Wrinkles via displacement and normal maps

rames44

So, I have a need to take pieces of Daz Studio clothing and to add wrinkles to them.  "Wrinkles" as in "this guy has been wearing this suit for the last month" type thing.

In theory, one could do this by editing the mesh to create an appropriate morph, but it's problematic to get small detail, plus if it's dForce clothing, running a simulation is likely to try to flatten them out anyway.  So, displacement and normal maps seem like a much better approach - not affected by dForce, and able to simulate finer detail than the mesh would provide.

I found a tutorial that shows how ZBrush can create displacement and normal maps to do exactly what I want:

But I don't have ZBrush, nor am I really hankering to learn it/buy it because I don't do that much modeling work.

The essence of the technique seems to be that ZBrush can "memorize" the original position of the vertices and then, when you edit them, it can compare the edited version to the original version and automatically create the displacement and normal maps.  Does anyone know of a similar ability/workflow for Hexagon or Blender?

I searched, in particular, for displacement maps in Blender, but most of the posts I found were about using them, or about creating displacement from a flat surface using a model.  Nothing about how to create one from a suit jacket or the like.

Oh, sure, I could try to manually edit a bitmap to create the maps, but the odds that I can do that at any level of quality are < 0.0001%.

Any suggestions for similar workflows with other applications?

richardandtracy

Hmm.

As Catherine's Clothing Tutorial hasn't come out, I'm not sure if it will provide the answer you're looking for, but it will probably be worth keeping an eye on this thread: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/717831/2025-new-freebies-from-cef#latest

Regards,

Richard

rames44

Thanks - that thread looks very interesting!

lilweep

This is a very standard/basic process for baking high res details into a map (e.g., Normal Map or Displacemtn Map texture)

1. In Blender, import clothing as obj
2. Add Multiresolution modifer and subdivide to necessary level of detail
3. Using sculpting tools to sculpt high-resolution detail on the multires modifier
4. Bake high resolution detail of multires modifier into a displacement map
5. Add displacement map you created in Belnder in Daz Studio in the Surfaces tab of your garment

lilweep

You could also add a Displacement Modifier after the Multires Modifer, then put a tielable displacement texture map (e.g., buy one from Arstation or something) on the Displacement Modifier, and then 'Apply' the Displacement Modifier after the Multires Modifier, then the wrinkles from the map will be on the Multires Modifier and you can sculpt/edit them in Sculpting mode.