How to Put Splatoon 2 Clothing on Splatoon 3 Player Models - Blender Tutorial

[Jasper7438]

I'm sorry if this post is in the wrong section, if there is a better section for this type of post, please tell me!

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Trying to put on Splatoon 2 clothing on Splatoon 3 character models doesn't work automatically because they changed the bone names / # of bones between games. Here is how you can do it!

The process involves renaming all of the S2 vertex groups to match the S3 bone names + combining vertex groups when needed.

Note that the S2/S3 player models have different bone placement which can make the S2 clothes deform weirdly with the S3 armature. To fix that, you can manually move the S3 bones in edit mode to match the S2 bone placement. Do this before moving on to the next steps.

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First, import the S2 clothing that you want to attach to a S3 player model. Position it where you want it on the player model and scale it to fit. Once you are happy with the scale and placement of the clothing, press CTRL+A on the clothing to apply transforms. DO NOT DELETE THE ARMATURE!

Do not worry about clipping too much, to make the clipping parts invisible you can use the gear alpha masks provided in the S3 player model download or make your own.

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Second, you have to combine some bone weights since S2 player armatures have more bones than S3 player armatures, I combine the Chest and Spine2 vertex groups and the Crotch vertex groups with their corresponding Leg1 vertex groups using Vertex Weight Mix modifiers. Your clothing model may not contain all of these bones. After combining the weights, the unneeded vertex groups should be removed.

To use the vertex weight mix modifier:

1. Select the clothing model
   
2. Open the modifier tab
   
3. Add a "Vertex Weight Mix Modifier" [you may may need up to three of these]
   
4. Set the "A" group as the vertex group being added to, and the "B" group as the vertex group that will be removed
   
5. Set the "Vertex Set" as "All" and the "Mix Mode" to "Add"
   

Apply the modifiers then remove the unneeded vertex groups.

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Third, you need to rename all of the Splatoon 2 vertex group names to the Splatoon 3 vertex group names. 

I have edited a script I found online to make the renaming bones part easy. The script is included below.

Code:

## This script renames Splatoon clothing model bone names/vertex groups to match those of Splatoon 3 clothing models.
## To use this script, select the armature of a S2 clothing model, then run the script.
## This script is based on this script: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/69505/renaming-bones-with-python.

import bpy

def rename_bones():
   
    dict = {

   
        'root': 'Root',

        'head': 'Head',

        'neck': 'Neck',

        'ear_L': 'Ear_L', 'ear_R': 'Ear_R',


        ## Merge Chest with Spine2 vertex group, then remove Chest vertex group

        'spine2': 'Spine_3',

        'spine1': 'Spine_2',

        'hip': 'Waist',

        'joint_root': 'Spine_1',

       
        'thumb_L': 'Finger_A_1_L', 'thumb_R': 'Finger_A_1_R',

        'fingerA1_L': 'Finger_B_1_L', 'fingerA1_R': 'Finger_B_1_R',

        'fingerA2_L': 'Finger_B_2_L', 'fingerA2_R': 'Finger_B_2_R',

        'fingerB1_L': 'Finger_D_1_L', 'fingerB1_R': 'Finger_D_1_R',

        'fingerB2_L': 'Finger_D_2_L', 'fingerB2_R': 'Finger_D_2_R',


        'hand_L': 'Wrist_L', 'hand_R': 'Wrist_R',

        'arm2sub_L': 'Wrist_Assist_L', 'arm2sub_R': 'Wrist_Assist_R',

        'arm2_L': 'Arm_2_L', 'arm2_R': 'Arm_2_R',

        'arm1sub_L': 'Arm_Assist_L', 'arm1sub_R': 'Arm_Assist_R',

        'arm1_L': 'Arm_1_L', 'arm1_R': 'Arm_1_R',

        'shoulder_L': 'Clavicle_L', 'shoulder_R': 'Clavicle_R',

       
        ## Merge Crotch vertex groups with respective Leg1 vertex groups, then remove Crotch vertex groups

        'leg1_L': 'Leg_1_L', 'leg1_R': 'Leg_1_R',

        'leg1sub_L': 'Leg_Assist_L', 'leg1sub_R': 'Leg_Assist_R',

        'leg2_L': 'Leg_2_L',  'leg2_R': 'Leg_2_R',

        'leg2sub_L': 'Ankle_Assist_L', 'leg2sub_R': 'Ankle_Assist_R',

        'foot_L': 'Ankle_L', 'foot_R': 'Ankle_R',

        'toe_L': 'Toe_L', 'toe_R': 'Toe_R',


    }
   
    for b in bpy.context.object.data.bones:
        if b.name in dict.keys():
            b.name = dict[b.name]

rename_bones()

To run the script:

1. Open the scripting workspace
   
2. Press new, then paste the above script
   
3. Click run
   
4. This should automatically rename the bones and their corresponding vertex groups to their S3 equivalents.
   

Note: Only run scripts that you trust!

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You should now be able to do the steps I have explained here to connect the S2 clothes to the S3 player model: https://www.vg-resource.com/thread-40995.html [How to put clothes/hair models on Splatoon 2/3 player models in Blender].

In the end, the clothes may look somewhat strange or deform weirdly, there is only so much you can do about that without extensive editing. After all, the clothing made for S2 player models, not S3 player models.

I hope that helps you!

~ Jasper