A difficult cloth problem

Does anyone know whether it is possible to do something similar to the image below. I think it would require more than simply letting the cloth ‘fall’ onto the collision object (in this case the head) What I imagine is required is a a very strong attractive force between the cloth and the collision object, leaving just the wrinkles in the cloth to remain displaced ‘for want of having nowhere else to go’

I suspect it might be way beyond what Blender can do - but then I find myself constantly surprised by what is possible.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/f5/12/70/f512701f784a024d62ce7425c4b0b306.jpg

I think it is probably possible, but would be pretty compute-intensive. You would need a pretty hi-res cloth mesh, with high collision and self-collision settings, and possibly some force setting (magnetic?) on the statue object. Haven’t tried this mind you, just a first thought.

Perhaps some vertix pinning on the top of the head could help encourage the vertical folds too.

Are you just trying for an image, or an animation?

Thanks for your response. You have confirmed my own thoughts as to what might be involved.

It’s interesting, but it seems fairly similar to the shrink wrap modifier, although you’d want the mesh you’re shrinking on to maintain it’s size rather than behaving like a rubber sheet. (I think this is known as an ‘affine’ transformation)

I am only be looking to do a still image.

I did a quick blend. Result is sort of what you had. If I were to tweak it, I would add a single row of veritces to a group, parent it to an empty, and then scale the empty a little bit to wrinkle the cloth, then run the animation. It’s not perfect, but it works. I would also select maybe a single vertex in the center of the cloth and make it a group, and pin it to the highest spot of the head/face/etc. I couldn’t upload the blend file. Sorry.


Wow that’s great. It’s a pity that Suzanne isn’t quite as beautiful as the woman in my example.

But seriously … the hanging folds of the cloth are really good and there seems to be really good contact between cloth and model.
Much better than I am capable of right now.

My own criticisms are: The cloth seems a little too tightly drawn down over the features. That sense that the cloth is clinging to the model is missing (or not particularly clear). It’s as if there needs to be some other force at play in addition to gravity - wind, magnetism(?), suction (?).

Isn’t Blender just great ?

I used some magnetic force, but you can always adjust it lower. Also, I used the “silk” preset, but I lowered the structure. You could also adjust that to change the effect.

Interesting. I wasn’t even sure there was such a thing as magnetic force in Blender. I’ll have to look it up.

The clever thing about the original image is that, where the cloth contacts the skin it is not represented at all but then that’s the additional freedom you have when working in stone and with just your imagination rather than with a simulation of physical reality.

Anyway, I guess it’s time I had a try.

In the original image, the cloth is the same color as the head, so it may only appear to be “not represented”, but I think it is there. In my example, you can of course adjust the mix shader to make the cloth more or less transparent. Other forces such as wind or gravity can also be added/adjusted. But these are things you would need to do. I was only trying to show the possibilities in Blender. I assumed at first that you are familiar with Blender, but maybe not? Anyway, I hope this is helpful.

I am familiar with Blender though I use it mainly for architectural work.
So I don’t have a lot of experience with modelling free forms.
Also, right now, I don’t have the time to follow up on your suggestion with cloth. It’s certainly something I will be coming back to though and when I do I will publish the results. Thanks for your posts