I’m tackling my first high resolution character rig, and I wasn’t sure the best way to go about the modelling the clothes. The character would be used for pre rendered animation within Blender.
Most game rigs I’ve seen seem to have the clothes as flat with no thickness, but I don’t know if the same applies to animation/film, and how this would affect the cloth simulation. If anyone has any idea or tips for a beginner, please let me know! Thank you!
NOTE: The specific material in question would be basketball shorts and a thicker baggy sweatshirt. An indie animation I was looking at seems to have thickness for the cloth mesh which is how I assume it goes in film/animation usually. I’ll link it below, would very much still appreciate any thoughts on this.
for video-games: clothes-thickness is just a computational burden.
but for “artistic” animation: I think zero-thickness clothes just look wrong. At the very least, just slap a Solidify Modifier onto “flat-clothes” mesh, and they look much better. For even more artistic results with lots of cloth wrinkling (like white-shirt on pink-character in linked video), then a full 3D model seems warranted. Longer render times, but better results.
I usually add some thickness to clothes, using the solidify modifier that @shannonz mentioned. As long as the modifier is AFTER the cloth sim, it shouldn’t affect the simulation.
We usually and only if it is called for will only model the outer edges with a fold over to the inside just enough that it won’t be seen…and won’t interfere with physics…
Most plain clothing ( soft fabrics cotton etc…) will be a single layer…
Here you can see what I refer to…the folded edge …( rig is kinda in the way but that is what supports and keeps it in place…you can see the Hard Edge details are sculpted and have a lot of thickness as they Don’t Move…
Another view where you can see the loincloth is a single layer IT has to MOVE>>>and also the hair cards to add fur to the outer skirt…The details are sculpted…
Thank you for responding so quick, this was really helpful and I think I know how to approach my character now. Both you and @G_De offered really good insight. I was worried about how the sim would react with two layers so. Very good to know about what order to do that in. Thank you both!
This is super useful, thank you for sharing the pictures of your rig too (it looks awesome)! I definitely see what you mean about balancing the two looks. Look forward to testing this out!
Another note on cloth, if your clothing object is complex (think pockets, buttons, zippers, and whatnot), you may want to try modeling a simpler version, adding a surface deform modifier to the clothing object linked to the simple version, and running the actual cloth sim on the simpler version.
