summer research, Marvelous Designer, 7 December, 2016

artist testimony: she used Marvelous Designer to make custom mocap suits for dogs and horses.  doing the pattern in MD meant fewer fittings on the horse.

Could you describe challenges in which Marvelous Designer was of use to you and go into detail regarding how Marvelous Designer helped overcome them?
The most challenging thing for me was sewing the MoCap suit for a horse. I created the pattern in Marvelous Designer, and used it to sew the suit itself. After measuring the horse, we created an avatar that I used to make the suit, and by importing the data of the moving horse (Maya cache) we could also simulate the suit to see how it fits. It was very helpful that we could set the material quality of the suit, and during the tests, we could see where we need extra fabric, and where we should make it more formfitting. There were several errors that came to surface this way before the actual sewing took place, and thus the horse required less fitting sessions.

Proposed workflow:  

sculpt body of actor in Maya.  How do I get accurate measurements into Maya so the model is the same proportions as the actor portraying the character?

import model of actor into Marvelous Designer.  Is it possible to make shapes with foam over the model in MD? And then drape fabric?  Or must I bring in a model of Jellybean (character body) and then drape fabric over that?

sculpt head in Maya, slightly smaller to account for fabric, for 3D printing

Test MD pattern in paper at 1/4 scale

Adjust pattern in MD

Test MD pattern #2 in 1/4 scale (repeat until pattern is right)

Test MD pattern in cardboard at full scale

3D print skull of head and print pattern to make in foam

Cut foam

cut fabric

sew/glue/assemble

Write up each stage:  how much fiddling did the pattern require at each step?  What's the scale difference between foam and fabrics?