESOME for your first outfit. I'm very impressed gal! 

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276
    edited August 2017

    Here is a freebie pointed out to me by Tottallou in this thread to help create DIM ready ZIP archives for quick install & uninstall of freebies:

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/189806/creating-daz-install-manager-ready-zip-archives-for-freebies

    That just sounds like too much work for me. lol It's a pain in the bottom getting everything saved exactly so and the right file hierarchies made and the right files copied over. The last thing I'd want to do is add a ton of more work for myself. If I was getting paid for the items, sure, but I'm doing all this in my free time and it already takes a ton of time and work creating and packaging the freebies. :)

    Post edited by 3Diva on
  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276

    Whoa . . . you've been busy. I'm on an iPad at the moment, so I can't DL anything, but it looks great, Diva!

    - Greg

    hahah Yeah, I've been working on trying to learn skin texturing too but... it's just a thing that makes me want to cry. It's SO HARD. Argh. I hope you're having better luck than I am. 

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276
    Novica said:

    Just wanted to say I think you did AWESOME for your first outfit. I'm very impressed gal! 

    Thank you, Novica! :) That's really nice of you to say! 

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 17,890

    Here is a freebie pointed out to me by Tottallou in this thread to help create DIM ready ZIP archives for quick install & uninstall of freebies:

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/189806/creating-daz-install-manager-ready-zip-archives-for-freebies

    That just sounds like too much work for me. lol It's a pain in the bottom getting everything saved exactly so and the right file hierarchies made and the right files copied over. The last thing I'd want to do is add a ton of more work for myself. If I was getting paid for the items, sure, but I'm doing all this in my free time and it already takes a ton of time and work creating and packaging the freebies. :)

    I thought it would be too but it was actually the easiest part & now I can install & uninstall. Something to keep in mind when you want to release tests for the DAZ Store later.

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,276

    Here is a freebie pointed out to me by Tottallou in this thread to help create DIM ready ZIP archives for quick install & uninstall of freebies:

    https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/189806/creating-daz-install-manager-ready-zip-archives-for-freebies

    That just sounds like too much work for me. lol It's a pain in the bottom getting everything saved exactly so and the right file hierarchies made and the right files copied over. The last thing I'd want to do is add a ton of more work for myself. If I was getting paid for the items, sure, but I'm doing all this in my free time and it already takes a ton of time and work creating and packaging the freebies. :)

    I thought it would be too but it was actually the easiest part & now I can install & uninstall. Something to keep in mind when you want to release tests for the DAZ Store later.

    Hmmm That might be a good idea. I've bookmarket it. :) Thanks!

  • There is actually an easier way than digging through the normal DAZ installation to find everything. Create another folder where you save the content as it's created and zip up the folders inside for each item you make.

  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496

    There is actually an easier way than digging through the normal DAZ installation to find everything. Create another folder where you save the content as it's created and zip up the folders inside for each item you make.

    I agree - that's the best way to do it - create a separate set of folders for each project, but it takes a little bit longer to explain that method since you have to also add that folder in DS so you can see it and save to it. I've got a blank template with all the folders in it that I use as a basis on each new project that I intend to distribute. Doing it that way also helps make sure you have all the files you need and that you don't include anything from some other item by mistake.

  • arstropicaarstropica Posts: 49
    edited January 2021

    Hi 3Diva, thanks for making such a great product free.

    Post edited by arstropica on
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,026

    RE: JCMs, etc.

    For free web info, I recommend the Josh Darling youtube channel.  Not for free, I am a huge fan of Digital Art Live which sells a variety of learning products in the Daz store and hosts occasional webinars.  For free, here is a Josh Darling video specific to JCMs.  Slightly dated to the extent that Daz tries to add more tools that are helpful.

     

     

     

Sign In or Register to comment.