Understanding Material Zones provides a whole range of possibilities to customize your existing clothing content, and they are an essential tool for content creators. In this tutorial video set, Published Artist Nelmi will show you how to master Material Zones in Daz Studio AND the applications in her content creation stack: Marvelous Designer, ZBrush, and Substance Painter.
Nelieta (aka Nelmi) will show you this complete guide of how to create material zones so that you can:
1. Reuse older content (clothing and props) that can be used for dForce
2. Learn the process to aid you to in creating your own clothing/props
3. Apply multiple textures to 3D content
4. Understand a core and essential process for content creation in order to vend content successfully
This is for you if …
You are newcomer to content creation for Daz Studio
You’d like to utilize older 3D content in your library
You are familiar with the concept of material zones but have not explored all the options and potentials of these
This is for you if you want to accomplish …
Full control over your own material zones
Saving money by reusing older content
Using material zones in other 3D content modeling programs (eg MD/ZBrush)
Better understanding a key foundational principal of content creation
How to Master Material Zones: Tutorial Guide
Video 1 : 27 minutes (.MP4)
00:02 Introduction and Nelmi’s background as a digital artist
00:03 Nelmi’s clothing content she has created so far
00:04 Nelmi’s tool set for creating content.
00:06 What we’ll learn in Marvelous Designer
00:05 About the lack of material zones in content
00:06 What are surfaces?
00:09 How designing material zones from the beginning is important
00:10 Remeshing in Marvelous Designer vs remising in ZBrush
00:11 Case study : Designing and making the Orion Clothing Set
00:11 Inside Marvelous Designer : Quick introduction to Marvelous Designer
00:13 Changing the 3D mesh to quads and why important
00:15 Considerations in the design of the Orion clothing set
00:17 Working out where material zones should be and how to do inside MD
00:19 Designing and defining the material zones
00:20 The MD Property editor : looking at the parameters and maps
00:22 Reflections, transformations
00:23 Physical property presets -> what will affect DAZ when the clothing is brought in.
00:26 Why ti use “default for simulation” in MD for DAZ content.
Video 2 : 1 hour (.MP4)
00:00 Case study – flowing dress
00:02 In MD : Checking how material drapes
00:04 Clothing from ArtStation for DAZ can be cheap but tends not to be optimised for DAZ and substandard
00:05 Mesh density recommendations for clothing models
00:08 Note that there is no bridge between MD and DAZ
00:13 Particle distance recommendation; what’s helpful for dForce.
00:17 MD great for creating the morphs
00:19 UV editor demonstration
00:21 Spend enough time on material zones before bringing into DAZ
00:24 Export from MD to DAZ as OBJ. Recommended export options
00:27 MD Subdivide/Freeze /Solidify material brush option is useful, esp subdivide – helping to maintain features of clothing
in DAZ
00:32 In DAZ Studio -> importing from OBJ options recommended
00:35 Now go to the geometry editor and see the surface carried over from MD, the material zones.
00:38 Reinforcing the need to design material zones before bringing into DAZ.
00:39 Combining surfaces
00:41 There is no undo in the geometry editor!
00:42 Watch out for deleting layers / selected polygons
00:46 Case study : The day out clothing model – example of good topology
00:49 Exploring the geometry editor further.
00:54 FBX/OBJ pros and cons exporting from MD
00:59 Seam lines need to be watched in terms of dForce and requires good topology to avoid problems.
Video 3 : 1 hour and 31 minutes (.MP4)
00:00 Recap of what learned in previous sessions
00:04 UV map and baking of maps
00:06 in MD : recommendation on quad meshes
00:08 Patch topology
00:10 Watch for sewing lines when topology is changed
00:11 Lose the welds, so you have to re-sew the lines
00:12 Watch for triangle polys – not good for dForce
00:14 MD recommends to take into another application for retopology such as ZBrush.
00:22 About retopology
00:24 Import OBJ from DAZ – fits clothing automatically on body shape
00:29 DAZ Studio -> import from MD
00:31 Geometry editor – using select loop
00:33 Creating different surfaces with the geometry tool
00:35 Create surface from selected
00:37 Three different ways of selecting geometry tool functions
00:40 Case study : Nelmi’s latest creation – designing for material zones
00:43 Update vertex positions
00:46 Hiding the belt loops
00:52 dForce considerations on Nelmi’s clothing set
00:54 About weight maps
00:55 Showing the scarf simulation
00:57 About using the dForce surface adjuster
01:00 dForce master product – helps with explosions
01:01 In Substance Painter – about the license options
01:03 In Substance Painter -project folder
01:06 Useful Riversoft Arts script – allocate color coded maps to your UV maps
01:18 In ZBrush – subtotals
01:21 Merge down and split
01:22 Mask
01:24 GO-Z
01:35 Summary of this session
PDF Document providing searchable version of this tutorial set
MasteingMaterialZonesSearchable (link included) .PDF
Video 1 : 27 minutes (.MP4)
00:02 Introduction and Nelmi’s background as a digital artist
00:03 Nelmi’s clothing content she has created so far
00:04 Nelmi’s tool set for creating content.
00:06 What we’ll learn in Marvelous Designer
00:05 About the lack of material zones in content
00:06 What are surfaces?
00:09 How designing material zones from the beginning is important
00:10 Remeshing in Marvelous Designer vs remising in ZBrush
00:11 Case study : Designing and making the Orion Clothing Set
00:11 Inside Marvelous Designer : Quick introduction to Marvelous Designer
00:13 Changing the 3D mesh to quads and why important
00:15 Considerations in the design of the Orion clothing set
00:17 Working out where material zones should be and how to do inside MD
00:19 Designing and defining the material zones
00:20 The MD Property editor : looking at the parameters and maps
00:22 Reflections, transformations
00:23 Physical property presets -> what will affect DAZ when the clothing is brought in.
00:26 Why ti use “default for simulation” in MD for DAZ content.
Video 2 : 1 hour (.MP4)
00:00 Case study – flowing dress
00:02 In MD : Checking how material drapes
00:04 Clothing from ArtStation for DAZ can be cheap but tends not to be optimised for DAZ and substandard
00:05 Mesh density recommendations for clothing models
00:08 Note that there is no bridge between MD and DAZ
00:13 Particle distance recommendation; what’s helpful for dForce.
00:17 MD great for creating the morphs
00:19 UV editor demonstration
00:21 Spend enough time on material zones before bringing into DAZ
00:24 Export from MD to DAZ as OBJ. Recommended export options
00:27 MD Subdivide/Freeze /Solidify material brush option is useful, esp subdivide – helping to maintain features of clothing
in DAZ
00:32 In DAZ Studio -> importing from OBJ options recommended
00:35 Now go to the geometry editor and see the surface carried over from MD, the material zones.
00:38 Reinforcing the need to design material zones before bringing into DAZ.
00:39 Combining surfaces
00:41 There is no undo in the geometry editor!
00:42 Watch out for deleting layers / selected polygons
00:46 Case study : The day out clothing model – example of good topology
00:49 Exploring the geometry editor further.
00:54 FBX/OBJ pros and cons exporting from MD
00:59 Seam lines need to be watched in terms of dForce and requires good topology to avoid problems.
Video 3 : 1 hour and 31 minutes (.MP4)
00:00 Recap of what learned in previous sessions
00:04 UV map and baking of maps
00:06 in MD : recommendation on quad meshes
00:08 Patch topology
00:10 Watch for sewing lines when topology is changed
00:11 Lose the welds, so you have to re-sew the lines
00:12 Watch for triangle polys – not good for dForce
00:14 MD recommends to take into another application for retopology such as ZBrush.
00:22 About retopology
00:24 Import OBJ from DAZ – fits clothing automatically on body shape
00:29 DAZ Studio -> import from MD
00:31 Geometry editor – using select loop
00:33 Creating different surfaces with the geometry tool
00:35 Create surface from selected
00:37 Three different ways of selecting geometry tool functions
00:40 Case study : Nelmi’s latest creation – designing for material zones
00:43 Update vertex positions
00:46 Hiding the belt loops
00:52 dForce considerations on Nelmi’s clothing set
00:54 About weight maps
00:55 Showing the scarf simulation
00:57 About using the dForce surface adjuster
01:00 dForce master product – helps with explosions
01:01 In Substance Painter – about the license options
01:03 In Substance Painter -project folder
01:06 Useful Riversoft Arts script – allocate color coded maps to your UV maps
01:18 In ZBrush – subtotals
01:21 Merge down and split
01:22 Mask
01:24 GO-Z
01:35 Summary of this session
PDF Document providing searchable version of this tutorial set
MasteingMaterialZonesSearchable (link included) .PDF
