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The first step is to import the model we want to make clothing for. You need to use the HABWare OBJ2MAX plugins. These will let you directly import the OBJ files used by poser. NOTE: Most of the time when loading figures into MAX, you want to directly load the OBJ file from the :Runtime:Geometries: folder. This is one of the few times you don't want to do that. If you export your figure from Poser (before doing any actual posing of it) it will be much easier to add the clothing to it later. Make sure you have done all of your body shaping first, if you are going to change the size of the model at all, but none of the posing, aka moving limbs around. The HABWare plugins allow you to selectively import only the portions of the model you need, for the skirt only import the abdomen, hips, legs, and feet. If you aren't sure, import everything, and just delete the pieces you don't want afterwards. Removing the extra pieces is not actually required, it just makes things simplier.
The second step is to draw out cross-sectional splines. I've just drawn a few of these in the Front view right over top of the model, using it as a guide. These don't have to be perfect, we'll be adjusting them later. You can make as many cross-sections as you like really. I only made three to keep the tutorial easier, but the skirt could probably use a couple more. If you've never drawn splines before, choose the Create menu, then Create Shapes, Splines, and choose Line from those listed. Make sure you click the last point of the spline over the first, MAX should popup a dialog that asks you if you want to join the ends, pick Yes. Draw the last spline big enough it will cover the feet. The splines will all be at the same height, and thats OK. (Note: If you try to draw other shapes, remember that you will have to draw them really large, or MAX will think they are too small and not create them.)
Now we are going to edit the splines, to get them a little prettier. Select the outer most spline, this one will take the most work to add the ruffles to the skirt. Goto the modifier panel and choose Edit Spline. You must be in Sub-Object edit vertex to actually work on the spline. Now the key things to know here are, Refine will let you add new points anywhere in the spline you need more detail. Delete will remove extra vertices. Each vertex has a type associated with it, it can be a corner, smooth, a bezier, or a bezier corner. Whats the difference? Corner is for sharp corners, smooth makes a smooth curve but you can't control the slope around it, bezier makes a curve you can adjust the slope, and a bezier makes a curved corner that you can adjust the slope on each side independant of the other. What's that mean in English? It means you can make curves like small children use to draw birds, like the letter V with the sides curving outwards. Now its not obvious, but you can right-click each vertex (or multiple select them all and right click) and make every corner of the ruffle spline be bezier curved. Now you can drag the control points for each point to make it wavy all around the whole circumference. You will probably have to use Refine several times to add additional points. Use Edit Spline on the other cross-sections and make each of the points either Smooth or Bezier to get the curves looking nicer. This is the hardest step.
The fourth step is very easy, all you need to do is add a straight line in the top view, starting at the waist down to the feet. Use three or four points when making this line.
Now we are ready to build our Loft Object, first make sure the straight line we just made is selected, then choose Create, Geometries, and pick Loft Object. Make sure the Instance radio button is selected (EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!) and select the Choose Shape button, and pick the smallest cross-section you made for the waist. If a tube doesn't immediately appear, open the Skin Parameters rollout and make sure the Skin and/or Skin in Shaded options are checked on. Now to add the other cross-sections, you must first adjust the path percentage under the Path Parameters rollout. Make sure the percentage radio button is selected, and then scroll through the values for path. You should see a little star move along your straight line, at 50% it should be halfway down, at 100% it should be at the bottom. Pick 100% and the Choose Shape button again, and pick the ruffled spline. Adjust the path to the appropiate height for every cross-section you made, and add each one. Note: Where each cross-section is in space doesn't matter once added to the spline, the Loft uses the Path Percentage to place the cross-section in the loft. Be careful here! Once you've added a cross-section at a certain point in the path, there's no moving it, or deleting it that I know of.
Let's set up a few more options with our Loft. We don't need ends on this skirt, so uncheck the Cap Start and Cap End buttons. The Path and Shape steps affect how many faces will be used to build the skirt. The more you use, the nicer the skirt will look but slower it will render. I turned the Path Steps down to zero, because the skirt doesn't really benefit from extra path steps. However, the more Shape steps you have the better it will conform to the ruffles at the bottom. You can experiment with this by adjusting the value and watching the loft in the Back View. Sorry, but this is just barely visible in the sample image here, see the next steps image.
Now to get the skirt to fit the model nicely, I've just done a little rearranging. I moved my cross-sections over to the side, and the straight line path over as well. I moved the newly created Loft Object directly over top of the model so we can get it to fit. Now you can see from the Left View that the skirt hangs straight down, while our models behind is out in the cold. This just won't do!
Since we created the Loft Object with Instances of our original splines, whenever we modify one of our original splines, the splines inside of the Loft Object automatically change as well. Select the straight line we used as the path, and go into the Edit spline modifier. We'll want to work in the Left View here to get the skirt to fit, I moved the line up out of the way. Now change the points in the middle of the path to Bezier, and move them down, adjusting their control points to keep them smooth. You should be able to give the skirt a bit of curve to it to naturally follow the shape of the model. If the ends of the skirt start to twist thats OK. You can fix that by selecting the end points of the spline, changing their type to Bezier corner, and adjust their controls points so the ends of the skirt are again horizontal to the models feet. Luckily as you adjust the control points, MAX will update the loft's cross-sections so you can get realtime feedback.
The rest is a refining process to get the skirt to look smooth, while none of the model sticks through. You can use Edit Spline on any of the cross-sections to make them smoother, or bigger. You can also go back into the Loft Object and try out some of the other options such as Adaptive Path Steps, Contour, Banking, and Linear Interpolation. Each of these will affect how the loft is formed, and you can test each one out to see how they change the shape of your skirt. Be sure to check your work in every view and verify the model isn't visible through the loft.
Save your work!! I like to do a Hold before I delete everything but the Loft in preparation for the Export to OBJ. Export, making sure to UNcheck the rotate object and do a Fetch when its finished.
The Loft Object has a nice option of generating mapping coordinates for us. It's under the Surface Parameters rollout, choose the Apply Mapping option. I would leave everything else at the default values.
Import into Poser, uncheck everything on the import dialog. If the skirt was perfectly over the model in MAX, it should import perfectly over your model, provided you never moved the model.