Computational Research Center

News and updates from the CRC

Native Dancer: Female Character Updates

Author: Ariann Rousu – Native Dancer Digital Artist

This past week, the first Female Character for Native Dancer has undergone some changes and made progress for more motion. I have added a basic moccasin to this dancer, so she is no longer bare footed or in army boots. She also is equipped with two braids instead of the one. Upon experimenting more in Character Creator 4 (CC4) I have discovered I can apply multiple hair attachments and toggle them the same way I would toggle anything else in the program. I used this method to arrange both braids separately and attach them to the character.  

Native Dancer Project- Female Character Creator Character with Regalia, No Jingles attached

I last left off with applying skin weighting and motion to this female character, while experiencing several problems. I have modified the skirt using multiple methods to overcome these issues and am ready to move forward or work on more clothing options.  

Some of the problems I was facing when the character was in motion were the skirt not flowing correctly, areas of character skin peeking through the skirt, along with the graphics on the skirt stretching a little more than I would like. After further research and discussing the problem with other 3D designers, I have solved these issues. Discussions on Facebook in 3D designer groups have been where I have gotten the fastest responses and multitude of answers when asking questions about 3D modeling. In the post I originally asked for help with how to resolve the character poking through and provided the below photo for reference.

The root of most of these problems were issues with my skin weighting. To fix skin peeking through the skirt I had to modify the skin weights individually to each bone. I used the negative brush in the skin weight tools on areas of the skirt that were being pulled too much toward some of the used bones. I used a similar method to fix areas of the skirt that were not falling correctly. To fix the stretching of the skirt, I visually used the mesh grid when applying or removing some of the skin weighting so the material of the skirt would disburse more evenly. Checking the character in various poses while editing helped with modifying each part. 

Beyond this, I used another method to simulate the dress more properly to my end goal. I was able to activate physics on the skirt that would simulate more of a material when in motion. When doing this I had to uncheck the gravity box otherwise the skirt would fall to the ground. I also am working on uploading a black and white map for the physics to simulate. In the dark areas the skirt would have less flow and the lighter areas would simulate the cloth flow more. I also plan on trying another program to try simulate physics with the clothing more smoothly than using this process.

Native Dancer Project- Female Character in Motion Pose