marvelous designer
polycount lvl 666
So how many people are using it now and what do you think of it.
i am still thinking it's a abit annoying and generic looking, but is might save me some time when trying to get a nice 'volumes' for trousers for example
my main beef with it is that it does not produce enough creases unless you have baggy clothing on extreme settings
i am still thinking it's a abit annoying and generic looking, but is might save me some time when trying to get a nice 'volumes' for trousers for example
my main beef with it is that it does not produce enough creases unless you have baggy clothing on extreme settings
Replies
Here are few examples of things I've made with it:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rust-hide-and-burlap-clothing
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/more-rust-clothing
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/rust-clothing
So, that's great and all, but there are limitations. These all required some work in Zbrush after doing the initial pass in MD, and for various reasons.
MD isn't capable of the resolution necessary for extremely fine detail, and it doesn't have tools for things like stitches, buttons, or other small details that you'd usually see on clothing. In addition, it doesn't contain good functionality for creating creases and memory folds you'd usually see around joints.
With those limitations in mind, though, it's an incredible time saver because it gets all the most difficult parts of creating convincing cloth out of the way. Overhanging folds, fine bunching around stitches, and believable draping are very easy to do in MD. Once you have that stuff taken care of, you can then import your garments into Zbrush and add additional details like memory creases or wear and tear.
Also, regarding it being kind of generic looking: Part of the reason for this is that a lot of people who use it don't switch their cloth presets, even when it would make sense to use different settings. The end result of that is very samey-looking and uniform folds even when it's supposed to be multiple materials that a garment is made of. Additionally, it seems that a lot of people don't do any cleanup or add any more detail in Zbrush after they've done their initial simulations, so this ends up making things look generally terrible.
Here's a very simple example of how changing a single setting can affect the way the cloth drapes and folds:
It's pretty easy to see how not changing your settings would make the stuff you're working on look really bad.
I think that MD is one of the best purchases a character artist can make at this point if they need to make believable clothing or other cloth pieces and they already own Zbrush. The learning curve is pretty steep at first, especially since you have to understand how real garments are constructed, but it's worth learning because of the time it will save you in the long run.
Do you know of any specfic places that have a host of the pattern lay outs as well?
Most pieces of clothing use the same general shapes for their patterns, even if they are different types of garments. A t-shirt and a winter jacket will usually have generally similar main body and arm panel shapes, so it's pretty easy to infer what you need to make once you're familiar with how those patterns look.
One key thing to note, especially if you're going to be taking apart real clothing to make measurements, is that Marvelous Designer's seam stitching IS ABSOLUTELY NOT the same as real world stitching. Most common articles of clothing have what area called 'seam allowances.' These are extra areas of cloth that are stitched together and are usually not visible on the outside of clothes, and do not contribute to the final visible dimensions of the garment.
MD doesn't do seam allowances unless you specifically sew things together in the most complicated (and unnecessarily convoluted) way possible, so using disassembled clothing to take measurements is a bit overkill. Instead, you can just lay a garment on a flat surface and take measurements with a cloth tape measure to get fairly accurate numbers.
After watching that video, I don't think you really need to study througouly tailoring stuff, just need to know basic knowledge on where you wanna sew the attach points...
edit:oh well,looks like you got your answer
MD is ace once you get used to its "quirks"
I use it a lot, especially in work that requires a male/female of the same garment, swap avatar, adjust pattern a bit and bang second high poly done (mostly
An added bonus is free perfectly flat UV's on the high poly I dont always use them, but having them there is great.
but then i have to go back in to zbrush. i think where it has helped is with the base forms - I always seemed to stick too close the human shape underneath when sculpting form scratch, but I still find that my cloth seems a bt too baggy with MD
Its finding that happy medium I suppose
I wil say one hting make sure that if you are using a custom avatar, that you get the scale similar to the default or the sim will not work as good
Get a book on drafting pattern blocks/slopes from measurements and you will be able to make any tailored garment you can imagine.
I use it to make super quick base meshes for sculpting in zbrush. I also use it for super tight clothing, and sometimes to do realistic stuff, although I find the sewing etc sort of annoying when you could sculpt a lot of it pretty quickly.
Seth is amazing with md, by the way, you can see a some of his soldiers in the md design gallery on their site (you'll know it's his because they say "first place" on them).
Beyond that, md is fantastic for drapery - simulating fabric like curtains or drapery. It would be impossible (mostly) to sculpt certain things (particularly bunched up things) while ending up with perfect uvs for tiling patterns etc. But md makes it super easy.
Apparently they removed features from number one to try and get people to upgrade.
Take it for what it is about support of customers.
That and the fact that a few people I know who use it tell me it's really easy to use and I'm like "Ahh screw you" haha XD
that said it doesn't make creating cloth easy.
you just become more of a taylor rather then a sculpter.
i've been using it for a couple of projects now and it has its ups and downs.
for example certain types of clothes are very hard to get right, especially stiff clothing like suits.
also if your base is not realistic, you are going to have a bad time:
also you cant subdivide the meshes, so if your resolution isn't high enough for sculpting you are kind of fucked (maximum resolution is one face per 1mm)
The only real solution when you absolutely need them is to save a copy of the original, then remesh.
After you remesh, but before you resculpt, UV your remesh, and save that as well.
At the end, you can apply the needed texture to the original MD mesh with properly laid out UVs. Then you project the texture onto the remeshed version with the UV's (the one you saved before you sculpted, so that the projection is quick and easy and has no/few errors. Then duplicate the texture and apply it to your resculpted version, which should have the same UV's.
Its not ideal, but it works.
I have found that quadrifying the mesh in MD before export at a low particle distance gives me a good enough sculpting base, I don't use MD's thickness though cos the edges are terrible. Instead I panel loop the parts keeping a slight profile on the edge, that way I have a sculpt mesh that still has UV's on it. the edges need a little tidy but nothing too drastic.
Avatar size plays an important part in MD too, scalling your custom avatar up a bit before import to MD will give you tighter creases and a more dense mesh if thats what you need. Or if thats the look you are going for.It does mean that you have to rescale to target size somewhere down the line but I usually leave that till the low.
I need to dust off whichever version I bought back then ... I've only used it a few times for very simple things, but that was enough to convince me that the program is pretty powerful.
normally you have to draw a box but if you double click you can terminate the box and draw straight lines. great for stitching belt loops.
I put every stitching seam on maximum fold also, gives a nice tidy seam
Something I've had success with is increasing the friction coefficient of a material (under the material's Physical Property tab). Doing this means the folds are more likely to stay in place on something like an arm for example while you're tweaking, giving you more control over the final wrinkles.
back of the sleeves seem a bit smooth though:)
Yeah it could still do with some work; this was the first project I've used MD for so it's a learning experience. I think the main thing to take away (as others have said) is that you can quickly knock out a mesh to take into zbrush and do the final touches there. And you can take the pattern onto other characters and tweak it.
A couple of handy things with this mesh is that you can pull the hood up or down by grabbing it and that the two fabric strips where the zip goes (bottom parts in the 2D view) have a division on the edge where they are sew together. By pulling those 'verts' up or down in the 2D view you can essentially zip/unzip the parka (delete the sew line to completely unzip). So this gives quick flexibilty that would be more cumbersome in other apps.
...I created basemeshes for clothes from a scratch I'll try to sculpt folds and wrinkles all by myself from a scratch. And that's hard too. :P
yeah exactly. i went to a thrift store and bought a whole bunch of "disposable" clothing - clothing that was so cheap it didn't matter if i ruined it. pulled apart all the stitches and seams and stuff, and made plans that were as close to identical as possible in MD. (you can actually do this even easier, as i found out, by photographing the garments and applying the photo as a texture in MD, then planning your segments on top of the photo).
once you build up a library of garments MD becomes a really REALLY fast way of getting a quick base for your characters clothing.