All language subtitles for CustomMetahuman_5.3.mp4

Let's continue where we left off
in the last video.

We now have our clothes mesh in Blender
and can continue

to add details and model
the rest of the outfit.

Before we do that,
I wanted to show you how you can approach

creating clothes in Blender,

in case you don't use Marvelous Designer
at all in your pipeline.

To be honest, this is something you can
approach in a thousand different ways.

Creating the high poly cloth mesh is
absolutely independent

of your character model
and your choice of software.

You can use Blender, ZBrush, 3D Coat,
Maya, or Max.

Basically, this is just straight up modeling
and sculpting to create whatever you want.

I mean, you can start with a cube
and sculpt your clothes from scratch,

or you can use polygonal modeling
techniques or actual cloth simulation.

There are, for example, a couple of add-ons available
on Blendermarket for cloth simulation.

The native blender cloth simulation
is very basic, but you can use it

as a starting point and then refine
the mesh with modeling or sculpting tools.

What I would like to do in this video,
though, is to quickly go

over two different approaches

that I sometimes use in Blender
to get a basic clothes shape to start with.

The first approach is to use the character
mesh and duplicate

parts of the mesh to be used as clothes.

Since our metahuman character comes from
a game engine, the mesh is triangulated,

and since squats are much more convenient
to select edge loops, extrude and so on,

we can convert the mesh to quads
by using the "Tris to Quads" function.

The result is usually not perfect,

but we can still work with that.

Now select the mesh part that you want,

for example, a T-shirt shape.

Then duplicate the mesh and press P

to separate it from the body.

Then you can clean it up a bit.

For example, I want the bottom edge
to be zeroed out in the Z-axis.

Select the edge loop, press S to scale,
then Z to select the Z-axis,

and type 0.

Then we want to smooth the mesh a bit.

You can go into sculpt mode and either
smooth the areas

you want manually
by using the smooth brush

or use the mesh filter
to smooth the whole mesh.

Select "Smooth" in the dropdown menu,

then left-click somewhere in the viewport
and drag your mouse to the right

while holding the left mouse button.

You can also use

the mesh filter to inflate the shirt
or just scale it up in edit mode.

But be careful in areas like the armpits
where you might get overlapping geometry.

Use the smooth brush to smooth it out
if needed.

Repeat the process to create pants,

stockings, gloves, or whatever
you want to make.

The second approach I want to show you,
is to use Blender's cloth simulation tool.

Let's create a plane
and subdivide it a couple of times.

And delete these faces.

So this will be the front part of our pants.
To get the back part,

let's extrude the whole mesh
along the Y-axis.

Next, we need to create sewing lines.

The way it works in
Blender is by creating edges

that connect the front
and back of the cloth mesh.

In X-ray mode,

you can select all the faces here
and then delete "Only Faces".

This will leave
the connecting edges intact.

Now let's delete the edges
we don't need for the torso

and the legs.

We can now activate the cloth physics
in the physics properties tab.

To activate the sewing,

go to the "Shape" section
and activate the Sewing checkbox.

Let's set the sewing force to 15.

We want the clothes
to collide with the body,

so we need to make the body mesh
a collision object.

Now we can press the spacebar
to start the simulation.

If you want
the clothes to be closer to the body,

you can decrease the outer and inner thickness
in the collision settings of the body.

Well, it looks like the simulation
is creating problems

in the crotch area, so we probably need
to increase the resolution of the mesh.

If we subdivide it again, we will have to recreate
our sewing edges as well.

You can also add a subdivision modifier
to see how it would look like

with more resolution.

Okay. I think this is good enough for me.

So let's apply the cloth modifier

and close the gaps
between the front and back part.

You can either merge the vertices
manually or by distance,

or use the "Bridge Edge Loop" function,
which usually produces better results.

You have already seen
how you can smooth the mesh in sculpt mode,

but you can also use the "Smooth vertices"
operation in edit mode.

Go to vertex and choose "Smooth vertices".

This gives you a bit more control over the
smoothing strength, number of iterations

and which axis should be considered.

Since I want to still retain some of
the clothes shape I uncheck the Z-axis.

So those were the two approaches I wanted to show you
to create a basic shape.

From here on, you can, for example,

use the multiresolution modifier
to sculpt folds and other details.

I won't take it much further
in this video,

but just to show you one more thing,
you can use alpha brushes if you want.

Create a new texture and click on Open.

For example,
I have this folds brushes pack,

I bought an Artstation a while ago.
Select the brush, then set stroke to,

for example, "Drag Dot"
and the texture to "View Plane".

Now you can use this texture as a height map
(if you want) to sculpt some folds.

I use the same process to create the vest.

If you have areas
where the body clips through the clothes,

an easy way to fix
this is to use the inflate brush.

Well, alright then.

How you proceed from here
is entirely your choice.

I will go back to my outfit from Marvelous
Designer and continue from there.

To complete the outfit,

I first create some shoes.

Nothing sophisticated,
just a simple model.

We will add details in the texturing process later.

As I said before,
this modeling part is totally arbitrary

and is in no way specific to,

or the focus of, the customization
workflow of the MetaHuman characters.

So I will speed this up
and briefly comment on what I am doing.

Create a plane, resize it,
and apply a subdivision modifier.

Add loop cuts and shape it to roughly
fit the foot.

Add a Solidify modifier
to give it some thickness.

Then add a cube and use the same techniques
to roughly shape it to enclose the foot.

I then just basically duplicate parts
of the mesh,

separate them and pull them in place
in sculpt or edit mode.

Pro-tip: If you want to apply all modifiers
on multiple objects,

you can select them all
and then use "Convert to Mesh".

Add a Mirror modifier

to create the second shoe.

Next, let's add some accessories.

The cape needs to be held in place
by some buttons and I want the character

to have a shoulder pad with fur.

Use the hair particle system to create
the fur and groom it in particle edit mode.

To create objects like belts I use the
Shrinkwrap modifier, so the belts

fit the body nicely.
Create a cylinder and delete the top and bottom faces.

Then scale and position it such that it is
fully inside the body mesh.

For the wrap method choose "Project",

and play with the offset
to bring the belt out.

Then add solidify and subdivision modifiers.

For the belt buckle,

I use the wireframe modifier here
to get the basic shape,

and since I haven't applied the modifiers
on the belt yet,

I can add edges and create a hole
for the buckle.

Finally, I model a bracelet,

and then begin working on the helmet.

As I've shown you before, I duplicate
a part of the head mesh to start with

and then use the popular mirror technique

to continue modeling
and shaping the helmet to its final form.

As a final touch,

I add a necklace.

Well, that's all I want to add to our Hero character.

Now, let's take a quick break
and talk about a very important question:

What do we need to think about
when we work on our character?

There are two things
that should be in the back of your mind

when you make decisions on what
type of clothes and props you want to add.

The first is a minor point
which is "Resolution".

You will need a low poly version
of every mesh that you create.

For some objects
like the belts or buttons,

I don't even make a high poly version
and rather add details through the textures.

But if you would like to sculpt details,
there are two things

you can do to avoid having to retopologize every object later.

One is to make a copy of the lowres
version before you begin adding details.

This way you'll get your low poly version for free.

The other one is to use the multires modifier,

so you can go back to your original model
at any time.

The second point to always have in
mind is one

that has massive implications
for your clothes model, which is "Movement".

We are not making a static sculpture.

This is an animated character,
so everything we attach will move with it.

You basically have four options
to attach something to the character body.

One is rigging, and skinning.

Two is rigging and cloth simulation in engine.

Three is a static mesh,
and Four is a skeletal mesh

with its own rig for physics
simulation in engine.

We will look into all these options later.

The most important one is the first one:
rigging and skinning,

Because most of the clothes
components will be skinned,

including the hard surface
elements like the Cape buttons here.

You can't just add them as static meshes
to the character blueprint

because they would clip
through the clothes and body.

So it's important to consider
how the character mesh is deforming,

when we place props on the body.

Avoid placing elements
that would stay rigid in real life

on areas with high deformation probability like elbows,
knees, shoulders, or the waist.

For example, rigid objects like pouches
or armor pieces

around the waistline
are a common design element,

but will give you trouble.
The same goes for metal knee pads and things like that.

You can adjust the way
such elements deform in the weight painting

and usually get away
with a little deformation,

but sometimes you will run into serious problems.

Elements like headgear, on the other hand,
are usually not problematic

since the head does not deform.

Helmets, goggles and similar objects
can be just added as static meshes.

Another common issue is wide clothing.

It's tempting to add wide coats, capes
and stuff like that, but it's sometimes

close to impossible to make it look good
during animation in Unreal Engine.

Except if you go for the Alembic workflow
and import a simulated cloth animation

from Marvelous Designer.

So out of the four options
mentioned above, skinning is the easiest

to implement and gives consistent
and good looking results for animation.

So as a general rule for skinned clothing:
The closer you keep to the body, the better.

Garment items like our cape here will be skinned,

because we want the top part
to move with the shoulders and the spine.

But for the lower part
we will have to use cloth physics.

To sum up, there is no right or wrong
way to design and model clothes.

Every outfit will have its own challenges
and issues depending on the design and topology.

Don't be afraid
to take risks and experiment.

Over time you will develop an intuition
on what will work and what won't.

Alright...

In the next video,

I would like to go over
some final questions

on this part of the clothes creation
pipeline, such as file organization,

optimization, how and when to add thickness
and the question of details

And then we will proceed to
retopology in Chapter 6.