Using Simcloth for a tent covering

[Buggsy]

Hi,

 

This is my first time playing with Simcloth.

 

I want to make a tent covering that drapes over a frame. I don't won't to animate it falling onto the frame, I just want it to sitting on the frame without moving. 

 

I have tried to save out the model, at a point in the cloth animation, bringing it back in to EI as a new model. This works but the texturing won't work the same as if it's solved with Simcloth.

 

Also I can't get a predictable result with a texture map. I thought it would kind-of bake the texture onto the solver but I'm getting textures that are being torn apart. Do they need to be applied in UV space?

 

Michael

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Michael!

 

A group with UV space will preserve the deformation intact when the model is used by Simcloth.

 

Thanks

 

Tom

[Buggsy]

Thanks Tom,

 

This still doesn't resolve what I'm after.

 

I want to make a tent covering that drapes over a frame. I don't won't to animate it falling onto the frame, I just want it sitting on the frame without moving. How do I grab one animation frame of the Simcloth solver and make it static while keeping the texture deformations as well. When I save a model of the Simcloth deformation using the export function in EI, the resulting model that comes back into EI has no UV controls.

 

Michael

[Buggsy]

Ok, I got it.

 

I didn't realise I had to have the texture applied to the Simcloth group, so when it gets exported it keeps the UV space and associated texture.

 

Michael

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Michael!

 

Exactly.. Thanks

 

Tom

[Buggsy]

Ok, new hurdle.

 

I want to offset a copy of the resulting tent covering giving me 3 coverings. I export it from EI as .obj and open it into Rhino, offset 3 replicates and export as .obj. They import into EI but the UV's are now squashed into a space that looks about 0.0 wide resulting in no flat plane to apply a texture.

 

I've also tried .3ds, .lwo, .fbx formats but can't get it to work.

 

Anyone got a workflow to do this or does anyone now of a way to do what I want with maybe a plug-in?

 

Michael

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Michael!

 

When you export the Simcloth group as a .obj, it loose the UV Data?

 

Thanks

 

Tom

[Buggsy]

I am trying to put 4 coverings/tents/curtains (whatever you want to call them) over a timber structure. I create the first one via exporting as a .fac model export at the Simcloth animation frame that suits the look I'm after. Then I need to offset 3 copies of this first mesh to complete a total of 4 coverings/tents/curtains, one as you see here below, the next one is goats hair, then rams skin dyed red and the last one is badger skin. I can't create scaled copies of them because they'll overlap at points and show through so I need to offset them.

 

 

 

 

 

I could get away with the last two but the goats hair one is a cubic project of the texture map and you can see the joins where the cubic projection is changing. Also if you look closely at the left part of the image behind the man you'll see the first covering that has been hidden by each subsequent covering.

 

 

These are my steps.

 

1. Export the Simcloth as an .fact to act as the first covering over my tent.

 

2. I then export the same Simcloth but this time as an .obj because EI doesn't have the capacity to offset the mesh and Rhino can't import a .fac file.

 

3. I open this .obj model of the mesh into Rhino and offset the 3 copies and re-export them as .obj with the hope that the UV's space will remain intact.

 

4. I then import these 3 offset copies into EI. They come in fine, and they are offset as I wanted but now the UV space does not show a plane to apply any texture to. In fact, when I turn on the the normals with the UV space shown in the material editor, all there is is a bunch of red normal lines all squashed up into a long sausage like shape, as though the UV plane has been squashed into 0.0 space (see image attached below).

 

I love the resulting images but I feel like I am so close to what I want but yet at the same time far away because it's not a complete solution. Mind you I'm not sure how I'll animate this given the likely clashes I'll get if I remove each curtain layer upon layer!

 

Michael

 

 

[Tomas Egger]

Ola Michael,

My doubt here is:

Get this first .obj exported and re-import inside EIAS, see if the UV data still intact, if it's correct, Rhino is messing up the UV.

Thanks

Tom

[Buggsy]

I'll try an .obj export and re-import into EI and see if the UV's are intact. This though only confirms that EI can communicate with itself, not with the outside commercial world of modellers! Not sure how this remedies the problem?

 

Actually if I export it from EI and run it through Meshlabs it has the same problem when imported back into EI, without putting it into Rhino at all! The normals look exactly the same, all squashed up as per the image above in my previous post.

 

My guess is that the other software's are having trouble with the UV space from the .obj file generated by EI.

 

Michael

[Buggsy]

 

 

Get this first .obj exported and re-import inside EIAS, see if the UV data still intact, if it's correct,

 

Ok did this and the UV's work fine.

 

These are the steps:

 

1. Select Simcloth at the required animation frame and export from EI as .obj.

 

2. Import .obj file straight back into EI.

 

Seems that the EI doesn't treat the UV space the same as in Meshlabs or Rhino.

 

Michael

[bwcc]

not sure if you have it  - but it seems to work with Mrs Bebel -

 

I exported a simcloth model (with UVs) as a fact - then linked to Mrs Bebel and had it only build the Top surface (no bevel or bottom) and set it the UVs to copy source. You can also link the active simcloth group to the Mrs Bebel group to offset the surface and not have to export or import anything. 

 

the extrude amplitude would be the distance of the offset.

 

brian

 

[Buggsy]

Thanks for the suggestion and your time to check the workflow.

 

I don't have Mrs Bebel though and I don't have the funds to purchase it and put it through its paces to see if it will be compatible with my needs. It does though seem like a viable solution.

 

Thanks again.

 

Michael