The Main Character - Sculpting the Clothes

In order to get the sufficient detail I wanted in our character's outfit, I decided to use zbrush to sculpt the clothes and to alter the geometry overall.

When I was happy with my base meshes, I sent them off to zbrush.

I started sculpting the trousers first as I felt that they needed the most attention in terms of wrinkle and detail.

I started with the stand brush and dam standard brushes trying to cut into the geometry.

However I really wasn't too happy with the results I was getting.

I ended up downloading some alphas for cloth wrinkles and gave it another shot.

The alphas were really helpful as they created realistic folds off the bat, I just had to think realistically of where to place them. I also used the Move tool, to pullout some of the bagginess of the leg mesh.

I did not bother adding any texture to the material, as I intended to use dDO to create my textures, which would add texture to the normal maps. I did not wish to interfere with that, by adding my own texture to the sculpt.

I followed the same method with the sleeve:

Thankfully I already had some creases in the actual the mesh, so this proved helpful when it came to the positioning and the placement of the wrinkles.

I repeated this method with the tunic:

In this case I wanted there to be a clear difference in the material, between the cloth wrap and tunic. I used a hard edged buildup brush to create the edges along the cloth wrap. I also used the move tool to bring out the wrinkles and indent on the shoulder, where his belt strap will rest.

I had to consider the same things for the tunic's coat tails. I placed more emphasis on the top wrinkles as that will be where the belt and cloth wraps.

I didn't go too much into detail, as we will be using Unity 5's cloth physics to animate the coat tails. This will create dynamic wrinkles in the mesh.

Once I was happy with the detail I put into the outfit, I used the same method as I did on the face, to bounce the detail back into a lower subdivision of the mesh, before sending it back to 3ds Max.

I enjoyed spending more time in zBrush, I feel now that I have a better grasp of the tools I can really work on detailing my models. 

I think in future, I would like to experiment more with the subtools and having everything as one mesh, rather than working on everything one piece at a tool.