Chain Mail Bodice

[brkurt]

Here's something for you action folks: a shirt of metal mesh (I haven't figured out how to create an actual chain mail mesh yet in Blender).

To fit it, you only need to slide Proportions and Muscularity to 100%, and Height and Weight to 60%.
I'm using the 1.1 Female Muscular Mesh proxy.



Here are the object and material files:

http://www.geekopolis.ca/wavefront/chainMeshShirt1_264a.obj

http://www.geekopolis.ca/wavefront/chainMeshShirt1_264a.mtl

Now here is a chain mesh garment (still not chain mail) using Dupliverts. I've subdivided the shirt mesh, and parented it to a simple torus, which I rotate (in the Duplivert panel).

Note how close it looks to chain mail; this is probably good enough for a graphic novel, but not a close-up animation.



Okay, now I've got it. This is much easier. Using a cut-out piece of a wavefront export, create a duplicate version with a MultiRes level of one. Then parent it to a torus--I'm using a very small, simple one--and then make the duplicate objects real.

Finally join all the chain mail rings. The next problem is a much greater one--that of rigging it without distorted the rings--but let's enjoy how far we've come.



If your workstation is powerful enough, you can try the wavefront object yourself:

http://www.geekopolis.ca/wavefront/chainMailBodice1.obj

http://www.geekopolis.ca/wavefront/chainMailBodice1.mtl

Now, there is a way to animate this, but it is pretty terrifying. It's all about committing to a 'geek lost weekend'.
Each frame can have its own Duplivert, and then exported as Vertex Keyframe Animation. Ouch!

Be that as it may, here is a short animation:
https://youtu.be/WjHoAydqnlQ

[gaiha]

That looks really good... depending on the rig you choose, it should be fairly simple. Might I suggest utilizing a physics collision to keep it "Away from the layer beneath" as well as provide some stability for quad face distortions... The same concept will also work with any clothing, provided the code can be written to achieve it. Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas that create the heaviest workload, particularly if they've never been tried before.

This is worth keeping watch... smoochies

[brkurt]

That looks really good... depending on the rig you choose, it should be fairly simple. Might I suggest utilizing a physics collision to keep it "Away from the layer beneath" as well as provide some stability for quad face distortions... The same concept will also work with any clothing, provided the code can be written to achieve it. Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas that create the heaviest workload, particularly if they've never been tried before.

This is worth keeping watch... smoochies

Many thanks. Here's something else you might like, a chain mail cocktail dress, perfect for those private armed parties.



Interestingly enough, Yafaray (which is very fast) has problems with invisible materials, but automatically makes a duplivert material invisible.

And it is animatable, though a very careful shape key design will be necessary. Using dupliverts, the chain link is not deformed, simply moved in space. This creates some links that look like they are floating.

[o4saken]

That looks very good so far.. minus the issues, well done.

Just a question, is it not possible to rather just have the solid shape and then use a texture difuse with the chains, apply a transparent mask like you do for the hair to remove the inbetween?? then you could use the difuse texture to create a normal map that would then give you the height ad 3d look of the chain? i am still very much leaning as i go, but that would have been my way of attacking this.

[brkurt]

That looks very good so far.. minus the issues, well done.

Just a question, is it not possible to rather just have the solid shape and then use a texture difuse with the chains, apply a transparent mask like you do for the hair to remove the inbetween?? then you could use the difuse texture to create a normal map that would then give you the height ad 3d look of the chain? i am still very much leaning as i go, but that would have been my way of attacking this.

Sounds like you a game designer. The problem with your solution is that the chain links will stretch in an animation. My approach here is to use a major Blender feature to overcome this. Even then, there are trade-offs. I will need to design the mesh so that where a large stretch will be, such as the armpits and groin, there are enough vertices to make it look somewhat real. That means placing 'drop folds' into the mesh, which will limit the final look of the chain mail.

[o4saken]

That looks very good so far.. minus the issues, well done.

Just a question, is it not possible to rather just have the solid shape and then use a texture difuse with the chains, apply a transparent mask like you do for the hair to remove the inbetween?? then you could use the difuse texture to create a normal map that would then give you the height ad 3d look of the chain? i am still very much leaning as i go, but that would have been my way of attacking this.

Sounds like you a game designer. The problem with your solution is that the chain links will stretch in an animation. My approach here is to use a major Blender feature to overcome this. Even then, there are trade-offs. I will need to design the mesh so that where a large stretch will be, such as the armpits and groin, there are enough vertices to make it look somewhat real. That means placing 'drop folds' into the mesh, which will limit the final look of the chain mail.

Thanks for the explanation - no i am not a game designer, no designer at all actually, i just enjoy playing around and making art. So yes when you explain like you did it is indeed very helpful as this is all something that i would have learned by trial and error, and had i encountered stretching as you explain i would have been disappointed and not known why it happens and how to fix it.

[brkurt]

That looks really good... depending on the rig you choose, it should be fairly simple. Might I suggest utilizing a physics collision to keep it "Away from the layer beneath" as well as provide some stability for quad face distortions... The same concept will also work with any clothing, provided the code can be written to achieve it. Sometimes it is the simplest of ideas that create the heaviest workload, particularly if they've never been tried before.

This is worth keeping watch... smoochies

Thanks for the kudos. Here is a gift, a chainmail necklace.



http://www.geekopolis.ca/wavefront/chainMailNecklace1_249b.obj

http://www.geekopolis.ca/wavefront/chainMailNecklace1_249b.mtl

The construction is simple in Blender:
(1) Add a Torus (low polygon count, 8 x 4);
(2) Add an Array Modifier;
(3) Add an Empty (make sure it is right in the center of your original torus);
(4) Add a Bezier Circle as a Curve Modifier to the Torus;
(5) Using a Fixed Count, add the number of chain links that you need.



Hours of fun!

[brkurt]

And here is a first draft of a chain mail skirt. The solution was twofold: first, create extra edge loop cuts through the groin, and make drop folds so that there is extra material when the character lunges forward or backward; second to use a Rotation Duplivert with 2 levels of MulitiRes.

I also changed the basic link adding a middle brace. If I was going to spend a lot of time on this model, I would thread a 'silk' cord through each row of chain links. That would would allow rivets top and bottom, and cords left and right, increasing real-world mobility, also giving the animation a more realistic look.

For you Medievalists: the addition of silk to armor was one of the great technological advances of the Mongols; mostly only Eastern European knights implemented it.

Yafaray:



Blender In-Line

[brkurt]

And finally, here is the Make Clothes Average Female with Helpers, done as chain mail.
Later versions of Blender will allow you to create Vertex Groups, so that you can have different types of armor in the same mesh.