Make Conforming Clothing for Poser Figures

lannabulls

Hi everybody,
I'm learning how to make conforming clothing for Poser figures.
In Zbrush I import Vicotia 4, trough the extract command I extract a clothes, a wetsuit, a simple exp to make you understand my question.

http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/2641/8ata.jpg

As you can see in the photo my wetsuit is made by 2 separated parts: the wetsuit itself (red arrow 2) and the pink stripe (red arrow 1), the stripe is going to hold a zipper that I dont show to keep things easy.
The wetsuit needs a material, the stripe another one, so 2 different mats.
Still in Zbrush uv map as well textrures are done, I assinge a polygroup to the wetsuit, another one to the stripe and export as obj.
Import in 3ds Max, cause the 2 polygroups, I have 2 separated poly regions, one for the wetsuit, one for the stripe so I'm going to assigne one material to the wetsuit, another to the stripe through ID Channel (Multi Sub Object Material). The file is ready to be exported as obj.

I even try to repeat the last step done in 3ds Max in Cinema 4d to, 2 selections tag to the 2 material areas, assigne different mats, once each.

The final goal is go to Poser to make conforming clothing so my wetsuit need the exact grouping as Victoria 4, the wetsuit is made from Victoria 4 and it is going to dress her.

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/5454/wgke.jpg

So, cause my wetsuit needs grouiping I export it to Autogroup Editor as you can see in photo,
yuo can see my wetsuit with the 2 separated materials regions.

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/3033/q1hp.jpg

As soon as I import Victoria 4 obj as a base grouping mesh and assigne Victoria 4 groups I lose materials imformation, ending up in Poser with a props that yes is proper grouped for the setup room, ready to make it conforming, howhaver it has lost the material regions, I can ssigne only one material.
Colud you please be so kind, explain to me what I'm doing wrong?
I'm a beginner, I spent weeks learning the entire workflow and now I'm stack cause this stupid problem, for sure something that I do wrong
Is it right the way that in 3ds Max (or eventually in Cinema 4d), I assigne to my wetsuit the multi materials info?
Could you please coment, tell me what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks a lot!

Canary3d

You can create material zones directly in Poser, actually - here is a tutorial I wrote on how: http://www.canary3d.com/tutorial/Tute-CustomMatPoser.zip

I create my materials and groups in Cinema 4D and I use the Riptide Pro plugin to export the OBJ. The native OBJ Export function in Cinema 4D is not very good.

What I do in Cinema is:

1. make each group a separate object in Cinema 4D
2. create all my mats in Cinema 4D's ,material editor and name them exactly what I want them to be in Poser
3. Drag the materials onto the objects. If a group/object has 2 material zones, I select the first zone's polygons with poly selection and drag the material onto the selected part. That will create a tag and material assignment. Then I select the next zone's polygons and to the same thing with another material. If two groups have the same material that's fine, you just drag it onto both.
4. Once everything is set up, I export it with Riptide pro and import it into UV Mapper (free) and select "color by material" and then "color by group" to check everything - quicker than loading into Poser. If everything is right, save the texture template and then load into Poser.

Max probably has similar-ish functions?

lannabulls

Really thanks Canary3d
you are my saviour!!!!
As a beginner I spent weeks watching tutorials, learning the workflow. I dont want trow away all the time spent, as soon as I can solve the above mentioned problem I will finally be able to do my conforming in the proper way.

I open the same thread in other websites too cause I really care to find a solution, in order to solve my problem, as yours, every answers point me to UV Mapper that I dont own jet, let download it or buy the pro edition, let see.

In Cinema I do all the obj import-export trogh Riptide Pro, the first plugin that I bought when I begun with Cinema.

I'm going to install UV Mapper, watch your tutorial and follow all your suggestions, contact you trogh this thread in case I will have some problem.

In the main time one question following your point 1:
a conforming clothing not necesarily must be one single object, it could be made by separate objects, right?
Using my wetsuit as exp: the wetsuit is an object, the stripe another one, may the 2 objects could be merged in a single object however the 2 geometries could be not attached, is it right what I just said?

Thanks a lot, your help is really apreciated, really, really thanks!!!!!!!!

Canary3d

No, the different materials can't be separate objects or they will not work in Poser. At least, not in the versions that I have made conformers in. It's like this:

object in Cinema 4D = group in Poser
material in Cinema 4D = material in Poser

Object export in Riptide will make one single wavefront OBJ file that you import to Poser. Open it in the grouping tool (see my tutorial for that) and you can check that everything is ok. Your group objects in Cinema have to line up exactly so don't move anything after you cut them apart! It might also work in current versions of Riptide to not cut them apart and have one object with different materials but I have not tried it that way - I use Daz Studio now where you model it all as one group so my workflow now is different anyway.

Here is a Cinema 4D screen capture showing a shirt I made for Poser 6 a long while ago. The colors are the material areas and I have selected the chest so you can see the mesh there and how it fits with the others.

If you get stuck and I don't reply, you can PM me - sometimes the notices don't work on the forums.

lannabulls

Really thanks Canary3d
I'm going to follow your suggestions, conctact in case I will get some problem, really thanks!!!!