Hi, can someone tell me if this is suppose to do this or if I am now caught in some Poser 5 wormhole? I have a scene, I set up the dynamic clothing, and got it to do right so that it matches up to my pose and looks good. I next added some P5 dynamic hair from the library, but I can not seem to get it hang right to the pose. I even loaded a windforce thingie and have it pointed at the hair, hoping that would help cause it to drape down in back as the head tilts back in the pose. Still does not lay right, but that is not my problem Here is my problem. I clicked on the recalculate dynamics, all hair and clothing. It then ran through the simulation cycle. When it finished, it did it again. Then again. I am now up to something like 20 times. Surely it does not have to do all that, does it? Before I give this the 3 finger salute, I thought I asked if it is suppose to do this, maybe that is how if figures draping or something???? I can not see where one cycle to the next changes anything though, so my guess is I have a runaway. Does anyone know what causes this?

If I follow your problem correctly it sounds to be working in the proper way. You set the number of simualtions you want in the simualtion dialogue box on the left hand side of the screem, if you have a complex pose or want the material to settle you will want many cycles (say 30) but if it is something like a table cloth you can get away with fewer as it will be a relatively simple calculation.

Okay, maybe that's it. I will look for the box you mention. Now, just to double check. I am in the Pose room, not the cloth or hair room. I set the cloth up in the cloth room and had it working okay. The hair had been set up, it only needed to be made to drape right to the pose. I played around with the wind force thingie and think I am getting there with the hair. I was just not sure about the little animation box that comes up and says, calculating draping, and then it starts calculating frames 1-30, finishes, and then starts over again. And just keeps doing this. I canceled it before when it had run about twenty times as I was not seeing where it was making any difference.

Bearing in mind I have only used the cloth room a few times I think we might be talking about two different types of frames: Animation Frames (AF) and Drape Frames (DF). DF's are used to fit the clothes to your figure whereas the AF would be used for a Poser animation. If you have AF set to 30 in the pose room (which I think is the default) and DF set to 20 in the cloth room then when you run the cloth simualtion it will run through the full number of DF for every AF incase the figures pose has changed - this way the motion of the cloth will be simulated as yur figure walks about. If your figures pose has not changed then after the first key frame then I don't think you will see any change in the position of the cloth. I live in the UK and it is almost midnight so I'm off to bed now - good luck :D

Message edited on: 08/07/2004 17:17

Ok, thanks for the help and info. :O)

One point. Each hair group will drape and render the dynamics by themselves. For an example, look at HMann's dynamic ponytail in his hair package. When you look at it in props, you have the skullcap, the tail, and the front locks. Running recalculate hair dynamics will cause one run for the forelocks, and one run for the tail, as each is treated as a seperate prop. If you have a hair prop with 50 discreet growth groups, then you will get 50 seperate runs of drape and deformation due to the animation. The same applies to the clothing. Each discreetly listed item will be draped and shaped from the effects of the animation, the results are saved, and the next piece is draped and deformed.

Hi Dale, that would explain what I am seeing. So it is normal. Glad to know. So much about P5 I still have to learn. Thanks a bunch. :O)

Noted for future reassurance. Could a prop version of the Poser manual have the pages modelled as some form of cloth, so that one could create a suitably satifying animation of it being thrown against a wall?

Don't want to throw a simple one in, but you haven't got "loop" lit at the bottom left have you? If that is lit or selevted then it just keeps going round and round as you said, 1 to 30 back to 1 up to 30 and so on until you switch it off. It's probably not this and no offence was intended but sometimes it's the simplest little thing that causes problems :) Happy days and long life!

AntoniaTiger - it would be an appropriate tribute if it could be done, cause that's where my copy stays! thefixer - that wasn't it, but you are right, sometimes it is the simplest little things so thanks for the thought. :O) DaleB had it right. If you wait long enough the cycle runs its course, doing each bit of hair as he described. So it is normal and I only thought I had a problem, which sort of leads back to AntoniaTiger and his comment.

:) And by keeping this in mind, you can avoid collision messes. If you have multi layers of cloth that may overlap, then you set up the innermost layer to run -first-. That way it ignores all the other items of clothing, but with collision enabled, the other layers of cloth should take the configuration of the inner cloth into account in the calculations. This does require some tweaking of the parameters, and if you are dealing with something like a stiff jacket that hangs over a light skirt, then you need to do the jacket first, as the 'softer' material is going to deform easier than the stiffer one.

And Antonia? Take a cube primitive, and stretch it out to form a 'spine' shape of a book. Now take a square primitive, position it, and set a constrained group of the one line of polygons touching the cube. Repeat until desired thickness is obtained (remembering to include page offsets to avoid collision violations). Rotate so the 'pages' are hanging down, run recalculate dynamics, and go away for awhile. When done save what you have, then rename the file and keyframe a motion path for the cube to land against an imported wall prop (with collisions turned on for the wall). Test the flight path in box mode, and if adequate, recalc the dynamics again and set to render as you prefer. Enjoy! :P

hee hee hee