Content Dev:CC Clothing Modeling Guidelines

CC Clothing Modeling Guidelines

High-Poly Modeling Specifications

Proportions and Base References

Base Character Alignment: Use the standard CC Male / Female base characters as the primary reference for scale and proportions when creating garments.

Custom Body Shapes: If a non-standard or stylized physique is required:

First adjust the body morphs within Character Creator.
Export the character as an FBX or OBJ file.
Use the exported model as the reference base before starting the modeling process.

High-Poly Sculpting Focus

Fabric Micro-details: Do not sculpt fine fabric micro-details (e.g., weave patterns) during the high-poly stage. These details should be created during the PBR texturing phase in Substance Painter.

Sculpting Scope: Focus on primary and secondary forms only — folds, creases, and seam lines. Surface micro-structures are not required at this stage.

Shoulder Construction Guidelines

Shoulder Placement: Pay close attention to the positioning of shoulder lines and straps during high-poly modeling.

Structural Integrity: Ensure topology aligns with the anatomical shoulder structure to prevent deformation during the Skin Weights binding process.; Refer to Section 2.2.1, Item 6 of the CC Garment Creation Guide for detailed shoulder structure requirements and correct articulation.

Low-Poly Modeling Specifications

General Mesh Construction Guidelines

The sections below define polygon count constraints and standard components for Soft Cloth (Physics) configuration.

Final decisions regarding soft cloth components must strictly follow the project's Design Proposal / Technical Brief. If a complex garment design experiences quality degradation due to polygon limitations, the issue should be escalated individually for technical review and discussion.

Garment Polygon Budget

Garment Type	Polycount (Quads)	Soft Cloth Requirement
Tops (Shirt / T-shirt)	3,000 – 10,000	—
Jackets / Blazers	5,000 – 12,000	Lapels / Tails
Short Coats	4,000 – 7,000	Lower Hem
Long Coats (Trench)	5,000 – 10,000	Lower Skirt / Hem
Dresses	5,000 – 10,000	Skirt Area
Bodysuits	4,000 – 12,000	—
Trousers / Pants	3,000 – 7,000	—
Shorts	1,000 – 5,000	—
Long Skirts	3,000 – 9,000	Full Skirt Area
Short Skirts	1,000 – 4,000	Full Skirt Area
Gloves (Pair)	1,000 – 3,000	—
Footwear (Pair)	1,500 – 3,000	—
Boots (Pair)	2,000 – 4,000	—
Accessories	1,000 – 3,000	—

Poly Count Adjustment for Sleeve Variants

Standard Reference: The polygon budgets above for upper-body garments are based on long-sleeved designs.

Variant Scalability: For short-sleeved or sleeveless versions, the maximum polygon limit must be reduced by 1,000 quads. This ensures consistent optimization across garment variations and maintains performance efficiency within Character Creator.

Contemporary Industry Standards for Polycount

Real-Time & Game Pipelines (AAA Standard)

Hero / Close-Up Characters: 10,000 – 20,000 quads for smooth silhouettes and realistic deformation.
Secondary / Background Characters: 5,000 – 10,000 quads for performance optimization.
Accessories & Decorative Details: Optimized for lower polygon counts while maintaining visual fidelity.

Animation & Cinematic Pipelines

High-Fidelity Production: 15,000 – 30,000 quads or higher to support advanced cloth simulation and refined fabric dynamics.

High-Poly to Low-Poly Texture Baking Specifications

Alignment and Transformation

Mesh Synchronization: The initial scale and global position of both meshes must be perfectly aligned, with identical pivot points and matching spatial coordinates. Failure to maintain alignment may result in baking offsets, projection artifacts, or errors during map generation.

Primary Silhouette and Large Fold Definition

Low-Poly Silhouette Construction: Prominent primary folds and major structural contours should be incorporated directly into the Low-Poly mesh geometry. Even within a low-polygon budget, the base mesh must retain essential volume and shape details — this allows Normal Maps to better capture surface detail and Ambient Occlusion to enhance depth perception, improving overall visual quality and realistic surface tactility.

Silhouette Refinement and Optimization

Organic Contour Adjustment

Curvature and Variation: Avoid excessively straight or rigid lines in the Low-Poly silhouette. Outer contours should include subtle, natural undulations that reflect the physical characteristics of the garment. Overly linear edges produce a stiff, artificial appearance; introducing organic variation achieves greater visual realism and avoids a computerized "low-poly" look under real-time lighting.

Optimization of Polygon Distribution

Strategic Mesh Density

Adaptive Subdivision: Focus polygon density on critical areas such as high-curvature edges and regions with significant structural depth (protrusions and recesses). This maintains silhouette integrity without unnecessary geometric overhead.

Efficiency and Performance: Avoid uniform subdivision across flat surfaces. Excessive edge loops on planar areas waste polygon budget, increase engine load, and provide no meaningful visual improvement. Polygon allocation should prioritize visually impactful regions.

Inter-Garment Compatibility and Topology Guidelines

Clipping Prevention and Spacing

Initial Clearance & Gap Management: Maintain appropriate clearance between layers in their default state to ensure compatibility between clothing items within the same collection. Avoid any mesh penetration (clipping) in the base pose to minimize collision issues during multi-layer outfitting.

Topology for Morphing and Articulation

Align edge loop flow with the CC Base Character in the following key areas:

Articulation Joints: Shoulders, elbows, and knees.
High-Morph Areas: Chest (bust) and glutes (hips), where body shape variation is most significant.

Tight-Fitting Garments: Topology should closely match the base character's wireframe to ensure accurate skin weight transfer and reduced clipping during extreme poses.

Loose-Fitting Garments: Exact topology matching is not required. Designers may create custom topology flows based on garment drape and intended silhouette for more natural physics and animation behavior.

Component Topology Guidelines

Component	Garment Category Guidelines
Chest / Bust	Skin-tight or stretch fabrics must include sufficient edge loops to support body morphs (e.g., breast size adjustments) without texture stretching.
Crotch	For trousers and tight-fitting bottoms, this high-stress area requires clean, triangle-free topology to prevent mesh tearing during large leg movements.
Shoulders	Maintain a balance between structural silhouette and sufficient edge loop density to support proper skin weight distribution. Deformation integrity ensures the mesh accommodates complex skeletal movement and avoids artifacts such as the "candy-wrapper" effect during extreme rotations.
Elbows	Long-sleeved garments require additional edge loop density on the outer curve to preserve volume when the arm is fully bent.
Knees	Full-length trousers should include adequate segmentation to support natural bending, similar to elbows.
Armpits	Sleeved garments are prone to mesh penetration (clipping) in this region. Precise skin weighting is required to ensure natural mesh collapse when arms are lowered.

Technical Guidelines for Shoulder Topology and Seam Placement

Seam Placement and Strap Considerations

The Precision Trap: Placing the shoulder seam too precisely at the anatomical pivot may cause it to be pulled downward as the arm lowers, resulting in mesh distortion, loss of garment structural integrity, and reduced skin binding quality.

Corrective Methodology: For structured garments (e.g., suits, uniforms, structured coats), slightly raise and inset the shoulder seam position. This ensures that with the character's arms lowered (A-Pose or idle), the shoulder line remains visually stable, seam displacement is minimized, and fabric collapse appears natural and controlled.

Thickness and Hemline Execution

Thickness Simulation

Garment Openings: For garment openings (e.g., necklines, cuffs, hemlines), use the Fold-back method (Figure A) to seal edge borders. This creates a clean, professional finish, simulates fabric thickness effectively, and avoids unnecessary polygon overhead.

For shirts and tailored garments, collars must be modeled as double-sided, volumetric 3D structures to ensure structural integrity and realistic rendering under lighting and deformation.

Soft Cloth Constraints (Long Skirts, Capes, and Sheet-like Accessories)

Single-Sided Requirement: Garments intended for Soft Cloth (Physics) simulation — such as long skirts, flowing gowns, or planar accessories — should be constructed as single-sided meshes. Thickness or double-sided geometry may result in collision errors or simulation artifacts.

Consultation Protocol: If a design requires both visual thickness and physics simulation, consult the Project Manager (PM) and Art Lead (AL) before proceeding to ensure the appropriate technical solution is defined and approved.

Edge Thickness and Hemming Techniques (Maya Workflow)

Creating the "Fold-back" Structure

Simulating Fabric Thickness: Use the Extrude Tool to extend selected boundary edges inward, then fold the extruded edges back into the mesh interior (Figure A). This reinforces boundary structure and prevents openings from appearing unnaturally sharp or thin.

Normal Direction Audit: After extrusion, verify that all Face Normals are correctly oriented. Inverted normals on internal faces may result in shading artifacts in Character Creator.

Mesh Integrity and Vertex Management

Vertex Welding for Seams: All garment seams and boundary edges must be fully sealed. Perform Vertex Weld on all coincident vertices and ensure no gaps remain. Unsealed seams may cause mesh splitting, vertex displacement, or "exploding" geometry when Smooth operations or the Conform tool are applied in Character Creator.

Implementation in Maya

Merging Vertices: Use the Merge Vertices tool to combine overlapping or closely positioned vertices.

Edge Mode Refinement: Regularly inspect the mesh in Edge Mode to ensure no unintended open borders or holes within the garment surface.

Shading and Smoothing Group Configuration (3ds Max)

Surface Smoothing Standards

Global Smoothing Assignment: Select all faces and assign them to a single Smoothing Group to maintain consistent shading and prevent faceted or pixelated geometry after import into Character Creator.

FBX Export Requirements: In the FBX Export Settings dialog, enable Smoothing Groups under the Geometry section. If this data is not exported, vertex normal information will be lost and the model will appear hard-edged regardless of in-application settings.

Shading and Smoothing Configuration (Maya Workflow)

Surface Smoothing Process

Softening Edges: Select the mesh and navigate to Mesh Display → Soften Edge. This averages vertex normals to produce a continuous, organic surface appearance.

FBX Export Specifications

Verify the following in the FBX Export dialog:

Smoothing Groups: Enable to export soft/hard edge data as smoothing group information.
Smooth Mesh: Enable to include smoothed geometry attributes.

Proper configuration is critical for accurate PBR shader rendering in Character Creator and prevents unintended hard edges and shading artifacts.

Structural Reinforcement via Mesh Density

Minimizing Deformation: For components requiring high shape fidelity (e.g., zippers, buttons, rigid fasteners), increase local polygon density to provide additional geometric support against deformation during the Conform process.

Limitations: Increased mesh density has limits. Significant body morph changes (e.g., extreme weight or muscle adjustments) may still cause deformation or scaling inconsistencies. For non-deformable elements (e.g., heavy buckles, metallic buttons), consider defining them as Accessories or using Rigid Conform in Character Creator for more reliable results.

Topology Planning for Morphing and Data Integrity

Accommodating Extreme Body Morphs

Pre-emptive Mesh Density: The most significant anatomical changes in Character Creator occur in the chest, abdomen, and glutes. Sufficient polygon density in these areas is mandatory to prevent mesh penetration (clipping) and visible faceting, and to ensure smooth deformation across body morph variations.

Mesh Validation and Data Reset

Ensuring Data Integrity: Before proceeding to UV unwrapping or skin rigging, perform Reset XForm (3ds Max) or Freeze Transformations (Maya). This forces recalculation of transformation data and helps expose latent mesh issues not visible in the viewport. Perform these resets regularly throughout production to maintain clean transforms and avoid failures in later pipeline stages.

Mandatory Quality Control (QC) Checklist

Before submitting final assets, conduct a thorough self-inspection for the following issues. Adherence is critical for seamless integration into the CC pipeline.

A. Extraneous Vertices

Definition: Remove all stray vertices that do not contribute to edge flow or surface structure, as these can cause artifacts or singular point errors during Skin Weighting.

B. Isolated Points and Faces

Definition: Ensure there are no floating vertices or disconnected faces (non-manifold geometry). All geometry must be a functional part of the intended garment mesh.

C. Unnecessary Faces

Definition: Eliminate hidden or redundant polygons not visible from the exterior. This optimizes real-time performance and prevents backface clipping issues within CC.

D. Overlapping Unwelded Vertices

Definition: Identify and merge vertices that share spatial coordinates but are not connected. Unwelded vertices may cause the mesh to "explode" or split during Conform or Smooth operations in Character Creator.

E. Inverted Faces (Flipped Faces)

Definition: Check for faces with reversed surface orientation. These will appear transparent or cause black shading artifacts in the PBR Shader.

F. Inverted Normals

Definition: Ensure all vertex normals point in the correct direction. Proper orientation is critical for accurate light interaction and surface shading.

G. N-Gons (Polygons with >4 Sides)

Definition: Identify and resolve any polygons with five or more sides. All geometry must be converted to Quads (recommended for deformation) or Triangles to ensure stable rigging and animation.

Maya Model Cleanup and Geometry Validation SOP

Finalizing Mesh Data (Delete History)

Procedure: Select the object, then navigate to Edit > Delete All by Type > Non-Deformer History. Using "Non-Deformer History" removes modeling iterations while preserving nodes required for rigging and animation.

Common Geometry Issues and Corrective Measures

Unclosed Edges (Open Holes)

Issue: Unintended open boundaries, often found at garment seams or mesh edges.
Correction

Enter Edge Mode.
Use Select > Select Border Edge Tool to highlight all open boundaries.
Use Mesh > Fill Hole to seal the gap, or use the Target Weld Tool to close specific vertices manually.

Overlapping Faces (Coplanar Geometry)

Issue: Faces overlapping or occupying nearly the same spatial coordinates, causing UV conflicts or Z-fighting.
Correction

Enter Face Mode.
Use Mesh > Cleanup with "Overlapping Geometry" enabled to highlight problem areas.
Adjust face positions with the Move Tool or delete redundant faces to maintain clean topology.

Inconsistent Face Normals

Issue: Faces oriented in opposite directions, causing transparency or shading artifacts in the PBR renderer.
Correction

Enter Face Mode.
Navigate to Display > Polygons > Face Normals to visualize orientation.
Use Mesh Display > Reverse to flip specific faces, or Mesh Display > Conform to unify all normals.

Overlapping Unwelded Vertices

Issue: Vertices that appear connected but are detached, causing the mesh to split during animation.
Correction: Use the Mesh > Cleanup tool with the Merge Vertices option and an appropriate tolerance to combine overlapping points into a single, manifold mesh.

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