cloth simulation
 

Hi Everyone,

I'm wondering if any of you have created clothes yet. If so how long does it take to simulate a shirt draping over the shoulder? I let mine ran for at least 4 hours and it hadn't finished so I terminated. Does it take that long or is it my system is too slow. I have P4 1.6 w/1GB ram.

Thanks,
TC

I think, that the simulation runs, until you stop it (by hitting ESC). Just do this whenever you feel or when the cloth relax.

There are two different ways to do the simulation. Either by simulation > start simulation or by using the timeslider. Simply press play, and the simulation will start (if you only want it to run for a certain time, enter an end-time in the range-slider). By using this way, you can always go back to the frame, where you'd like the cloth the most.

one very important thing about cloth simulation is:
it never ends simulating unless you say STOP.

that said - a bit more details. cloth simulation is a process, that lets you get a head start. so the cloth looks as if it was lieing there already when you animation starts. a slight "bug" is, that it is a bit hard to recreate the same cloth state as cloth is never still in maya - even if it lies on the table for hours. i suggest you dont use the simulation to dress up your characters. instead let the animation play. make sure your cloth collision object is static for this process and that you check "play every frame" and dont let it play endless (very important). you set the animation to about 200 frames. play it, and you see how the cloth wraps. if you are satisfied how it started to evolve, DO NOT go back to the timeline. select the cloth, and choose "set initial cloth state". now you can go back to first frame. and if the cloth is not ready yet, play the animation again. it starts now with the half dressed cloth. and if something goes wrong, say it ran too long. just dont set the initial cloth state, go back to first frame thus deleting the "simulation" you just did in this step. make the animation shorter and retry.

that is, as far as i know, the ONLY way to have full control over the cloth simulation. and the nice thing about that is - if you forget to set the initial cloth state, all you have to do to have the exact same result, is to run the animation for that amount of frames which you did in your first attempt to do so. possibly doing it in smaller steps as cloth is relatively slow, but really cool if correctly tweaked :)

hope that helps

dont want to be picky, what you said is basically right - as i suggest the same thing. only problem is, when you dress up your character, cloth is "exponential" times slower. and going back the time slider only works if you enable the cloth cache. for performance reasons i suggest though, not to use the cloth cache for the dressing up period.

once the cloth is lieing still (ready dressed) - then cloth is much much much faster and works almost in real time. just the thinking process while dressing up is driving maya nuts.

Duck... the cloth cache is enabled by standard. How do you disable it ??

another thing i forgot, this thread should go to the "effects->textures mapping fur and paint" section. can a moderator do that please?

it is a option in attribute editor of the solver.

ahh.. ok... thanks duck.

Still I like to use the cache to go back, instead of re-simulating. But very nice to know about. Great post duck.

Thank you both for your inputs. You guys provided me more infos than the Help. I'll keep your tips in mind and follow your advice when I resimulate the cloth shirt.

Thanks,
TC

Trimeister... put up a pic of your cloth before the simulation... I would really like to see what it looks like...

Kuhl,

How do I attach files?

TC

Hi Kuhl,

Here are the shirts. Second one will follow. Remember I'm just a beginner so its just a simple shirt..for now.

One step I can't seem to follow. In the 'Change the Collision Offset' section it asked me to 'Select jackie. Set the Collision Offset to 0.1. ' I select the body but can't locate Collision Offset in the Channel Box or Attribute Window. Would you know where else can it be?

From the simulated shirt, you can see that the shirt didn't really confirm to the body and I think due to not having the proper values set for the Collision Offset and Depth.

Thanks,
TC

Here is the second one. I wanted you to see what the shirt looks like so I can ask you that question in my original reply.

TC

Very nice shirt Trimeister. I like it alot !!

If you create darts at the sides of the shirt it will look more realistic when simulating.

If you have made the body a collision object, then the collision offset should be in the channel box when you select it.

Keep us updated.

Ah... ok... I didnt see the last post before writing...

The hole for the head/neck is to huge. When its too big in relation to your model, you will get this kind of result because of the gravity.

And what it this.. does he have boobs or is it breastmuscles ?? hehe. Still need to play with the collision offset and so on. BTW.. you dont actually need to make the cloth relax before you stop it - if youre happier with an earlier result...

But comming along real nicely. Sure hope you can find the collision offset in the channel box.