Creating Clo3D Shoes vol.1: Flats
Hihlights on the steps and conclusions I could draft out of my experimenting on Clo3D footwear. (PENDING REVISION AND UPDATE)
0. Set up
When creating shoes in Clo3D, the first thing required is to load the avatar these will be for (FV2 in this case), and then put on the same type of shoe (flat or high heels) if not worn by default.
Select and delete one of the shoes (right click > Delete Hair/Shoes).
It is necessary to keep the other shoe to sustain the avatar's pose and height, and for a fairer workspace, I like to set its opacity to zero in the property editor.
It is necessary to keep the other shoe to sustain the avatar's pose and height, and for a fairer workspace, I like to set its opacity to zero in the property editor.
1. Modelling
Starting from the sole, working from the bottom to the top. It's crucial to use freeze, strenghten and sometimes solidify in strategical ways for the construction. For neatness, adjust seam angles and pieces thickness.
Once the sole is done and frozen, I would suggest to save a copy for future usage as foundation.
Then I intuitively traced the pattern for the woven part of the shoe, including a supportive toecap piece to smooth the tip of the shoe. Assemble, simulate and adjust until the desired look is achieved.
Mirror duplicate and move to fit the other foot.
Go to UV editor, organise the pieces and fit to 0-1. Snapshot UV map.
Export as FBX as single object, thick surface, unified UV coordenates, DO NOT include avatar.
2. Configuring
(Load FBX file on Blender, select the object in Object mode and turn to Edit mode)
Separate left from right shoe and rename them acording the wearers' as "shoes_l" and "shoes_r" respectively.
Wheh making flats it's not mandatory to separate materials for proper performance but it's advised in case of parts with different properties. Export again as FBX (as ok version)
3. Materials
These can be done on Blender prior exporting, with Substance, Clo3D or creating maps in Photohop with the UV map as template. I went for the former.
4. Registering
(Open Clo3D, load avatar)
The feet pose of the avatar when registering shoes must match the shoes we are meaning to register. Otherwise, funny misbehavior may occur. So, put on default flats and then proceed to register the FBX file, getting a ZACS output.
This is what happens when flats are registered while the avatar is on heels pose.
If by this point materials were configured in the FBX it would be all done. But the way I did it requires assigning maps and Saving as Hair/Shoes afterwards (which doesn't allow a nice thumnail but it'll do for now) I named it accordingly as FV2_Striped_Espadrilles.zacs
