Transfer Mesh Data (or how to clothe your Avatar) Tutorial

[@Gingersnaspie]

In case anyone needs a summary: First: Make sure you're in Object Mode! 1. Select the clothes (object), then the body (object). (Hold SHIFT to select multiple items) 2. Select "Transfer Mesh Data" from the Object menu (for me in ver. 2.93.0 it was in Object > Link/Transfer Data) 3. Select "Vertex Group(s)" on the "Transfer Mesh Data" menu 4. Under "Source Layers Selection" drop down menu choose "All Layers" 5. Parent the clothes to the rig by selecting the clothes (object) and the body (armature), and under the Object menu select Parent > With Empty Groups 6. Go under pose mode and rotate the model's bones to ensure the clothing moves with the body. Thank you Kaideart for this helpful tutorial. This method worked great for me!

[@kenalpha3]

Step 1 is unclear. Are you saying we can Shift select multiple child clothes THEN shift click the Donator body last, and all child clothes will get the same transfer at the same time (from Donator)? (Because I need a way to transfer to multiple meshes at the same time. My current method was select Donator first, shift click new clothes Last, then go to Weight paint mode > transfer weights. But if your step 1 is what I think, then I can select multi meshes, donor last, and transfer to them all.)

[@LycosHayes]

I keep coming back to this specific tutorial ever time I try and retrofit an asset onto my model to remember how to do this quickly and effectively. Thank you so much for this video.

[@メシャ]

OH. MY GOD. I WAS GOING THROUGH HELL ATTACHING ACCESSORIES TO MY MODELS THIS IS BLACK MAGIC WHAT?? THANK YOU SO MUCH you've literally saved my life

[@itsjoe0965]

i know you probably wont look back to these comments any time soon. but i want to at least leave a thank you for your work. I've used so many of your videos to help me create my own model and edit so many different parts of it that i couldn't just not leave one. Please keep making this type of content, your work is invaluable to beginners and those looking for specific solutions to their problems with a well made, to the point, and educational video.

[@syahkeiko1251]

You get even nicer results when you change the Vertex Mapping to Nearest Face Interpolated. At least in my experience!

[@Kaideart]

YES since making this video I found that out too! So DEFO worth doing this on your models too

[@Sir-Meldrid]

Yes it does! I was trying to rig a complicated set of clothes and this helped me overcome a huge issue I had. Thank you internet stranger!

[@kenalpha3]

Can anyone link me to a vid showing "Nearest Face Interpolated" vs the others? I searched and found nothing here. No hits on goggle. I want a visual comparison to help me remember what is best for bulky armor that doesnt match body vs skin tight.

[@2010douggy]

Wow, that's the very firs time I manage to do this this after lots of tutorials. I can't believe my eyes! Bless you, man!

[@artanas75]

dude I have beeen trying to attach a freakin' shoe to my character and being going crazy yesterday over it. Your tutorial is the only one that worked !!! Thnaks a lot

[@deena6]

THANK YOU FOR THIS OH MY GOD RIGGING HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE BUT U HELPED A LOT

[@SqualidsargeStudios]

Simply amazing tutorial, very useful. Can’t wait for the follow up tutorial videos in the character modeling line.

[@normietwiceremoved]

You are such a legend! Thanks so much! You are such a good tutorial maker too, you explain why you're doing things so clearly.

[@gwaifu]

THANK YOU SO MUCH, I have been agonizing for hours trying to figure out why my model's clothing was not moving with it's body, despite all the vertex group data being transferred to the clothing mesh. Thank you thank you thank you!!

[@thal-serfera369]

Thank you for making me laugh about something that genuinely scares the hell out of me is a new creator! This is my first video of yours that I've seen I'm definitely subscribing 💗💗💗

[@psyilux]

I have gone through hell all night just trying to attach these damn clothes, this has just released me from my blender problems lol thank you so much.

[@NobleWolf]

Thank you for this, Ive been weight painting all my commissions clothes by hand and this helps alot and saves me so much time

[@ConsuMediaEmpire]

Thank you for this tutorial, it was really helpful! Also you and your avatar are really cute!

[@ShaunMeechan]

Man you helped me so much, I was stuck on my character mesh and deformations in unreal engine for a couple of months. From all of us at our little indie studio, thanks so much!!!

[@Sawolf151]

being a fantastic artist aside, your voice goes so well with your character haha

[@Stranger_Design]

god damn! I searched really best tutorial cloth/armor rigging by my character! And yeah, this is best tutorial i saw!

[@Marina-zs7xw]

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I was having a huge problem with the pants of my character for days and your video help me solved it in ten minutes, thank you!

[@tlf4354]

Amazing tutorial!~ IS as straight forwards as it gets~ If someone is using blender 4.2 the Transfer data option is not outside in the "Object" menu, everything else is identical~

[@Krechevskoy]

Your voice is simply delightful

[@Kaideart]

This comment was delightful

[@crispycarrots]

Thanks Kaide! Your tutorials are really helpful. I've learnt some things I just missed in Blender for years!

[@freckledcatcreations]

This was so succinct and well done!! Instantly going in my blender notes. Thank you Kaide!

[@The_Droogle_That_Draws]

oh.. Didn't expect you here lol

[@WesleyOliveira-pu7sj]

goddamn this tutorial is just what i need, saved me hours of looking for solutions

[@toapyandfriends]

Is there an easy way to align the shirt to the characters body in the first place?... I like to take your tutorial but I like to try and find an easy way to do that first!

[@GingerWellyton]

Another method I've seen others use (and have done myself) is to quite literally duplicate the model and cut it into the shape of the clothes, fatten it slightly in edit/sculpt mode, then retexture it.

[@Kaideart]

Yeah! That’s the method I used to use prior to learning about data transfer, it can be very easy to do but I found if I wanted to really alter the shape the amount of time reweight painting it was a lot of effort, so then I started using this method instead!

[@CommitingAChaos]

Does this method(the one you are talking bout in your comment) have clothing clipping problems or have any way to fix it if it does? I am new to making avatars and am trying to make a few for some friends, but never needed to make clothing.

[@GingerWellyton]

@@CommitingAChaos It's been a while so I don't quite remember, but with it being stripped directly from the body mesh itself it should share the same weightpainting, so clipping should be minimal.

[@CommitingAChaos]

@@GingerWellyton Ok, thank you for the reply. I hope you are having a great whatever time of day it is where you are.

[@laiart16]

I love you! Thank you very much for the explanation, I didn't know how to solve this problem and your tutorial helped me, so I'm very grateful for it.

[@Kaideart]

Im glad it helped you out!

[@TheBludes]

Dude you just saved me a massive headache. I tried getting these weights right manually and nearly lost my sanity. :D

[@SeventhDeven]

I followed the steps. In Edit Mode when I have the bones and my sock foot selected, there is no option for Vertex Group in the Items tab. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

[@saverofthehumens]

Currently this can be done with a modifier, the data transfer modifier to be precise, add it to the clothing in question, set the target mesh as the body and select vertex groups and just apply the modifier and done. And *sometimes* automatic weights does good enough job but it seems to hate IK rigs where the odd bits n bobs gain weights and distort apparel models quite horribly..

[@Nickfooker]

For anyone that can't find Transfer Mesh Data under Relations tab, they are now in Object => Link/Transfer Data

[@oid123]

Thanks! Short and to the point in 2.9+, just what I needed!

[@swkc11]

Just spent a day trying to hand weight paint a pair of pants. Glad my work was wasted! On a serious note, I don't really feel that way. This was a great and very useful tutorial! I just wish I found it sooner. 😩 ♥

[@ohlawdy6855]

I have the add-on installed but nothing for it shows up in the menus, so I can't even use the "object > relations > transfer" function at all. Searching has given nothing recent or helpful

[@TheNerd]

Alternative: Select the Source, Select the Target -> Weight Painting Mode -> Weights -> Transfer Weights. If the source is divided into multiple objects, make a shift + D copy of them, join the copy and then transfer.

[@ZacAttackk]

God rigging clothes to a character in 3DS max was hell, this looks so much better

[@Ponlets]

can you do this with females wearing bras or something because i have a character wearing a bra and the parts at the front dont move well

[@Kaideart]

Yeah! My advice with bras is to try and get the edge loops at least towards the bottom of the bra to line up quite close to the model underneath to make sure deformations transfer their best! But I do this with bras a lot when modelling them

[@NightFox3D]

Do you know if there is a way to get just the clothing out of Blender to Unity? I don't want to have to redo an entire model. The clothing item is new to the avatar and the avatar was put together in Unity over a year ago and the model in Blender isn't a fully working model from the creator and taking the clothes out of Blender to Unity makes it not rigged OR crashes software I import it to like VRC.

[@SolarpunkJackal]

How do you select different bones to see their effects on the mesh while in weight paint mode?

[@SolarpunkJackal]

oh never mind, it's the CTRL key you have to use to switch between bones in weight paint mode.

[@IFacePalmParadoxI]

Can you update this tutorial for Blender 3.5 please? I'm trying to find Empty Groups, and it's not there...

[@MrNargleflex]

Thank you Kaide! I'm super new to this so it helps a bunch, I'm wondering if I can use this and some other techniques to get sort of a rolling-sleeves-up sorta thing going, like where I can make a shape key that pulls a sleeve up while also shifting the weight paint so that the right bones influence make sense with the sleeve rolled up vs down

[@NyoomMonster]

If I wanted to do a baggy hoodie with some wrinkles, how would I do that?

[@yoyobird8427]

can you do it with shoes and how do i make sure after adding shoes that i can still run around in eu5 without flying or clipping?

[@conradgardner9644]

Thanks for the amazing tutorial. I have one problem. Whenever I apply the data transfer the clothing shifts position slightly and does not attach properly to the mesh. The clothes still moves with the mesh and is attached just not in the right position

[@kenalpha3]

Make sure your Armature is in REST pose. Also make sure that when you click on your Meshes, that no shape key is selected (Green triangle icon tab). Only have Basis selected (default state).

[@TheVoiceOfChaos]

came for the thumbnail stayed for the quality blender tutorials.

[@lizaraVR]

I don't get that option under relations. not even grayed out. have always used the modifier and have only been looking at this because on my current model it doesn't do it by nearest vertex, it just applies it to the whole mesh which results in absolutely fucky weights

[@saitohiraga6854]

hey, i added cloth to my fbx in blender, after exporting my fbx from blender to unity, i notice that i lose all my script/physbones stuff. that's terrible! is it normal? does everyone has to copy them all over again?

[@zombienationz2939]

I'm in blender 4.3 and mesh data has moved it's in object, link/transfer data, near the bottom transfer mesh data. It still works i just did it. Hopefully that's helpful if you didn't look hard enough on your own.

[@MouseCrusader]

if you are on blender 3.3 forward, Transfer Mesh Data is now under Link/Transfer Data. New Path Way: On Object Mode, Object > Link/Transfer Data> Transfer Mesh Data

[@OnlySimpFor2D]

Thank you!!!

[@kesokeso8623]

I am trying to transfer the meshes from one model to the bones of another model doing that, transferring data from old meshes to new ones, but it doesn't work. Anyone have an idea why?

[@Azul2594]

how do we make clothes toggles? like rexouiums have a fox hoodie hoodie crop top t shirt skirt pants shorts short shorts ect

[@kenalpha3]

search "blender how to make shapekeys"

[@AdrianLopez_vfxwolf]

I'm curious about how youre animating your avatar.. do you have a tute on that?

[@sazemek]

I've never used data transfer before, but I will now! Very handy! =D

[@OM33WRLD]

What does he mean by neutral position ?

[@StoopidBunny]

whenever i try to ctrl p the "select Parent > With Empty Groups" doesnt appear, is there a different way to do this?

[@BaeronBubba]

You have to make sure you're selecting both the skeleton and the mesh at the same time. Hold Shift while in Object Mode to select the items you want, then Control+P for the menu. First select the Mesh, then select the Skeleton in that order.

[@方エデン]

Hello, I have a question about the linkage setting of the eyelids and eyelashes of a cartoon character. Can you share the correct way? When I start blinking, my eyelashes always penetrate my eyelids.

[@Kaideart]

AH! So depending on how your eyes are actually set, you actually want the blink shape key to move forward in front of the eye quite a bit! Shapekeys are linear so you need to check in blender that they don't clip through the eyes! Another option is in the general settings you can turn on auto blink, and then turn off smooth auto blink to have the blink work as an ON/OFF type! Hope that helps!

[@方エデン]

@@Kaideart Thank you for sharing, I will try again.

[@8077pedram]

for anyone whatching this,since you are using blender 4.2 now, The ''transfer mesh data'' has been moved to '' link/transfer data'' from ''object'' Menu (object)>( link/transfer data)

[@GemGames3]

Hi! Could I ask if this will work if Rigify is applied and the best way to go about around it if it doesn't? Thank you! Your Tutorial is very clear :)

[@JumpCatStudio102]

What about coats that you mentioned ? I have a rigged trench coats and I want to animate it with another character rig

[@S9universe]

why not select the mesh + the clothe and armature and automatic weight ? what's the difference please ?

[@Kaideart]

The reason to do it this way is by auto weight painting each mesh individually will cause blender to calculate things twice independently, meaning you need to fix a lot on one of the meshes, this way makes it so blender only runs that calculation once and all meshes build off it, making it much faster as a workflow!

[@S9universe]

@@Kaideart wow thanks i tried it and it was really effective

[@remus-alexandrusimion3439]

So, i managed to do this method but my main mesh (character) got disconnected from the armature. I am now moving clothing but not the character. I have no idea where I messed up. I did need to weight paint the clothing before getting it to work though so I definitely screwed something up. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[@remus-alexandrusimion3439]

redid the rigging and everything works fine. Any advice regarding clothing and posing to get decent results? (my meshes intersect sometimes) Thanks!

[@AirbornePig]

I have the model I want to use and it comes with outfits. I already watched how to import models to VSeeFace and I successfully imported my base model but that doesn't cover how to add or switch the outfits. Is there an easy way to just add the outfits the model comes with in VRM? (The outfits come as separate fbx models) I have no experience with 3d and have absolutely no clue what I'm doing.

[@dreamisover9813]

I recently needed something like this, awesome

[@wmka]

thanks for the quick tutorial have a good one yea

[@jhonysteak5512]

Not bad, I wanted to do the same thing with the armature and the animations from one model to another, it doesn't work for me, besides I wonder if it's possible given the lack of concrete information On the question.

[@danielledotson990]

i dont have any animation on the bones yet. does that matter? i went to the relations tab and it didnt give any option to transfer data

[@Kaideart]

You shouldn't need the bones to be animated, they should just need to be weight painted for them to work! Check the mesh you're wanting to copy data from has vertex groups!

[@theunicornops2855]

how do i join 2 meshes without loosing the weightpaint?

[@Quetzalcoatl0]

Just want i needed. Easy to follow up. Thanks!

[@rendarrockbrok2305]

Cool! Great instruction! So for long, flowing clothes, what are we talking about? Cloth simulation physics?

[@Kaideart]

So for long flowing clothes you'd be looking to use Physics Bones instead!

[@danialquddoos7561]

Could you also make a tutorial on how to actually model the clothes? It's something I find myself struggling with and would be very helpful to see how you do it

[@Milan23_]

thanks mate, this saved my life!

[@KatouMiwa]

thanks ! my friend made me a MMD model but my issue was everything was working but the elbows , the shirt would not follow eveen if i weight painted manually, weirdly , this video bypasses that error .thanks

[@Kaideart]

Glad I could help!

[@ArtemisMidnightVT]

Will this work for something like an Eyepatch Accessory made in Blender3D? and will this method work with VRoid Models, too?

[@lowkeysleepingrn]

thank you soooooo much i was having so much trouble trying to rig a pair of pants lol

[@CosmicFox2007]

"typical youtuber pose" god how did you describe that with 100% accuracy

[@Botupo3D]

Can we transfer data from these vertices to those vertices in the same object? My cloth have thickness, and the vertices inside do not weight painted like the outside one :(.

[@Kaideart]

What you can do if there are layers of topology on top of each other is to seperate them temporarily into different objects and then transfer each one from the one below until it’s all moving nicely, then join the objects back together and merge any split vertexs

[@Botupo3D]

@@Kaideart Thank you so much! I will try :D

[@techtinkerin]

Brilliant teacher, subbed 😊

[@Chobo077]

When is the modelling part gonna come out?

[@TikkaQrow]

Do shape keys transfer too?

[@Hasmatix]

i dont have transfer mesh data

[@DJRussellBrian]

Beautiful tutorial! Thank you very much

[@aymanfatani]

So nice and yet simple .. thanks 👍🏻👍🏻

[@LizzyKoopa]

i wanna just kiss your forehead so hard you brilliant son of a biscuit! you just helped resolve so much "skin tight clothing" issues i have been struggling with for a while.

[@toapyandfriends]

Badass intro!

[@legofanguyvid]

will this work for more low poly models?

[@salvatorefama8565]

Thank you very much for this method, it works perfectly

[@SkyCandy]

Great Video! Not only did I use the Transfer Mesh data - but the part I need to know now is how you hid the floof parts? It speeds up so I cant tell, lol. Do you have some steps you could share on how to do that?

[@ethanshelton8497]

Look into blendshapes. Basically, you select an object, go to the vertex menu which is the green triangle , you press the + button to create a basis shape then you press the + button a second time to create the blend shape. when you go into edit mode make sure u have this shape selected and you can edit your mesh and those alterations appear on that shape so you can use a slider in unity or blender to then show or hide fur, make ears bigger or smaller, and so on so forth.

[@toapyandfriends]

🤠'that would be so funny partner, if you said what 3D character?..that's me!...🤣ROLF!

[@sycomorah1380]

Great video, thank you!

[@melway8654]

with female form, will the dynamic bones movement, will the shirt move with the breasts?

[@Kaideart]

If the breasts already have been weight painted and already have physics then yes! It might require a little bit of re weight painting just to make sure it's not clipping!

[@k0v4n0v4]

data tranfer is friend shaped

[@NeonnaCh]

very helpful and easy to understand thank you!!

[@andrematthiessen5406]

thx bruv you aa bloody legend big kiss from France

[@Shadencile]

This is wonderful, thanks

[@sinswithin]

First off, great tutorial! It fixed a lot of issues I had. Now I'm having a different type of issue. So my friend wanted help editing his avatar for VRchat, Ive been helping him with that. He wanted shirt and pants "No problem" so as I get the shirt and pants edited to fit his model, I come to find out you can't simply just drag and drop them into Unity. They just float there in the T-pose "Seems like it has no weight painting" Okay after hours of trying to figure it out I come across your video. Import the model, import the clothes, copy the weight painting. Bam no problem. Try to import just the clothes into Unity on his already established avatar.... clothes don't work. If at all possible, is it possible to take the clothes from the model in Blender and import them into unity and have them just work with the model?

[@aufgespielt3768]

Hey thanks for the tutorial. But one very important question for me is, how to export the single shirt into unreal to use it with my character? ;)

[@kenalpha3]

Select clothing mesh, then Shift select Armature last. Export only those 2 things selected. And there may be specific UE checkboxes. I forgot. When you import the fbx into UE > do not import as a new skeleton, but in the dropbox, select the existing skeleton that belongs to your body mesh. (The operation is import body mesh first AND make new skel. Then import other clothing fbx files - and set them to use the body armature = they all share the same skel = you can set them to follow each other (match animations) using the Set Master Pose node.)

[@connorjade5460]

U R A LIFE SAVER THANKSSSS

[@toapyandfriends]

You tutorials are the best ever!...you actually have a 3D cartoon dragon givin the tutorial!..one little piece of constructive criticism is work on your color grading cuz your exposure is a little bit too high on your dragon... I like this channel to be the best and it's like right there cuz nobody has a 3D character giving a tutorial!

[@catmakesmusic182]

thank you so much this was so helpful!

[@RichellyItalo]

Thank you so much!