Normal and Occlusion Maps

[learning]

I know right, it's some problem with how MH handles and deforms the mesh after it's loaded. It is especially prominent on skirt-like clothes, even more so if you have a character with non-standard proportions (too fat, too skinny, too tall, too short, too hulky etc). I believe somebody here tried to develop some kind of crutch like a target to fight this, but I'm not sure what came of it. That's why I'm asking how do you fight this.

[MTKnife]

The texture looks great! Maybe you could fix a bit the starship uniforms too?
BTW, how do you get rid of that wedgie type deal?

space_cadet_test.png

Thats annoying, its not there in the mesh, even when importing the obj... but convert to clothes and it does that.....

Fixing it is rather simple, if tedious. I planned to write up a tutorial for the wiki, but that seems pointless now with the changes coming in v2.

Basically, you have to select the human vertex groups by hand, taking care to do two things:

1. Select only vertices belonging to the applicable helper object (that is, if you're making a skirt, don't select vertices on the body or the tights helper beneath the skirt helper), and select only vertices directly beneath the article of clothing. Usually much of this can be done pretty easily by selecting edge loops and expanding with "Ctrl+". This step deals with distortions that occur in garments with vertices that lie far away from the body.

2. Unselect all centerline vertices in crevices (note that each of these vertices normally belongs to all three vertex groups, left, right, and center). For skirts, there are I think three such vertices between the buttocks. For pants (tights), you're going to have to go all the way from the top of the buttocks to the front bottom of the crotch, unless you want skin-tight yoga pants (and frankly, the bottom crevice in the tights helper is so extreme that even some skin-tight garments would stretch over it). Dealing with the area between the breasts should be similar to the skirt, though I think it involves more vertices. For a skirt, if the top of the skirt passes through the crevice, I also select an additional centerline vertex above the crevice, and I'd do something similar for other garments whose edges run through crevices. I suppose in theory you might need to unselect some vertices to either side of the centerline, though in practice I haven't found this necessary. This step eliminates the wedgies.

Now that I've helped you out, could you please reply to my post about your setup for the female skin texture? Without that information, your files aren't much use to anyone who wants to duplicate your work rather than just admire it.

[MTKnife]

I know right, it's some problem with how MH handles and deforms the mesh after it's loaded. It is especially prominent on skirt-like clothes, even more so if you have a character with non-standard proportions (too fat, too skinny, too tall, too short, too hulky etc). I believe somebody here tried to develop some kind of crutch like a target to fight this, but I'm not sure what came of it. That's why I'm asking how do you fight this.

That was me. I edited skirt and tights helpers in the "Average Female With [sic] Helpers" target, pulling the centerline vertices out of the crevices, but it didn't work. IIRC, I concluded that you might have to edit all four "With Helpers" targets, and/or replace them in MakeHuman as well as MakeClothes (but looking through the source files right now, I can't find any "With Helpers" targets in MakeHuman, so maybe not). In in case, I decided it wasn't worth any more effort, and with v2 on the way, it should soon no longer be a problem.

[o4saken]

Right so i have tried to work out the wedgie thing... succeeded to an extent. Now in MH she looks a bit "transgender" as she has a crotch bump (which is funny given the recent comments one here) .. not ideal, but easy to fix in blender just swith to sculpt mode, smooth brush, and one or 2 clicks and its gone..

EDIT - I softened the Normal map wrinkles a bit and re uploaded the zip

[duststorm]

Thats annoying, its not there in the mesh, even when importing the obj... but convert to clothes and it does that.....

The skirt needs to be fitted to the skirt helper, otherwise you will get these kinds of problems.

To avoid bumps, make sure that ALL vertices of the the clothes are fit to the same helper. Make sure that neighbouring vertices on your clothes, are fit to neighbouring vertices of the body/helpers. Inconsistencies in this (eg part of your clothes matched to the skirt helper, and part of the vertices attached to the leg) will create distortion, as the gaps between these two will vary based on the body type of the human.

[o4saken]

Thats annoying, its not there in the mesh, even when importing the obj... but convert to clothes and it does that.....

The skirt needs to be fitted to the skirt helper, otherwise you will get these kinds of problems.

To avoid bumps, make sure that ALL vertices of the the clothes are fit to the same helper. Make sure that neighbouring vertices on your clothes, are fit to neighbouring vertices of the body/helpers. Inconsistencies in this (eg part of your clothes matched to the skirt helper, and part of the vertices attached to the leg) will create distortion, as the gaps between these two will vary based on the body type of the human.

Hmmm see i am very new to this and not even sure exactly what you mean... i loaded the female model with helpers, used that to model the skirt from... further than that i dont understand what you mean by fitting clothing to a helper.

[MTKnife]

He means basically the same thing I said in my earlier post, minus what I said about the crevices. Aren't you already doing what I recommended?

[o4saken]

He means basically the same thing I said in my earlier post, minus what I said about the crevices. Aren't you already doing what I recommended?

sorry i actually only saw your post now... and honestly i dont really follow - this is all completely new to me.
i.e when you say "that is, if you're making a skirt, don't select vertices on the body or the tights helper beneath the skirt helper), and select only vertices directly beneath the article of clothing" what vertices are under the clothing ( unless you mean the Human itself??)

then center line in crevices part went completely over my head... sorry, but still thanks for the help

and yea i will answer the skin info under that topic.

[wolgade]

Unfortunately the old docs got lost. Maybe a picture explains more than thousand words. Select the human and TAB into Edit Mode. Then:

[o4saken]

Anyways too be honest the space cadet clothing is not something i will ever be using, it was made more for learning normals.. so ya its not perfect, but a small bump that can be smoothed out with sculpt is easy enough for anyone else who would like to use it..

i want to move on to trying hair.. think i might have more luck there, also because most of the "design" is done in photoshop - i get to use my tablet and draw..