For the facial expression, I decided on a softer expression. A soft smile with expressive eyes. This would juxtapose the complexity the dress will have over the body posing. The body positioning will be seated. I found I was able to control the dress fabric better in Marvelous Designer if the model was seated.
Facial Expression Reference
Body Posing Reference
I have already made the pose I found ideally worked which is the one below.
Pose
Pose + Dress with textures
The problem I have to tackle with is how to import the low res pose into Zbrush and retain the subdivisions I have with my symmetrical mesh. I also have to decide if I want to sculpt a facial expression or try and use one of my facial expression wraps from RDS Wrap.
One of my problems was easily solved with the help of this tutorial from Flipped Normals
Unfortunately, with an asymmetrical pose and lots of other factors, I wasn't able to apply any of my main body mesh without losing subdivisions and details. So I ended up sculpting the facial expression I wanted myself. This ended up being a great thing because I had more control in create subtle adjustments in various parts of the face.
Front + Textures
Face Turnaround
3/4 Turnarounds
3/4 Turnarounds w/o Textures
With a final facial expression and body pose this is how my model looks now with the dress simulation
Full Body All Angles
3/4 Turnaround
Full Body Turnaround
I did a few blender test render with the final eyes and a new lighting setup
These are renders with the full setup and current skin textures
