Replicating Cloth....

[davie563]

Hi, im workin on a scene for my showreel and i need to model the parachute that folds under the lander as the pic below shows, Are there any tips and tricks for doing this. Cheers

I tried modelling a section but it looked more like a pool of blood. didnt really look like folding cloth.

[Dirk]

I would try to do this with clothFX

Model the parachute (was it a parachute? Or some sort of balloon?) as it would glide through the air, apply clothFX, gravity and a collision object to the ground. Run the simulation. play with the sub-structure values, and try also if self-collison works for the object.


That said, I'm not sure if clothFX can give You the results You need. But it's worth a try, imho.

[fgreen]

I think Dirk has the right idea with clothfx. Do you only need a still shot instead of an animation? If so, you coud model a sub-D sphere and delete half. Then experiment with "dropping" it via gravity to see how the folds develop. In addition to the clothfx settings you could introduce additional variations by adding some wind (vortex?) to furthur deform the chute on the way down.

[davie563]

cheers for the comments guys. the scene is a still shot so the cloth wont have to move.

fgreen, im interested in what u said about using 1/2 a sphere and adjusting gravity, sounds good, but dont know were to start for somthin like that, Any help would be great.

Im using lightwave 8.5.

Look forward to ur reply

[fgreen]

The basic procedure is as follows:

Position your parachute object above a "ground" object, so when you calculate the dynamics it has a distance to "fall". The ground object must be divided into a "mesh" of squares, so the chute object has "points" to collide with.

Add a null to your scene for "holding" the gravity. In the properties panel under the Dynamics tab, add "gravity". If you want you can also add a wind effector. Set the radius on both to encompass your chute object and the ground object. Create a new group and in properties/dynamics for each object select the group for all objects except the ground (you don't want the ground to fall away, and it will if you keep it in the same group with the gravity.)

In the ground object Properties/Dynamics panle add collision.

If I didn't forget any steps, when you click calculate (visible in the dynamics tab when dynamics are added) the chute object will begin to fall and will collide with your ground object. By adjusting the cloth parameters like collision offset, sub-sturcture, spring, friction and etc you can change how the cloth "collides" with both the ground and itself. You can use the wind power and direction (using envelopes) to change the shape of the chute before it collides with the ground, adding more variation in the how it stack up. Also weight maps can be used to control how much each parameters is applied to each point, giving more control.

Having said all the above, I'm not so sure using dynamics is the best way, if you are not already familiar with LW's dynamics system.

You may be better off trying to model your cloth by hand, as it can take a lot of time to get the hang of the dynamics system. Then more time experimenting and calculating with all the inter-related settings.

Also dynamics are the least integrated and most quirky part of Lightwave, and the documentation is not that great which makes it even harder.

[rwhunt99]

To add a bit to fgreens explanation; after the calculation, just go to file save> transformed object to save it out in the frame (where the cloth is shaped the way you want it).
Then you won't have to calculate again.

[Yamba]

Hi davie563

This may help give you a few more ideas and will hopefully compliment the great advice given by others.

ftp://ftp.newtek.com/pub/LightWave/Tutorials/Vidz/dynamicmodeling.mov

Yamba