Shirt for Skip4d Fox Base

Hi there!

This lovely aftermarket accessory for Skip4d's adorable Fox base was lovingly handcrafted in Blender by Matrices!

https://skip4d.gumroad.com/l/fox This asset requires the skip4d Fox Base to function. This asset does not contain anything from the fox base unitypackage and is the shirt I made only.

WHAT YOU GET IN THE PACKAGE

• FoxShirtbyMatrices.unitypackage - Has all of the shirt-related scene, prefabs, textures, other files, animations, .fbx and a copy of the .blend for manual installation.
• FoxShirtbyMatrices.psd - A relatively simple psd file with layers to help you texture your shirt.

REQUIRED ASSETS

• Skip4d's fox base of course https://skip4d.gumroad.com/l/fox
• Poiyomi shader Version 7.3.050 was used https://www.poiyomi.com/
• VRCFury for creator companion from https://vrcfury.com/download

Optional stuff

• Blender for manual installation, The blender version used to create this asset was 3.4.1
• Image editing program that can open .psds (I use gimp)
• pumkin avatar tools if you are installing stuff manually https://github.com/rurre/PumkinsAvatarTools

ABOUT THIS ITEM

This is the first time I have tried to make an accessory available for others to use and I have tried to make it easy for everyone of all skill levels by utilizing the add-on script VRCFury.

Note: I have minimal experience with Quest/Android and no way to usefully test it on that platform, so as a result this is not an optimized item for quest/android. You may be able to upload it to the platform but it will likely push your model into poor/very poor rating and not be readily viewable by others unless they go out of their way to show your avatar.

USING VRCFURY

This shirt uses VRCFury's features:

* "Armature Link" so the shirt will move with your avatar.

* "Blendshape Link" so any blendshapes you've picked for your character will be matched up with the shirt.

* and "Full Controller" where the animations and menu system I made to operate the shirt will get hooked up with your existing controller.

HOW TO ADD

1: Install VRCFury for creator companion from https://vrcfury.com/download

Note: If this is not installed it will show a "Missing Script"

2: Install the Poiyomi shader if it is not already in this project. Version 7.3.050 was used.

3: Install the .unitypackage for this asset.

4: Drag and drop the prefab titled "VRCFuryFoxShirtbyMatrices" in the Edits by Matrices folder onto the hierachy base of your avatar. The same level as the Physbones and Mane gameobjects if they exist on your avatar.

5: Upload your Avatar! The long sleeve shirt will appear on by default in game.

CONSIDERATIONS

Using VRCFury will allow you to add this to your avatar with no editing in blender and minimal editing in Unity. That's great, sounds easy! However the one thing to consider with this method is that there may be some slight body clipping during certain movements, since the Fox Base did not have any clothing-specific blendshapes added by default to animate or shrink the body during times clothing is worn. So some clipping may be present or happen due to that reason. Around the arm or tummy area depending on your chosen blendshape combination. You could try the provided additional "extra chunky" blend shape to thicken up your clothing, it is a copy of the Body - Chunky blendshape that isnt controlled by VRCFury or any of the animations, so you can use it as an option. Or you could follow the instructions on manually adding the clothing in Blender, which includes steps on creating a blend shape to shrink the body for wearing.

HOW TO CUSTOMISE

The shirt colors can be customized in the Clothing menu that gets added ingame.

Note: The default colors are some neutral colors that are often difficult to achieve with the hue/sat/brightness sliders so thats why it starts out as a green or brown.

You are welcome and encouraged to further customise the base colors or textures! If you decide to edit the textures you have 4 options to edit. The top left, top right, bottom left and bottom right are each a different color or texture the shirt can be. The shirt texture is adjusted by telling the shader to reference those 4 positions so you can make a different shirt texture or color for each of the 4 areas.

I'm sorry I do not use substance painter, however a .blend set up to texture paint and a .psd with a labeled UV map are provided.

HOW TO INSTALL MANUALLY

This is how I end up doing things so I can optimize my models myself and just add the parts I want to. The blender version used to create this asset was 3.4.1

1. There is a .blend file I have provided that you can file > append to your original Skip4d Fox blender project. Save As to create a separate save.

2. Move the shirt into the same collection

3. Parent with empty groups

4. Delete the extra armature object

4. In Object Data Properties (Has a green triangle icon) hit the + icon to create 2 Shape Keys. One titled "Wear Short Sleeves" and another titled "Wear Sweater" -- the animations in Unity are already set up for these specific names. Creating these blendshapes will decrease the likelyhood that the clothing will clip during movement ingame.

5. Enter "edit mode." Work on one blendshape at a time, such as Wear Sweater for the sweater-length shirt sleeves.

6. Set the blendshape influence Value to 1 so the edits you make will be saved to that Shape Key.

6. Select the mesh that appears underneath the Shirt. For best results I tend to select by edge loops that go around the arms and torso, deselecting any that go across the body. I leave 1 or 2 edge loops away from the edges of the sleeves, base of neck, elbows or wrists so things look smooth there.

6. Use shrink/fatten (3rd option from the bottom of the tool icon panel in edit mode on blender 3.4.1 or shortcut key alt+S) to shrink the mesh that will appear under the clothing and write that shrunken state to the Shape Key.

7. Repeat this process on the 2nd blendshape for Wear Short Sleeves for the t-shirt length sleeves.

8. Under Scene settings (icon is a cone with a sphere and a dot) double check that the Units is expanded and Length is set to "centimeters"

9. Switch to Unity and make a duplicate of the skip4d_FoxBase.fbx rename your duplicate to something like FoxClothing.fbx or something you will remember.

10. Back in blender, In Object Mode, Select all (shortcut key a) and file > export > as fbx.

11. Select the object types "Armature, Mesh" Export settings "Apply Scalings, FBX Custom Scale" and check the box to "Add Leaf Bones," uncheck "bake animation" and export the FBX overwriting your renamed duplicate directly into the unity project folder. FoxClothing.fbx Make sure the file fully writes the save before switching to Unity.

12. In unity make a duplicate of your character you will be working with. Control+D shortcut key. (you can also automate this process by using the Pumkin Avatar Tools addon and drag the fbx into the scene and copy from an example avatar to set up the new one.)

13. If you are not using pumkin avatar tools, change the reference avatar in several locations: Under the Animator to the custom mesh. on the Body Skinned Mesh Renderer, on the Chestfluff Skinned Mesh Renderer, and on the Mane Skinned Mesh renderer.

14. Duplicate one of the Skinned Mesh renderers, such as Body, and replace the mesh with the shirt mesh. Rename it to "Shirt"

You can now merge the FX and Parameters with yours either by manually copy and pasting each entry, or using an automated tool such as Avatars 3.0 Manager. Add the "Clothing menu" as a reference within your menu too!

HOW TO ADD IN UNITY

1: Install VRCFury for creator companion from https://vrcfury.com/download

Note: If this is not installed it will show a "Missing Script"

For advanced users: If you are doing a manual install advanced users can safely remove this missing script on any prefabs used in Unity if they never plan to use vrcfury so it does not prevent upload.

2: Install the Poiyomi shader if it is not already in this project. Version 7.3.050 was used.

4: Drag and drop the prefab titled "VRCFuryFoxShirtbyMatrices" in the Edits by Matrices folder onto the hierachy base of your avatar.

3: Upload your Avatar! The long sleeve shirt will appear by default in game.