Character / Clothing creation tutorials for using Blender 2.8 with Daz Studio
jukingeo
Posts: 711
Hello All,
I have been looking to expand my learning into creating custom characters using Blender. While I have seen some tutorials that are available, they are for versions 2.78 and earlier. As of now, I do not have any experience with Blender, but I am aware that the program has received a major overhaul for version 2.8. My computer system has this version on it and not the earlier versions. Since I am new to Blender, naturally I would like to learn this version. However, I have not seen any updated tutorals.
I had initially started to learn Hexagon for the purpose of character and clothing creation, but since that is a program that is no longer being updated, I figured I was wasting my time with it. As it is, I had intentions on learning Blender anyway. So I dropped the idea of working with Hexagon and would rather just stick with Blender. From what I understand, Blender can do some scuplting work too even though it may not be as powerful as Z-brush, and it is free too.
So if there are any tutorials for using Blender 2.8 with Daz Studio (I have version 4.12), I would appreciate a point in the right direction.
Thank you,
Geo
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A couple of weeks ago I messed around with Blender and managed to create an ultra basic piece of clothing (most likely some ultra skimpwear)..
I'm relatively new to Daz Studio and Blender (started like 6-7 months ago - just speding a few hours a week), and I couldn't find any updated tutorials so I used:
https://www.deviantart.com/sickleyield/journal/Tutorial-G1G2G3G8-Clothing-in-Blender-1-428585748 combined with whatever updated Blender Youtube vidieo I could find.
I do not remember what Blender tutorials I used, but look for videos that show the Blender keyboard shortcuts as an overlay.
I found Blender to be a bit difficult in the beginning and I'm still struggeling with the program.
Cheers.
As much as I love Blender, I have to admit that Marvelous Designer if by far the superior tool for this. I mean BY FAR :) There's an active thread on it here, with some people who are doing amazing stuff with it.
Is that a free or pay program? Is it easy to learn? I have not tried to create clothing in Blender as I don't know my way around it yet. I HAVE tried to do something with Hexagon, but the controls are somewhat obtuse and some functions don't work right. I was using a tutorial I bought a clothing tutorial specifically for Hexagon here in the Daz Store and I didn't even get through it because of the difficulties I had. I wasn't sure if Blender is any easier, but it is more of a 'standard' program and I certainly could benefit from learning it anyway. Kind of a kill two birds with one stone thing. But if this Marvelous Designer is far easier to use and doesn't cost much (or anything) then I would give it a shot.
Thank you,
Geo
@junkingeo I was curious after seeing this thread so looked into it... As far as I can see Marvelous Designer costs $1,700 USD for a year subscription. Probably worth it for those who can use it to make money, but...
That's for the Enterprise version. The personal edition is USD 300 per year, with a perpetual licence costing USD 490.
8-O (Wide eyes).
Wow! That's ridiculous. $300 PER YEAR? I am not fond of these 'per year' subscriptions I have been seeing lately. Maybe I can see that price for one time purchase, but for one time fee of $490? That is still up there. Perhaps it is for someone making money with it, but not for me. If it is something I would buy, it would have to be under $300. Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Geo
It often goes on sale for much less. I can't remember how much I paid for MD9, but it was not $490...
I should add that there are addons for Blender that improve on Blender's cloth sim in certain ways, and the Cloth Brush is really cool, but MD's ability to make things fit and recover from intersections without exploding or deforming the cloth is unequaled like magic.
There is a Steam version, which has a perpetual license and doesn't require a fancy authentication sceme since it uses the Steam account. Still pricey though, depending on what you compare it with.
Ah, both comments about the Personal Edition of MD and the fact that it can go on sale are appreciated! Much more viable to consider for me, at least... Thanks!
Per one of the recent (yesterday?) Blender-related threads, Daramok3D (sp?) mentioned working on an MD look-alike tool. Missing icons was the topic - perhaps there's something there that might be worth tracking as you explore your options.
I know nothing more - it just caught my eye.
--ms
Yes, it is pricey, and as @mindsong points out, other people have made efforts. But MD, like MotionBuilder, is in a class of its own and if you need it, there is unfortunately no substitute, at any price.
I recently wanted to use the Angelic Dynamic Gown for V4 on a G8. I figured, I'd just dForce it and maybe it would work. It did not. It blew up within just a few frames because it is modeled to look nice, not to simulate well; the pleats are badly intersected. So I tried the same thing in Blender, where I'm much better at modeling and tweaking the simulation parameters. I must have missed an intersection because it got farther before it blew up as well.
But when I tried it in MD, I can easily imagine it making a loud "pop" sound because the gown flew out violently from the area where the intersections were, and then draped back beautifully and naturally. It's expensive, but I would buy it again in a heartbeat.
This is also not to mention that MD's marketplace is more diverse and less cliche than Daz Studio's.
Interesting to know...I had a good laugh with the loud pop and subsequent expected explosion. I am no stranger to that when dealing with dForce, but the thing is right now I just can't see spending that kind of money on something that is a hobby. But yes, if you are making money with it, then fine, as you would make that money back. But still I prefer the perpetual licensing over having to pay a high fee every single year...NO Thank you!
Geo
If you are considering MD, I would suggest waiting for a deal to get started with the Perpetual license from the MD website instead of the annual subscription if you are looking for 3+ year of continued investment. The perpetual edition offere lower upgrade costs of only $122.5 (assuming only one major version release every year) than the annual subscription cost of $300. The upgrade pricing has remained the same for at least 2 preceding verisions so even if you skip an major upgrade you can still continue with the next major upgrade by paying the same upgrade price.
Last I checked, the Steam version is not upgradeable since Steam treats each vesrion as a separate product. Though there have been cases of coupons being issued to existing Steam customers for purchasing the newer version at discounted rates, it is uncertain if customers of older version received those coupons if they skipped an intermediate upgrade. Also Steam coupons are time bound and have expiry dates wheras MD store upgrade pricing remains constant.
MD is really easy to use and there are many tutorials on it.
I did like four months of free trials before committing to purchasing MD.
You can do 1 month free trial of MD and then 1 month free trial of CLO (they are both essentially the same program with same interface, but CLO lacks all the UV editing features of MD, but also has some stuff MD doesnt have like a built in renderer).
Note: Every time MD or CLO has a big update, the free trial resets. Which is how i did 4 months of free trials.
MD has some sales several times a year where they reduce the subscription and perpetual license costs.
YouTube has a bunch of tutorials for Clothing creation using blender 2.8 and DAZ, as well as importing and exporting between them.
You can find them using YouTubes search gadget.
Enjoy.
That does seem a LOT better than having to fork over $300 each year.
Very clever information you fell upon there. Knowing that the free trial resets for every update. I will keep any out for sales, but unless it is something steep, I doubt I will buy into it.
This would probably be the way I am heading since I need to learn Blender anyway.
Thanks for the info!
Geo
To be fair, that outfit was made for an entirely different dynamic cloth system, and may (or may not, I’ve never touched Optitex) work just fine with that.
Point taken.
My point wasn't about the garment, but just that I was amazed at how much more robust MD was than both Blender and dForce. The only other similar system I've ever played with is Houdini's Velum. It combines the robustness of MD with the precision of an honest to goodnees modeling tool.
And as I was typing that, it dawned on me that Houdini apprentice is free for non commercial use. The learning curve is quite steep, but Velum is as much Magic of the Blackest Sort as MD. If the OP doesn't want to pay money, they could instead pay in the currency of their time to learn a little Houdini...
I will give that program a look-see as it sounds interesting. I see some tutorials on You Tube, so I will take a peek there.
Thanks!
Geo
MD is great for **some**types of clothing but extremely limited if you need more Rigid clothing items with accessories like helmets and other headwear like Hats
and what about footwear?? thick soled,treaded boots??
If these types of clothing are possible in MD, I would love to see some examples
I am Daz content developer who uses Blender for Daz clothing content creation as well as animation/VFX rendering. I create both custom conforming and Dynamic clothing peices for the Daz genesis figures
Here is a Feature article at Blendernation.com on my Blender clothing modeling process for a set of Sci fi armor I made for the Daz genesis 2 males in Blender https://www.blendernation.com/2020/04/29/behind-the-scenes-sci-fi-armor
So My advice is to save your money and learn Daz clothing modeling in Blender 2.8x
Good points, all, and you've got the results to prove it, but if it doesn't need cloth sim, we may colloquially call it "clothing", but it isn't clothing by any other definition. If it doesn't have Cloth Physics modifier in the stack, it's no different from any other type of asset one can model, and of course Blender will excel at that.
For clothing that actually moves under sim, MD makes our beloved Blender look like amateur hour. One can spend HOURS fiddling with simulation parameters because sometimes the default values are literally TWO ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE off from the vlaue that works, and certain parameters are highly interdependent. So you've got to get them both right, at the same time. Yet in MD, a one-click preset with a descriptive name works perfectly the first time, and it is extremely forgiving of simple topo errors like self intersections and poke through, better than Blender's single-sided option. Blender is better than dForce in that regard, but MD is far superior to both. The Self Collisions option in Blender causes wierd perturbations when the fabric is pinned somewhere within the collision distance, another thing that just doesn't happen in MD.
You can get by with Blender until you have to ask yourself "Why am I doing this the hard way? Have I nothing better to do than to mess with this sim all day?"
It's also limited in some ways, including that it can't
Quoting for posterity.
That seems like a pretty serious limitation.
I also forgot about the woes of layered clothing. You will spend hours messing with collision distances and multiple simulations to accomplish something that MD is simply not phazed by at all. This is something that I gave up on in Blender but was simply a non issue in MD.
However nowhere in the OP's post did he mention dynamics simulations.
Yet every response, in this thread, assumed has has no interest in making well crafted Daz studio conformers or perhaps some of the rigid items I mentioned like Boots ,helmets ,armor ,clothing with true edge thickness, or even smart propped jewelry etc..
If the OP is truly interested in joining the ranks of us who model our own Daz genesis clothing. IMHO he would be better served to learn the general modeling skills of a package like blender in the long run rather than spend money on an expensive program that has a definable HARD LIMIT on the types of Daz genesis clothing & accesories he can create for himself or perhaps for others as a PA.
Well before I built my new desktop last Thansgiving I had actually planned on buying a perpetual license for MD but my laptop could not handle it at all. I guess I will do that this Thanksgiving if they have their annual sale. Already last Thanksgiving's sale was near as good as the prior to that Thanksgiving's sale.
can't?
Can't you combine the both of them in the cloth sim stage in MD?
Looking back over the responses, you're right. None of what I wrote is valid unless the OP wants/needs dynamics. Because of my project's genre, I absolutely need it, but can easily imagine cases where the effect would be minimal anyway and not worth the computational time and effort.