My Favorite Dress for the DAZ Preschooler Maddie and my characters Katie, Cassie, Little Maddie and Mariah, and for Maddie Petite by Tim Polmear by wildaboutbirds wildaboutbirds1216@lycos.com Thank you for buying my dress. I hope it becomes *your* favorite dress as well. :) If you have any questions, problems, or just want to show me your latest work, please write. Resources Used: QuickSuit for Judy, by Thip -- Only a few vertices of Thip's original mesh remain, in the chest area of the dress. The rest of the mesh is my completely original work in Hexagon and Poser's cloth room. Button Fever by my friend MysticBlueRaven (Lynda Cox) Thank you Lyn! ProClub Denim Kit by Cin- KandeeWright's Treasures III The Great Lace Collection by Cyncro007 Jeans Vol 6 for kids N Teens by WhoppersNoonwalker Some textures were created by me, just for My Favorite Dress. They are with the other textures, in the folder Runtime\Textures\wildaboutbirds\Sunny\ and are named: FairyLights3.jpg 1000x2000 (from Fairy Shimmer texture) Green plaid 250.jpg 250x250 (from Spring Flowers) pink plaid 250.jpg 250x250 (from Country Charm) These tiling textures are yours to use for free or commercial work, as long as you do not use them to create another tiling texture (unless I give you permission to do this). The other textures in this set may NOT be redistributed in any form, as they are the work of the artists credited above, and I am using them under license. Installation: Unzip into your main Poser folder. Where Is It? My Favorite Dress: in Figures > MyFavDress MAT and other useful Poses: in Poses > MyFavDress Wind generator and "Hem Lifter", for use with dynamic cloth in Props > MyFavDress HOW DO I USE IT? Load Maddie into your scene first. Load My Favorite Dress, then in Figures choose "Conform To" and select Maddie. Because some of the material shaders contain displacement, you need to go into Render > Render Options, and when the window opens, make sure "Use Displacement Maps" is checked, and that Minimum Displacement Bounds is set at 0.5 or higher. If you get black lines or cracks going through your displaced surface, this will fix it. FITTING THE DRESS TO YOUR CHARACTER If you are using Maddie's regular body, no adjustment is needed. If you have the toddler-sized Little Maddie, use the special fit pose for the dress, located with the other "MyFavDress" poses. This will change the scale of the parts. There is another pose to restore the dress to regular proportions. If your Maddie is one of my other characters for Maddie, then after conforming, go to the Chest of the dress and turn that character's dial to 1.0. If you have Katie, turn the dress *Body Scale* to 138%, and if you have Cassie change the *Body Scale* to 75%. Emily and Rachel need no adjustment, since they have the default Maddie body. Fitting the Skirt Select the skirt and look at the Properties box, where the dials are. There are several groups of dials, all organized by their function, so first open the group "~~Fitting and Draping~~" by clicking on the "+". You will see a list of morphs: draped Heavy_draped Fit _Katie_draped fit_Mariah_draped fit_MaddiePetite_draped (+) Heavy_undraped (+) Fit_Katie_undraped (+) Fit_Mariah_undraped (+) fit_MaddiePetite_undraped (+) GluteBig (+) ThighFull The dress loads at "draped" 0.8 for the basic Maddie body. "Draped" means that the cloth has been allowed to fall and fold naturally against the character in a zero pose. See the morphs with the "(+)" next to them? Those can be added to another morph dial. The ones without the "(+)" must be used one at a time, or in a combination that adds up to 1.0. USING THE DRESS Next, you need to decide how you want to use the skirt. You have 4 options: A) Easy Dial Poses These work best for standing poses, and are the easiest choice for most people. You have morphs to make it sway, twist, have a leg move forward or back, etc. On other dresses this work is often done with handles, which My Favorite Dress does not have, but you can use dials to do the same motions very effectively. 1. Fit the dress in a mostly draped form. You can set the default "draped" morph to 0.8, then set the Fit morph for your character to 1.0. Or, you can set "draped" to 0 and set your character's own Draped morph to 0.6-1.0. A setting of 1.0 will only work if the character's legs are zero posed. Select Maddie and choose Window > Joint Editor > Zero Figure to do this, or just pose your character where you want them. 2. Look at the next morph group, "~~Skirt Movements~~": Sway_Right Sway_Left Sway_Forward Sway_Back LeftLegUp RightLegUp LeftLegBack RightLegBack TwistLeft TwistRight Use these morphs to make the skirt fit your character's pose. You can also reduce the number of your "draped" morph, or even add a little negative value to the default "draped" morph to bring the dress outward. B) Included Common Poses (6 full and 6 partial poses) Your 2nd option for posing is to use one of the pose pairs included with My Favorite Dress. These pose pairs (one pose for Maddie and a matching morph for the Skirt) will work best for the default Maddie body. With the other characters you may need to get a bit creative to make it fit and eliminate poke-through, but I have been able to do it most of the time for most characters and poses. Also, hands or forearms will often need some slight moving to make the pose morphs work. I could not get around this, as many pose sets cause cloth-damaging "pinching" between hand and body, and I had to turn off collision for hands and fingers to prevent this. 1. The poses for Maddie are in Poses > MyFavDress. Select Maddie and load a pose. You can either use a FULL pose to pose the whole body, or you can use another pose first, then use the PART or partial pose, to move just those body parts that need to fit inside the skirt. 2. Look at the Skirt's Properties box again, and you will see a group of morphs called "~~Common Poses~~": Sitting Sitting_Heavy Sitting_on_floor Bending_Over Curtsy Draped_LiftHemRight Draped_LiftHemLeft Set the appropriate pose to 1.0 and the skirt should match Maddie. "Sitting_Heavy" is really just the Sitting pose adjusted for a character who has the Heavy morph set at 1.0. If your character is Heavy at only 0.25, for instance, set "Sitting" to 0.75 and "Sitting_Heavy" to 0.25, so that the total sitting morph is still 1.0. 3. The 'Bend" box may need to be checked in the Skirt's Properties window. Look at the pose thumbs, and it will show "bend" either checked or unchecked, to show the setting needed for the skirt. For some poses it can be either checked or unchecked, so if it will work either way, no setting is shown in the thumbnail. If "Bend" is turned on, you can do some posing of Maddie's chest and abdomen. For some characters, you may need to be creative to make the poses fit. You can add a bit of "(+) Heavy_undraped" morph, or use the default "draped" morph in the *negative* at about -0.05 to -0.15. If those attempts fail, increase the Scale of the skirt to adjust it, or use some of the "~~Skirt Movement~~" morphs, or make protruding body parts invisible, if necessary. I was able to make the Sitting morph fit short, chubby Little Maddie without much trouble (see popup in the ad) so I think you will usually be able to make most poses work with most characters. C) Commercial Pose + Morph Your 3rd option is to use one of the commercial pose sets that has matching morphs on the Skirt. These are: Princess Poses, by wildaboutbirds (avail. at 3-D Arena and Content Paradise) Natural Performer Poses, by wildaboutbirds (avail. at 3-D Arena and Content Paradise) Story Time poses, by Digiport (avail. at DAZ) Littlest Explorers poses, by Lucie (avail. at DAZ) Use the same directions above in "B)" for poses. Load the pose, then find the group of Skirt morphs with the pose set name, and open it. Turn the dial with the same name as the pose to 1.0. IN PROPERTIES, UN-CHECK *BEND* FOR THE SKIRT, otherwise the skirt will not fit! Once again, these work best for the regular Maddie body. Use the suggestions above to make the skirt fit your character. Most poses can be made to work without poke-through, at least on the side that is visible in your render. D) Hybrid Dynamic Skirt Your 4th option is to use the Hybrid Dynamic Skirt in the cloth room. This is how I created most of the morphs for this dress, and it is the best way to get a good fit for a complex pose. If you find that your favorite character has trouble using one of the canned pose/morph combos, doing your own simulation in the cloth room may be your best solution. Don't worry, you CAN use the cloth room! Here is how: Load Maddie and the dress, and conform the dress to Maddie. If you want wind to blow your cloth, go to Props > MyFavDress and load the Wind prop. The settings I gave you will work, but you can play with them and see what they do. Turn off IK for Maddie (Figure > Inverse Kinematics, un-check both legs), and zero her figure (Window > Joint Editor, click Zero Figure). At the bottom, you will see a yellow arrow. This is the frame slider. Above it you will see some numbers, "1 to 30". Change the second number to 60, so that there are now 60 frames. Turn the frame slider to "01" on the far left. Change the fit dials as needed, so that the dress fits the character (Mariah, Katie or Cassie). Use the "undraped" fit morph for your character, and make sure that all "draped" morphs are at 0.0. This will give the dress a funny bell-like appearance. Alternately, you can begin with the skirt draped at 0.5-0.8. Think about how you want it to fall. In the sitting poses, the undraped skirt will lay flat in a nearly perfect circle, which is not terribly realistic. But if it folds over on itself too much, it may have some poke-through problems. Move the slider to frame 10 and pose Maddie. You may want to go back to frame 01 again, and move ONLY the Y Trans dial of either Maddie's BODY or HIP, so that the skirt does not have to move very far from frame 01 to 10. This is necessary in ground-sitting poses, but unnecessary in standing poses. Be sure that the dress is not intersecting the ground in frame 1, and that there is a little room between the character and objects in Frame 10, to allow for the cloth. Go to the Cloth Room. Load a "New Simulation" with the button. Check all 3 boxes, change the number of frames from 30 to 60, and press OK. Select the "My Favorite Dress" figure. Now press the Clothify button, then choose the Skirt part of the Dress, then hit OK. Press the Collide Against button. Choose every body part of Maddie that will collide with the skirt, and every object too, like the ground or furniture. (The Ground must have its Visible box checked to collide with cloth!) All of Maddie from the Chest downward needs to be checked. Once you are done selecting and hit OK, look at the dialog box. The top 2 numbers are Collision Offset and Collision Depth. Set both numbers to 0.1 (not the 1.0 default value!), then select the next collision object. These 2 values need to be changed for each object or figure that collides with the cloth. Now you are ready. Hit the Calculate Simulation button and wait a little while. All 60 frames should finish in 5-10 minutes, or possibly less. When the simulation finishes, if you used any skirt morphs, you may see the cloth "jump" a bit, and suddenly it will no longer fit! But don't worry! Turn the slider back to Frame 01 and select the Skirt. Turn ALL skirt morphs to 0 (zero), using the handy pose file for this purpose. ALSO, go to the Properties box for the Skirt, and un-check Bend. Now, when you slide the frame slider back to the end (frame 60) you should see a finished and properly fitted dynamic skirt. Tips: If you decide to re-run a simulation because you didn't like how it came out, first you must go to Frame 1, check Bend on the Skirt, and reset all dials to their starting positions, before running the simulation again. Or, if you are going to use the dress' conforming properties, you will need to re-check Bend. If you make changes in the middle of a sequence (like frame 30 or 40) then you will have trouble changing your poses. However, you can delete all frames after 10, then add them again, in order to clear the slate. Go to the frame slider, and change the last number from 60 to 10. Poser will ask if you want to delete some frames, so say OK. Then change the number back to 60. All frames after 10 will be exact copies of 10, until you change them. If you mess up your sequence earlier than frame 10, you will have to go to frame 1, zero pose the character and get things the way you want them at the start, then change the last frame to "1" and then back to "60". All frames will then match frame 1, so move the slider to 10 again and reload your pose. If your simulation runs partway through then quits without warning, then the next time you try to run the simulation it will quit immediately. The only fix for this is to save your .pz3 scene file and close it (or quit Poser) then re-open the file. It should work then. If it does not, look carefully at each frame of your scene. There may be a place where there is too great a collision between character and cloth, and you may need to adjust the pose. Troubleshooting Poke-through: If you have problems with the simulation, like the character pokes through or the cloth tears during the simulation, here are some ways you might fix it. The Chest conforms well, but in extreme poses it has some trouble. I have included morphs for the straps and the armpit area that may help. Using the Heavy morph can cure a few problems. Just use a bit (.05 to .2) and see if it helps. Or use a like amount of negative draping, with the default "draped" dial. Advanced stuff: Wind Generator and Hem Lifter They are both found in Props > MyFavDress. Add the wind generator to your scene before running a cloth simulation and see what it does. It adds a new dimension to your cloth simulations! The Hem Lifter is simply a small circular object that loads just in front of the hem of the skirt. This is so you can see it easily. In Frame 1, place it inside the skirt, a few "inches" above the hem, and have the skirt at least partly draped, because that seems to work best. By frame 10 it should move outward and upward to lift the skirt, as if pinched by the character's hand. (You can pose her hand in there when the simulation is done.) Go to the cloth room and select Collide Against, and put an X in the box next to the Hem Lifter. Now run your simulation, and you should get a "lift" to your cloth. LIST OF FILES MyFavDress_ReadMe.txt eula.txt \Runtime\Textures\wildaboutbirds\Sunny\ ButtonPink.jpg FairyLights3.jpg Green plaid 250.jpg SunnyBtnL_Prin.jpg SunnyBtnL_PrinD.jpg SunnyBtnR_Prin.jpg SunnyBtnR_PrinD.jpg SunnyCh_Denim.jpg SunnyCh_DenimD.jpg SunnyCh_Fairy.jpg SunnyCh_FairyD.jpg SunnyCh_FairyTR.jpg SunnyCh_Flowers.jpg SunnyCh_FlowersD.jpg SunnyCh_Hearts.jpg SunnyCh_StarsBear.jpg SunnyCh_StarsTR.jpg SunnyCh_Violet.jpg SunnyEd_Denim.jpg SunnyEd_Fairy.jpg SunnyEd_Hearts.jpg SunnyEd_violet.jpg SunnyFr_Denim.jpg SunnyFr_Fairy.jpg SunnyFr_FairyD.jpg SunnyFr_FairyTR.jpg SunnyFr_Hearts.jpg SunnyFr_Lace.jpg SunnyFr_LaceD.jpg SunnyFr_LaceTR.jpg SunnyFr_PlaidGreen.jpg SunnyFr_PlaidPink.jpg SunnyFr_PlaidTR.jpg SunnyFr_Violet.jpg SunnySk_Denim.jpg SunnySk_Fairy.jpg SunnySk_FairyD.jpg SunnySk_FairyTR.jpg SunnySk_Flowers.jpg SunnySk_FlowersD.jpg SunnySk_FlowersTR.jpg SunnySk_Hearts.jpg SunnySk_Plaid.jpg SunnySk_PlaidD.jpg SunnySk_PlaidTR.jpg SunnySk_Stars.jpg SunnySk_StarsD.jpg SunnySk_StarsTR.jpg SunnySk_Violet.jpg SunnyStr_Denim.jpg SunnyStr_DenimL.jpg SunnyStr_DenimR_label.jpg SunnyStr_Fairy.jpg SunnyStr_FairyD.jpg SunnyStr_FairyTR.jpg SunnyStr_Hearts.jpg SunnyStr_Plaid.jpg SunnyStr_Stars.jpg SunnyStr_StarsTR.jpg SunnyStr_VioletL.jpg SunnyStr_VioletR.jpg SunnyTr_Denim.jpg SunnyTr_Fairy.jpg SunnyTr_FairyD.jpg SunnyTr_FairyTR.jpg SunnyTr_Flowers.jpg SunnyTr_Hearts.jpg SunnyTr_Stars.jpg SunnyTr_StarsTR.jpg SunnyTr_plaid.jpg SunnyTr_violet.jpg pink plaid 250.jpg \Runtime\libraries\Props\MyFavDress\ Hem_Lifter.png Hem_Lifter.pp2 Wind.png Wind.pp2 \__RETAIL\Runtime\libraries\Pose\MyFavDress\ 00_MaddieBendOver_FULL.png 00_MaddieBendOver_FULL.pz2 00_MaddieBendOver_PART.png 00_MaddieBendOver_PART.pz2 00_MaddieCurtsy_FULL.png 00_MaddieCurtsy_FULL.pz2 00_MaddieCurtsy_PART.png 00_MaddieCurtsy_PART.pz2 00_MaddieLiftHemL_FULL.png 00_MaddieLiftHemL_FULL.pz2 00_MaddieLiftHemL_PART.png 00_MaddieLiftHemL_PART.pz2 00_MaddieLiftHemR_FULL.png 00_MaddieLiftHemR_FULL.pz2 00_MaddieLiftHemR_PART.png 00_MaddieLiftHemR_PART.pz2 00_MaddieSitFloor_FULL.png 00_MaddieSitFloor_FULL.pz2 00_MaddieSitFloor_PART.png 00_MaddieSitFloor_PART.pz2 00_MaddieSitting_FULL.png 00_MaddieSitting_FULL.pz2 00_MaddieSitting_PART.png 00_MaddieSitting_PART.pz2 00_Zero_ALL_Skirt.png 00_Zero_ALL_Skirt.pz2 00_Zero_Chest_Fix.png 00_Zero_Chest_Fix.pz2 00_Zero_Fit_n_Scale.png 00_Zero_Fit_n_Scale.pz2 00_Zero_Skirt_Movemnt.png 00_Zero_Skirt_Movemnt.pz2 00_Zero_poses_only.png 00_Zero_poses_only.pz2 01_StrapsAttach.png 01_StrapsAttach.pz2 01_StrapsAttach_REM.png 01_StrapsAttach_REM.pz2 02_Fit_Lil_Maddie.png 02_Fit_Lil_Maddie.pz2 02_Fit_Lil_Maddie_REM.png 02_Fit_Lil_Maddie_REM.pz2 MAT00_ButtonsGONE.png MAT00_ButtonsGONE.pz2 MAT00_FrillsGONE.png MAT00_FrillsGONE.pz2 MAT00_StrapsGONE.png MAT00_StrapsGONE.pz2 MAT01_Hearts.png MAT01_Hearts.pz2 MAT01__buttons.png MAT01__buttons.pz2 MAT01__cloth_edges.png MAT01__cloth_edges.pz2 MAT01__frills.png MAT01__frills.pz2 MAT01__skirt.png MAT01__skirt.pz2 MAT01__straps.png MAT01__straps.pz2 MAT01__top.png MAT01__top.pz2 MAT02_FairyFrolic.png MAT02_FairyFrolic.pz2 MAT02__buttons.png MAT02__buttons.pz2 MAT02__cloth_edges.png MAT02__cloth_edges.pz2 MAT02__frills.png MAT02__frills.pz2 MAT02__skirt.png MAT02__skirt.pz2 MAT02__straps.png MAT02__straps.pz2 MAT02__top.png MAT02__top.pz2 MAT03_CountryCharm.png MAT03_CountryCharm.pz2 MAT03__buttons.png MAT03__buttons.pz2 MAT03__cloth_edges.png MAT03__cloth_edges.pz2 MAT03__frills.png MAT03__frills.pz2 MAT03__skirt.png MAT03__skirt.pz2 MAT03__straps.png MAT03__straps.pz2 MAT03__top.png MAT03__top.pz2 MAT04_SpringFlowers.png MAT04_SpringFlowers.pz2 MAT04__buttons.png MAT04__buttons.pz2 MAT04__cloth_edges.png MAT04__cloth_edges.pz2 MAT04__frills.png MAT04__frills.pz2 MAT04__skirt.png MAT04__skirt.pz2 MAT04__straps.png MAT04__straps.pz2 MAT04__top.png MAT04__top.pz2 MAT05_Velvet_and_Violets.png MAT05_Velvet_and_Violets.pz2 MAT05__buttons.png MAT05__buttons.pz2 MAT05__cloth_edges.png MAT05__cloth_edges.pz2 MAT05__frills.png MAT05__frills.pz2 MAT05__skirt.png MAT05__skirt.pz2 MAT05__straps.png MAT05__straps.pz2 MAT05__top.png MAT05__top.pz2 MAT06_Sweet Dreams.png MAT06_Sweet Dreams.pz2 MAT06__buttons.png MAT06__buttons.pz2 MAT06__cloth_edges.png MAT06__cloth_edges.pz2 MAT06__frills.png MAT06__frills.pz2 MAT06__skirt.png MAT06__skirt.pz2 MAT06__straps.png MAT06__straps.pz2 MAT06__top.png MAT06__top.pz2 \Runtime\libraries\character\MyFavDress\ MyFavDress.cr2 MyFavDress.png \Runtime\Geometries\wildaboutbirds\ Hem_Lifter.obj MyFavDress89.obj