Can targets be use to control clothes shape?

[Anstrah]

Hello,

I would like to know if it was possible to create targets to control clothes shape, or if targets could only control body parts. For example, if I create a dress, can I create a target to control the length of this dress, in order to not have to create several defferent dresses, if I just want to change its length? Same question about hair: is it possible to create a target to control the length of hair?

Most generally, I would like to find (or create it if it doesn't exist) a way to simplify the creation of clothes and hair. Indeed, I think to use blender to create assets can be quite difficult for people who aren't already familiarized with blender... When you are a biginner who wants to create a character and who doesn't find clothes or hair you want among existing assets, I think you would be glad to have a simple way to create it directly in makehuman, without to have to learn another software like blender...
So, I would like to create targets to control clothes shape (like length, width, etc...) directly in makehuman. The principle would be to start from basemeshes, like the human model we have when we start makehuman, and to use different targets to create the clothes or hair we want. Perhaps it wouldn't be as precise and varied as assets created in blender, but at least for simple shapes, I think it would be very useful.

Could you tell me if you think to create such targets would be possible, please? I prefere to know what you think about it before to try...
Or maybe such targets already exist? In this case, I didn't find them...

Thank you in advance for your answer!

[joepal]

Create, yes. Use in Makehuman, no.

There was an experiment a while back for creating proxy specific targets (clothes and hair qualify as proxies). The MakeTarget tool was extended to be able to produce such files, with an extension of ".ptarget". However, support was never added for these in MakeHuman, and it is pretty cumbersome to use them in MPFB too.

So while you can create the targets, it is difficult to then use them.

If your end goal is blender you could probably load the character in blender and then load a .ptarget on a piece of clothing or hair using the MakeTarget tool. As said, cumbersome.

[Anstrah]

Create, yes. Use in Makehuman, no.

There was an experiment a while back for creating proxy specific targets (clothes and hair qualify as proxies). The MakeTarget tool was extended to be able to produce such files, with an extension of ".ptarget". However, support was never added for these in MakeHuman, and it is pretty cumbersome to use them in MPFB too.

So while you can create the targets, it is difficult to then use them.

If your end goal is blender you could probably load the character in blender and then load a .ptarget on a piece of clothing or hair using the MakeTarget tool. As said, cumbersome.

Ok, thank you very much, I will see what I can do. Just by curiosity, why these targets are more cumbersome than those used to contral body part?

[joepal]

They are not different per se, so the technology isn't particular tricky in itself. The problem is more that the current MakeHuman codebase is ancient and very hard to do any changes whatsoever in. For MPFB, it would not be hard to implement, it just haven't been a priority.

It's a bit chicken and egg too. Since there are no proxy specific targets around, there is no demand for support for them. But for obvious reasons no targets will ever become available unless support is added.

[punkduck]

Hi

One can only modify the helpers. Yes, this is possible. I did that once for a dress so that it can reach the floor for Elv.

I also tried it for bigger cup-sizes as a correction target, because clothes partly deformed between breast and belly region.
But: it is not that predictable, what works for a character with a breast moved to a higher position may create crap when the breast is lower ... etc.

Another thing: when one e.g. make the hair helper longer, it could happen, that when animating the character the hair will disappear inside the character because the vertices are usually bound to certain weights in a different position.

If you take the helper for a long dress and move it up, the dress would follow ... but the weights will usually keep their values, so in the end knees might be somewhere in mid-thigh region and the feet where the knees are. This is all okay until you start animating the character ... it will look weird then.

Greetings
punkduck

[tomcat]

For example, if I create a dress, can I create a target to control the length of this dress, in order to not have to create several defferent dresses, if I just want to change its length?

Usually the length of the hair and clothing is regulated by the transparency of the texture. That is, for example, long hair is modelled and its mesh doesn't go inside the character under all conditions (well, it shouldn't, logically). And the hair length is controlled by the transparency of the texture, which hides the excess (in this example hair). In the case of the dress, with this approach, the knees stay in place.

In Blender this is quite easy to do. Is it possible to do this in MakeHuman? If this feature is implemented, it would require making the clothes and hair specialised for such a feature.

[Anstrah]

Hi !

I just saw your answers, thank you very much! Ok, I understand. I am still a bigginer with blender so I don't know yet how to create textures with transparence... Could you tell me how to do it, please?

Thank you in advance!

[tomcat]

I am still a bigginer with blender so I don't know yet how to create textures with transparence... Could you tell me how to do it, please?

Usually this is the use of an alpha channel or texture with transparency support (.png).

The very first thing I found on this topic:

• How to place a .png texture with transparency over a material
• How to use alpha transparent textures in Blender (there are too many ads)

[Anstrah]

Thank you! I wonder, since hair assets are meshes, what about the animation of them? For example, if you want to model hair in wind or in water, do you have to modify the hair mesh itself, or is there a way to model it without to change the base mesh?

[tomcat]

I wonder, since hair assets are meshes, what about the animation of them?

This is, indeed, one of the most interesting questions. I haven't gotten into it too closely yet. So I can only answer in general terms. The hair can be a grid, or it can be particles. If it's a grid, it can be animated with a rig. It will have to be added to the hair. There were more posts on this topic, but I have not found them now. It is possible to implement animation through a shader like tree leaves (I'll advertise myself a little ). There is no universal tool and the choice of implementation depends on the task and skill.