I finally decided to try out dynamic clothing and the Cloth Room and tried to use the manual to show me how. If I want to put dynamic cloth on a figure with it's legs straight and arms stretched out parallel to the ground, it works. I couldn't find anything to explain how to get the clothes to work on a model in a pose. One would think that the manual would go that extra step with a brand new capability, but noooo....... Oh well...at least a lot of other people have put out tutorials to help. I'll be searching for those.

Start in a neutral pose and put the clothing on your figure. Go to a later frame (the number doesn't matter, but I use 10 for this example), and pose your character. When you set up your cloth simulation, set it to start at the default pose, and set perhaps 5 frames for draping. When you reach the 10th frame, the clothing should drape and be compatible with the pose. Then render the 10th frame for the final pic.

Attached Link: http://www.3-AXIS.com

Great input Deecey: I would like to add a few things that will help. When using DRAPE FRAMES (which is a good idea) 5 to 10 frames is good. This lets the cloth settle (drape) on the body before it starts to move. Frame 10 is good and I would concider that a minimum of frames to get to the pose over time. This is because it gives the cloth more time to interact with the body as the figure moves into the posed frame. If the figure snaps from default pose to the intended pose in 2 or three frames, the figure moves into place so fast that the cloth can't keep up and you get bad results. I would even suggest 15 or 20 frames. I also set the cloth to calculate to 10 or 15 frames past my pose frame. This allows the cloth to AGAIN settle into place on the posed figure. Once the cloth is calculated save the file. This creates not only the poser scene file but a .dyn file that contains the cloth information. If you move the .pz3 file to a differant folder, move the .dyn file with it. By doing this you won't have to recalculate the cloth the next time you open the .pz3 file. Once I have saved the file I scrub through the animation to decide which frame has the best cloth position. Once I'm on that frame I select the grouping tool, verify that ALL the geometry for the cloth is selected (red), and spawn a prop. Now I have a copied prop of the cloth in the cloth position. It is solid, looks like the cloth and requires no simulation. Now I delete the cloth object because it isn't needed anymore. Move the clothing prop into position and save the file UNDER ANOTHER NAME. Now you have a .pz3 file with the calculated cloth info you can go back to if needed as well as a scene with a hard cloth prop that requires no calculation. It also requires less memory to run it. Cheers, Joe

BTW: If you make the subject a little more clear, more people will look at the thread as opposed to most just skimming over it without looking because they think it's just a bitching post. See above. :) Please don't think I mean any harm by this comment. I'm just trying to help you get the help you need. Thumbs up and have fun with that cloth! Joe

There's no need to spawn a prop off the clothing and then delete the original. Simply spawn a morph target, instead.

A couple more hint/warnings: 1. If you move your figure (in world-space) between the 1st frame and the final draped frame, the cloth will lag behind, giving the effect of wind without using a wind-force. 2. Allow several frames after your final pose to allow the cloth to settle - depending on the type of clothing (and the settings you use) it can take quite a while... Both of these effects can be either very useful or a d*mn nuisance, depending on what you want to achieve (but once you know about them, it's easier to compensate in advance..) Cheers, Diolma

Little Dragon: Thanks for the fix on that. My bad.

Thanks for the tips. It won't be till the weekend that I can try them out. I wanted to take some time to find a tutorial on the subject because too many queries are about things that are very fundamental and not hard to find information on. This question fell into that category. That's why the subject line is about the manual--in hopes that somebody wull bring the subject to CL's atention. There's something very wrong when a person cannot use the manual to apply a new feature to its most common application.