Faking cloth animation in MAX for torque??
by Kevin Bronakoski · in Artist Corner · 01/29/2004 (8:27 am) · 9 replies
We dont have any kind of cloth or softbody physics in game but I was wondering if anyone had a passable way to fake a small amount of cloth movement in 3DSMax.
Specifically ... we are going to have long skirts, kilts, robes, cloaks, and probably capes. My main sticking point is trying to get things like skirts to flex and blend between the legs when the character walks or runs. I dont need to have the cloth flow out behind the character but the transition between the moving legs is major important.
I have tried skinning the skirt so that half the verticies are influenced by each leg with the vertices down the center influenced 50% by each leg but that doesnt look right either.
Any suggestions or work-arounds?
Thanks in advance.
Kevin
Specifically ... we are going to have long skirts, kilts, robes, cloaks, and probably capes. My main sticking point is trying to get things like skirts to flex and blend between the legs when the character walks or runs. I dont need to have the cloth flow out behind the character but the transition between the moving legs is major important.
I have tried skinning the skirt so that half the verticies are influenced by each leg with the vertices down the center influenced 50% by each leg but that doesnt look right either.
Any suggestions or work-arounds?
Thanks in advance.
Kevin
#2
You can try to rig the cloth up to the existing bones, and this does work, though you will get some unaviudable clipping of the cloth going through the model in some places. If you do do it this way I would recommend to avoid long sections of hanging cloth and lots of sub-divisions so that the cloth can go with the flow of the bones. (This is the method I chose to test out almost two years ago for Realm Wars, the model is on Digital Boneyard right now if you want to see it).
01/29/2004 (9:21 am)
Note: if you add in new bones to control your cloth you will more than likely make your model incompatible with the default DSQs that ship with torque. You can try to rig the cloth up to the existing bones, and this does work, though you will get some unaviudable clipping of the cloth going through the model in some places. If you do do it this way I would recommend to avoid long sections of hanging cloth and lots of sub-divisions so that the cloth can go with the flow of the bones. (This is the method I chose to test out almost two years ago for Realm Wars, the model is on Digital Boneyard right now if you want to see it).
#3
This is the skirt that I am looking to animate. I am completely re-doing the DSQs with the help of the MotionBuilder program.
So, where is that model?
01/29/2004 (11:59 am)
Hope the image tag works. ( http://www.rathan.com/adellion/f1.png )This is the skirt that I am looking to animate. I am completely re-doing the DSQs with the help of the MotionBuilder program.
So, where is that model?
#5
03/25/2004 (5:42 pm)
Isnt morph animation suppose to be used for cloth type animation? I know it would make it huge and all... but gar.
#6
Especially with bones at the angle the legs would move to account for walking. Wouldn't be that much more animation to control the cloth.
Having the rings not be heirarchied to each other would allow for twist, etc.
I don't know if max has expressions to make bones act a certain way, or if the exporter would bake those animations, but you could have the lower rings be influenced by the first ring.
edit: clarification
I also note that this thread was bumped somehow.
03/25/2004 (5:50 pm)
I would use 'rings' of bones to control the skirt. By this I mean unconnected bones (maybe all children of the hips) could face along the *normal* of the model, maybe 6 or so to a ring, and 3 or 4 rings.Especially with bones at the angle the legs would move to account for walking. Wouldn't be that much more animation to control the cloth.
Having the rings not be heirarchied to each other would allow for twist, etc.
I don't know if max has expressions to make bones act a certain way, or if the exporter would bake those animations, but you could have the lower rings be influenced by the first ring.
edit: clarification
I also note that this thread was bumped somehow.
#7
If you can keep the vertex count low enough, morph animation isn't too bad (annoyingly this contradicts the needs for a large vertex count for decent cloth animation).
On reflection there's probably a reason such clothing isn't done 'animated' in commercial products :)
03/26/2004 (3:23 am)
I like the 'rings' idea, but i'm not sure it will come off much better in practice than just using the leg bone weights. If you want to do it properly I guess you can add 'cloth' simulation to Torque, the simulation itself is actually quite simple, just a bit processor heavy if you have a lot of people.If you can keep the vertex count low enough, morph animation isn't too bad (annoyingly this contradicts the needs for a large vertex count for decent cloth animation).
On reflection there's probably a reason such clothing isn't done 'animated' in commercial products :)
#8
We will be having MANY different clothing options for male and female characters. The clothes need to be "attached" to the player when needed. Using the "add bones to the skirt" idea would mean going back and adding those bones to every single animation. Also, all other clothes that would need extra bone would need to be added to every animation as well (cloak/robe/cape/etc). I was hoping for an easier way ... but looks like there isn't.
Time to try and add more to the programmer's Plate. ;)
04/02/2004 (6:46 am)
Thanks for all the replys. We will be having MANY different clothing options for male and female characters. The clothes need to be "attached" to the player when needed. Using the "add bones to the skirt" idea would mean going back and adding those bones to every single animation. Also, all other clothes that would need extra bone would need to be added to every animation as well (cloak/robe/cape/etc). I was hoping for an easier way ... but looks like there isn't.
Time to try and add more to the programmer's Plate. ;)
#9
Even so, you can use flex to create the morph animation.
Or... (if time is not an issue) you can once again use flex, then utilise the snapshot tool to get great reference for the actual bone animation.
on that note...
I'm off to solicit some kindly programmer to get flex to export.
04/16/2004 (8:54 pm)
I assume the flex modifier doesn't export to torque.Even so, you can use flex to create the morph animation.
Or... (if time is not an issue) you can once again use flex, then utilise the snapshot tool to get great reference for the actual bone animation.
on that note...
I'm off to solicit some kindly programmer to get flex to export.
Torque Owner Joe Maruschak