draping cloth over character

[tpalamar]

Absolutely doable! It sounds like you are doing a sheet more than a tablecloth. Either way, at this point, you shouldn't need any constraints. A couple of pointers, create the cloth by using curves. Make the character and any other objects collision objects. Create the curves above the character and run a local simulation to relax it over the character. You will want a decent amount of triangles, depending on the complexity of your character, but I would guess at least 5000 triangles. Once the cloth is established all you need to do is animate the character sitting up.

Cloth is really complex and the above explanation simplifies the process a lot. It is worth the effort though.

[el scorcho]

thanks a lot! I have already animated the character sitting,How do I get the cloth to stay static until the character moves and also In the scene the table moves up and down should I put transform constraints on the sheet to make it stay put?

[tpalamar]

I am not sure if I understand the whole setup. The cloth should stay there on its own. Is it actually sliding off the character and table? You could make it heavier or larger, both would prevent this. Can you post a screen shot?

[el scorcho]

I've just been using one nurbs square to create the sheet I thought that seeing as through its a sheet I wouldn't need more that one. I tried using the ep and cv curve tools to draw the curves when I try to apply a panel to it says curves must form a closed loop!

[tpalamar]

I would not start with a NURBS surface. In fact you really don't want to start with a primitive or geometry you created. The reason being is that cloth deformation thrives from irregular geometry. Basically, geometry that would normally be considered a total mess. Cloth likes this.

The easiest way to use the curves is to draw them in an orthographic view above your character, lets say the top view. Turn snap to grid on and draw one curve for each of the four sides. You must end each curve where the other begins. This way it forms a closed loop (all of the curves connected from end to end). Select them in sequential order, and then create your panel and garment.

The other thing is that it sounds like your solver scale is off causing your cloth object to be stiff. This should be set based upon the scale of your scene.

[el scorcho]

using the snap to grid helped to create the curves many thanks for the tip! i was pulling my hair out over it! In the solver scale of the cloth is set to 10 and the cloth slides off the charcter only problem is that I don't the cloth to fall on to the character I would like the cloth to be already draped over the character from the start of the scene character then when the character gets up the cloth slides off him should I use velocity cut off to do this?

[tpalamar]

No do not use velocity cutoffs. You want to run a local simulation first (Simulation>Start Local Simulation). This relaxes the cloth into position or your first frame of animation. Local simulations do not generate cache files. Once it settles down you can begin your animation.

How tall is your character in the scene? and how tell would he be in the real world? To figure out your solver scale use the following:

Real world units
_____________ = Solver scale

Maya units

How many triangles are in your cloth?

[el scorcho]

my character is about three feet tall in the real world (he's a miniture troll) and the sheet have about 5700 triangles. I was a bit confused on to set up the keyframes for the cloth, so I set up a keyframe for the cloth to fall at frame -10 and started my animation at frame 1.

[tpalamar]

You don't need or want keyframes on your cloth at this point. Just relax it using the local simulation.

How big is your character in Maya?

I think you have a good amount of triangles.

[el scorcho]

My character is about 6cm x 6cm he had to be scaled down after being imported as an obj file from 3dsmax. he was three times the size in max. How long should the local simulation run for? the end frame in my time slider is 50 frames it has been simulating for some time now.

[tpalamar]

You should not be running through frames on the timeline at all. If you are, it means you are also caching out to a file. You should run the local simulation until the cloth relaxes on your objects, slips off into infinity, or explodes. The latter two of which means you need to change stuff. If you run your local simulation and it doesn't come out the way you like, stop it, and simply undo it. Again, it doesn't create a cache file so you can undo.


Now, a local simulation will start running through the timeline if you start to encounter errors. Are you getting any?

[el scorcho]

my first attemtpt at making the sheet it relaxed and stayed put on the table and character the way i wanted, I was playing it from the timeline because I thought there was something wrong with the local simulation because it would not stop. in the last two attempts of making the sheet, the cloth has either flown away or slipped off to infinity as you said . I think on of the reasons of one of the attempts failing was that one of the panels was facing the opposite way to the others.

good job i have saved my first attempt instead of saving over it!

[tpalamar]

I just put a tutorial up on cloth. I think this will help. Check it out.


http://www.speffects.com/tutorials.htm

[el scorcho]

muchos gracias this tutorial along with the screenshots helped a lot!

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