You are reading a tutorial for a legacy version of MustardUI (version 0.11 and below). If you are interested in the new version, go to Tutorial.

Tutorial

Updated for version: 0.10.4

In this page you can find a tutorial on how to use the MustardUI. Most of the options are already self-explenatory. Also, hovering the mouse cursor over any option you can see more informations about what it does. In the following I will explain in more details how some of the properties/functionalities work. If you are interested in a quick guide on how to increase viewport performaces/ render times and you don't bother about the details, go to the end of this page in the Optimization section.

Appending in another project

From version >= 0.6.0, no additional action is required. The UI script will be appended and run automatically. Remember to restart Blender after appending. Equivalently, if you know how to do it, you can run the script in the Blender Text editor.

If you are using an old model, you can find the information on how to appendint the UI in a new project in the Legacy Tutorial.

Body Settings

Some body properties, which affect only the body mesh, are available:

• Smooth Correction: this modifier smooth the body mesh when you pose the model. This can decrease the performance of the viewport, therefore if you experience viewport lag while posing, disable this. But remember to re-enable it before rendering, otherwise the outfit might clip with the body.
• Subdivision Surface (Render and Viewport): the subdivision surface modifier subdivides the body mesh in order to smooth it. This will also affect the rendering of the shadows in Cycles, helping to mitigate bad effects like the "terminator problem" (blocky shadows). You can control the modifier in both render and viewport mode. While it's common to enable it in render mode, it's a waste of computational resources to add in viewport if not to make quick previews of the result. In fact, this modifier is really computationally expensive and can greatly decrease not only the performance in viewport, but also rendering times. Therefore I advise to enable it only during the final rendering. Also note that enavling the modifier for in viewport will freeze Blender for a while (depending on your PC specs, up to several minutes). In addition to the switcher, there's also the level slider. With a level = 0 you are actually disabling the subdivision modifier, and therefore you won't see any effect even if the modifier is enabled. You can increase the level, but consider that a bigger number of levels means an increased stress on your PC, and there's no guarantee that the result will be appreciable. In some cases, a bigger number of level might lead to worse results! Finally note that changing the level number with the viewport modifier enabled will require a recomputation, and therefore will freeze Blender during this.
• Normals Auto Smooth: this function smooth the normals in order to obtain smoother shadows. This can affect performance and therefore it can be turned off. You can re-enable it before renderings or for previews.

Outfits & Hair Settings

This section of the UI is used to change the outfit rendered and some of their properties.

Outfit list

In the first drop down-menu you can choose the outfit you would like to display on the character. After choosing that (obviously with the "Nude" option as an exception) a list of the outfit parts will appear. You can choose to enable/disable the single outfit parts clicking on the objects of the list.

Note: enabling/disabling outfit pieces will enable/disable them in both viewport and render mode.

Functionalities:

• Enabling/disabling outfit pieces will automatically enable/disable body masks (if available) to avoid clipping.
• If more texture options are available, a color selector will be available.
• Near every outfit piece there's also a lock icon (untoggled by default). Clicking on the lock you will "lock" the model, i.e. changing the outfit in the drop-down menu will not disable the locked outfit pieces. This can be useful if you want an outfit with some pieces from a different outfit. You can unlock the locked outfit pieces in the list of the model (clicking on the toggled lock) or in the list of the locked item that will appear under the main outfit pieces list (as you can see in the figure).
• From version 0.10.0, some outfits (or Extras) might have a cogwheel near the aformentioned lock. Clicking on this will show some additional settings that are specific for that part of the outfit.

Outfit global properties

These outfit global properties affects the available oufits linked with the model. No other object will be changed by these properties. For instance, if you append external models to the scene, these will not be affected by these properties and you will have to enable/disable the modifiers manually in the mesh properties tab.

The available global properties are

• Smooth Correction: this modifier smooth the outfits mesh when they are posed. This can decrease the performance in the viewport, therefore if you experience viewport lag while posing, disable this. But remember to re-enable it before rendering, otherwise the outfit might clip with the body.
• Shrinkwrap: this modifier ensures that the outfit is always outside the body mesh, i.e. it does not clip with the body. This can decrease the performance in the viewport, therefore if you experience viewport lag while posing, disable this. But remember to re-enable it before rendering, otherwise the outfit might clip with the body.
• Maks: this option hide some body mesh as a way to prevent clipping. This can greatly decrease the performance in the viewport, therefore if you experience viewport lag while posing, disable this. But remember to re-enable it before rendering, otherwise the outfit might clip with the body.
• Normals Auto Smooth: this function smooth the normals in order to obtain smoother shadows. This can affect performance and therefore it can be turned off. You can re-enable it before renderings or for previews.

Optimization

Viewport

To quickly optimize viewport performance with the UI:

• disable the Subdivision Surface (Viewport).
• disable the Smooth Correction in the Body properties, but remember to re-enable it before rendering!
• disable the Smooth Correction in the Outfit global properties, but remember to re-enable it before rendering!
• disable the Shrinkwrap in the Outfit global properties, but remember to re-enable it before rendering!
• disable the Normals Auto Smooth in the Body and Outfit global properties. You can re-enable it before rendering.
• if the above does not work, also disable the Masks in the Outfit global properties, but remember to re-enable it before rendering!
• if Blender is slow in selecting bones, try to uncheck OpenGL Depth Picking

With these settings the performances should immediatly increase. You might experience some clipping between the body and the outfits, but this can be easily fixed re-enabling the properties above before rendering (or for quick previews).

Render

To quickly optimize render times with the UI:

• disable the Subdivision Surface (Render) or, if the result is bad (you can check this enabling Subdivision Surface (Viewport) for a quick preview), decrease the Level number.