Aug 19, 2010

Simple Cloth Simulation Using 3Ds Max

Cloth simulations is one of the coolest features of any 3D program.It is very simple to create basic cloth animations but it takes a lot of time to simulate cloth due to the huge amounts of processing power required.Here is a simple cloth simulation tutorial.

Step 1: Create a sphere (Position(X,Y,Z)=(0.00,0.00,0.00),Radius=20)

Step 2: Create a plane (Position(X,Y,Z)=(0.00,0.00,40.00),Length=50,Width=50,Length Segments=50,Width Segments=50)

Step 3:Select the plane(Plane01) and go to the modifier stack and add cloth modifier to it

Step 4:Click on "Object Properties" and using the dialogue box add Sphere01 to the Objects in simulation list.

Step 5:Select Plane01 and Sphere01 one by one change their properties as shown in the screenshots below.Click OK

Step 6:Click on "Simulate" to start the simulation.Change parameters like gravity and end frame to get result.(I used -4000 for gravity [earth's gravity being -980] and 500 frames.)This will create key-frames for the cloth (in this care Plane01) falling on the sphere and colliding.This has to be done only once and will take time depending on your system config.

Step 7:Put some materials and render out the result.

Note:You can increase the length and width segments to make it cloth smoother and more realistic but this will make the simulation process slower.

I used this same technique for this picture of the cloth covering a car.The cloth was a plane with 300 length segments and 400 width segments. The car and the ground were collision objects.