Daz 3D Clothing Tutorial: What Are Your Options?
Clothing is a vital aspect of your 3D character. It helps to tell the audience about the character’s personality and the story’s setting. But the design of your 3D character’s outfit has infinite possibilities, which could make it challenging to conceptualize what will work best.
In this Daz 3D clothing tutorial, we’ll discuss the different options you have for getting the clothes you want for your Daz characters. There are typically two ways to go about this: by making your own clothes or buying them.
Creating Your Own Clothes
Creating 3D clothes for your character generally follows the same principle as when you’re creating other 3D models. However, you’ll need to add a skeleton to your clothing design so it conforms to your character’s figure and movement. You also need to consider the clothing’s fabric—should it be stiffer, stretchier, or more flowing?
Most 3D software can be used to create your clothing’s mesh. Many Daz users already use modeling software such as Blender and Zbrush. You could also try platforms that are specifically made for creating virtual clothes, such as Marvelous Designer.
After you finish making the clothes on these platforms, you can export them into Daz Studio for rigging and rendering.
Daz Studio doesn’t have a built-in clothing creation feature, but you can still create basic clothes through a cone primitive and sculpt the shape out with the geometry editing tool.
Check Out These Clothing Tutorials
Here are some resources to help you create clothes with popular third-party modeling software options:
Buying Clothing Assets
If you’d rather not create the clothes from scratch, you can buy them instead. Daz 3D’s shop has clothing items available under the 3D Models section, in People and Wearables and Clothing and Accessories. Their prices range from $2 to about $200, though the pricier items are typically clothing bundles.
In addition to the Daz 3D shop, other websites sell 3D clothes for Daz users. These include:
Buying vs. Creating 3D Clothes: Which Is Better for You?
Not everyone can put in extra hours to create clothes for their characters—creating clothing takes a great deal of time. Buying the 3D clothing assets may be convenient if the clothes you want for your models are more commonplace, such as dresses, jeans, or t-shirts. There are also clothing items that cater to fictional settings like fantasy and sci-fi.
Conversely, making your character’s clothes yourself gives you complete freedom over your design choices. If you decide to buy, you’d be limited by the types of clothing available to you, which might not be the perfect fit you’re looking for. Making clothes is the better option if you have extra time and expertise and want to save more money.
Other Ways to Acquire Daz 3D Clothes
Although creating your own clothing assets or purchasing premade options in the shop are probably the most common ways to acquire Daz 3D clothes, there are a couple of other options you might want to consider as well.
Commission an Artist to Make Custom Clothing
Even with this Daz 3D clothing tutorial, you might not have the time to design the clothes on top of any other ongoing projects you have. You could consider having another designer do the work for you.
However, keep in mind that commissioning custom clothing won’t come cheap. According to some Daz 3D users, creating 3D custom clothing can take a long time—a simple outfit could take around 20 hours, with more elaborate creations requiring more time and effort. That being said, if you need unique assets that will belong solely to you, and can work the price into the budget, this is definitely a viable option.
No Time or Budget? Consider Free Assets
If you’re keen on saving both time and money, you could opt for free 3D assets instead. Many of the sites that sell 3D figures and assets have some royalty-free items too.
Consider checking in on Daz Studio’s weekly freebies, which sometimes include clothing assets. You can also check out the forum section dedicated to freebies. Many users share their free creations there. The forum also has a link repository to other websites that offer free 3D assets, including clothes.
We’re Happy to Help You
Finding and making clothing items for your characters is one thing, but ensuring that they fit perfectly and working out how the clothes flow are wholly different challenges. Fortunately, you can check out these video tutorials to help you make the most out of Daz Studio’s features and achieve the design you want. The forums also have plenty of Daz 3D users who are happy to share their tips and tricks with you.
