Tulle, Lace, Horsehair rendering
Hi, I'm wondering if anyone has any experience or tips for rendering tulle or horsehair textures? Essentially looking for a way to render texture with a see-thru application, but not with a transparency applied over a texture map.
Same question for rendering lace fabric with openings.
THANKS
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Hi Ottoline,
Is this software commercially available? This is incredible!
I was planning to start photographing fabric using this method: https://www.substance3d.com/blog/your-smartphone-material-scanner
Do you use something like a Vizoo scanner?
-Tony
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Hey Tony. My experience with Substance Designer and the material scanner workflow is somewhat good. I just learnt the hard way that if you are not doing super close shots of the fabrics, you might not get the benefit of all the work involved.
Also take into consideration that maps like Opacity generated in the PBR workflow will not be of use in CLO as there is no channel for that map. You'd need to combine it in the Diffuse channel (Texture channel in CLO) to use that transparency.
P
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Wow ottoline, that looks amazing. The question that remains unanswered is, how much does creating this costs vs. the benefit out of it.
Let's put it bluntly, you can do the Substance Designer workflow super quick if you automate and sync the light source with the cameras to capture all the angles in a single sequence. But, how much does that costs? Better send it to Vizoo, or develop something like you did.
Your posts always enlightening as they serve the purpose of knowing what is possible, but in the majority of cases I find them to be a laser gun to kill a fly. It can be done, but at what cost.
P
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Hello Ottoline,
thank you very much for this incredibly in depth answer. I find it helpful to hear how different people are tackling this. You clearly have a great level of expertise and I appreciate your willingness to share it on this forum.
I'll take these tips into consideration as I continue to develop my 3d skills
Thanks again
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Hi Eliza,
A really low tech solution would be to scan a swatch of your fabric, knock out the background in Photoshop, and save it as a png with the transparency preserved. You can then create a normal map using ShaderMap, which I believe is free and is really easy to use. I used this method for a spacer mesh that I used on some bags which I have here on CLOLLAB in my portfolio. Of course, this isn't going to get you the level of quality of a render that a Vizoo scan, working in Substance 3D, or other methods will, but it's easy. BTW, I checked out your work with designing for accessibility - really beautiful designs!
Ottoline, I'd love to know if your software/hardware and/or textures are commercially available. I am very interested.
-Tony
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Hi Tony,
Thanks, I'm working backwards and adding some renders for this project and a few others. Still trying to figure out how to render 3d silicone textures, if you have any ideas. Might make a post about it in the next few weeks.
I will look into ShaderMap. Thanks for the suggestion. I did a sort of lo-fi version where I just used a PNG with transparent background for a mesh lace, and an image of horsehair for a texture (haven't gone as far as making it transparent yet).WIP (just screen shots, not renders yet):
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Eliza,
I used to cast in silicon, in the real world of materials technology. My model shop I had in London used to make complex materials for all manner of 3D products ...Including fashion. Much of it done with stereo-lithography on high end machines, then other techniques like old world lost wax from jewelers CNC wax blocks into ceramic slip casting, and then we got into bio-organics for smart wear that I onsold into sports wear - that you now find in smart devices. And then crazy artisan development stuff for some of the worlds leading brands over the years.
You are welcome to pick my brains on how to make stuff in the real world of materials and then into CG. I pretty much custom build all our equipment these days, including our own CG texture capture hardware so we get a seemless cross over from CG simulation into finished product.
Silicon is a very easy material to use, it's like baking a cake - simple. However translating costly silicon into production manufacturerable items takes deep knowledge as it's not a fast process. We used to produce up to 5,000 cast items over a couple of days for low batch using some novel techniques, before stepping into mass production tooling. So if you want to know how to translate artisan craft like quality into batch commercial product - tickle my brain.
Quick normal map capture off any material with perfect masking for transparent areas.
Here you can see the micro magnets holding the lace sample down, next step it gets masked out using A.I.
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Hi Ottoline,
Thanks for the kind offer to let me tickle your brain! I feel like I've already picked up so much just from the hi-res images and explanations you've shared thus far.
I'm planning on focusing on Clo3d for texture renders at the moment. I've only been working in 3d space for a little over a year, although I was previously exposed to many of these types on conversations through connections with animators and engineers over the last 10+ years. I think for my growing skill set and what I will benefit from at the moment is pushing Clo3d as far as I can is the most benefit. Although I can imagine that as I continue building this skillset I may branch outside of this.
In regards to both renders and silicone casting. I developed a way to cast silicone onto fabric this last year and used it in several garments. I'm hoping that the new Clo version will make it possible for me to do a render of the silicone. I'm specifically thinking of their displacement map option.
Prior to this week I was completely stumped on how to even begin rendering the following textures:
Closeup of texture, which is raised about 1/8 inch off the surface of the fabric.
Would also be curious how you would attempt to manufacture something like this. I printed it through a laser cut plexi 'mold' with a lot of weights holding the plexi in place etc. But considering setting time of silicone, the delicacy of the material consistency when adding thickener etc, I can't image this working in manufacturing setting.
Thanks again for any input. Cheers
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Will post some notes.
I think you need to take a layered approach to the textures, so that you can match your production process. Pretty easy to do, and you can certainly set up para metrics to get all that extra control over the graphical elements so you can use the setup to experiment. Edge detailing and masking is perhaps where you need to focus in on, and possibly some hair fiber component.
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