Animating Stage Curtains
kwannie
Posts: 869
Does anyone know how to properly use DForce or a product like VWD (Virtual World Dynamics) to animate curtains opening? I know there are many curtain set products which come with opening morphs but they tend to look very cartoonish in an animation. I am wondering if there is a way to keep the the cloth like properties throughout the opening movement such as the slight swaying with the effects of breeze, and the lag at the bottom of the curtains upon initial movement. Also is there a particular product that lends itself to this type of animation more readily? Thanks!
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I would properly use optitex dynamic cloth & optitex has a free curtian set that is dynamic that would fit your needs but it works off the dynamc clothing plugin not dforce. http://www.optitex-dynamiccloth.com/FreebieDownload13.php
lully has dforce draps set yuo could try . i never used them myself, but i do like lullys deforce clothing https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/drapery-for-daz-studio/122775
Are you asking how to set the curtains up, or how to simulate?
Personally, I'd first go into a modelling software (I'd use Blender), add a plane, and subdivide it a bunch of times. Then shift-select alternating vertical lines of polygons, and using the falloff tool, move those polygons so that you form big wrinkles in the curtain. Then you can punch a hole thru the top wrinkles so that you can add a rod as a collision object for the simulation. After that, in Studio/VWD, you just use a force field or wind to push the curtain open, and it should slide along the rod (you'll probably have to stiffen the polygons surrounding the rod). Or I suppose you could animate an invisible collision object to push it open...
I'm asking how to simulate Richard. I have many stage models that have curtains with open morphs but the curtains are just stiff and do not move like real cloth. I am trying to find a way to make stage curtains look realistic when opening in a scene, with ambiet movement as well as the opening movement.
Ivy I actually own the older lully drapes product, but I found that the curtains are to small for using for a stage ad the folds look out of perportion if I try to scale it up. Is the product you reference specifically for DForce because I could not find anything saying DForce on the product's page.
Ebergerly, I actually want the effect that the curtains open uniformly as the morph would provide, but I just want the curtains to behave like cloth as they are being opened. I know that VWD has an "Animate by host setting" so that portions of the cloth can be left alone in VWD but I just don't know how to set it up.
Sorry, I have no clue what you're referring to.
What I mean ebergerly is that inner edge of the stage opens with a distinct pattern as if there is a rope or a wire attached to the middle of the inner edge and pulled open. I would like to maintain that bit of uniform rigidness in the opening pattern on the edge of the curtain while there is still ambient movement throughout the curtain fabric as its being opened. Its kind of like lifting the edge of a skirt at only one vertice or face. Only that face is animated but the rest of the vertices and faces drape and sway as the surrounding springs adjust as the animated face moves upward. The example you gave seems to me would cause the edge othe curtain to remain mostly strait or have just a slight indentation around where the force field touches instead of having the look of a wire attached only to one point and being pulled open. I'm not trying to be picky I'm just trying to find out how to achieve a a very specific effect. I am still going to try your method to see what happens, Thanks!
Did you mean something like this ? (in terms of the motion)
DS doesn't have "pinning" like VWD or other cloth simulation software, but I'm thinking you can animate the curtains apart, but with a weight map so the top portions are not affected (or less affected)
Yess!! pdr0 that is the curtain opening effect I'm looking for.
Is it possible to use DForce or VMD to achieve that?
if you make the top bit a separate surface it can have simulation dialed to zero in the surface and just open via a morph while the bottom part gathers, folds and sways with the simulation
Wendy, are you talking about doing that in Dforce? If so does it need to be are DForce specific product. Like I said above I have many stage curtain products such as Asian rustic theater and a few others, but I know they came out before DForce was introduced.
well if you have one that has a parting morph thats ideal
just grab the geometry editor to isolate the top for the pinned bit create a new surface
yes Dforce
When you have modelled the curtain, then use animated timeline for dforce simulation and add a "helper" object, e.g. a sphere that can push the top of the curtain inwards.
Ot you can use https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-magnet instead of the "helper" object.
I don't have VWD, but in case you don't want to learn or use other programs such as blender, md, etc...it's possible to do in DS alone with dforce
Here is a quick simulation, with half the curtain, using the default dforce settings
The curtain is a single , static mesh, animated along the x-axis with keyframes . Dforce is applied, and an influence weight map is applied. This is used instead of "pinning" that you would use in other programs to some invisible guide or helper object. The gif shows the weight map view. "pink" is fully affected. Shades of blue have less influence, and when it turns "grey", it's not affected ; so the top "grey" part of the curtain is not affected by the dforce engine.
You can tweak the dforce simulation quality (maybe more iterations, stiffness etc...)
I don't think you can mirror or copy/paste and flip the simulation object, but it's easy enough to do two halves
My personal opinion is that dForce is pretty much useless for rendering actual animations, because of the flickering artefacts you get.
pdr0 That looks fantasic exactly what I was looking for . I do still want to animate as if the curtain was being pulled tighter as it is being opened, with the folds being pulled together as in ebergerly's sample but with the ambiet motion in your sample. Could the curtains you show just have an x scale key frame applied on the timeline to achieve that?
You can experiment with adjusting the material settings (more stiff will hold it's shape better), or move the curtain faster, or adjust dforce simulation settings, or use an invisible collider object such as a strap to help pull the middle . Sometimes you have to be creative or fiddle with settings to get exactly what you want
The curtain I used with did not have as deep "bends" as ebergerly's. If you start with one like that as the initial mesh - it might get you closer to what you want. You can try one of your rigged curtains from other prodcuts too, but it has to be a welded mesh to work properly with dforce
You have more control in over cloth sims in other programs , but they require some fiddling around too... so start fiddling. Learn something from each time you run a test simulation or each time you change a setting
my idea on just a plane was less successful
I'm thinking that the animate by host function in VWD will basically do what the weight maps did in DForce but again I don't exactly know how to set it up. I think there is a record function that has to take place first in VWD.
I tried what ebergerly suggested , with the push object. Gif below
A real curtain wouldn't compress quite as flat, folded over as much. There are hooks or rings that are interspaced which suspend the curtain, but they also provide spacing between each bend. In DS you might be able to paint a weight map alternating strong/weak strips to achieve that effect. Or maybe play with the cloth settings/stiffness, or add some wind or other modifiers. In other programs you could attach pins to geometry or hooks, just like a real curtain, and animate the hooks .
Wow pdr0 I will I possessed the knowledge and to just set up tests like that, I'm still fighting a learning curve. I think that would look great if there were more folds and maybe a slower movement from the helper object. I was thinking too, if the helper object was a bit smaller another one was attached to the middle of the curtain edge on the side that opens and animated to make look like the curtain has an arch as it opens! This getting interesting!!
Good ideas , multiple helpers - definitely play with it to get the look that you are going for, and have fun doing it. You learn by playing with it
I don't really use dforce . I played with it when it first came out, but it was quite unstable, lots of exploding geometry . But for a simple curtain with quads , simple movements, it should be stable enough . I was half expecting polygon explosion with that push test above (because of the holes /pole interaction) , but it ran ok 1st try
Simulation speed is not *that* slow, but not that fast either in terms of cloth simulation engines . But it's fast enough that you can play with settings, helpers , re-simulate again, change settings without having to wait forever or pull your hair out.