A first attempt at dynamic clothing

Hermit Crab

Hi everyone,

I'm still very much a new user of Poser 10 and thought I'd check out what's involved in creating dynamic clothing (I've draped ready-made items before).

What I've done isn't special in any way but, in case it may interest others starting out in Poser, I've posted a video showing some first results.

It lasts under two minutes.

This is the link: http://youtu.be/JLFLgqKan9M

Toyen

Nice! I didn´t think Poser would handle clothing simulation this well! : )

Hermit Crab

Thanks, dave.evert, it's very kind of you to say so.

However, on youtube there are a great many videos showing much better results - something to aspire to!

When trying things out I tend to 'make do' with the minimum needed so I rushed the modelling stage just to get something to put into Poser.

It surprised me that there wasn't a lot to do from there although now many questions have arisen for me.

For example, I think that the top half of the long dress would benefit from having fewer polygons (it shakes about too loosely, I think) but the lower half could be OK as it is (but could do with self-collision).

Also I need to try out animations with the figure jumping, twirling and so on. That's where I think it will go wrong for me until I learn much more. I don't think, for example that simulations include gravity?

Others have done great things, though!

(One nice thing about making a simple garment is that it can be used as a base model for many other styles and I would encourage anyone to try it).

Toyen

Hey there! I don´t have Poser (although I am very tempted to buy it since its on sale right now) but I would guess from what I´ve seen in the video that there is at least some kind of basic gravity behavior even though it might not be a fully customizable gravity simulator.

Also I was wondering, does poser have different fabric presets like lets say silk, denim or cotton? Or does the user have to adjust the parameters manually to get the right bending of the fabric they need?

Chohole

The Poser cloth room is probably one of the best features in Poser here is the control panel.

and a fairly simple dynamic drape, transferred to Bryce to render.

Toyen

Hey there chohole and thanks for posting the screenshot, looks great! I only have some experience with Blender´s clothing simulation but Poser´s looks waaaay better seeing how nicely it handles collision with the character.

In Blender every time I tried something like this the mesh was a complete mess. The only thing that seemed to work well were tablecloths and curtains : D

Now I am even more tempted to get Poser while its on sale! : )

Hermit Crab

Hello again,

Since my previous post I've been out and just got back.

Let me say that I'm the least qualified person to advise you on buying Poser. I bought version 9 and hardly tried using it. Then Poser 10 came along at a sale price and I bought it.

I'm very glad I did because I started using it more and more - this thread shows my latest learning challenge. The manual is excellent and comprehensive and there are learning guides with the program as well as huge numbers of tutorials on the internet.

Poser 10 is only 32 bit. I only have a low-spec computer and find that I can't stage large scenes. I use it for trying short animations with single figures.

In my case, I rely on Carrara for scenes with buildings, etc. (and I play also with iclone).

Poser has Bullet Physics as well as the Cloth Room. The professional version has a Fitting Room which, I THINK, allows clothes to be quickly fitted to different figures' body-shapes. There is much more, of course.

The newest figures which ship with Poser aren't compatible with Carrara as previous figures were but I can't elaborate on this (lack of knowledge).

The dynamic draping I've been trying out is, I believe, used very much for still poses - the pose is arrived at maybe 20-30 frames along the timeline which gives the simulation time to drape the figure. In my case (and I'm sure it's been done zillions of times) I added some animation.

I think Poser allows export of multiple objects from such a simulation. So that the dress (in my case) would be exported as an object once for each frame - each time shaped a bit differently. Using that feature - and a Carrara plugin - allows the 'animated' cloth to be imported to Carrara.

There aren't, as far as I know, presets for different materials but simulations can be very complex because the program allows different kinds of collision - polygon against polygon, etc. And there are the settings Chohole showed. In my video, I only adjusted one of these minimally.

This is the best I can say. I'm hoping that others might advise you better. Poser isn't loved by everyone. The native figures are generally less well-liked than DAZ's. DAZ figures can be used in Poser.

Edited to add:

That's a lovely Bryce render Chohole. I can't think how the clothing was draped on to that pose!

DarwinsMishap

Poser has settings for any sort of material for the dynamics, but posted settings (rather than trial and error) aren't all out there for people to find. At least, not that I've been able to find- but there are loads of people who will help if asked.

Here is a great place to start: http://poser.smithmicro.com/tutorials/cloth_parameters.html

You can do multiple dynamics if you have say, a pair of pants, a shirt, a jacket- each with it's own dynamic settings. I generally start with the pants, add a shirt, then the jacket over so that each piece collides with the previous. Just remember if you want to do that, none of the polys from one piece should intersect with any of the others prior to running the dynamics. Things get ugly if they do.

Hermit Crab

Hi DarwinsMishap,

Thanks for clarifying that and for providing the excellent link.

Although I'm new to this, I did spend practically the first quarter of this year trying every way to use Bullet Physics in Carrara.

Had I known of the capabilities of Poser at the time I would have worked with it instead - although I don't regret what I learned in case Carrara's Bullet Physics is upgraded.

(Carrara's soft-body physics is very good in many ways. But when a figure moves from a static drape, the limbs penetrate the clothing).

Regards to all.

Chohole

Marcus Severus said:

.

That's a lovely Bryce render Chohole. I can't think how the clothing was draped on to that pose!

It's actually a combo, the top is conforming and the skirt is dynamic, collided against the ground plane as well as the lower parts of the figure. Some adjustments to soften the drape before the drape animation was run

Hermit Crab

Thanks for the explanation, chohole.

I tried a few more renders. The video lasts about 40 seconds this time.

http://youtu.be/nZIOpQ3DnNo

Regards

Chohole

Marcus Severus said:

Thanks for the explanation, chohole.

I tried a few more renders. The video lasts about 40 seconds this time.

http://youtu.be/nZIOpQ3DnNo

Regards

You are doing really well I think. I am no expert on dynamic clothing, but do love using it, but only for still images, as I don't do animations.

Hermit Crab

Thanks, chohole.

Part of that was a test to see how the cloth would 'twirl'. I didn't apply self-collision.

Those animations were only a T-pose followed by two different poses which came with Poser for 'Kate2' (with a suitable number of frames between poses - 50 frames in total).

I don't have too much experience in clothes creation. I just cover the figure (exported as an OBJ) with a low-poly cylinder. I work with two views on the screen: front and side.

I select the horizontal edges of the cylinder (as loops) and scale them inwards until 'poke through' begins and the cylinder roughly follows the figure's torso outline.

Then I slice in more edges to refine the contour.

Generally I then delete half of the cylinder (vertically) and continue to work on one half only. At the end I make a mirrored duplicate of it when I'm reasonably happy and, lastly, I weld both halves together.

I think for proper animation the arms would sometimes need to be held well clear while the simulation calculates and then animated after. Problems could arise with sleeves in that case, I guess.