- Add Shrinkwrap: Add a shrinkwrap modifier to specified meshes to keep them above the active mesh. This is an alternative or complement to creating masks.
- Create Masks: Create mask modifiers and vertex groups for the active mesh.
- Add Visibility Drivers: Create visibility drivers for all mesh children of the active armature.
- Remove Visibility Drivers: Remove all visibility drivers from the active armature.
Here
is a new version of Aiko with two separate outfits: the Bardot dress
and the Basic wear shorts and tank top. With the tools in this section
we can create drivers that switch between the outfits, or hides both of
them, even if Aiko is linked into another blend file.
Add Collections Manually
The
tools in this section were originally designed for Blender 2.7x. From
Blender 2.80 onwards, there is another, simpler way to hide clothes.
Assign clothes to separate collections, which can be excluded from the
scene in the outliner.
Here
we have created two new collections under the Aiko collection, and
moved the Bardot outfit to one and the Basic Wear clothes to the other.
If we intend to link the character into another blend file, the clothes
collections should not be subcollections of the Aiko collection, so they
can be linked separately, and separately excluded from the scene.
When the Basic Wear collection is excluded, only the Bardot outfit is visible.
And here we have turned off Bardot and turned on Basic Wear.
And
finally both outfits are turned off. However, the tools in this section
are not totally obsolete, because we may still want to create masks to
hide the skin beneath the body, and if we use file linking, the
visibility drivers must be controlled by rig properties.
Add Shrinkwrap
We can add shrinkwrap modifiers
to the clothes to keep them outside the body. This is not difficult to
do manually, but for convenience a button that adds shrinkwrap modifiers
to several meshes is available.
Select the mesh that we want to cover, normally the body, and press Add Shrinkwrap.Next
we get to select which meshes that we want to keep outside the body. We
also specify the offset between the clothes and the body, which by
default is 5 mm.Shrinkwrap modifiers are now created for the top and skirt meshes.
When Aiko bends forward, the top and skirt now stay outside the body. The shrinkwrap method has some problems with accuracy, but it may be good enough in many cases.
Create Masks
A
common problem, especially with tight-fitting clothes, is that the skin
may poke through in some poses. If we know that the character will
always wear the same clothes, we can solve this problem by simply
deleting the body vertices which should be hidden by the clothes.
However, if the character will wear different outfits, or maybe undress
completely, this is not an option.
With the mesh that will have the mask modifiers active, normally the body, press Create Masks. A pop-up dialog appears.
- Single Group: Control the visibility of all selected meshes with the same property.
- Group Name: The name of the single group, if enabled.
- All: Select all meshes in the list below
- None: Unselect all meshes in the list below.
- List of other meshes that are also children of the active mesh's armature.
We want to create separate masks for the three pieces of the Bardot outfit.
Three mask modifiers are created for the Aiko mesh.
Three
new vertex groups are also created. They control which vertices are
hidden when the corresponding piece of clothing is visibible. Adding the
vertices beneath the clothes to the vertex group is the responsibility
of the user.
We
also create masks for the basic wear shorts and tank top. These clothes
will always be visibible or not at the same time, so we only create a
single mask for both of them, and call the group Basic Wear.
A single additional mask modifier is created.
A single new vertex group is also created. In edit mode, we add the vertices that will be hidden by the basic wear outfit.
Add Visibility Drivers
Now
select the armature and press Add Visibility Drivers. A dialog appears
where we can choose which meshes to add visibility drivers for.
- Single Group: Control the visibility of all selected meshes with the same property.
- Group Name: The name of the single group, if enabled.
- Add Collections: Move each selected mesh to a new collection
- All: Select all meshes in the list below
- None: Unselect all meshes in the list below.
- List of meshes that are children of the active armature.
Unable Single Group and add visibility drivers for the three meshes in the Bardot outfit.
We
see in the outliner that the viewport and render visibility have turned
purple, indicating that these properties are driven. The meshes have
also been moved to new collections.
A
new panel appears in the DAZ Importer tab. We can hide the Bardot skirt
and top by disabling the corresponding checkboxes. It is also a good
idea to disable the corresponding collections. This will completely
exclude the hidden meshes from the scene, which speeds up performance.
If we just disable the visibility, the meshes are invisible but still
included in the scene, and Blender still take them into account.
When the Aiko mesh is selected, we see that the vertices hidden by the basic wear outfit are masked out.
With
the armature selected, we again press Make Visibility Drivers. This
time we use a Single Group with the Group Name Basic Wear, and add the
shorts and tank top to it.
Visibility drivers have been added to the two meshes. They have also both been move to a new collection.
We
can now toggle the visibility of the basic wear outfit on and off. The
underlying skin is hidden when Aiko wears the clothes, so it can not
poke through, but it is visible when she has undressed.