The new Clothy3D tool promises to make character pipelines more flexible, at no cost, at least for now. The software is designed to auto-fit and rig clothing models across a wide range of 3D characters and platforms, offering a set of converters that could connect otherwise separate workflows.

What It Does

Clothy3D can auto-fit and rig clothes from sources like Marvelous Designer, Daz3D, or iClone Character Creator, and also supports 18 body types of Metahuman. It transfers skeletons and skin weights between characters, rigs static meshes with existing skeletons, and even wraps mesh topology and textures from one character to another. Input and output are handled in FBX, and the devs mention support for OBJ and DXF in converters.

Why It’s Interesting

The tool effectively acts as a universal adapter: skeleton transfers, mesh wrapping, and skin-weight conversions could be used to move assets across different ecosystems without tedious manual setup. For pipelines that juggle assets between Unreal Engine, Daz, or Marvelous Designer, that flexibility might save hours.

On top of that, there’s a marketplace attached, where assets can be discovered, bought, and sold. Right now, content is sparse, but the structure is in place and depending on adoption, this could grow into a useful exchange hub.

Caveats

All of this comes with a big asterisk: Clothy3D is brand new and still in a beta-like state. It’s free to use at the moment, but untested in production environments. While the promise of “fit anything to anything” is tempting, reliability across real-world projects remains to be seen. If you’re looking for a weekend experiment or if your pipeline involves a lot of cross-platform character work, Clothy3D might be worth a spin. Just don’t expect the stability of a battle-tested DCC plugin yet.

Interface, Scenes & Exports

Clothy3D’s UI is built around a three-scene viewport layout: left, middle, and right scenes all sharing a synchronized camera view so you always see from the same angle. The left scene acts as a composite view, reflecting the combination of whatever is imported in the middle and right scenes; the right and middle scenes remain independent and each can host its own models or assets. Depending on which tool you’re using (Cloth Convertor, Character Convertor, etc.), the roles of these scenes adapt accordingly. For example, the middle may show cloth, the right the base character, and the left their merged result.

In terms of the UI controls: it features a layered tool-button system, so choosing a top-level action shows context-sensitive button sets beneath it. Hovering on a tool button triggers a tooltip after a moment, helping with discoverability. You can also control viewing options such as whether faces are rendered front/back, or switch the “Color Mode” (normal color, black, or white) to enforce consistent visibility, especially useful for transparent meshes or to show stitching faces.

Mouse navigation is standard: left-drag orbits, middle-drag pans, mouse wheel zooms; the right button largely is reserved for editing mesh elements (faces, vertices, edges) in the middle and right scenes, or for panning in the left view.

Regarding import/export: the middle and right scenes can each independently import and export their own models or assets. The left scene doesn’t allow direct imports (it’s purely an aggregation), but whenever something is loaded into middle or right, it also appears in left. In the “Account & Import/Export” section, you can also see your user account info (e-mail, remaining monthly exports). Export is capped, users get a limited number of exports per month.

Thus the interface is designed to provide parallel views (source / target / result) in lockstep, while keeping editing tools, visibility toggles, and import/export flows relatively consistent across the different modules.

Character Convertor

The Character Convertor tool lets you ingest an arbitrary rigged tetrapod base character (in FBX or DAE format) and produce a standardized interchangeable base character asset. First, you import your rigged base character into the middle scene. Optionally, you can clean up or edit that character, for example, delete unused meshes like clothes or weapons, duplicate or align meshes, hide faces, adjust vertex positions, or even tweak skeletons and skin weights.

Then you wrap a target interchangeable base character (in the right scene) to match the imported rig. Two wrapping approaches exist: applying an existing deformer template (faster, if one matches the character topology) or manually deforming via point/face matching (with a Character Builder or import of partial shapes, then matching points/faces). As you wrap, you can iteratively adjust both source and target geometry to improve the match. After wrapping, you configure parameters in the processing flow, run automatic steps, and finally export your new interchangeable base character to disk.

In effect, the Character Convertor acts as a bridge: you bring in a rig you want to preserve or reuse, deform a canonical interchangeable skeleton mesh to match it, and output a version you can reliably use in downstream tools like cloth fitting, skeleton transfers, or asset marketplaces.

Tutorials

Clothy3D already comes with a sizeable set of tutorials to help users ramp up. There’s a Studio Quickstart that introduces the core UI and navigation, along with dedicated quickstarts for Character Convertor, Cloth Convertor, Dress3D, Skeleton Transfer, and Deform3D. Beyond the basics, workflow guides walk through Unreal Engine integration (UE5.4), building characters via the Character Builder, wrapping and matching meshes, and using deformer templates for quicker results.

The clothing workflow is covered extensively: tutorials explain converting standard garments, preparing clothes for Metahuman, simulating and rendering cloth, working with Marvelous Designer assets, managing double-sided or layered clothing, and fine-tuning shape control points. Other deep dives address transfer points for skin weights, keeping selected parts rigid, smoothing weights, or adding auxiliary bones. There are also lessons on editing and converting skeletons, rigging static characters, handling complex footwear like high-heel shoes, and preparing/publishing assets to the marketplace.

The post Clothy3D: New Tool for Clothing Auto-Fit, Rigging & Mesh Transfers first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

MetaHumans have never been easier to dress. Hologress has officially released the public beta for its MetaTailor Unreal Engine Bridge plugin, promising true single-click transfer of both MetaHumans and fitted clothing between Unreal Engine 5.6 and MetaTailor. If your pipeline includes wardrobe changes, this may be the plugin that finally stops the FBX shuffling.

MetaTailor, a 3D clothing solution aimed at making virtual wardrobe fitting as simple as possible, already works with a wide variety of avatars and retail clothing assets. The new Bridge plugin, now in open beta, brings this automation directly into Unreal workflows—minus the manual export and import headaches.

How It Works: Send, Fit, Return

Start in Unreal Engine 5.6 by selecting your MetaHuman and hitting “Send to MT.” This exports the avatar into MetaTailor, baking down materials for compatibility. Inside MetaTailor, users can auto-fit clothing (including most retail 3D assets) with automatic layer sorting and skin weighting. The plugin also supports sculpting tweaks and attaching accessories directly in MetaTailor.

Once everything fits, a single click on either “Send Outfit to Unreal” or “Send Avatar to Unreal” sends the results straight back to Unreal. No manual file handling, no hair-pulling required.

Who Gets In: Beta Terms and Pricing

The Bridge is available as a public beta for Windows users with a free MetaTailor account, but slots are limited—so registration is mandatory. The free version includes up to 10 FBX exports per month, and access to the plugin for testing. A Pro subscription, priced at $35 per month or $336 per year, removes export limits and unlocks more advanced features. MetaTailor itself is available on a rental-only basis, with no perpetual license option in sight.

Compatibility and Integration Notes

As of now, the Bridge plugin is tested only on Unreal Engine 5.6. According to Hologress, a similar MetaTailor integration is already available for Reallusion’s Character Creator (Pro required). A Unity Bridge plugin is “coming soon,” so Unity shops will have to wait a little longer before jumping on the one-click clothing bandwagon.

Good News for Pipeline Artists (with the Usual Caveat)

For pipeline artists, technical directors, riggers, and anyone stuck manually dressing digital actors, the MetaTailor Bridge plugin is a welcome bit of automation. The click-based round-trip replaces tedious export/import cycles, layer management, and skin-weighting with something resembling simplicity. Of course, this is a beta. As with any early-stage tool, users should rigorously test stability and output quality before deploying it in a production environment.

The post MetaTailor’s One-Click Dress-Up: Unreal Engine Bridge Plugin Arrives in Public Beta first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.