makehumancommunity.org

Hi folks

I'm new in this forum. Normally I'm modelling scenes non-virtually, mostly model railway layouts and other sceneries. But I'm very happy about the MakeHuman project because now I can do this modelling work virtually more exact and I can put humans into the focus of a scenery instead of technical objects.

I started to try out MakeHuman 18 months ago. I also had no idea about Blender when I started. So it was a long way to go. My first goal are sceneries of daily life using my own characters. Since I'm male and not a real artist, have a guess what I prefer ...

So I started with MakeHuman 1.0 and the assets included. But I was not satisfied with clothes and textures.

After understanding the techniques I created the first 4096x4096 skin-texture based on the female adult proxy. I'm using the same method as David Moratillo (I call it "Hannibal Lecter method"), I cut out about 4000 pieces from different pictures of a real person and reassembled that on the given proxy mesh (approx. 40 hours of work per texture).

After the change of this adult proxy because of wrong position of genitals in the MakeHuman project I decided to create my own proxy on the basis of the current proxy. This proxy is now used for all my "dolls". I also made new clothes based on real clothes using blender, makeclothes and GIMP for the textures. These clothes have visible seams and attachments, they also should not look like paper so the edges normally end in the character itself or they are in some way "solidified". So e.g. straps of a bra are at least u-shaped. I also use transparency in some cases, e.g. when I create lingerie.

After importing figures and clothes back to blender (cycles-render), I normally change all materials and I add special materials for buckles or buttons. Since my models have a bigger cup size than "the average female" there is always additional work on the geometry necessary. Btw.: Is there are method to create an additional mannequin for this problem?

Last not least I create all objects like chairs, tables etc. for a scene myself, of course based on real objects. The first picture shows 3 models. I named them from l.t.r Leska, Evi and Dani, if someone figures out the names of the original models, I will NOT comment on it

They are sitting on a terrace which allows me to use a non-HDRI background picture (a photo I took in Split, Croatia). Setting an emission shader to the background picture avoids shadows ...
The position of the hands of Leska and Evi results from problems with the skirts. I had cut off parts because the skirts are visible under the seat (when the legs will meet in the middle, the vertices of a skirt do not know where to go) . Here I will invest some time in future ...



On the second picture Evi is wearing a bikini. For the texture I took photos from a real bikini pinned on a table and put that directly on the UV-Map. After using makeclothes and reimporting it into Blender, some geometries and materials are changed or added.

The hair of all 3 models is made with 3 particle-systems, left, right and back-hair. So it is simple to comb/model the hair according to different poses. To achieve glossiness of the lips I marked the faces of the lips and assigned them to another material, so the model is able to use the same skin-texture, but partly uses a different shader to make objects look wet. Here is an example:

http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57588/how-do-i-make-an-object-look-wet

The model uses the default-no-toes rig. To make her smile/laugh you have to lower the teeth about 5 mm and to arrange the face bones (took me some time to understand that). The background also has some emission to avoid fireflies of cycles. The foreground is pitch-black and the scene is lit up with three area lamps (at least 30x30 cm). One is positioned to get the reflection in the pupils.



In the third picture Leska poses with a tank top. Crinkles are produced by using a normal map. To get a pose like this one, simply google for "posing guide". Btw.: this pose will produce a lot of trouble using clothes with sleeves.



In the next picture Dani is posing with french lingerie in front of a camera. You are able to see the light setup mainly provided by the rendered softboxes. The setup is fully integrated into the scene. And it really works ... I created assets of a photo studio, so I can arrange lots of interresting scenes.



The last picture shows all three in Split again. This time they are presenting a new collection of beach wear fashion.



If you are interrested in more pictures and in my work I will add them and give information. But be aware that I'm still learning, especially Blender.

One note: my proxy works with modified adult textures (I separated part of the breast region for more details, and genitals are separated again as well). I will only show pictures and poses which will not show everything ... this is not an xxx-forum

Since the assets are modelled from originals I've no idea about copy-rights. When I make a photo of a person wearing specific clothes normally I do not have to ask the vendor if I'm allowed to wear these clothes on a picture visible in the internet. But when I put e.g. a pair of long jeans of a famous frankonian U.S. immigrant into the assets ... big lawsuit ... I don't know ... ?!

The 17 mbyte skin-textures made of 3000-5000 parts of different photos are even more private I guess ...

On the other hand, for me it is only a hobby, I'm not earning money with that. I also have no problems to give away for free all .blend files etc., all textures and assets ...

That's all for today (sorry if there are errors in the english text, it is not my native language ...)

Welcome aboard like your skin texture which render engine are you using the default blender or cycles'

Enjoy the Choice

A short and quick answer:

Fireflies are a problem of Cycles, so I'm obviously using cycles .
But as most people do, I started with blender render in the beginning.

The skin texture is made like the one of David Moratilla, but I had to create the whole body (one for each girl) incl. hand, feet, face etc. Even the eyes were taken from the original girl. Typical you need a lot of pictures, the light setup of these pictures should be similar and a lot of extra work adjusting the colors must be done, if you will make your own texture. And the seams of the texture are also a problem, when you try to make them unvisible. Note that the resolution of the face and neck, of arms and hands are different etc.

This is the site of the David Moratilla:

http://www.davidmoratilla.com/gallery.html or go directly to http://www.davidmoratilla.com/CloseUpPortraits_MakingOf1.html

The size of the skin texture also allows me to show some details ... so here is another picture:

Now that you mention them do see a few fireflies I tend to use image based lighting myself from HDR images

Enjoy the Choice

First things first: Great work. Some really unique and good looking characters. We really needed some eye candy here. Thank you.

punkduck wrote:So I started with MakeHuman 1.0 and the assets included. But I was not satisfied with clothes and textures.

Why don't you change this? There's a repo where users can share the stuff they created. You're clothes look really good. If you shared them you would improve the availability of high quality assets immediately.

Hi Wolgade

As I wrote before, the girls are based on real (erotic) models, but I can't reach it 100% to make their faces look exactly the same using makehuman. But I guess that should not become more realistic not to get into trouble with the real persons or the companies presenting them.

Request for the clothes: I will show you 3 further pictures, in the beginning Evi wearing a so called babydoll with a lot of transparency



The second one presents Leska wearing a "teddy" or "body".



There are a few technical problems. The texture in the breast region is always a problem, because the makeclothes average female is really average, but my models are not For that reason I hope for a possibilty to build the clothes in blender on another "more curvy model" in future, but I've no idea if that is possible.

And consider the rings at the front of the teddy, I had not only to add new materials to get metallic reflections in Blender, I also had to bend the heart-shape rings back to a round form, because the bigger breasts squeezes them together (I also tried to use extra vertex groups but that did not really help).

But that is not the real problem, because a few hints in the description and the user loading the assets is able to change this as well as I do it.

My problem is: google for the real clothes - even the bikinis above. Also all my clothes aren't fantasy, I modelled them from existing clothes. I really like to share this, but I'm afraid of getting into real trouble considering texture and/or design. If someone assures me that this no problem then I will do it. Giving it away without textures (which indeed was the main part of the work) makes no sense when you create complex transparent clothes like french lingerie. Consider this picture without a texture ...



But yes, makehuman needs more attention again. Without the base-mesh and the program itself I never would be able to create these characters. So very special thanks to the makehuman team!

I will also start to learn python (normally I work with C and perl). I made a small hack to one of the makehuman-plugins to toggle between perspective and the orbital view and to position the camera ... but that is mainly for me, to see a quick result in makehuman as well. In the beginning I think of a small helper for blender, loading location, then the character, the clothes and bind the skeleton and then load the pose-library.

18 months I was learning all the things you need to know, 6 days ago I joined this forum ... If people like my work I will stay and maybe in some time I can contribute a little bit more than only cuties

punkduck wrote:As I wrote before, the girls are based on real (erotic) models,

That's what I thought. You shouldn't share these textures, of course. This might only lead to trouble.

Request for the clothes: I will show you 3 further pictures,

This is simply breathtaking. And I'm only talking about the clothes.

There are a few technical problems. The texture in the breast region is always a problem, because the makeclothes average female is really average, but my models are not

I guess that's the reason why real world bras come in different sizes. One size fits all simply doesn't work.

For that reason I hope for a possibilty to build the clothes in blender on another "more curvy model" in future, but I've no idea if that is possible.

This is already possible and much simpler than you might think. Create your curvy model in MH, export as OBJ. On Blender import make sure to select "keep vertex order". Use this imported model as human. That's how I did http://www.makehumancommunity.org/clothes/female_top_01.html. My model is not as curvy as yours, but more than "average female". If this description was a bit to brief, ask for details.

I had not only to add new materials to get metallic reflections in Blender, I also had to bend the heart-shape rings back to a round form, because the bigger breasts squeezes them together (I also tried to use extra vertex groups but that did not really help).

MakeClothes has its limitations. There's always some work required to make things look right. The same is true for MH, which doesn't support more than one material for a proxy. You can always post your material setup in the forum.

I really like to share this, but I'm afraid of getting into real trouble considering texture and/or design.

This could be a problem indeed. I don't see this problem with your babydoll. It's an often seen shape with patterns that are also often seen on this type of clothing. The same is true for the teddy.The third one could be more problematic. Don't take this as a legal advice. I'm not a lawyer and even if I was, the laws in your country might be completely different than in my country.

But yes, makehuman needs more attention again. Without the base-mesh and the program itself I never would be able to create these characters.

Without MH I never would have started to learn Blender. I started exactly as you did: I wanted to create clothes for MH models.

I will also start to learn python (normally I work with C and perl). I made a small hack to one of the makehuman-plugins to toggle between perspective and the orbital view and to position the camera ... but that is mainly for me, to see a quick result in makehuman as well. In the beginning I think of a small helper for blender, loading location, then the character, the clothes and bind the skeleton and then load the pose-library.

Did some MH official already ask you to join the club? If not, why not? Seriously, your work is really incredibly good. If your interested, MH is looking for someone like you.

If people like my work I will stay and maybe in some time I can contribute a little bit more than only cuties

I really hope you'll stay and show some great stuff.

punkduck wrote:Also all my clothes aren't fantasy, I modelled them from existing clothes. I really like to share this, but I'm afraid of getting into real trouble considering texture and/or design. If someone assures me that this no problem then I will do it. Giving it away without textures (which indeed was the main part of the work) makes no sense when you create complex transparent clothes like french lingerie.

Unless there are any logotypes displayed or brand names mentioned anywhere, I doubt you'd run into any trouble for drawing graphics (3d or 2d) that looks somewhat similar to an actual product, nor for posting those graphics here. Ok, there is always the fringe possibility of a caffeine-crazed lawyer with too little to do somewhere, but the worst I can see would happen would be a takedown request sent to me. I would then comply with it, no harm done.

So (again short of logotypes and brand names), it's ok with me to post stuff like that in the user repos.

punkduck wrote:I will also start to learn python (normally I work with C and perl). I made a small hack to one of the makehuman-plugins to toggle between perspective and the orbital view and to position the camera ... but that is mainly for me, to see a quick result in makehuman as well.

If you find it useful, I'm sure others will find it useful too. There's a github repo for user contributed plugins at https://github.com/makehumancommunity/community-plugins. I would welcome a pull request or a patch posted there.

This is already possible and much simpler than you might think. Create your curvy model in MH, export as OBJ. On Blender import make sure to select "keep vertex order". Use this imported model as human. That's how I did http://www.makehumancommunity.org/clothes/female_top_01.html. My model is not as curvy as yours, but more than "average female". If this description was a bit to brief, ask for details.

Okay I saw your model and she is very expressive (hopefully the right word for that), it is more than my "cuties" ... so I like her very much.

Thanks especially for the help, it works. Some hints for other people, who also want to do it: when exporting the .obj file, delete the feet on the ground box, don't use subsurface-division (I guess) and only save the body without eyelashes, eyes etc. and switch off the proxy of course. Select your human in blender/makeclothes and change assign him to "human". No error should appear (wrong number of vertices I had with eyes and eyelashes).

Did some MH official already ask you to join the club? If not, why not? Seriously, your work is really incredibly good. If your interested, MH is looking for someone like you.

I will add clothes after redesigning a few of them with the new "non-average-female" some are ready to go also with the average female.
When I will add the clothes I will explain how to change the settings or materials.

My changes in program-code are not yet worth to mention. In python I'm still a rookie. For really joining the team I guess, it's still to early. I've to learn a bit more before I dare to do that

And I'm also waiting for people showing their models, hopefully they do. I just tried that with a new topic (makehuman winter).

Just for convenience, you could use the sync mesh plug-in for the same purpose, load a human mesh in MakeClothes and sync with your MakeHuman model of choice.

Wolgade is right, when states that the one fits all approach doesn't really work, though in my experience clothes created for the average type still support the greatest variety of models. Clothes created for a specific model are even worse on other models, in this case you should upload the underlying mhm-file, too.

My changes in program-code are not yet worth to mention. In python I'm still a rookie. For really joining the team I guess, it's still to early. I've to learn a bit more before I dare to do that

The github repo is just a playground for implementing some extra functionality, which later may go upstream. The hurdle for participating to this repo are very very low. And Joel will help on how to start off.
And of course everyone can propose code to the main repository. Maybe you want take a look at the bug tracker, if you have an idea on solving an issue create a patch or better make a pull request to bit bucket. Helping hands are always needed and welcome.

BTW, outstanding artwork!