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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 25, 2020 10:55:52 GMT -5
Hello All!
Not sure if anyone might have the insight into this, but worth a shot! Here's my situation:
I've created a mesh for a 1760s Robe a la Française (I haven't found any that I've LOVED in the community). I'm well-versed in blender and whatnot, so everything is correct re: UV mapping, weights, vertex paint, etc.
When I get in-game, I'm not in love with the way the skirt moves as sims walk. As lower portions of the skirt are assigned to different bones, it somewhat splits and "kicks" as the sims legs move (almost looking like two wide pant legs as opposed to a single skirt). I've looked at nearly every EA mesh long dress and this seems to be the case for all of them, as they're all much more narrow than my mesh and would move with a sims legs. So while this is technically correct from EA's meshing perspective, is there anyway I can change this without messing things up in-game?
Ideally I'd like the skirt to stay a bit more stationary as the sim walks. As the skirt is very wide, in a real-life situation, a person's legs wouldn't make contact with the skirt - even in the front or back. Realistically, the skirt would move with the pelvis but not the legs, as it's draped around and suspended from the hip cage a person wears beneath.
So basically I'm wondering if there's a way to just remove some vertices from bone assignments/vertex groups to achieve this. And if so, anyone know which ones? I may do some trial and error here but if anyone has an exact answer or insight, I'd greatly appreciate it! Like could I theoretically remove the assignments for the feet, calves, and thigh bones, and then reassign to the pelvis and skirt bones? Sorry I'm not the most well-versed in manually assigning weights, I've always just done weight transfers!
Thanks,
J
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Post by mauvemorn on Jun 25, 2020 11:36:00 GMT -5
Hi. Is your mesh vertex painted with 00ff00 only?
All vertices must be rigged, but what you want can be achieved by increasing the pelvis vertex group influence on the skirt. Whether it is a good idea depends on the length of the skirt
We need to see what you are dealing with to know how to approach it. Share the blend and package files please |
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 25, 2020 12:04:23 GMT -5
Hi mauvemornThanks so much for your speedy reply. Correct - my mesh is painted entirely in 00ff00. So I did some searching around - there's a very wide floor-length skirt created by Curbs that has a similar shape to my mesh's skirt (my mesh is also floor-length). I was able to check it out in CAS, and the movement was similar to what I was trying to achieve. In Blender, the entire skirt is just rigged to the pelvis vertex group. I attempted the same thing with mine, and it seems a lot better! I just want to play around a little bit so that the lower portion has a bit more fluidity - with the entire skirt assigned to the pelvis, it looks like a big bell and loses it's fabric-ness lol I'm messaging you the link to the package and blender files. They're not fully finished (haven't even touched the texturing yet) so I don't want anyone downloading the unfinished package. I appreciate any help you can offer! |
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Post by mauvemorn on Jun 25, 2020 12:52:46 GMT -5
The bottom part should be vertex painted with 3fff00. This will disable minor sliders and is said to change the way the mesh animates but I do not know about that. Vertex paint dictates what variation (skin-tight and robe-like) of deformation maps the painted area will deform according to in CAS during body customization and animation. 00FF00 is for skint-tight areas, 3FFF00 is for any skirt-like area ( skirts, bottom parts of dresses, coats, aprons, etc). Start by choosing 00FF00 and Paint - Set vertex color 1). Disable Limit selection to visible; 2). Holding Ctrl, lasso-select the bottom part of the mesh starting somewhere in the middle of the pelvic bone; 3). Enable sync; 4). Press B and deselect legs; 5). Switch to Vertex paint and enable Face selection masking for painting; 6). Type in 3FFF00; 7). Paint - Set vertex colors; 8). Press A twice to deselect and select everything again, Paint - Smooth vertex colors  Instead of assigning everything to pelvis, you should just increase and spread its influence. Smoothing weights a lot can also help There is one way you can resolve it without changing topology, but I usually avoid suggesting it because it can cause more issues if you're not careful: 1). Never use it on the body. Either separate the garment or just select it only; 2). Each vertex can be influenced by no more than 4 vertex groups, the rest will be deleted by s4s during import. Use Limit total to remove the right ones ( with the lowest values) after every time you use Smooth tool; 3). Some vertex groups ( armpits, sometimes knees and elbows ) should not fade smoothly, it will affect animation. It is best to either avoid using this tool on these areas of clothing or adjust them individually afterward; 4). It can spread the paint too far, be very careful with it. You can use Clean tool and change Limit to, say, 0,05. Anyway - Make sure the mesh has Armature modifier and rig selected. This insures that weights auto normilize when you edit them in Weight paint; - In Edit Mode disable Limit selection to visible. Holding Ctrl, LMB-click-and-drag to select the garment partly, then press Ctrl L to select the rest; - Switch to Weight paint and enable Vertex selection masking for painting; - adjust the settings, if you need it to expand less or more, adjust Expand/Contract; - use Limit total with Limit set to 4 and Subset to All groups; - if it won't work, select each breast vertex groups and use Smooth tool with more Expand and Subset set to Active group. Don't forget to use Limit total again; - since you adjusted weights on the mesh with split edges, don't forget to remove doubles to make sure that vertices that share coordinates also have the same vertex group values.
 I have not checked how the mesh looks in-game, but just look at thigh, calf and pelvis bones to know what I meant. I removed foot and skirt bones, so you can import it in the lingerie set package. Oh, I also did not add body parts. If you want it to be more static, increase the intensity of the pelvic bone. If the feet will poke out during walking, lower the skirt and exclude them in the warehouse. New blend |
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 25, 2020 14:32:45 GMT -5
mauvemorn ! Thank you thank you thank you for the help. I was able to fix the vertex painting and it alleviated so much awkwardness (that I hadn't even noticed until it was gone) in CAS. I completely forgot about that detail regarding 00FF00 and 3FFF00 in the tuts I've followed. Thanks for pointing that out! So I think I'm following your directions regarding the weight painting? So the file I did send along to you was after I had removed the thigh/calf/feet vertex group assignments and assigned all skirt vertices to the pelvis group. I've gone back to the save I made before doing this to try and follow your guide here for a less harsh effect. What I think I'm gathering from this: I need to take the vertex groups for the calf/feet/thigh and reduce the weight to .500 instead of the 1.000 that was applied in my OG weight transfer. Is that correct? I cant seem to get that nice blended effect from the file you sent over to me by using the Smooth tool. Can you further explain how to do this?? If not, will you point me in the direction of any advanced weight painting tuts?
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Post by mauvemorn on Jun 25, 2020 15:09:45 GMT -5
It would be easier to edit just pelvis vertex group and then click on Normalize all to automatically edit the rest - delete or separate all body parts for you should never transfer weights to hands bc fingers are too close, they will get messed up; - bring in some long dress, the less sculpted details, the better. Join all meshgroups, transfer weights like this. These settings will give you much better transition between colors;   - make sure you have Armature modifier added and rig assigned. Delete all foot and skirt vertex groups from the list. - select the whole skirt in Edit mode, in Weight paint switch to Vertex selection masking, use Smooth tool with All groups selected, use some huge numbers like 1 for Factor and 10 for Iterations. Use Limit Total again which is something I forgot to do in the file I gave you; - in Edit mode enable show weights, select Pelvis vertex groups, select everything starting from where it is the greenest to the bottom of the skirt, assign 0,5 value to that whole area. Switch to Weight paint, click on Normalize all. And use Limit total again |
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jun 25, 2020 18:17:08 GMT -5
mauvemornThanks for this very thorough guide! I followed everything you just said step by step and the weights are SO much better in-game. THANK YOU. I think my main issue was that my original weight transfer was in 2.70 and I didn't have the majority of the settings you just described in my version. I re-did the weight transfer in 2.79 using a CC dress with movement I liked in-game, and it's looking much better after your short tutorial above! (I'll keep this in mind for my future meshing endeavors) The only other thing that may need fixing is the tiniest bit of clipping from the feet with the front of the dress's petticoat. I know before you mentioned "lower the skirt and exclude them in the warehouse", but I'm not exactly sure how to achieve that. The skirt is already completely floor length and there's no mesh for the feet in my blend, so I'm not positive what to exclude. Thanks again! You're a dreamboat.
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Post by mauvemorn on Jun 26, 2020 8:05:02 GMT -5
It is a bit raised in the front. If you were to lower it to the ground, you could just exclude feet by changing ExcludePartsGlags to 0000000000000100  |
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Post by SimulatedStyles on Jul 5, 2020 20:44:01 GMT -5
Hi mauvemornI wanted to send a big thank you for all the help you gave on this project!! I was able to figure out the feet clipping (I ended up raising the bottom of the petticoat a bit higher as I wanted the shoes to be visible.) Here's the finished product: 1760s Robe A La FrancaiseWouldn't have been able to do it without you! Jonathan (SimulatedStyles) |
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