Using wardrobe items as props? How to convert?

lbartels

Hello,

The title asks the question.  There are times when I want to use an article of clothing separate from the character it's normally fitted to. 
For example, a character takes of his or her shoes, and sets them aside. Or a woman carries her sandels while walking on a beach.

So, how can I separate the clothing article, and then manipulate it like a prop?

Thanks in advance.

felis

You don't need to convert. It depends on how you intend to use it.

You can use clothing items without having them fitted to a character. Then just pose them to your liking.

For clothes it would probably be best if they can be simulated. One issue is that the origin of the object is away from the objects, so it will be hard to animate that way. Remember even if clothing and shoes isn't fitted you can still pose them.

If you want to have them as a regular prop (without rigging you can export them, do changes as needed in a modeller and reimport in DS.

Here is an exampel where I just posed and placed the shoes in her hand.

markusmatern

Depending on the wardrobe (especially high heeled shoes) I like to do the following, bacause getting the posing right is usually automatic

1. Load as you would normally do in the default pose
2. Sometimnes you need to apply the foot pose, most of the time however the feet are already posed correctly after loading the shoes
3. Select the shoes
4. Use the menu command Edit ► Figure ► Rigging ► Convert Figure to Prop
5. In the Scene Tab the name changes (Prefixed by Prop: ...) and it is no longer selected
6. Select again and unparent them from the figure (Either from the context menu in the scene or in the menu Edit ►Object ► Change Parent(s))
7. Save the unparented shoes as a scene subset

Most of the times shoes are loaded as a pair. So I separate them using the geometry editor and save the individual shoes

1. Load the subset from step 7 above
2. Start geometry editor and select the left or right shoe
3. Use the context menu Geometry Editing ► Delete Selected Polygon(s)
4. Export again as a scene subset
5. Repeat the steps for the other shoe by reloading the pair subset

Note:

You won't have bones in your shoes after the process. So in case you have shoes with shoe laces that had bones for posing they are gone now!