Semi-realistic cloth movement for a cartoon cloak

[luckbat]

Well, I foolishly decided to dress up my main character in a cloak, which means a whole lot of cloth animation. No way was I gonna do all that by hand. True, the new v.12 SimCloth is right around the corner, but realistic cloth movement is actually kinda distracting when it comes to cel-style animation. You never see Batman's knees poke around under his cape when he walks, y'know?

 

I needed something real-looking, but simplified. I figured I could get a good side-to-side swing using Dynamic Constraints, and I elected to "cheat" the cloak outward a bit, just far enough so the legs wouldn't pass through it.

 

Rigging the cloak took forever--56 bones arranged in a cylindrical "curtain" of chains--but wha'd'ya know? It worked!

 

Ebon_cloak_walk_480.mov

[JTalbotski]

It did work...really well, too! Looks great!

 

Jim

[pixelmech]

That looks really good. Care to show a shot of the rig? Are those umbrella's over her shoulder?

[luckbat]

That looks really good. Care to show a shot of the rig?

Thanks. Sure--a picture's worth a thousand words:

 

 

Are those umbrella's over her shoulder?

Yeah. She really doesn't like sunlight.

[modernhorse]

Looks swell !

 

Doug

[starwarsguy]

Remdinds me of Raven from Teen Titans!

[luckbat]

Hmm. Maybe not quite as willowy, perhaps, but she's definitely got the scowl.

[patmals]

Looks great!