Layered Clothing

Layered clothing accessories are 3D cosmetic items that users can equip and wear on their avatar body, such as pants, t-shirt, jackets, dresses, and more. Unlike rigid accessories that only attach to a specific point on a character, layered clothing stretches and fits over any body type and existing clothing.

To create a custom Roblox accessory for your own experience or to sell on the Marketplace, it's important to start with the following:

Roblox also supports classic clothing, 2D images that can be applied to your character's surface.

Components of a Layered Clothing Accessory

All accessory models are made up of the same base components of a mesh object, textures, and attachment. Layered clothing requires additional components, such as a poseable rig, and an inner and outer cage, to allow the asset to stretch, fit, and layer over a target character and existing clothing items.

When creating accessories, all of the components are created first in your modeling software, then converted to their appropriate Roblox Studio instance on import.

Mesh Part

T-shirt clothing mesh object
Bow accessory mesh object

All accessories require a single mesh object that represents the geometry of the accessory object. In Studio, this mesh object is represented as a MeshPart nested under a single Model

Textures

2D texture map for the t-shirt model
T-shirt model with texture applied

Textures are image files that define the surface appearance of your accessory. You can create textures within a texture painting program or a 3D modeling software. In Studio, textures images are imported as image assets and are set to MeshPart objects by a child SurfaceAppearance object or a MeshPart.TextureID property.

Attachments

Attachment geometry defines where the attachment connects with the character
Geometry with the "_Att" suffix automatically convert to Attachment objects in Studio

For layered clothing, the attachment point is used to associate with the correct body part when the body ragdolls or is dismembered. In Studio, attachments are represented by Attachment objects.

Attachments for clothing items are automatically generated in Studio using the Accessory Fitting Tool.

Rigging Armature

To ensure natural movement of the clothing item, it must be weighted to a character rig
When the rig is properly set up, the layered model can move and bend with the character rig

A rigging armature defines how a layered asset can move with a character model. Using rigging and skinning techniques, you can set the areas of your clothes to move naturally with a character model's joints, such as ensuring a shirt sleeve correctly follows the movement of the elbow and shoulder. In Studio, this rigging and skinning data is saved to the mesh geometry.

Inner and Outer Cages

The inner cage defines the inner surface of the clothing item where the clothes wrap over
The outer cage defines the outer surface of the clothing item where any additional clothes can wrap and layer over

Cage meshes indicate the inner and outer surfaces of a layered accessory. The inside cage of a t-shirt defines how the t-shirt stretches and fits over a character body. The outer cage of a t-shirt defines how additional layered clothing fit over the t-shirt. In Studio, these cages are represented by WrapLayer objects.

Creation Process

Custom accessories are first created in 3D modeling programs, such as Blender or Maya, before importing the .fbx or .gltf model into Studio. To get started creating your first avatar asset, see Avatar Tutorials.

Depending on the type of asset you are creating, the creation process follows these high-level workflows:

Layered Accessory Workflow

Rigid Accessory Workflow

Resources

There are a variety of resources available for creators of all backgrounds to get started with accessory creation.

If you are interested in specific avatar creation topics, use the following table to find guides and resources that best match your needs:

Classic Clothing

Classic clothing assets are 2D images that you can apply to the surface of an avatar body as t-shirts, shirts, or pants. You can design these assets in any image processing software, test the textures in Studio, and then upload the designs to the Marketplace to sell. See Classic Clothing for more information on creating, uploading, and selling these assets.