I was just making a comment that you don't need MD to do Sheets and Table cloths, as I said if you can afford the layout for MD then thats nice - not every one can.
The new topstitch feature is easy to use and looks great inside MD, but here's what happens when you take it to DS and start morphing and posing the figure. Topstitching as geometry doesn't seem to work as well as a texture would do.
I was just making a comment that you don't need MD to do Sheets and Table cloths, as I said if you can afford the layout for MD then thats nice - not every one can.
The most annoying thing about Optitex for me was that I was unable to figure out how to scale the cloth. I could reduce the size but as soon as I start the drape sim it would return to the original size. Of course the other huge disadvantage was that only Optitex products were allowed so no self-made garments, etc. It just doesn't compare in features (or speed) to MD from what I've seen so far. Whether a complete cloth solution like MD is worth the cost is a different question, however, and I still have not decided that it is.
Oh, and one more important feature - which VWD also has to an extent - is the ability to tweak the drape while the sim is in progress.
Want to make a tent? No problem, make a tent frame in some modeling program (like real tents have), import that in MD as avatar and make fabric for it, without spending hours on point modeling.
Could it handle guy-ropes in a case like that (or for a hammock) or would it need to be a fully-framed tent?
Here, made something just to answer the question. :D
MD doesnt have ropes natively, as something with rounded geometry like rope. But they can be made and tied into knots. Or use thin square strips.
Want to make a tent? No problem, make a tent frame in some modeling program (like real tents have), import that in MD as avatar and make fabric for it, without spending hours on point modeling.
Could it handle guy-ropes in a case like that (or for a hammock) or would it need to be a fully-framed tent?
Here, made something just to answer the question. :D
MD doesnt have ropes natively, as something with rounded geometry like rope. But they can be made and tied into knots. Or use thin square strips.
Indeed, very impressive. Is that using feature specific to MD7 or would it work in 6.5 (which I bought from Steam last year and haven't found time to use at all :( )?
Be patient with Lori Griffiths, she likes to talk before getting into stuff. :D
I've downloaded the trial version and am trying to go through the first Lori Griffiths video in your list. However, these are quite old and things have changed. Most confusing to me so far is the fact that she uses the Symmetric Paste option quite a lot which seems to have been removed from MD7. The Edit Pattern tool does not operate in the same way that it does in her video either.
Looking at the comments below, she seems to be saying that she will update them but only for her class videos which are, I assume, to be purchased.
Be patient with Lori Griffiths, she likes to talk before getting into stuff. :D
I've downloaded the trial version and am trying to go through the first Lori Griffiths video in your list. However, these are quite old and things have changed. Most confusing to me so far is the fact that she uses the Symmetric Paste option quite a lot which seems to have been removed from MD7. The Edit Pattern tool does not operate in the same way that it does in her video either.
Looking at the comments below, she seems to be saying that she will update them but only for her class videos which are, I assume, to be purchased.
Be patient with Lori Griffiths, she likes to talk before getting into stuff. :D
I've downloaded the trial version and am trying to go through the first Lori Griffiths video in your list. However, these are quite old and things have changed. Most confusing to me so far is the fact that she uses the Symmetric Paste option quite a lot which seems to have been removed from MD7. The Edit Pattern tool does not operate in the same way that it does in her video either.
Looking at the comments below, she seems to be saying that she will update them but only for her class videos which are, I assume, to be purchased.
I know that several DAZ Studio artists use MD so I have a question. I'm not looking to sell any clothing but rather create the clothes to use in still images. I've tried VWD but it just didn't meet expectations - and it crashed a lot. I have read that MD can be used not only to make the clothing but to pose and drape too which is what really interests me. Looking at the images that JohnPF displays in his DeviantArt gallery, I'm guessing that's what he does - pose the figure, then drape the clothing in MD, then import back into Poser. Am I right in thinking this is possible and, if so, does it involve rigging the clothes in DAZ Studio or can that be skipped?
Hi. I use MD to create all my freebie cloths. Yes, it's quite simple.But then again... Let me explain:
1. You load your Avatar (Genesis2 in base pose in my case). Then you create your clothing items.
2. You go back to DAZ and export the pose you wish as OBJ.
3. You import your pose in MD as Morph target. MD will then blend from your base pose to the pose you wish and the cloth will automatically follow and drape. You can even add wind or force.
(If you intend to do huge changes in position, it could be helpful to create some poses "in between" the start and the final pose and load
them one by one as morph targest. The cloth will follow easyer. sometimes if you do extreme poses, Cloth in MD tend to "explode" or the
chanes are so quick, the cloth can not follow that fast and falls off or does weird things and you will need a lot of time to correct that).
4. You then export the finished cloth as OBJ, import it into DAZ or Poser and voila.
As long as you only like to creat Stills, thats Great. If you like to create conforming cloth it's bit more complicated.
One thing to the cool new featrures in MD:
Buttons and Zipper and those things are very very cool and fast, If you like to create non conforming cloth for stills. If you intend to create conforming cloth in DAZ and use them as morph targets (For example you model a shirt open, and use the one with the closed buttons as morph) - just forget about it. It won't work. The closed buttons have different mesh than the open ones, so you won't be able to load that mesh as morph target (it won't match). If you like to do opening zippers for example, you have to close the jacket with pins, and then open the pins one by one to create the morph targets.
So: YES, MD is great for modeling cloth, easy and very fast for stills, but all the gadets are pretty useless if you intend to go a set further and creatre conforming cloth with morph targets.
Hope this helps a bit.
Cheers Beat
Edit: @RAMWolff: Yes you can import OBJ and drape them with a function called "import OBJ as cloth". You can drape it, move it around. I rarely used that function because it seemed to cause lot's of troubles (exploding clothes again). It's not as easy as it sounds and results depend a lot on the quality of the modeled cloth itself. It's bit unpredictable. I didn't test it in the newest releases, mabe they fixed some of the issues. But if the cloth is modeled nicely, you can even combine clothes you bought at the DAZ store with cloth you creat in MD itself and drape both to a matching pose.
So: YES, MD is great for modeling cloth, easy and very fast for stills, but all the gadets are pretty useless if you intend to go a set further and creatre conforming cloth with morph targets.
Hope this helps a bit.
Cheers Beat
Thank you very much for your explanation. I am not really interested in creating clothes that I can use as yet more conforming clothing - I have several wardrobes of PA created conforming items which will continue to get some use. What really interests me is to create renders with the figure posed in naturally draped clothing. If I can have clothes with buttons or zippers in various stages of open/close posing, so much the better but my idea is to be able to send the pose/morph from DS to MD, drape the garment and import the clothed figure back into DS for rendering in the scene.
As I have mentioned, the other methods I have tried have not worked for me (Optitex and VWD) and I would be very keen to have MD in my toolbox but the price is still daunting and I'm finding it diffcult to justify on my low, fixed income.
When I've worked with MD I just use it to make the cloth and then make all the extra geometry like buttons and snaps etc in Hexagon. If I have to I'll use some sort of place holder in MD to fill in for the geometry I'll make later, like a piece of thin, stiff leather to make a ring to run cloth through to represent a hoop that I'll later model in Hexagon and then tweak the cloth mesh as needed to correct for the shape.
So: YES, MD is great for modeling cloth, easy and very fast for stills, but all the gadets are pretty useless if you intend to go a set further and creatre conforming cloth with morph targets.
Hope this helps a bit.
Cheers Beat
Thank you very much for your explanation. I am not really interested in creating clothes that I can use as yet more conforming clothing - I have several wardrobes of PA created conforming items which will continue to get some use. What really interests me is to create renders with the figure posed in naturally draped clothing. If I can have clothes with buttons or zippers in various stages of open/close posing, so much the better but my idea is to be able to send the pose/morph from DS to MD, drape the garment and import the clothed figure back into DS for rendering in the scene.
As I have mentioned, the other methods I have tried have not worked for me (Optitex and VWD) and I would be very keen to have MD in my toolbox but the price is still daunting and I'm finding it diffcult to justify on my low, fixed income.
Hello Marble
I use MD for creating clothes and it's really good and fun. The price is according.
But I had no satisfying results with simulating imported objects as this functionnality is limited. There's no "retro engineering" to define the patterns which is the core of MD so you can't adjust the characteristics of the clothe (elasticity, rigidity, nailing,.....). So it works for "very basic" clothes but buttons,.... are trouble !
That's on my experience and I didn't try with the last version as I use another tool.
So: YES, MD is great for modeling cloth, easy and very fast for stills, but all the gadets are pretty useless if you intend to go a set further and creatre conforming cloth with morph targets.
Hope this helps a bit.
Cheers Beat
Thank you very much for your explanation. I am not really interested in creating clothes that I can use as yet more conforming clothing - I have several wardrobes of PA created conforming items which will continue to get some use. What really interests me is to create renders with the figure posed in naturally draped clothing. If I can have clothes with buttons or zippers in various stages of open/close posing, so much the better but my idea is to be able to send the pose/morph from DS to MD, drape the garment and import the clothed figure back into DS for rendering in the scene.
As I have mentioned, the other methods I have tried have not worked for me (Optitex and VWD) and I would be very keen to have MD in my toolbox but the price is still daunting and I'm finding it diffcult to justify on my low, fixed income.
Hello Marble
I use MD for creating clothes and it's really good and fun. The price is according.
But I had no satisfying results with simulating imported objects as this functionnality is limited. There's no "retro engineering" to define the patterns which is the core of MD so you can't adjust the characteristics of the clothe (elasticity, rigidity, nailing,.....). So it works for "very basic" clothes but buttons,.... are trouble !
That's on my experience and I didn't try with the last version as I use another tool.
So, if I may just make sure I'm understanding, you are saying that sending existing clothing from my conforming collection to MD for draping won't work very well? To be honest, I didn't really expect that it would. I had some experience with VWD and found that very limited in what could be draped. So my expectation was that I might have to get good at making my own clothes, which would be a nice extension to this hobby. If only it wasn't so expensive.
Who said MD was only good for stills? This couldn't be further from the truth. I know of many animation studios that have a MD to Maya pipeline for video game and film productions. MD is used extensively in wardrobe production in some of the top animated movies.
Who said MD was only good for stills? This couldn't be further from the truth. I know of many animation studios that have a MD to Maya pipeline for video game and film productions. MD is used extensively in wardrobe production in some of the top animated movies.
I have seen MD"runway models" walking with cloth sims on youtube so how does MD export
an ANIMATED mesh?? MDD or Alembic Cache??
How does one bring the MD animated mesh back into studio
if Daz studio has no native MDD or Alembic import??
So: YES, MD is great for modeling cloth, easy and very fast for stills, but all the gadets are pretty useless if you intend to go a set further and creatre conforming cloth with morph targets.
Hope this helps a bit.
Cheers Beat
Thank you very much for your explanation. I am not really interested in creating clothes that I can use as yet more conforming clothing - I have several wardrobes of PA created conforming items which will continue to get some use. What really interests me is to create renders with the figure posed in naturally draped clothing. If I can have clothes with buttons or zippers in various stages of open/close posing, so much the better but my idea is to be able to send the pose/morph from DS to MD, drape the garment and import the clothed figure back into DS for rendering in the scene.
As I have mentioned, the other methods I have tried have not worked for me (Optitex and VWD) and I would be very keen to have MD in my toolbox but the price is still daunting and I'm finding it diffcult to justify on my low, fixed income.
Hello Marble
I use MD for creating clothes and it's really good and fun. The price is according.
But I had no satisfying results with simulating imported objects as this functionnality is limited. There's no "retro engineering" to define the patterns which is the core of MD so you can't adjust the characteristics of the clothe (elasticity, rigidity, nailing,.....). So it works for "very basic" clothes but buttons,.... are trouble !
That's on my experience and I didn't try with the last version as I use another tool.
So, if I may just make sure I'm understanding, you are saying that sending existing clothing from my conforming collection to MD for draping won't work very well? To be honest, I didn't really expect that it would. I had some experience with VWD and found that very limited in what could be draped. So my expectation was that I might have to get good at making my own clothes, which would be a nice extension to this hobby. If only it wasn't so expensive.
The workflow works perfectly between DS and MD (avatar import, clothe import/export, ...) but I didn't get any good results with my "clothyfied" object at least with my experience: No possibily to define the parameters for selected polygons as there are no pattern. You can only freeze/unreeze polys, fix/unfix a poly while dragging.
But experience can differ for each one as I found VWD more efficient.
I only talk about "clothyfied" objects. Of course, MD is a real pleasure for modeling clothes as I'm not a modeler. I'll upgrade to the last version and I took some lessons with my mother about patterns :-) . There is an animation module in MD but I don't use it..
Comments
I was just making a comment that you don't need MD to do Sheets and Table cloths, as I said if you can afford the layout for MD then thats nice - not every one can.
YIKES... not good!
The most annoying thing about Optitex for me was that I was unable to figure out how to scale the cloth. I could reduce the size but as soon as I start the drape sim it would return to the original size. Of course the other huge disadvantage was that only Optitex products were allowed so no self-made garments, etc. It just doesn't compare in features (or speed) to MD from what I've seen so far. Whether a complete cloth solution like MD is worth the cost is a different question, however, and I still have not decided that it is.
Oh, and one more important feature - which VWD also has to an extent - is the ability to tweak the drape while the sim is in progress.
This might be the best Christmas ever, keep praying to the Daz Gods everyone they may yet grant us our wish
...a million dollars? Cool, then I can build that killer workstation.
Here, made something just to answer the question. :D
MD doesnt have ropes natively, as something with rounded geometry like rope. But they can be made and tied into knots. Or use thin square strips.
Very impressive!
Indeed, very impressive. Is that using feature specific to MD7 or would it work in 6.5 (which I bought from Steam last year and haven't found time to use at all :( )?
Ty, ty. 6.5 will do it just fine. Its just the matter of making patterns (chunks of geometry) and sewing them together.
OK, thanks - I'll add it to my list of things to try.
I started with these tutorials. They are mostly about making clothes but stuff mentioned applys to other stuff as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1di8iIkDcE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMPkOvwrMdI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrxB0nU_RuI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV9NrvrfyVw
Be patient with Lori Griffiths, she likes to talk before getting into stuff. :D
Thanks, I have Lori Griffiths' YouTube profile bookmarked, I've added the other one too. Now I just need to make time to watch and apply them :)
Very helpful Ben. Thanks so much!
This new "topstitch" feature is awesome!

There's a post earlier saying that the "Topstitch" doesn't export well to DAZ Studio. Have you tried that yet?
It exports fine, that was a rigging/morphing problem.
What is top stitch? Does MD finally export seam geometry?
I've downloaded the trial version and am trying to go through the first Lori Griffiths video in your list. However, these are quite old and things have changed. Most confusing to me so far is the fact that she uses the Symmetric Paste option quite a lot which seems to have been removed from MD7. The Edit Pattern tool does not operate in the same way that it does in her video either.
Looking at the comments below, she seems to be saying that she will update them but only for her class videos which are, I assume, to be purchased.
Symmetric Paste is Symmetric Pattern in MD 7.
Ah, thank you. :)
Edit: @RAMWolff: Yes you can import OBJ and drape them with a function called "import OBJ as cloth". You can drape it, move it around. I rarely used that function because it seemed to cause lot's of troubles (exploding clothes again). It's not as easy as it sounds and results depend a lot on the quality of the modeled cloth itself. It's bit unpredictable. I didn't test it in the newest releases, mabe they fixed some of the issues. But if the cloth is modeled nicely, you can even combine clothes you bought at the DAZ store with cloth you creat in MD itself and drape both to a matching pose.
Thank you very much for your explanation. I am not really interested in creating clothes that I can use as yet more conforming clothing - I have several wardrobes of PA created conforming items which will continue to get some use. What really interests me is to create renders with the figure posed in naturally draped clothing. If I can have clothes with buttons or zippers in various stages of open/close posing, so much the better but my idea is to be able to send the pose/morph from DS to MD, drape the garment and import the clothed figure back into DS for rendering in the scene.
As I have mentioned, the other methods I have tried have not worked for me (Optitex and VWD) and I would be very keen to have MD in my toolbox but the price is still daunting and I'm finding it diffcult to justify on my low, fixed income.
When I've worked with MD I just use it to make the cloth and then make all the extra geometry like buttons and snaps etc in Hexagon. If I have to I'll use some sort of place holder in MD to fill in for the geometry I'll make later, like a piece of thin, stiff leather to make a ring to run cloth through to represent a hoop that I'll later model in Hexagon and then tweak the cloth mesh as needed to correct for the shape.
Hello Marble
I use MD for creating clothes and it's really good and fun. The price is according.
But I had no satisfying results with simulating imported objects as this functionnality is limited. There's no "retro engineering" to define the patterns which is the core of MD so you can't adjust the characteristics of the clothe (elasticity, rigidity, nailing,.....). So it works for "very basic" clothes but buttons,.... are trouble !
That's on my experience and I didn't try with the last version as I use another tool.
So, if I may just make sure I'm understanding, you are saying that sending existing clothing from my conforming collection to MD for draping won't work very well? To be honest, I didn't really expect that it would. I had some experience with VWD and found that very limited in what could be draped. So my expectation was that I might have to get good at making my own clothes, which would be a nice extension to this hobby. If only it wasn't so expensive.
So not a good invesment for us Character animators it seems
Good to know thanks
I shall stick with using my own custom mesh models
Simulated in DS with DCC and exported elsewhere to render both animations and stills.
Who said MD was only good for stills? This couldn't be further from the truth. I know of many animation studios that have a MD to Maya pipeline for video game and film productions. MD is used extensively in wardrobe production in some of the top animated movies.
I have seen MD"runway models" walking with cloth sims on youtube so how does MD export
an ANIMATED mesh?? MDD or Alembic Cache??
How does one bring the MD animated mesh back into studio
if Daz studio has no native MDD or Alembic import??
The workflow works perfectly between DS and MD (avatar import, clothe import/export, ...) but I didn't get any good results with my "clothyfied" object at least with my experience: No possibily to define the parameters for selected polygons as there are no pattern. You can only freeze/unreeze polys, fix/unfix a poly while dragging.
But experience can differ for each one as I found VWD more efficient.
I only talk about "clothyfied" objects. Of course, MD is a real pleasure for modeling clothes as I'm not a modeler. I'll upgrade to the last version and I took some lessons with my mother about patterns :-) . There is an animation module in MD but I don't use it..