Retopologizing MD Meshes (old)
tutorial is deprecated, update to the newest MD version and use the remesh function, or just put your mesh straight into zbrush, do zremesh and then re-do the UV in blender.
Hey! Hereâs a long tutorial on how to get great low-poly topology on meshes from Marvelous Designer WHILE keeping the original UV (the UV you get if you just use the mesh straight from MD).
For this workflow, youâll need:
Marvelous Designer (paid)
Maya 2016 Extension 2 or newer (student version is free!)
Before I get started with the steps, I want to make sure I give full credit to this tutorial here by Alex Mann, which is where I found the workflow. You can watch that if you prefer a video tutorial and if youâre also more proficient with Maya.
Also, this guide assumes you know how to use blender. Knowledge in Maya+ZBrush isnât really needed, but you need to have them installed and maybe be able to use basic functions in the programs. In this tutorial, Iâve cut down on the steps in Maya, just because I find it easier to use Blender for things (personal preference).
First, export your normal Marvelous Designer mesh, and name it âdrapedMeshâ. When exporting, Unified UV coordinates should be checked, and scale âmâ should be used. Make sure you export as tris (the default setting), exporting as quads wonât give as good as results (I think).
Then reset 2d arrangement of your clothing, so itâs flat. You can also move it to the right so itâs not in the way of the avatar but this may cause issues (or it may work). Then, export in the same way (export selected), and name it âflatMeshOriginalâ.
Next, open up Maya- I use Maya 2016. And after, import the draped and flat meshes you just exported from MD. The camera controls if you donât know them, you have to hold alt and then use the buttons on your mouse.
With the two imported, select the âdrapedâ mesh and then the flat mesh, go to âDeformâ at the top, and click âBlend Shapeâ. This will pop up in the attribute editor to the right.
Itâs time to retopologize! Open ZBrush, and import your flat mesh, and then drag your mouse in the 3d window to place the model into view (only drag it out once). Immediately after, click edit mode (or press T), and then click the âscaleâ button to zoom in on the mesh.
Turn polygon view on, then go to the geometry tab on the right, and click âZRemesherâ. Then, change the âTarget Polygon Countâ, the default is on 5, which is too high, so we need to change it.
This number is in THOUSANDS, so 1 = 1 thousand. Itâs suggested to change it to 0.75, which works most of the time for tops, but sometimes you may need to set it higher (1, 1.25, 1.5 etc) for full body outfits or more detailed clothing.Â
This value affects how many polygons in thousands it will have, 0.75 is 750 polygons (which will be roughly the final polygon count for the top). Anyway, once youâve picked a value, hit the ZRemesher button.
As you can see, ZRemesher produces a really nice topology on the meshes. Finally, you want to export it and name it as âflatMeshRetopoâ. Now, youâre done with ZBrush!
STEP FOUR (conditional/optional)
If thereâs a problem in topology, youâll have to fix it before you carry on. This may happen on more complex meshes. I donât have any examples of this, but just keep it in mind. You might also want to clean up any tris if there are still some left over.
We have to get our new low-poly mesh set up in Maya. Import your retopoâd flat mesh, and ignore any error if one pops up. Then, go to âWindowsâ on the top bar, and open the âOutlinerâ window. To hide this, you can just minimise and then later open it back up/maximise it from the bottom of the screen.
Then, in the outliner, select all the meshes that were imported from ZBrush, for me there were only 3 as there are only 3 pattern pieces in my MD mesh. If you have 8 pieces, thereâll be 8 meshes. With these selected, hit the merge button at the top.
Next, we have to get that clean UV layout. Select your combined mesh, then go to âUVâ at the top and then SHIFT-click the âPlanarâ option. Make sure you have âProject from:â on âCameraâ and that you have âKeep image width/height ratioâ checked. Next, hit apply.Â
Also, when you do this step, try to have your camera looking at the mesh straight-on, as I believe this part just captures the mesh from the cameraâs perspective and makes that the UV.
Now, we will make our low poly mesh fit around the draped mesh. Select your low-poly ZBrush flat mesh, and then the high-poly MD flat mesh, go to deform and then wrap.
To make it wrap around now, go to âWindowsâ at the top, âAnimation Editorsâ and then open the âShape Editorâ. Afterwards, set the Mesh Weight to â1â (or move the 2nd slider all the way to the right). This will make your lowpoly (and high poly) mesh wrap around the draped mesh.
Lastly, select your low-poly ZBrush mesh that is now wrapped around, and export selection to a .obj- and save that on your desktop or somewhere (ready to be imported into blender!!). Once youâve done this, you are done with Maya (woo!).
STEP EIGHT (conditional/optional)
If you import your new mesh into blender (which youâve just exported), and it shows up as flat and one weird solid changing colour, you may need to put the mesh back into maya, select it and go to âMesh Displayâ at the top, then try unlocking the normals (âUnlock Normalsâ) and then importing to blender again. If that doesnât work, try locking the normal and importing into blender.
Iâm only saying this because itâs happened to me once (not sure how), so it could happen to someone else.
Lastly, you have to do the final touches. Import your new low-poly mesh into blender, and merge the vertices where the patterns meet up. Select two vertices and press alt+m to merge.Â
Sometimes, you may need to merge 2 vertices on one side to one vertex on the other, this will create a tri but thatâs okay.
If there is a part you need to join that obviously doesnât have enough verticies (such as this neck strap for my top), you may need to add edge loops. You can do this by pressing ctrl+R, and then clicking in the middle of the quads. This will add another edge (and increase polys) so that you can move without losing as much detail.
Also, you may want to go to the âtoolsâ tab on the left, and change the shading to smooth, to get a better idea of what your mesh will look like ingame.
Now itâs up to you to finish your clothing!
I recommend @owl-plumbobâââs tutorial for instructions on weight transferring, UV1 transferring and vertex painting (getting your mesh ready for ingame).
And I also recommend any of @theslydâââs tutorials if you want to make your cc more high quality.
Feel free to contact me on tumblr, or go to my ask page if you have a problem. Iâm welcome to help anybody with any issues (if I know how to fix them ;p).
If you need a video tutorial of this, because you prefer that, then as I linked earlier, use this video. This is where I got the original steps from but I changed them slightly so I suggest if you follow the video, to have this tutorial opened as well.
An alternative way to this method is this. I literally found this today and I havenât tried it, but it looks like it might be quicker, however it still requires Maya. Just keep in mind, in the video they retopologize it by hand in Maya where you may want to retopo it in ZBrush (I would). Anyway, Iâm thinking of trying this and if itâs good, I may make another tutorial on that.
If you donât like this method/itâs not working for you, you can try -
This free alternative using a program called âInstant Meshesâ linked by @theslydâ
This ZBrush-only workflow (however the UV maps produced arenât perfect).
Also this thread talks about both these other methods in some more detail.
Just do anything other than exporting from MD in quads (as this is super high poly and the topology isnât even perfect) or decimating the mesh a lot (this RUINS the topology).
Anyway, thatâs the tutorial. Sorry itâs so long, Iâm sure you could compress it into 100 words but I get carried away easily, and I wanted to make it totally noob-proof, for people who have no clue how to use maya or zbrush- I wanted to make the tutorial I wanted a couple months ago ;)