How to Get Good Topology for your Marvelous Designer Models

in this video tutorial, we are showing you how you can get good topology for your models while working in Marvelous Designer. This is essential to know if you're serious about Marvelous Designer, as it makes your life so much easier.
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[@DreamerWhitLL]

NOTE! If you are following this tutorial, make sure when you export your OBJs from MD that " Unified UV Coordinates" is checked. Mine was not by default, it wasnt mentioned in the video so I didnt notice it at first. This process wont work when you project your mesh on to the high poly if you dont do that. Having that option unchecked leaves your UVs on top of eachother , which makes a mess when projecting. Just a heads up! :)

[@FlippedNormals]

Great note! Thanks a lot

[@daniellesand1337]

I just tried the tutorial but for some odd reason it only works when I transfer the UV, not the mesh. When I want to quad mesh to fit to model from MD, the quads mesh is all weird and after a couple of days I still can't find why...

[@fernandolara630]

For some reason even though I check "Unified UV coordinates" the UVs always overlap and are all messed up in the center, I tried tweaking all the settings in the export menu but It always happens (even using the same as in the tutorial)

[@user-yv4ie2ne9d]

@@fernandolara630 try this, in UV editor, right click and choose " set uv from pattern alignment", good luck!

[@fernandolara630]

Yeah thanks man, when MD crashes sometimes makes all the uvs to go in the center, like a reset, so I always go to the UV editor before exporting everything

[@StylizedSchools]

FOR PEOPLE IN 2019: When trying this today I ran into a problem with the uv's all being on top of one another. I'm not sure if this is due to having a newer version where they implemented this change. Turns out there is a UV editor in marvelous designer and it will export the uv's based on what appears there NOT on the 2d sewing pattern. In the top right corner of MD there is a drop down menu and simulation should be selected, you can click it and go into uv editor to change the uv's. Id recommend doing this before arranging your pattern to 2d so you can have both the flat and the 3d with the same uv's to transfer the attributes. Hope this helps for anyone who had this issue too.

[@katherinet4769]

thank you so much, I really needed this

[@RebeccaR1014]

Thank you... so much... I couldn't understand why my uvs kept coming out messed up! So many tutorials online rely on this pipeline.

[@TheGreatArlei]

Quick question. Is there a way to get you UV based on the sewing pattern instead? Thank you so much in advance!

[@afra-k2685]

@@TheGreatArlei Yes. In the uv editor, right click and select "set UV from pattern alignment".

[@ebelesaurus2]

@@afra-k2685 this comment just saved me like 400 dollars for a deadline lol

[@RebeccaR1014]

This is a great tutorial but I'm still so glad they implemented retopology tools in the newest version of Marvelous 😩 saves me a lot of headaches

[@remon563]

for those wondering in the new version of Marvelous there is a remehs option that works really well and preserves UV's !

[@Beeblingz]

Holy cow! My jaw literally dropped when you "sewed" it to the high poly in seconds. Absolutely amazing. Thanks for the awesome tips as always

[@depperagain]

About perfect time for me too. I´m working on a project in wich I was thinking to do exacly that. You saved me the struggle :)

[@HanSolocambo]

I had to do that twice on two Marvelous works to fully integrate the workflow. I used your video for the second attempt. This is definitely the absolute technique. Maya Transfer Attributes is so insanely useful. Thanks for sharing. Hopefully someday Marvelous will come up with something equivalent to ZRemesh instead of their crappy quadification. And we will be able to avoid that many extra sets.

[@nestorlichev8531]

It's crazy how you always post the most relative things. Keep it up!

[@ant1fact]

I think you wanted to say relevant (p.s. I'm a nice person, I didn't correct you to be mean)

[@Ingsoc75]

First time I've watched your channel. Very helpful for a tunic I just made today in MD.

[@Anton_G_604]

Guys this is a fantastic video, thanks! I use a slightly different technique where I retop the same way you do in Maya, but then blend shape flat marvelous mesh to the simulated one. Once you make a blend shape, use wrap deformer in Maya to make your retopologized mesh follow the flat marvelous mesh. I think it works out to be roughly the same thing, except I don't transfer UVs from marvelous mesh but make my own on the retopologized flat mesh.

[@FlippedNormals]

Ah yes, that's also a great way of doing it! Thanks for sharing, Anton!

[@brian10508]

God, this is exactly what I'm searching for. Thanks you a lot!

[@davidyon]

This is a perfect workflow for still images, but what about the workflow for cloth animations coming out of marvelous designer ? Thanks

[@ChaosWolfNinja]

Wish this video popped sooner in my search! Thanks guys!

[@neelambikadhan]

Hey, I use this technique a lot. Wanna add something. While drawing quad at cloth piece joints , maintain edge counts so that it will be easy to stitch piece together. Only model half dress and mirror merge it.

[@SkrikzArt]

You guys just blew my mind with Transfer Attributes. Thanks so much!!

[@FlippedNormals]

Super happy to help! :D

[@jozseflaszlo7445]

My cookies just intercepted this video and got me out of a longer day at work! Thanks as always guys! :D

[@NukaColaLight]

I feel like I've learn something very useful :D Now just have to figure where I can use it. Nice video, just discovered your channel and already watched some of your videos, it's good content !

[@FlippedNormals]

Awesome, thank you!

[@doltonm6019]

You could have also stated that for more complex folds you can select by UV shell and easily hide unneeded sections to get to other overlapping and folded sections. Nice walk through

[@user-po7by8gl7q]

Great Tutorial, Thank you so much

[@Ruyanisme]

Just what I needed at the moment, thanks!

[@FlippedNormals]

Brilliant - thanks!

[@Ruyanisme]

We are the FlippedNormers, we watch only the latest and greatest of FlippedNormals.

[@ChuckPalomo]

I'm at a loss of words to describe how cool this is.

[@BGold_Animation]

Super useful video! Thank you

[@CherylynnLima]

one of the best vids on the internet

[@alexpurkhalo711]

thank you so much guys, it's probably most usefull video I'wathced ever

[@jht2658]

Thankyou so much! Amazing!

[@ebelesaurus2]

Love you guys. Thanks for always taking the tome to share your gems with us. Very appreciated. Thank you. Can this transfer attributes transfer animations too? Like if i export an animation file from marvelous, could i transfer the shape and position of the sim to the retopologized mesh?

[@crimsonBen]

it is also good to know when you retopo, keep in mind that you have to merge the vertices at the end after transf. attributes, so baically "piece_one": 10 rows of edges (or vertices to connect later) thant the "piece_two" should also have 10 rows a little reminder here for others

[@1DInciner]

Wow, just like in Blender! Awesome)

[@viktorgustafsson3147]

This is so helpful wtf ! thcnk you for showing this trick !

[@sudharsansuresh170]

Nice work! very useful

[@sonhoang-sq9fw]

Love u guys!

[@matmachina]

thank you thank you thank you!!!

[@metube2907]

Nice, I think you could probably achieve a similar workflow in modo using the UV transform procedural tool, I might give this a shot. Thanks

[@anastasiiaradchenko9529]

Transfer Attributes in super tool, why I never hear about it)) Thanks for sharing!

[@bao007fei]

Never use Transfer Attributes in Maya. Mind blowing. Thanks again. BTW. The flat model imported from Zbrush is fragmented. Need to be merge vertices first. (If anyone has problems with merge UV🤔)

[@FlippedNormals]

Transfer Attributes is a gift from God - so useful! Thanks for your notes! Appreciated.

[@halafradrimx]

Thank you for the video, MJTheHunter.

[@gion1988]

I have done several techniques trying to clean the topology and save time. The only way to make it quick and simple is export with quads using MD. Although the quad may not be accurate and what to expect the topology result. On other hand, to make it less headache is to fix it in 3d software and that would do it but the higher density is quite crucial to fix when the number of vertices. Thats how it works to solve a headache problem otherwise MD should integrate a guide point like zbrush does. will see in the future

[@ArthurDalvig]

Hey Henning and Morten. What was the approach for alembics with animation data? Did you wrap deform the retopo mesh on top?

[@dwiz_9336]

Hi guys, just a quick question--when exporting your clothes from MD. I'm working on a raincoat that has thickness to it. I know you guys select 'thin' when exporting, but the thickness on my raincoat is pretty important, shouldn't I do the topology re-work with thickness on when exporting?

[@stevejjd]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

[@AntonSavoderov]

LUV U GUYS! HUGE THANKZ! ^)

[@FlippedNormals]

Thank you!

[@cathyfoil6274]

You can find a free mel scripts that take a 3D mesh and flatten it into the UV pattern just like ZBrush does. You don't need ZBrush. I have often in Maya done fast retopologizing by selecting the edges long one side of a polygon now in the shape of a UV island and convert "Polygon To Curve" and use the option of 1 Linear for degree. Rebuild curves so that opposite curves have same number of spans and use linear and uniform. Do this for at least 4 sides of the UV island. Next using those curves do a Birail 3 and use options Polygon, Quads, Control Points. Don't use the resulting quad mesh with "Transfer Attributes" for more control possibilities create a "Subdiv Proxy" and change the input of the polySmoothProxy to Linear and set the Linear Level to 0. Now copy the UVs using "Transfer Attribues" to the original Birail quad polygon and it will automatically be transferred to the Subdiv Proxy mesh. Next reshape the Subdiv Proxy mesh using the "Transfer Attributes" to reshape it into the 3D shape. Why use a Subdiv Proxy and not the original Birail quad mesh? Because you can make changes to the Birail quad mesh and the changes will automacially update to the Subdiv Proxy. If say you want need more edge loops you can just rebuild the curves to what ever spans you need. The Birail mesh will update and so will the Subdiv Proxy. Why not just do the editing like adding edge loops on the Subdive Proxy? Any edits you make will not follow the 3D shape. You will have to redo the Transfer Attributes. Besides you can create the LODs a lot faster simply by rebuilding the curves. In theory you could Transfer Attributes to the Birail so you can better see where to insert edge loops and other edits. Basically I can retopologies faster using the birail method and since the curves have uniform spacing there the seams meet are either exact or so close that performing a merge on all the parts and then tweaking the merge distance means very little cleanup needed at the seams. Not to mention that creating other LODs by simply rebuilding the curves is a huge time saver.

[@MCDMaker]

Do you know the name of the script? I'm trying to find it but so far unsuccessfully.

[@andreasmischok8523]

You can also do this entirely within Maya. Just use the transfer attributes window to transfer the position, by UVs. Using the shirt and a newly created plane, this will flatten your mesh out, just like in ZBrush/Marvellous.

[@andreasmischok8523]

And you can also do the flattening in Blender. Just select your mesh and run the following script: import bpy def flatten_geo(objects): bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(location = True, scale = True, rotation = True) for object in objects: for face in object.data.polygons: for vert_id, loop_id in zip(face.vertices, face.loop_indices): uv_coords = object.data.uv_layers.active.data[loop_id].uv new_location = [scale * uv_coords[0], scale * uv_coords[1], 0] object.data.vertices[vert_id].co = new_location scale = 10 selection = bpy.context.selected_objects flatten_geo(selection)

[@dylanmonin1525]

Hello Guys! Thank you for your video! i've see this method and i use it but i've one question: Can you use this process with the simulated mesh ?(because the export is Alembic, so we can seperate the mesh). There is a method for transfer the attributs for keep the vertex position? retopo => transfer to simulate mesh(alembic)? Thank if you have an idea! Cheers!

[@mfrancisco_850]

the new retypology tools in marvelous are amazing and you get the uvs for free so you dont have to transfer attributes anymore you just weld the exact number of verts that you did in marvelous.

[@tauqeershoaib3215]

I’ve tried it. However when I retopologise in Marvellous designer the old topology still shows. Why is that? Is there anyway of deleting the old default topology?

[@janspaperheart]

You guys are heaven sent 😮😯😮

[@FlippedNormals]

:D Aww.

[@PPPdrovisk]

hi guys thanks for another awesome video, so help me here, if i have a lets say, hoddie, that i want to add some thickness, the workflow will be like: export pattern in 2d thin, retopology the patern in maya, project the uv to fit the original shape, weld the vertices and them i can add some thickness with Zmodeler or extrude in maya? this will work?

[@jasmynhall8409]

Hey, guys! I just started retopologizing a Marvelous Designer garment in Maya, following the steps outlined in the video. However, I'm running into issues because my garment also has buttons and stitching. Although the buttons and stitching should've been separate subtools, I exported the garment as a single object. I was just wondering if there was a way to save my current retopology state, re-export the garment from MD without the buttons and stitching, import to Maya, and translate my current retopology state to the new mesh? Thank you for your time.

[@kraftworkstore]

I have been using Couture for Maya. It's easy and fast, bit wiser than ZRemesher.

[@nana-sj6wu]

About Retopology tool inside marvelous designer ... is that a game changer now? Btw ... thanks for awesome tutorial ❤❤

[@justin9649]

Let's say you go through this whole process of transferring the clean topology onto the MD mesh. Is it possible to transfer animations as well to the clean topology if you exported out an alembic file from MD?

[@yaschan99]

It is impressive method. However what about collars or deep creases? In order to get good poly flow for them one must anticipate the creases and twists of fabric while looking at the flat plane (or the marvelous screen). In addition of making sure that edges will match one must also take that into account, otherwise you get polygons twisting diagonally which is unusable. Even standard Marvelous mesh beats - mesh like that. The only true pro way I can think of the task of retopology of a collar for example is to export them separately and retopo them in 3D view while making sure that the edges will align with the following pieces. I have greatly struggled with this phase and yet to find a really good workflow for more complex fabrics.

[@seymaple]

What do you guys think of the Remesher (beta)? It’s pretty amazing I think

[@NixisI]

You're cool guys, guys!!)

[@yosofya]

I got everything except for the part that you need to model the back and the front with same topology .. how would i do that ? By placing them next to each other and start quad draw or what ?

[@TungNguyen-oe6bs]

Cool! :)

[@marikosusie]

Help, when I transfer the retopologized to the MD mesh, my retopologized flat mesh dissapears. What am I doing wrong? I would appreciate the help

[@Elusive519]

Hey guys, I have a question regarding this method used in games. This method is brilliant for cost-effectiveness and takes into consideration possible future tweaks. However, what if you want to use it for games where the poly count can't be crazy high? I noticed that the quads might cause unevenness along the big wrinkles. Do we have to go in and draw out all the proper face angles? If so, that would take a lot of time and also break the effectiveness of the method for future-proofing. What would your suggestions be?

[@Arvolve]

12:36 whats your approach for modelling the seams after merging the vertices? Adding 2 (or 4) supporting edges and scaling the centre one down? (if so how do you scale it equally all around the loop if it's not circular?) It was hard to catch it. Thanks guys, just in time for me as well! :)

[@MangosHD]

did you ever find this out? I'm trying to figure that out too

[@kirandev]

New update have remesh(beta) we would love to see video on that. :)

[@alientan2949]

Really wish that C4D can have this attributes transfer!

[@TomaZxxZas]

So after I transfer all the details, what do I do if I want to add extra polygons to the model, how do I transfer the topology from the model to the UV's?

[@kaptnobvious9812]

everytime I try projecting the topology from the 2d to the final mesh maya crashes with a fatal error .__.

[@user-ey1ed2vb6z]

Can someone help me with the problem about the part of importing the flat OBJ which export from Marvelous Designer to use zremesher. I'm wondering that why when I use Zremesher on my imported Marvelous Designer flat, some of flats will move from the position I imported, even I selected keep border. Thank you for your video, and thank you for reading this.

[@crimsonBen]

Cool thanks BUT: what is the workflow when you want your clothes improve inside of zbrush (to add more/better folds etc)? - Export "cloth_flat.obj" - Export "cloth.obj" - Import "cloth.obj" to Zbrush and refine it and export it as "cloth_zbrush.obj" - inside of maya use "cloth_flat.obj" and "cloth_zbrush.obj" along with the way in the video, would that work?

[@puppy3908]

clean in maya then take it into zbrush and only bake the changes as normals?

[@08gardamD1]

What if you took your new topologised shirt back into Marvelous to simulate, would you lose that topology you made?

[@friendlyreptilian3767]

Does 3ds max have the same tool?

[@d32productions30]

Can you update this tutorial with the retopology built into marvelous designer?

[@jekaabdullayev5346]

Wow!!!

[@HazzR8]

How can you retain this uv map when adding thickness in ZBrush? Would that erase the UV's on the map?

[@jakesnake1793]

I can't seem to figure out how to export my UVs in a manner that lays them out identically to the 2D pattern window. Mine always overlap one another. Even when I have the "Unified UV Coordinates" checked they wont export the way they should. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[@blaesbjerg4]

You need to lay out your UV's inside MD's UV editor before you export from MD. Otherwise they are just automatically stacked on top of each other.

[@RitchardKnight]

What kind of people "dislike" this video >.< I guess some ppl just wanna see the world burning Y_Y

[@crehenge2386]

Because it's really badly produced

[@IfthiAli]

Games need this too :]

[@TheGreatArlei]

Merging the vertices in Maya doesn't work for me, the innen part of my UV islands is still broken. No matter what I select(faces, vertices, UV islands) pressing MERGE doesn't work. Any clue why this could be happening?

[@VictorBStan]

Can this kind of attribute transfer be done in Blender, of Max?

[@xinjin9592]

You guys saved my ass. Once again.

[@ahsankhan-nc6wd]

Can we use this method in blender ?? if yes soo how ?? transfer attributes

[@ILLORYS]

Note: Always keep an eye on the measurement menu... i fckd it up first because i should have gone for cm and it was m :D

[@mohammadrazakhan3852]

I have to transfer one part at a time. If i try to transfer together like combining every thing and transferring them make them crumble

[@kumaranan0206]

can u pls make a video for marvelous to blender 2.8 for production

[@SirPeacemaker]

Hi guys. How about to make another video, where you create a shirt? Not T-shirt. But shirt. The thing is there is quite problem with sharp edges (collar on shirt for example) and I cant get through. No matter how hard I try I can never make it sharp. The edges are quite rounded more or less, but not sharp. Thats why I would really like to see how you do it. Thanks a lot and best of luck

[@regforinet]

Спасибо.

[@kirie4]

When I use "Transfer attributes options" to paste it to the UV, my mesh disappears completely. Any help?

[@FlippedNormals]

Probably due to the vert id being different. Try setting it from Component to Topology. Now the vert id can be different as long as the topology is the same

[@notusingmyname4791]

2:20 you give either of those to a rigger and they will say "ahh, no"

[@vanissa1791]

Hi, How are you, can I do this in 3DS Max instead of Maya?

[@rithyarchitectitdepartment9853]

Do you have program teachings about maverlous I want to learning it. Can you teaching slow .

[@rithyarchitectitdepartment9853]

Do you have software and video about maverlous .

[@YouTubsel]

11:25 ... you gotta be f*cking kidding me!!!! °___° Now I understand why you say that in production you need utility UV sets. This is brilliant. Please, please, please make a video about what magic UV sets can be used for, otherwise. (edit) Two followup questions: 1. Can this be replicated in Blender somehow? 2. How does the new retopo mode from MD9.5 do in comparison?

[@PyR098]

there is something like transfer attributes in blender ?

[@FlippedNormals]

I'm unsure! Any Blender people who can comment?

[@HuntahSVK]

Maybe try to use ctrl+L to make links and transfer UVs.

[@PyR098]

HuntaH i tried but it does not work if the topology is different

[@Rahviel80]

Use data transfer modifier

[@HuntahSVK]

And if the modifier is not working, go to object-transfer mesh data-UVs and in the T panel play with the settings and it will work.

[@Dizcordum]

is there a thing like that in blender??

[@Ricardo-de9ju]

Is it possible to replicate that in C4D?

[@nxtlvl2116]

can i import retopology in md and re sim ?

[@FlippedNormals]

We dont think that's currently possible, unfortunately

[@RileyBrownMusic]

Anybody know of a comparable workflow in Blender? (Please don't attack me. I use Maya and Marvelous as well.) This transfer attribute tool is indeed handy.

[@josephbrandenburg4373]

I'm in the middle of figuring this out, remind me in about a week and I'll have an answer. There's a really simple script to flatten the mesh based on UVs on BlenderArtist forum.

[@Mayleemouse]

Landing a bit late on this, but I found this decent Blender workaround, thought I would share anyways ! ---> laresandpenates.net/2017/12/29/using-the-surface-deform-modifier-with-marvelous-designer/

[@MrFallac]

I used your excellent technique and it worked really well. There was an issue however. I made a dress with a very ruffled hem and a lot of the vertexes had their normals facing all crazy directions. here is a pic. i.imgur.com/14IXYRs.png . So I am going around with the edit vertex normal tool and manually correcting this. It seems to be fixing the issue. I wonder if you have seen this problem before? I wonder if there is a better way to fix it?

[@MrFallac]

oh :) I found a better way. Select all verts then MeshDisplay>SetToFace>options - match face normal - apply. Done. Hope this helps someone.

[@MrFallac]

oh. Now I have found a better result Select all verts then MeshDisplay>SetToFace. use std settings, then select all edges and soften. And now it looks like I want. ty for the excellent technique :)

[@Guy-rv2vl]

WAIT WHAT

[@acribro4168]

anyone know a way to do this in blender

[@sasholazeski4662]

Awesome! Anyone here knows how to do this in Max? :O

[@Guy-rv2vl]

Hmmm

[@lestrike2707]

@FlippedNormals Hi guys =) I am currently working on my Master Thesis which includes a lot of 3D modeling (Human Faces) so I was wondering if you know any Tech-Paper, Scientific or other citable Source for the following: Edge Flow Topology (So I could argue why I decided to model the way I did) An answer would be just amazing! (otherwise I will ahve to cite you in one way or another :-P ) THX Jack

[@FlippedNormals]

Hey! I actually have know idea when it comes to scientific sources for any of this - but if you have any questions regarding your master, feel free to ask :) /Henning

[@lestrike2707]

FlippedNormals thanks! 1: in what manner are manually generated meshs superior to generated (or auto-retopologized ones?) 2: why is edge-flow important? (For animated meshs) 3: Definition of good Edge-Flow and topology

[@FlippedNormals]

1. You have far more control when it comes to deformation. The riggers will need very specific mesh controls. The auto-generated retopo will also have mistakes in it, and manually fixing it is normally harder than just doing it from scratch anyway. 2. Edge flow is important so that you get good shapes while rigging. This is mostly important for deforming objects. If youre doing static rocks, it literally doesnt matter. For instance, you want a loop around the lips, nasolabial fold, eyes, etc. so that you get very specific and clean deformation there. 3. This is a pretty good example of clean facial topology. i.ytimg.com/vi/bN-GnqSKCgU/maxresdefault.jpg This is also amazing for body topology: flippednormals.com/products/stylized-female-base-mesh-pisciasa-edition/ Hope this helps! If you need more help, feel free to email me at henning @ flippednormals.com

[@lestrike2707]

Thanks a lot! =) you guys rock!

[@wemac7826]

"Zbrush has a tendency to destroy your mesh" That silly goose.

[@FlippedNormals]

It's true! Silly goose.