NCloth is potentially very useful as an influence object applied to a skin. One could use this to affect actual cloth, or to provide secondary effects to a skinned mesh. There is currently a naming bug when one tries to apply an nCloth mesh as an influence object ("Skin: Edit Smooth Skin: Add Influence"). This problem is fortunately easy to workaround.
Before performing "add influence" one must rename the outputCloth mesh to match the transform name, but with an inserted "Shape". If you had made a poly sphere nCloth then the transform would be named something like pSphere1 and this transform would contains the intermediate shape "pSphereShape1" and outputCloth1. The simplest change is to rename pSphereShape1 to something like "inputMesh" and then rename outputCloth1 to "pSphereShape1". The important thing is that the name match the transform but with "Shape" added before the number. One can then select pSphere1 and the skin mesh and do MENU "Skin: Edit Smooth Skin: Add Influence". The "use geometry" option should be enabled.
One additional thing that needs to be done is to toggle "Use Components" ON for the skin cluster node that was created by "add influence". This is so that the deformation of the cloth mesh is taken into account, not just its transform. The animating cloth should now deform the skin.
One could model an nCloth gut with the pressure method = "volume tracking model", then use this as an influence object on the skin to have it jiggle and deform in a natural volume conserving fashion.
Using nCloth as an influence object
In order to post any comments, you must be logged in!
Posted by cyclic on 08/05 at 09:27 PMHi Duncan,
I am trying to accomplish exactly what you describe in the couple of paragraphs above but it’s not exactly working the way it should.
Here’s the scene setup (M008.b3) 
:
http://www.illuminatedpixel.com/Test3.zip
Here is my scenario:
pCylinder1 is the cylinder driven by the spline driven IK Handle and can be controlled with the RIG group. Click interactive playback and move the RIG group to see how pCylinder1 is affected. While the scene is still in interactive playback, move the dynamicContraint1 under the SkinInfluence group. You should see how nCloth is affecting pCylinder2.
Now the idea is to have pCylinder1 affected by pCylinder2’s nCloth dynamics. I’ve tried using the influence object as you’ve mentioned but it still isn’t working.
Can you try giving the scene a shot and let me know what is going wrong? My email is ohmygoddard [.at.] gmail dot com.
Thanks,
Thomas
Posted by Duncan Brinsmead on 03/19 at 01:46 AMNo, I think applying a wrap deformer does not have this naming problem. Just use the outputCloth mesh as a wrap deformer the way you would any other mesh.
Posted by jacquesBroquard on 03/17 at 12:42 PMHi Duncan,
Would this tachnique need to be used in order to use nCltoh as a wrap deformer?
Best,
Jacques
Page 1 of 1 pages
