LE Outfits, How should they be done?

[Xerperious]

I have been into 3D modeling with 3Ds Max for about a year or two now and I have gotten a good feel for the software, I am no professional but I do somewhat know what I'm doing. This isn't really a question about something I don't understand, but what is a better way to do something. I am also looking for suggestions on how I should go about completing my outfit.

 

http://i.imgur.com/wSGMir3.png

 

I know it looks pretty plain right now but I started on this outfit yesterday as a small project to see if I could just do anything cool. At first I was going for some oriental Chinese dress design I remembered seeing a while ago, but I couldn't find any good reference photos. The nipple cone things are also pretty out of place but hey, this is Skyrim modding :p I'm not even close to finishing this but this is what I have so far. Finally, here are my questions.

 

Q1: Would it be better to have planar clothes and set it to double sided in NifSkope? Or have a 3D mesh around the neck and sleeves? (I think this is just a preference thing)

 

Q2: Is there an easier way to UV other than 3Ds Max? I hate UVing, it takes forever, and most modelers that I have talked to said the same things :/ This is the reason why most of my projects don't get finished.

 

Q3: Suggestions? At first I had a good Idea of what I wanted to make this into, now I'm not sure what to do with it. I was thinking opening up the chest of the outfit a little more or adding a bow around the waist. Also I probably won't do a long dress because it would be difficult to weight paint it.

 

Q4: Should I make the poly count higher for the side straps? (The red pieces) They might look good now but I'm not sure how they will bend with the body after it is weight painted.

 

Details:

Built off of the CBBE 1stpersonbody_1 (For easy Bodysliding) using the push modifier and freeform smoothing.

3Ds Max 2016

 

If I missed anything or if you have questions please ask me.

Edited September 23, 2016 by Xerperious

[Nephenee13]

Q1: Would it be better to have planar clothes and set it to double sided in NifSkope? Or have a 3D mesh around the neck and sleeves? (I think this is just a preference thing)

Personally I prefer planar clothes that are double-sided. I always switched stuff to this when I did DMRA conversions for Oblvion. It is more resource intensive however.

 

Q3: Suggestions? At first I had a good Idea of what I wanted to make this into, now I'm not sure what to do with it. I was thinking opening up the chest of the outfit a little more or adding a bow around the waist. Also I probably won't do a long dress because it would be difficult to weight paint it.

 

The things on the boobs look super weird but maybe thats just a perspective thing, what does it look like from the side? A lower neckline might help as well

 

Q4: Should I make the poly count higher for the side straps? (The red pieces) They might look good now but I'm not sure how they will bend with the body after it is weight painted.

 

 

Yeah you should probably spend a bit of extra poly budget there for sure

 

Details:

Built off of the CBBE 1stpersonbody_1 (For easy Bodysliding) using the push modifier and freeform smoothing.

3Ds Max 2016

 

If I missed anything or if you have questions please ask me.

 

 

Well I think UUNP is 100% better than CBBE, but thats entirely up to you

[Xerperious]

Thanks for the reply, I did think cones on the chest look weird too :/ not sure what else I would add for detail though... I could try making them smaller. Also I like the red straps, I guess I'll add more.

 

Here it is from all veiws

http://i.imgur.com/OKEjEm0.png

 

The Cone things look a little better smaller, the top of the clothing pushes out a little bit, that might be why it looks weird. The good thing about CBBE is that you can make it look like other bodies in bodyslide, making it very easy to make a custom look.

[Nephenee13]

Thanks for the reply, I did think cones on the chest look weird too :/ not sure what else I would add for detail though... I could try making them smaller. Also I like the red straps, I guess I'll add more.Here it is from all veiwshttp://i.imgur.com/OKEjEm0.pngThe Cone things look a little better smaller, the top of the clothing pushes out a little bit, that might be why it looks weird. The good thing about CBBE is that you can make it look like other bodies in bodyslide, making it very easy to make a custom look.

Unified UNP is the same thing, it's UNP for bodyslide

 

It's fairly trivial to make both now so its not really a big deal

 

Anyway, the spikes are interesting. Maybe make each breast less like it's in a pocket in the shirt

[dalsio]

Note that I am fairly inexperienced when it comes to 3d modelling so take what I say with that in mind. Still, I'll share what I know.

 

I use Blender so I don't know what tools are available to 3DSMax users but Blender has a uv unwrapping projection called smart projection that, when using the right settings, can get you pretty darn close with your UVMap which saves a lot of time. I don't know if 3DS has this, but I would check and see and if not, you can probably import the mesh into blender, unwrap it, and export the UVMap back to 3DS or just export the whole mesh straight to .nif. Also, I know that there is some UVMapping software out there, but I've never tried them so I don't know if they're any good.

 

The nipple cones are a bit odd, not necessarily because nipple cones are odd in general, but simply because they don't fit the tone of the outfit. The outfit seems to covey modesty, sophistication, elegance, and serenity but the cones and even the back cone suggest roughness, barbarism, aggression and sexuality. I would take the cones off the nipples and back as but you can put a sort of "button" on the back to serve as a termination point for the straps, and have another one in the front in the center of the chest for the other termination point. Also, if you want more flare in the chest area, you can add a bow to the front Sailor Moon style.

 

Another way to take with the straps is to make them go all the way around into the armpits and either go back up terminating into the button, or wrap around the waist. Also, you can remove the button altogether and connect the straps, making them a single strap that goes around the back which is somewhat rather elegant, flowing, and traditional to chineses and japanese clothing.

 

I also recommend adding borders to some of the ends like at the wrists and the hips, and flaring the sleeves out a bit more at the end.

 

This is just me, but the breasts are a bit too spread out, flat, and defined for my tastes, as if they have zero support and are just naked breasts. I mean, it doesn't need to be a quadruple push-up wonder-bra or a extra-tight corset, but even the blouse alone should at least slightly lift, constrain, and obfuscate the breasts. But again, that's just me and my preferences.

 

I suggest using higher polygon counts any time there are curves, when something is separated from the body like the collar or the sleeves, and when something is especially prominent or eye-catching like the breasts. The straps fit all three categories and thus should probably have one of the highest polys-per-inch in the whole outfit.

 

Inevitable, it doesn't matter what body you make it for because a person can convert it for use with any other body type with Bodyslide and Outfit Studio. Still, you can do some things to make it easier for someone to do the conversions or even provide your own UUNP/CBBE Bodyslide files to make it doubly easy.

Edited September 23, 2016 by dalsio

[Xerperious]

Thanks for the replies,

So I have changed up some things, no more nipple spikes but there still is a spike on the back. Put buttons in place of the nipple spikes. (I still think they look weird. They might be too big.) Made the breasts less like "pockets", they look a lot better. Also like I said, the reason I am building this on the CBBE body is for customization, I realize the breasts look flat, in my game I like them 3+ times that size. From what I can see I have the mesh smoothed out pretty well, although there are a lot of vertices in some places that I will have to figure out how to fix up, weld has helped a lot but some spots look weird. I will plan to make the sleeves flare out a little more, but I will probably wait until later to do that.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Ym3VdXe.png

 

I wasn't going for a sailor moon look by the way, my friend on steam suggested the same thing. :p

 

http://static1.fjcdn.com/comments/He+_22e4b2c0beb9095f05fc09e55b5ab56e.jpg

 

When I first got into modeling about 4 years ago I tried to use blender but I didn't like it too much, it has a lot to offer but it is just "too much". I still have it on my computer, I might have to go back in and look at the whole UVing stuff. 3Ds max has an auto unwrap thing as well as some other tools in the UV layout, but it doesn't usually unwrap properly.

Edited September 24, 2016 by Xerperious