[WIP] Boobs too big? Nah, clothes too small! (Patreon)

Over the years, a little logistical problem has been growing in my asset library. Every year the ladies' wardrobe grows bigger, with more tops, more pants, more skirts, and more lingerie to wear. And yet somehow, I seem to default to the same clothes a lot, customizing their appearance but rarely opting for something else. The reason for this is simple: poor fitment.

So I'm going to change that. Starting this week, I'm gonna updating these assets. Just work that I can do in between other things. Especially most tops are a nightmare to wear, because they're made for ladies with far smaller breasts than Kayla, Tatiana, Marcella... really anyone in the LU cast lol.

So this is a little WIP post to show you two tops I've updated so far, with plans to do more. None of this is super advanced 3D work but it does require a little bit of familiarity with Zbrush and how Daz exports work in order to get it right. 

So, here's Kayla wearing this brand new top I got the other day. There is no corrective sculpting done on this item, and no cloth simulation. This is how it fits right out of the box.

As you can see, the fabric wraps around her boobs and into her cleavage. Now something that hugs her body shape tightly make actually be super hot to make. But not when it looks this bad with that giant crease in the middle. Moreover, all that warping also creates an uneven spread of the top's textures, causing textures on the front of the breasts to be enlarged and making them appear as low resolution. 

So, I export it to Zbrush:

This is what it looks in Zbrush. Basically the task here is to unpinch the entire mesh, get it out from between the boobs and then keep an even stretch between the two breasts in a way that not only looks nice but also preserves an even spread of the mesh's polygonal makeup, ie the little squares it's made up of. This is to help with the final display of textures on the item not appearing warped.

As you can see, this already looks a lot more realistic. Plus, I managed to maintain big fabric pinch that runs all the way across her chest from left to right. This was something the original creator clearly intended to be there to suggest an excess of fabric, and I like that look a lot. Sets it apart from other tops. Now let's see what it looks like in Daz Studio, once this new shape has been dialed in, and clothing simulation has been applied:

As you can see, BIG difference. Also note how compared to the original, the texture pattern used by the asset have scaled down and have become far more detail. This is because the item retains the same amount of polygons, there's just now fewer of them sitting invisibly between Kayla's cleavage. They've been redistributed towards the front.

I've done another top in the same way, before and after:

By slowly going through these items now, I'll have lots of assets that look great for future sets. So should be a pretty good return on time investment!

I'm gonna do a few more this week, will post the before/afters around the weekend.

Stay tuned!