Hey fellow modeling and rendering colleagues,
most recently I was modeling headphones with some stitches (modeled in Fusion 360) - how do you guys usually make stitches? Which software are you using? Blender, ZBrush, …? Is there a specific software to create stitches? Are you adding the stitches with maps directly in Keyshot?
Would be great to hear your experience and if there is a faster way than modeling threads along a path 
Just commenting to follow this thread as I’d also like to know
So far I never modelled them but I created them using Substance Painter. It really depends how close you will see the stitches I think.
The advantage is that it’s much faster to create but another good thing is that because it’s the same geometry you paint on it will also generate the normal maps. If you model stitches they do penetrate the fabric but they don’t cause a ‘dent/wrinkle’ in the fabric.
So if you only make the geometry for the stitches you still need to create a normal map for the fabric. Often that’s not done which makes really clean and nice stitches but there’s no interaction between the stitch and the fabric in height etc.
ArtStation - Seams and stitches brushes, Dmitry Fedorov
Above is a set of brushes for ZBrush but they show what I mean, a stitch is not just a little wire but it has an effect on the material below.
I think you can do both in ZBrush but in ZBrush it’s common to actually change the geometry and add detail with your brush. With Substance Painter you basically just fix the right maps while drawing a stitch. You could of course use a height for displacement but if your stiches end up as big as that jacket in above link it’s a waste of geometry and render times.
This might be an interesting video as well, shows both ZBrush and Substance Painter: (1) Making STITCHES in ZBRUSH and SUBSTANCE 3D PAINTER! - YouTube
The thing he doesn’t mention but is worth mentioning is that Substance Painter also has an ‘Autostitch’ feature. That will automatically stitch your model using the UV islands.
In the end it’s as always depending on what you’re aiming for. If you want to have a model you can also show in an online portfolio it can’t have stiches with all geometry since it would be way too heavy. If it’s a product you want to render totally realistic with extreme close-ups you could consider to create the geometry. In fact, you could also use that geometry again to ‘bake’ the stitches for an online presentation.
Looking around on my desk I see stitches in my racing gloves (don’t ask) my headset and my jeans. But on this distance I don’t need the actual geometry to make it realistic.
Hey Philipp, I know you’re familiar with my content, so sorry if you’ve already seen this. I did the exact same thing you mentioned. It’s documented in this video. https://youtu.be/uDgvT5GeCJM
I figured you may find it helpful to see how I did it with Fusion 360 and KeyShot.
I thought it worked out really nice in that video but also because the surface is hard enough so you won’t have much wrinkles around the stitches. I liked the way you put the wrinkles on the ear pieces, fast way of getting a nice result.
I bought quite a few of those wrinkle brushes from ArtStation and still need to test how well they would work in 3D paint directly in KS.
Haha, to be honest, I posted this topic not only because I created some stitches myself recently, BUT ALSO because I watched exactly this video just before.
I think you mentioned this video in your latest newsletter.
Even though this is an easy and fast approach, I wanted to see how to make it even more detailed - as @oscar.rottink mentioned, the squezed material from the stitching and also the holes where the thread is going through were missing. I tried it by creating the stitches, duplicating them, move them slightly into the leather and cut to create the holes (felt sorry for my computer though). Still didn’t look that realistic.
But @oscar.rottink mentioned some nice solutions and I will take a look.
Thanks to both of you!
Ah! I see. Yeah, unfortunately, for me, I think the next step would be to add ‘sculpting’ to the toolbag and recruit Blender for something like that. A buddy of mine (David Merz) has done some beautiful stitching in there: https://www.vyzdom.com/work?itemId=dil7bu3amze54w7g0erahyylsl6hzy After seeing that, I was like hmm… maybe I should add that tool for softgoods.
For me, it depends on the fidelity required. If it requires high fidelity, I would model the stitching in Blender then array it along a curve that was extract out of the mesh using a edge loop.
If the fidelity doesn’t matter as much, CLO/Marvelous Designer does a decent enough job creating stitching, all though it is just a texture map.
Oh, thanks for the tip, haven’t heard of those before.
Nice work of your buddy. Would like to be as good as him as well, but so far I have almost no experience in Blender and Co., despite a tasty donut.
Not even sure if I can combine blender files with Fusion 360 or Inventor and vice versa…
You can use fusion files in Vanilla blender if you export out a STL. You would need an add on if you are wanting to import in a STP. Other viable options is to use a OBJ or FBX which is a popular solution. You can either export directly from Fusion or you can use the bridge from fusion to keyshot then export out the files type you want.
Oh that’s great! Thanks for that.
Yeah, that’s something I’m hoping to investigate soon. My friends who’ve used both have warned me that there is no easy solution for this. It often requires multiple software and import/exports to get a decent NURBs model with useable topology into Blender. Bummer. But just the reality as of now.
I’ve noticed that KeyShot itself does really well as converter from nurbs to polygons. In a lot of other tools you can set the amount of detail you want your polygon model to have but in KS you can actually preview it using the re-tesselate option and than save it as fbx.
A even better approach is not using a nurbs based CAD tool to model more organic shaped things which need stitches. That will save you a lot of trouble/time since it will be also easier to get a nice UV-unwrap if you have clean topology.
And if you want to use sculpt tools like the ones in ZBrush or Blender it’s pretty important to have nice geometry to prevent weird artifacts. You can de-triangulate an FBX exported file so you get more quads but it will always need adjustments. Most software have functions to do some kind of retopology so you get better quad based model but all those steps are not needed if you create your model in a polygon model so you stay in control.
Another thing I would like to mention is the amount of polygons. While KeyShot doesn’t mind having millions a lot of polygon modellers do. Besides, it makes it a terrible model to work with if you need to make adjustments. That’s why subdivision modelling is works really well, you have a low polygon model with all quads and with every time you subdivide you’ll get twice the detail. So basically you work on low polygon but the more detail you need in the end (depending on how close the renders will be) you can export it with more subdivisions.
This is for example a nurbs helmet I converted in KeyShot. Left you see the fbx and on the right the fbx after I used de-triangulate.
Still the model on the right has more than twice the amount of polygons than when someone would create it from scratch in a polygon modeller. And it’s far from perfect which makes it much harder to create nice UV seams etc.
I know, long and boring story but I could have saved me a enormous amount of time if I didn’t puzzle with existing models but just would model it again, with my current knowledge that is.
Nurbs are really nice because they are precise and fit very well in a pipeline where items have to be actually produced. But for all other things like real time renderers, models for games etc polygon models are the way to go. As far as I know KeyShot is also the only renderer that actually can render nurbs models (in CPU mode).
it depends on how close the camera is to the subject but usually you can get away with textures.
if you need stitches as geometry, ZBrush, Modo have premade brushes and tools for that, however in the latter you’ll need UVs and proper edge flow so you can set edges to place stitches along so you may need to do some retopology first.
I prefer to model stitches for my work. Its more geo but that ceased to be an issue for rendering years ago. This is how I make stitches for teh shoes we create at New Balance and for my character work- https://youtu.be/5ZT-oBPL3-c?si=8xBXMC8KCMcd8QAO
Wow, really should try that once. Currently do the stiches mostly in Substance Painter but that’s also because the geometry is for example from a cabin of an aircraft and I just try to get a better livery/texture look in game. Great way to practice with Painter. But real geometry always wins of course.
Herman knows how to stich as well: Leather Bag IMP/INC - Amazing Shots - Luminaries (keyshot.com)
I also use the Stich tool for welding seams, Zippers and more…
Zipper example: https://studio.youtube.com/video/y4uFucym8MI/edit
