FitTo Plugin

[Caroline]

FitTo Plugin

Beta testers wanted! Windows only. I don’t know how to make it work on a Mac. I would welcome any testing on this plugin, and comments, and suggestions on how to make it better. (A better name for a start!)

 

FitToBeta.zip

What this plugin does:

Conforms clothing to a figure. Give your model a change of clothes easily.

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

 

How to install:

Unzip FitToBeta.hxt from the zip file.

Exit A:M.

Place FitToBeta.hxt in the Hash hxt folder. This will probably be C:\Program Files\Hash Inc\V15.0\hxt on Windows.

Start A:M.

 

How to use it:

1. Place a figure and an article of clothing in a choreography.

2. Right click the clothing, and left click Plug-ins > Fit Clothing.

3. Choose the figure to wear the clothing from the list

4. Click OK

The clothing will then jump onto the figure, and move with it.

You can create your own choreography action on the clothing if you want it to sway in the wind.

 

Technical details

A new choreography action is created for the clothing called CRNClothing using Blend Mode “Blend”. (Should this be Add?)

The clothing is rigged with the same geometry bones as the figure. The plugin goes through each clothing bone, creates both an Orient-Like constraint and a Translate-To constraint for each bone, and sets the figure’s equivalent bone as the constraint’s target.

To remove the clothing, delete the choreography action CRNClothing.

 

Cost:

Free!

 

Why?

(Mostly for fun )

Trying to make A:M accessible to people who are not able start from scratch all the time. and make their own models. There are people out there (truly, there really are) who just want to combine elements, render and postwork. From a beginning like this, people can grow into A:M, and it does not seem quite so intimidating. This plugin is the easy bit. Next bit is to make models….. .

 

Comments:

I would like to get pose sliders on clothing to move with pose sliders on the figure. However, I don’t think that the SDK supports creating new expressions. (Please tell me I’m wrong!) I will have to research this for version 2. For reference, the expression to add on each clothing pose slider is: (..|..|..|Shortcut to FigureName.User Properties.PoseName).

[Caroline]

Clothing to try.

 

—————————————————————

Important Note About Copyright.

 

This is what I believe is true:

You may not redistribute anything that you have not yourself created.

For example, if you take an underlying mesh of a model that is not yours and scale it up to create a shirt, even if you rig and texture it yourself, that model is not yours to redistribute.

If you fully create the clothing, but use the model’s underlying rigging, you may not redistribute the clothing.

To be able to redistribute, you must have created the mesh, the bones and the textures yourself.

—————————————————————

 

Having said that, here is mesh of Thom. And also Gala and some clothing.

 

This project contains a Tee Shirt and TSM rigged Thom (no CP Weighting or Smartskin )

ThomAndTeeShirt.zip

 

This project contains a long dress, Tee Shirt and trousers for Gala - basic undressed version of Gala included. She has a non-standard rig, but maybe I will put in the TSM, or learn Mark’s 2008 rig.

GalasClothes.zip

 

If you want to use the beautiful Gala with textures, she is included in the A:M v15.0 subscription download available at ftp://ftp.hash.com/pub/misc/Data.zip. To remove her current clothes, click a CP on Gala’s dress, press the / key to select all CPs in the dress, then press Delete. Repeat for her petticoat.

 

These clothes are very, very basic, but I hope it gives the general idea. Before general release, I would like to create some more attractive clothing for people.

[Caroline]

Create your own clothing

 

How to create Thom’s Tee Shirt is described in this pdf. Hard to make, easy to reuse.

 

Creating_Your_Own_Clothes.pdf

[largento]

Caroline, this sounds very cool! I look forward to playing with it!

[KenH]

Works great on PC too Caroline. Nice work! Not much to add except the name sort of suggests that the clothes are shrunk to fit the character. Maybe "Clothes Change" or "Wardrobe" or something like that would be more apt.

Keep polishing that programming talent.

[Eric2575]

I'm impressed by what you've done. I'll try it out when I get a chance.

 

Eric

[Rodney]

I'm obviously doing something wrong here as I don't get the Plugin option at all.

Probably something simple so I'll keep investigating.

My first impression is that it might be related to that Vista (in)compatibility thing.

 

Looks really neat though!

[NancyGormezano]

How to use it:

1. Place a figure and an article of clothing in a choreography.

2. Right click the clothing, and left click Plug-ins > Fit Clothing.

3. Choose the figure to wear the clothing from the list

4. Click OK

The clothing will then jump onto the figure, and move with it.

You can create your own choreography action on the clothing if you want it to sway in the wind.

 

Very neat Caroline - I see more uses for this than just fitting clothes (which is a terrific idea).

 

Looks to me like this plug-in takes the bones in the "clothes" model and does a translate to & orient to constraint to the equivalently named bone in the "body" model

 

I noticed that the bones in the clothes model don't have to have the same hierarchy as the body model. I created a cutoff tee and flattened the bone hierarchy, and deleted those bones that didn't have any geometry. At first glance, it appears to work just as well. That opens up other possibilities.

 

Now, if you could add an option for "compensate on" the "clothes" wouldn't have to jump to the body model and one could have a puppet system. And the "clothes" wouldn't necessarily have to be clothes. Could have multiple puppets being controlled by a master.

 

Those puppet(s) would not have to be rigged, and would just need a flat hierarchy (or maybe even any hierarchy) of rightly named geometry bones. Those zombie-puppets could be any type of model.

 

Could even maybe lead to calling this plug-in "Puppet Rig" or "Puppet Clothes" or "Zombie Dolls" or "Closet Case" (oh, wait...that's me) or "you don't want to know anymore names from me".

[NancyGormezano]

Hmmmm...Looks like this plug also scales the bones to the targets?

 

I created a model with a flat hierarchy of geometry bones ONLY version of the squetch rig. Brought in an already rigged squetch model (Trot from SO). ran your plugin and viola !

 

It looks like the plug in scaled the bones to the size of trots geometry. If there was also an option to not scale (as well as compensate on) - the puppet concept might work for helping rigging with simpler rigs.

 

EDIT: I hope you don't take my tests wrong - The plug-in is absolutely terrific just the way it is. Simple, understandable and works like a charm. I got excited with the potential of using it for other things. Probably "out of scope" for now.

[martin]

—————————————————————

Important Note About Copyright.

 

This is what I believe is true:

You may not redistribute anything that you have not yourself created.

For example, if you take an underlying mesh of a model that is not yours and scale it up to create a shirt, even if you rig and texture it yourself, that model is not yours to redistribute.

If you fully create the clothing, but use the model’s underlying rigging, you may not redistribute the clothing.

To be able to redistribute, you must have created the mesh, the bones and the textures yourself.

—————————————————————

Here's how copyright works.

 

MOST IMPORTANT - if the copyright was put in the public domain you can use it. Period.

SECOND - A "mesh" is not a copyright - the shape and color and name (and other identifying features) are. Modify a mesh enough and you generate your own copyright.

THIRD - Ideas are not copyrightable nor patentable. ("Dime a dozen.")

FORTH - Rigging is not copyrightable nor patentable, though the name of the rig or bones may be.

 

I am a registered Patent Agent and IP ("Intellectual Property") attorney.

[yoda64]

Nice work Caroline .

 

The mac version I can build for You . Need only the actual source code .

At the weekend I will looking for the expression problem too .

[Caroline]

Thanks for the nice comments - it is such a joy to re-experience that programming high.

 

Vista (in)compatibility thing

I'll have to see if it works on Vista, I did not think to try.

 

Looks to me like this plug-in takes the bones in the "clothes" model and does a translate to & orient to constraint to the equivalently named bone in the "body" model

That's exactly what it does - very simple.

 

Nancy, you are a blast - keep those lateral thoughts coming - I'm just travelling down the clothing line, and my thoughts are way ahead of my ability - interchangeable heads, multiple textures on one model, so you can change the clothes by pose or action. I'm testing a teeshirt changing to a string vest to a waistcoat. I'll post pics of that later.

 

The 'compensate on' option is a good one.

 

'Puppet' or 'Marionette' is possibly a good name to call it, although, when we went broke, I did puppet shows for a few years to small ones, so tend to freak out at the words 'puppet' and 'children'. We have a room full of scary marionettes.

Or 'Coat' or 'Dresser'.

 

For the rigging, I had just assumed it would be easier to take the model and copy the rigging, but it does not test for any hierarchy. That half teeshirt thing happening I am doing with transparency maps.

[Caroline]

Looks like this plug also scales the bones to the targets?

 

It just looks like that because every bone is translated to - I think if look closely, the bones are still the same size. This would be sorted by that compensate option.

[Caroline]

Thanks, Steffen - you probably recognise your finishing touches, I couldn't do this without you. (Is there not a less silly icon that expresses admiration and respect rather than 'wub'?)

 

About expressions, in 2006 you said this:

 

"I think it is not possible with the current sdk , you need a ::New to construct the object (driver) for HExpression and this is not avaible ."

 

in this thread:

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20813

[johnl3d]

Wow Caroline nice new toy..

[NancyGormezano]

Looks like this plug also scales the bones to the targets?

 

It just looks like that because every bone is translated to - I think if look closely, the bones are still the same size. This would be sorted by that compensate option.

 

No - I believe they really are scaled - (will check again)- I had tried another test where I put unconnected independant geometry on the "clothes skeleton" - just spheres, cylinders, and after running the plugin the clothes geometry bones and geometry appearred to have been scaled to the size of the destination model's equivalent bone. Now I did that on the squetch rig geometry bone model - and it's possible that the squetch rig did something funny? - like I said - will recheck.

 

I thought if it is actually scaling - wow! & gee that's smart - It would be a neat feature (to be able to turn on/off) as one might want to have 1 set of clothes that gets fitted to different sized models.

[NancyGormezano]

Nah - I don't even have to retest - it's obvious in my post

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=275370

 

with Trot that the clothes geometry bones got scaled to the same size as Trots geometry bones - Trot's geometry bones are much smaller that the clothes geometry bones.

 

But I will test with a modified shirt (enlarged) for TSMTom, and see if the bones get scaled down after the plugin - to see if it's only happening with the squetch rig

[Caroline]

Thanks, John.

 

Nancy, mine don't scale:

 

 

I tried to do a wireframe render with bones, but the bones don't render.

The shirt looks smaller, because the moved bones ruck up the cps.

 

I looked at your pictures in that post, and to me they weren't scaled, just each moved to the base of its equivalent bone. But I am spatially-challenged.

 

But it could be another addition, to scale the bones to the same size. So that it would work with whatever size of the same rig.

 

Busy weekend ahead.

 

Keep those thoughts a-flyin'!

[NancyGormezano]

heres an image that shows with the TSM Tom that the shirt (bones) shrunk to fit. Also remebber that I flattened the hierarchy of bones on the shirt.

 

This shirt was modified/distorted on purpose - the one on the right is the original shirt with bones and shirt distorted, the one on the left is after the plugin ran - it resized the bones along with the associated geometry.

 

Correction: you are right - it is not resizing - it is just moving the origin of the bone (like it should) - the fact that I changed the hierarchy of the shirt bones (all independant, isolated) is what causes the shirt to shrink to fit! hee hee - see new image

[Caroline]

Sorry, Nancy - I was editing my post while you were posting.

 

Edit: and the second time

 

I have to go to Murwillumbah now - teenage daughter's unusual request for "family day", so unavoidable.

 

I truly appreciate your input - I wish we were in the same room sparking off each other.

[NancyGormezano]

I wish we were in the same room sparking off each other.

 

Yes it would be fun - have a Mulliwullilumbawumbah good day

[Caroline]

I've spent a few hours looking at compensate. Remember vectors and matrices and quaternions and radians? I don't.

 

That will be fun for version 2 though. But first I want to get some nice clothing put together to prove that this is useful. (And fun. Let's not forget the fun .)

 

Scaling I think could be better done through the scale manipulator, or a pose. Because if I did it, it would only be scaling the bones, not the mesh.

[NancyGormezano]

I've spent a few hours looking at compensate. Remember vectors and matrices and quaternions and radians? I don't.

 

That will be fun for version 2 though. But first I want to get some nice clothing put together to prove that this is useful. (And fun. Let's not forget the fun .)

 

Scaling I think could be better done through the scale manipulator, or a pose. Because if I did it, it would only be scaling the bones, not the mesh.

 

 

oh. Too bad about compensate - I thought it would just be an easy "property-ish parameter type thing" procedure type call to turn on/set when doing the constraints - I didn't realize you'd have to compute it. I know nuthin' about the sdk.

 

As for the scaling - yup agree - probably to get best fit of clothes on model (with least problems) is to replicate the actual skeleton & bone sizes of the model to be fitted.

 

Tho in reality, the mesh already sorta does get "sized". Happens if the clothing bones were connected "linked to parent" hierarchys (eg like the arms, spine). And also happens even if the bones aren't connected. Works a little better if they are. But it's only along 1 axis of the bone (z?). To do it a little better, it takes more thoughtful assignment of cps, hierarchy and parenting of bones of the clothing mesh as well as probably the clotheee. But too much trouble. Not worth it.

 

As you say - Time to get to the FUN part.

[HomeSlice]

Caroline, you're just amazing. You get into 3D to help your son with school. Now I guess he's off doing other things? While you are quickly becoming a valuable encyclopedic resource to the rest of us. And all this happened in two years? Mucho kudos to you!

 

For the rest of you, be sure to check out "Caroline’s Links for Animation:Master, Animation, and Other Stuff"

http://hashlinks.wordpress.com/

[Caroline]

:blush:

 

All I ever do is point people at your tutorials, Holmes

 

My mind is exercised over what to do with those links - it was supposed to be a stopgap while Vern's site is down. They are not easy to access in that format, so I shall have to think about it some more.

[NancyGormezano]

They are not easy to access in that format, so I shall have to think about it some more.

Are you kidding? plenty easy enough - I've bookmarked your bookmark page. Great Links. A wonderful resource.

 

There are lots and lots and lots of real gems in there.

 

One in particular, which caused many wasted hours, was the link to the "you suck at photoshop" videos on Youtube. What a crack-up.

[Caroline]

Rodney, it works for me on Vista. I only tested v13, as I do not have the web subscription on the Vista computer. I put the hxt file in the hxt subfolder and it just worked.

 

I guess I will put this up in the main forum this weekend. I am making other stuff to go with it, but I am so over-particular that nothing seems to be finished . Still, I have learned a huge number of things on a deeper level in these few weeks. I am learning all over again what an amazing piece of software this is. No Limits.

 

I thought of calling it DressMe. That could be the option off the plugin menu too - Plugin > DressMe.

 

(Nancy, You suck at Photoshop always makes me roll about too - especially as I teach it. The one where he's trying to make her look attractive - rofl.)

[NancyGormezano]

I thought of calling it DressMe. That could be the option off the plugin menu too - Plugin > DressMe.

 

Excellent.

[martin]

I thought of calling it DressMe. That could be the option off the plugin menu too - Plugin > DressMe.

 

Excellent.

Me too! Me too!

[mtpeak2]

Interesting plugin Caroline. I wonder if this could be use with Steffen's resurface plugin, to fit the clothes to the character. Base clothing could possibly fit any model.

[martin]

Congratulations, Caroline!

 

Yippee, it's great stuff. It would be awesome if it would catch on in the schools. We could include DressMe in next year's subscription if you'd like - that'd really get it out there.

[Rodney]

Congrats on the rollout of your first plugin Caroline.

I've got something in mind already to use this on.

[Caroline]

Thanks - I hope it works well for people. The hard part is creating clothes that look good and work properly. One day - not enough lifetimes here - I'd like to have a primer on learning A:M that way, just another approach.

 

That's be great to put it out there if it does, Martin - do you need the source too? (Embarrassingly simple - you could probably knock it out in a couple of hours, but it was a great way to get my fingers into the SDK)

 

Steffen tells me that expressions may work in a future v15, so there may be a version 2 with those in, so clothing bulge poses could match bulge poses in the base figure.

 

Does it work for you now, Rodney? (lol "first" plugin)

[martin]

That's be great to put it out there if it does, Martin - do you need the source too? (Embarrassingly simple - you could probably knock it out in a couple of hours, but it was a great way to get my fingers into the SDK)

Yeah, send the source to steve@hash.com - we'll put it in the tree.

 

The SDK was written for stuff like this. What a GREAT first plugin!

 

I'll ask Will to put 15.0d out there.

[Caroline]

Will do.

 

Thanks, Mark, for pointing out Steffen's resurface - I don't know how I missed this one. I'll give it a whirl.