| Tutorial : High heel shoes

Version : Genesis 8

Skill level : Advanced
I recommend working through basic rigging tutorials first

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Length : 20:45

Walkthrough on setting up high heels

  • Pose Genesis using either the Left/Right Foot Heeled Shoe pose controls that’s included, or create your own pose using bend on the feet and save out the pose.
  • Create shoes in your modeler on the posed Genesis.
    • If you find it difficult to model the shoe in the A pose you can pose Genesis 8 in a standing position before you export (just make sure you save the pose so you can use it again for moving the shoe to the A pose). Since shoes are symmetrical you only need to model one side – I usually model the left shoe
    • Import the left shoe onto the standing pose Genesis 8, parent the shoe to Genesis 8 feet and zero Genesis 8. The shoe will move with Genesis 8 and will now be in the correct position. Export and mirror in your modeler for the right shoe.
  • Import as an obj and apply to pose to Genesis to make sure the shoe still fits.
  • To transfer the pose to the shoes click on a posed Genesis and select the Joint Control Tool, and right click in the viewport.
    • Edit | Bake Joint Rotations.
  • Use the transfer utility to fit the shoe obj to Genesis. Save the shoes and create a fresh new document. Load Genesis, load shoes and apply your high heel pose.

Weightmapping

  • Fix the weight mapping on left shoe. Select the left toe face groups and lock the weightmaps for the metatarsals and foot. Fill in the selected faces with 100% weight and unlock the weightmaps, smooth the toe bend. This will put all the weight into the toe bone and prevent the individual toes from distorting the shoes.
  • Zero the foot pose as well as all pose controls and bend the toes up. You want to create a zero pose morph that you can lock. In this zero pose you have to make sure that the shoe fits properly since you’ll use this as a baseline for the foot poses, adding on top of this the up and down JCMs. Lock the pose to 100% for both max and minimum since you don’t want the morph to change.
  • Now you want to mirror the weightmap from the left shoe to the right shoe. Since shoes are usually symmetrical all you need to do is select the left foot of the shoe in the scene tab, right click in the viewport window
    • Weight Editing | Weight Map Symmetry
    • Mode | Entire Figure, Axis X, select + to – (Left to Right), tick Create maps if they do not exist

JCMs

  • Import the 0_Pose morph with Morph Loader Pro
    • Rename the file in Morph Loader Pro to 0_Pose_L and accept
  • Import the 0_Pose morph again, rename in Morph Loader Pro to 0_Pose_R
    • under Morph Mirroring select X : + to – (Left to Right) and click accept, lock the pose to 100% for both max and minimum and click the lock key on the Parameter dial for both shoes so users can’t change the settings
    • In theory I could have used the same morph for both shoes and dialed it as one morph but I like having the option of 2 morphs independent of each other.
  • Apply the foot pose and import a copy of the shoe obj to check against
  • Change the foot pose limit on Genesis to 75 by going to the parameter dial on foot bend and changing the max to 75. Do that for both feet.
  • Bend the left foot on Genesis down to 75 and export an obj set to base resolution and smoothing turned off or set to collide against none
    • pJCMFootDwn_L.obj
  • Fix your morph in a modeler and import with Morph Loader Pro
    • Reverse Deformations : Yes
    • Overwrite Existing : Deltas only
  • Bend down the right foot on Genesis to 75
  • Import pJCMFootDwn_L.obj again and rename in in Morph Loader Pro
    • pJCMFootDwn_R.obj
    • Under Morph Mirroring select X : + to – (Left to Right)
  • Select the left foot and Genesis and bend up to the max
  • Export the obj at base resolution and smoothing off or set to collide against none
    • pJCMFootUp_40_L.obj
  • Fix your morph in a modeler and import with Morph Loader Pro
    • Reverse Deformations : Yes
    • Overwrite Existing : Deltas only
  • Repeat the process for the right foot bend up and mirror the morph
  • For the last step apply the foot pose to Genesis
  • Import your original shape twice, one for each foot rename in in Morph Loader Pro
    • Shape_L.obj
    • Shape_R.obj
  • Set the dial on the morphs Min to 0 and Max to 100
  • You can then ERC freeze the Shape morph a couple of ways, depending on your shoe
    • ERC freeze Shape_L.obj to the left foot in the posed position so that its at 100% when the pose is applied and zero percent when the feet is flat OR
    • ERC freeze with the foot bend down to 75 or 60
  • Repeat for the right shoe

Fix morphs with Geometry Editor Tool

If you need to remove either the left foot or right foot vertices from a morph its easy with the Geometry Editor Tool

  • Select all the vertices on the shoe that you want to remove from the morph
  • Go to the parameter dials and favourite the morph that’s affecting the shoe (click the little heart to solid)
  • Right click in the viewport
    • Morph Editing | Clear Selected Deltas from Favourites
  • Make sure to remove the morph again from favourites (outline heart) so that you don’t accidently remove vertices when you use the same process on another morph

Using Pose Controls with high heels

  • The advantage of using the foot pose controls for high heels included with Genesis is when you apply other poses to the figure you can then easily select each foot and adjust bend to fit the pose. If you don’t use the foot pose controls the user has to go back to the product directory to find the foot pose for your shoes.
  • Custom pose controls for shoes should however be baked, to keep the amount of pose controls on Genesis to a minimum.
  • The only exemption is the high heel pose that is included with Genesis
    • Left Foot Heeled Shoe
    • Right Foot Heeled Shoe

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