Clothes on a character to be animated

I’m still pretty new to a lot of concepts here in Blender. I’ve made a couple of simple characters and animations and I’m wanting to do something a little more advanced; I’m mainly wanting to get a learning experience out of this. My objective is to construct a character that can be animated, but I’m not sure what the best approach is for clothes. I want something where I could potentially change out the clothes later. I’ve researched shrink wrap, but I’ve read that it cannot be used with a rigged mesh for animation. Is that correct? I’ve also considered making the clothes a part of the mesh, with a softbody effect weight-painted in. But that would require that the mesh and UV wrapping be completely redone if I decide I want the character to have a different set of clothes in the future.

Things I want to use with my character: UV wrapping, armature rigging (body and facial expressions), <particle system>hair and clothes. I appreciate any insight anyone can give me on any of these topics. Thanks!

From what I’ve read here, it looks like it might be possible using “cloth” and collisions to do what I want. I figure clothes would be a pretty common thing to model. I’m surprised there doesn’t seem to be more documentation on it.

From what I’ve read here, it looks like it might be possible using “cloth” and collisions to do what I want. I figure clothes would be a pretty common thing to model. I’m surprised there doesn’t seem to be more documentation on it.

I do not have an answer. In fact, I have been asking myself those very same questions. I started a scene with a nude character, but now I want to clothe it (even with a simple drape…).
I also wonder what’s the best approach for characters who wear different clothes…

hey Brallion,

I’ve researched shrink wrap, but I’ve read that it cannot be used with a rigged mesh for animation.
The modifier likely can’t be animated, but you should be able to animate the result. You may need to click “apply” on the shrinkwrap modifier so that it is applied to the mesh first, and then you should be able to animate the resulting mesh.

I just tried doing the cloth simulation, and it works like this:
Create a “pin” group of vertices that do not move and keep the cloth in place (like at the shoulders). Add an armature modifier on the cloth and weight the cloth to the armature - you can do this by parenting with ctrl+p and then choosing bone heat weighting and it will be automatically weighted. The weighting on the cloth doesn’t really matter, it is just to make the cloth follow along.

I was pleasantly surprised at how simple this actually is to do! I still have nightmares from trying to figure out Ncloth in Maya…

You should be able to easily switch out the clothing since it is not part of the mesh, and you need only re-make the pinning vertex group, then use the ctrl+p plus bone heat weighting and you’re set to go!

I’ve attached a Sphere with a dress that flashes you. Yes. Just open it up and press bake in the buttons window to see the action :eek: lol

As for character rigging techniques, check out the links in my signature. And for hair (and cloth), it may be worth getting a copy of Bounce, Tumble, Splash because the hair examples in there are really great!

Cheers!

Attachments

Brallion_clothTest.blend (282 KB)

This hair demo might also be useful!

Cheers!

Thank you feelgoodcomics.