3DS MAX to MARVELOUS DESIGNER WORKFLOW

1) OPEN RIGGED MODEL

This document goes through all steps necessary to use Marvelous Designer (MD) as a cloth simulation tool for characters rigged, animated and rendered in 3ds Max. For this tutorial, I used a character model rigged with the BIPED system inside 3ds Max. This workflow will work with any other character animation approach including the CAT rigging system, Smith Micro’s POSER FUSION plug-in, COLLADA or custom rigs created with the 3ds Max bone/skin system. Note that this workflow relies upon POINT CACHING to precisely animate an OBJ mesh that is imported into MD as an avatar. NOTE: There are other workflows that transfer JOINT ANIMATION to a rigged avatar inside MD but those methods do not permit the precise registration you can achieve by using POINT CACHING.

The workflow itself is quite straightforward, but you must be careful to several settings in order to seamlessly go back and forth between the two applications. For this tutorial I am using a figure built with a metric scale (1 unit = 1 Centimeter. The character is 170 cm tall and rigged with Biped skeleton. If you use a figure built with an imperial scale (feet/inches) you will need to alter the scale units in MD accordingly.

2) APPLY ANIMATION FILE AND ADJUST PROBLEM AREAS Since this model has a BIPED rig I chose to apply a MOTION CAPTURE file to animate the figure. The BIPED system works well with several MOCAP formats and it offers a significant advantage by including several tools that make revising and editing MOCAP files quite easy. For this project I opened the BIPED rollout and applied a ballet dance to the control rig (ballet.bip – 400 frames).

Once the animation is loaded on the figure it is important to test the animation integrity by scrubbing through all the frames. In most instances, you will find that some joints need tweaking (feet and shoulders often need attention). To adjust problem areas, open the LAYERS rollout under the BIPED panel and click the NEW LAYER button. Turn on the Auto Key function and you can now adjust any body part. For example, if a particular MOCAP file was generated from a

bare footed model you can easily use LAYERS to bend the feet to conform to high heel shoes or boots. When you’ve completed your adjustments, it is a good idea to collapse down to the base layer.

3) RECORD POINT CACHE Our goal is to use the animated 3ds Max figure as an avatar inside MD so we can use its cloth system to generate clothing that responds to the character’s movements. To do this we need to record the animation as a point cache file that we can apply to the model after we bring it into MD to create our clothes. Point caching records the position of all vertices of your model at each frame of your animation. The point cache system in 3ds Max allows you to choose whether to save the cache file as an Autodesk Cache (xml) or as a point cache 2 file (pc2), which is the cache format we will be using in MD. Note, that this model has hair and underclothing as separate mesh entities. The 3ds Max POINT CACHING system operates on individual objects so we would need to export each object separately with its own POINT CACHE if we want to have everything inside MD for the cloth simulation. In most instances, though, you are only concerned with the main body to drape your cloth simulation on so that you can bring in the basic body as a single OBJ file with its POINT CACHE for animation. There will be times when you need to bring in multiple meshes such as when your character holds an object like a flag that you want to use in the cloth simulation. Those situations can be quite tricky and it is somewhat tedious to generate a separate point cache for each object. I have found a tool called SUPERMESHER by BOOMER LABS that lets you create a single POINT CACHE for ANY or ALL objects in a scene (www.boomerlabs.com). This plug-in for 3ds Max is extremely simple to use and it is useful in many other situations since it can record your scene as a cache file, complete with textures. As a commercial plug-in, you might not be able to justify it for simple hobby use, however, it has more than paid for itself as a utility that I

use quite often in my own professional 3D projects. In the event someone else chooses to purchase the tool I’ll describe how I use it with MD, but you can ignore this step and simply work with the 3ds Max POINT CACHE system instead.

4) (OPTIONAL) CREATE SUPERMESHER OBJECT

Once you’ve installed SUPERMESHER you will find it under the CREATE panel at the bottom of your compound objects (LEFT). When you choose it you simply click and drag anywhere in the TOP VIEWPORT to create the SUPERMESHER gizmo. It’s important to use the top viewport because this will orient your point cache properly and generate the

cache in relation to your ground level. The SUPERMESHER tool creates an entirely new mesh that is animated and has all textures baked onto it. It allows you to create an efficient animated mesh from extremely complex and dense animations. Once the SUPERMESHER object is created you can turn off your original objects and render using the SUPERMESHER proxy. As a tool for use with MD, the plug-in allows you to create complex cloth simulations and bring them into 3ds Max where you can then save them as a new SUPERMESHER object that you take back into MD. Through this method you can quickly develop layers of clothing that interact without having to work with individual POINT CACHE objects. After you create the gizmo in the TOP VIEWPORT you need to open the SUPERMESHER rollout (RIGHT) and click the PICK button to choose the scene elements that you will be combining to make a single cache file. In this instance, the model has multiple mesh files (eyes, eyelashes, teeth, toenails, etc.) and I chose all of them. At this point you click the RECORD button and you’ll be asked where you want to save the SUPERMESHER bmf file. The plug-in will bake the textures

and record the animation as a new object in your scene named Supermesher001. You can hide your original model now and the SUPERMESHER object will be a faithful duplicate complete with textures and animation.

5) EXPORT OBJ FILE If you’re using the SUPERMESHER method you will export the Supermesher001 proxy as an OBJ file that you will then import into MD. If you are using the native POINT CACHE system in 3ds Max you will export an OBJ file of your character’s main body. The workflow will be the same in both instances. Choose FILE – EXPORT and choose OBJ as the file format. You’ll get the OBJ EXPORT OPTIONS dialog (RIGHT) and you can copy the settings shown here. The most important items are to check the Flip YZ-axis (Poser-like) and deselect all of the items under the

Optimize heading near the bottom of the dialog box. Since you are going to be using the OBJ file only as a mannequin to drape clothing over in MD, there isn’t any need to export materials. After you confirm the settings are correct, you

choose EXPORT and after a few moments you’ll see a report showing the number of vertices, triangles and quads that were generated.

6) CREATE POINT CACHE FILE

The last thing you need to do before moving to MD is the preparation of a POINT CACHE file. 3ds Max has a POINT CACHE modifier available under the MODIFY panel of the COMMAND PANEL and you can find that same modifier under the menu item MODIFIERS – CACHE TOOLS. Additionally, under that menu you’ll find a second item titled POINT CACHE (WSM). Both versions operate the same except that the first one

works in LOCAL SPACE while the second one applies within WORLD SPACE. Although you can successfully use either modifier, I recommend using the WSM version in most instances. To use the POINT CACHE modifier, you simply select the animated mesh you want to use and then choose the modifier you wish to use from either the MODIFY panel or the MODIFIERS menu. Once you’ve applied the modifier you can choose settings in the rollout under the MODIFY panel (RIGHT). As you can see at the top of the panel, I’ve chosen the SUPERMESHER object to generate my POINT CACHE from. If you aren’t using SUPERMESHER you will choose the main character body you are animating. Most of the settings can be left at their current values but you’ll need to first click the NEW button to be able to name the cache file you’ll be creating and choose where to save it. When the SAVE dialog comes up you’ll notice that it defaults to the Autodesk Cache Format (xml) so you need to click and change the format to the POINT CLOUD 2 format (Pc2) since that’s the format MD will recognize. After choosing the SAVE location you must click RECORD to generate the POINT CACHE itself. Now you can SAVE and CLOSE your Max project and open up MD.

7) IMPORT OBJ FILE INTO MARVELOUS DESIGNER After you open MD you can import the OBJ file you saved from inside 3ds Max (BELOW). Since we’ll be using this model simply as a mannequin it isn’t necessary to include textures. This model came in as a strange

turquoise color as you see BELOW. If you prefer seeing your character textured you need to select the MATERIALS option in the OBJ EXPORT OPTIONS dialog.

The step of importing your model into MD is a critical one that requires you to select the appropriate scale and axis. Cloth simulation in MD uses real world values so that if your character comes in too large or too small the cloth simulation will not behave realistically. On the RIGHT is the IMPORT OBJ dialog from MD. Be sure and choose the LOAD AS AVATAR button and the cm (DAZ Studio) button if you are using metric scaling. There is a convenient AUTO SCALE button that will automatically scale your character to real world values and that can be a very useful tool if you don’t need to worry about bringing everything back precisely where we left off in 3ds Max. Since that is our objective leave that box unchecked. The bottom section labelled AXIS CONVERSION will allow you to orient the character appropriately within the MD world. It is very important that you choose the axis values shown: X, Y (up) and Z without any inversion. Fortunately, the settings you choose here will persist and be available the next time you import an OBJ file so you won’t have to refer to this tutorial or memorize the values unless you change them at some point.

8) IMPORT POINT CACHE FILE Now you are ready to import that point cache file you made in 3ds Max so you can animate your character. The IMPORT POINT CACHE dialog is shown at RIGHT. You need to make sure SELECT ALL AVATARS is checked. Choose the frame rate that matches your 3ds Max animation and use the same scale units that match what your import file was. Notice that the axis values differ from the OBJ IMPORT values with Z now being up and the Y axis inverted. Again, these values will persist after you import the cache file and close the dialog so you shouldn’t have to reset any of these items if you are using a 3ds Max model with the same scaling. When you have all the items selected appropriately, click the OK button. Once you’ve imported the POINT CACHE nothing will change in the MD viewport. You won’t know that the POINT CACHE was

applied correctly until you change the MD workspace from the SIMULATION VIEW to ANIMATION VIEW. When you have ANIMATION TIMELINE on screen you will see the POINT CACHE animation displayed as a salmon-colored bar representing the number of animated frames applied to the OBJ file. If you click the pointer on top of the bar you can scrub through the animation to confirm that the animation matches the position the character originally had in the SIMULATION VIEW:

If you screwed up the axis it will be immediately apparent with the avatar upside down, sideways or mirror-reversed.

9) CREATE CLOTHING IN SIMULATION VIEW

Go back to the SIMULATION view in MD and create your clothing per your usual workflow. Do note that you won’t have the advantage of using the ARRANGEMENT POINTS that are available with the avatars included with MD. Once you’ve built your garments and have them draped appropriately you return to the

ANIMATION VIEW and click on the camera-shaped RECORD button above the TIMELINE. This will generate the cloth simulation on the animated avatar and when it finishes, assuming all went according to plan, you’ll see the garment simulation recorded above the bar for the avatar:

10) EXPORT GARMENTS AS OBJ FILES In my example, I’ve animated a skirt that matches the POINT CACHE animation of the character so I need only export the skirt as an OBJ file that I can bring into 3ds Max. To the RIGHT is the EXPORT OBJ dialog screen from MD. Make sure you have the proper scaling chosen (cm DAZ Studio in this instance). The Axis Conversion (X,Y & Z with no inversions) will bring the skirt into 3ds Max properly oriented. However, the axis orientation really isn’t important because the next step creating the POINT CACHE file for the garment will override whatever axis position the OBJ file has after import. As you can see, this process is identical to the workflow we used to get our character into MD. If you follow these instructions you’ll be able to keep the avatar and garments in both systems and use POINT CACHE animation to control the movement of all items in both applications.

11) EXPORT POINT CACHE FOR GARMENTS Just as we used a POINT CACHE to animate the avatar in MD, we now will use the same process to animate the garment (a skirt in this tutorial) after we import it back into 3ds

Max. Again, this is the same workflow we used to move our character into MD. The EXPORT POINT CACHE dialog is shown at LEFT. Scale must be maintained consistent (cm) and the Axis Conversion is critical: X,Z inverted, Y). After completing these export routines you can save your MD file and move back to 3ds Max.

12) IMPORT GARMENT INTO MAX Open the original file in 3ds Max and locate the OBJ file you exported from MD. Use the default values of the OBJ IMPORT dialog box and the garment should appear in the viewport properly positioned at the start of your animation timeline (RIGHT). As noted above, the garment’s position really depends upon the POINT CACHE file you will

13) LOAD POINT CACHE ON IMPORTED GARMENT After importing the OBJ file, apply the POINT CACHE modifier and LOAD the Pc2 file you exported from MD. I recommend using the WSM version under the MODIFIERS menu. After you click the LOAD button (RIGHT) and navigate to the appropriate cache file the garment should match the motion of your original Biped character.

Good Luck! Mark Johnson Visual Law Group