Cape Animation

[Alien_Films]

Posted this topic in the Showcase last month but never really got any replies...

 

Does anyone have any tips on the kind of Cloth simulation I need to do for large cape animation.

Go to my Batman page I have Tests on Cape Animation there & so far that's the best I can get.

Alienfilms.net/Batman/

 

The Cape has a low patch count. Should the patch count be higher, or would that help at all? It ether looks to heavy, to light or to stiff... I'm using A:M 8.5 but plan on getting 10.5 pretty soon.

 

If anyone has any tips I'm all ears.

Thanks!

 

Edit: Added Link

[heyvern]

Holy depletion of the ozone and global warming Batman!

 

(Robin is a tree hugger now)

 

I wish I knew more about the cloth in AM to help you. I do know that it can be done. I really wanted to comment on the great compositing you did...is it composited? it looks like live action video with the cape added... or is it all CG?

 

Either way it is impressive.

 

You may want to play with the stiffness of the cape. Since this will be a CG cape so it can act (the cape should get an acting credit!) make it really exagerated. So if the stiffness is lower it should flow more and fan out.

 

Also I have heard that some people make the cloth less stiff then they increase (decrease?) the FPS on the final render to change the nature of the fabric.

 

It looks "jittery" I can't tell if that is a low frame rate, bad alignment with the video or what. Is that the sometimes "jittery" effect you get with cloth when it won't stop moving?

 

Another tip! Put the links to the movie files in your posts! Sometimes people won't scoll through another web page to find the link... yes I did, but I had to scroll past it twice till I saw it.

 

Good luck. Congrats on BOTH of your recent successes.

 

Vernon "Could've been Batman" Zehr

[Alien_Films]

Edited the above Post with a link to the Batman Page...

Alienfilms.net/Batman/

 

The Snap shots are pictures of myself in my costume I put together for the fun of it. Composited with Backgrounds done in A:M

Sense I finished my film, I've been itching to do something, so I did some FX Tests with the costume then I thought about maybe making a whole new project out of it.

So I put together a Batman Model for a CG Double I'll need for a potintial film Textured it with pictures of myself in costume to make it look as life like as possible. The Tests are the CG Double I'll be working with. But Cape Animation is a tough Task!!

I've sense made some revisions to the costume.

[Alien_Films]

Ohh Yeah, as far as the Video Tests go, It's all CG... Only the screencaps are greenscreen composites. It's amazing what using real world photos for Textures can get you. Thanks for thinking that it was real with only a CG cape... Now if only I can get the cape to look right.

[gra4mac]

Looks like a neat project. The only adice I have about the cape is to consider not using cloth. I have tried several times to get cloth to work as a cape and never suceeded. The advice I got at the time was to animate by hand. Maybe dynamic constraints could do it, but you would need v10.5 for that. Good luck.

[Alien_Films]

I heard from Bob Croucher (Cloth programer for A:M) but all attempts to reply to his E-mail have bounced back to me so Bob if your reading this please PM me instead...

[Zaryin]

Great googily moogily. That is awesome cloth ani. I do agree it could be a little stiffer, but it is better than the cloth from Matrix 2 in my opinion.