Having trouble deciding between conforming and dynamic clothing.

[cosmasad]

Hey friends,

I have never tried "dynamic" clothing and wonder how much more difficult it is to use these than "conforming" clothing? All of my experience, up to now, has been with conforming outfits.

I don't do animation. I just want to dress a figure with a particular outfit, pose it and then export an obj so I can use it in my 3d models.



Thank you

Cosmas

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Conforming clothing technically moves a bit easier with the figure and is as simple as "conform to." But it does not move as realistically.

Dynamic clothing takes a bit of setup and fiddling, depending on what the dynamics have to interact with, but the cloth moves FAR more realistically than conforming ever can.

Both types have benefits and down sides. If you're not animating, and you don't care about making all the folds super-realistic, then conforming is probably okay. But if you want the folds and the way the cloth falls and lays on the figure to look very realistic, dynamic is probably the better choice. There are some free dynamic clothing items out there to play with. If you've never done it before, I'd suggest finding one of the freebies, and testing it out. Some of them come with a basic bare bones tutorial on how to set up a simulation for it.

 

[cosmasad]

Thank you, Seliah. That's very helpful

 

[Miss B]

I have to agree with everything Seliah said, and it did take a while to get used to. Now that I've been using dynamic clothing for a few years, it does look much better, especially full skirts and cloaks, which conforming clothing can't accomplish. I like conforming clothing for items which don't change shape, such as, for example, fitted shoes/boots, or a tight fitting bathing suit/lingerie. Anything that's lose fitting can be set up as dynamic.

 

[Ken1171]

I am quite proficient with dynamic cloth, but I don't use it as much because it takes longer to deal with it. Like MissB, I reserve it to cases where it's better suited for, like with very loose cloth, capes, skirts and long dresses. For everything else, namely outfits tight to the body, conforming does the job and it's much easier to deal with.

In Poser, the default parameters for dynamic cloth will work well with most cases, but things can be unpredictable. That's because dynamic simulations depend a lot on vertex density, so if we apply a morph that changes the cloth shape, the vertex density will change, and so will the simulation results. In addition, low poly outfits may be fast to simulate, but may not bend well, while heavier meshes will bend better, but will slow down the simulation. The fitting must be perfect, since any intersection with the body might result into cloth exploding. The mesh must be clean and well built, or else the simulation may crash or have unexpected malfunctions. For those reasons, it's best using cloth that was meant to be dynamic.

I could write a book on the aspects that affect dynamic cloth, but you get the point. Once you understand the multitude of parameters, things start making more sense, but the results are always unpredictable and will require some fiddling and experimentation. If you just want a quick render, then dynamic cloth may not be for you. It may be a bit frustrating at first, but there are specific cases where dynamic cloth is your best bet.

 

[eclark1894]

"Easier to use" is a subjective term depending on your point of view and which software you're using. Let's just say that they're both different in the way they accomplish they're end goal. In my opinion, and again, this is only in Poser, I think Bullet Physics is even easier to use, and provides both realism and animation. Yet still, it involves a little "prep" time to set things up properly. The same with the Cloth Room and dynamic clothing. And yes, if you skip or forget a step, you can mess up and have to start over.

 

[willyb53]

Knowing how to use dynamics in poser is not limited to clothing, blankets over items or people can be done easily
wagon cover is also dynamic

 

[Hornet3d]

I don't think it is an either or when it comes to conforming or dynamic more a question of horses for courses. If the outfit is a top with jeans then conforming will often work but, as has already been said, flowing skirts and dresses are generally more convincing with dynamic. It also depends on the pose, a figure in a skirt in a seated pose is also likely to be more convincing with dynamic. Then there are the simple uses for draping cloths as shown by Willyb53.

There are some good dynamic cloths out there for free but you need to choose carefully as a badly made outfit may not work well and will put you off dynamic clothing before you have really even started. I struggled with dynamic for years with little success until a couple of years ago. The change for me was buying some of the great outfits by Lully here at HiveWire most , if not all come with a short but very useful tutorial. They are generally priced so they will not break the bank and there are bundles that are well worth it if you get into dynamic big time. Two tips I have been given is do 20 or 30 drapes frames before the simulations ( first page when setting up a new simulation) and it is easier to bring the props to the figure than the figure to the prop. By this I mean if you have a skirted figure sitting in a chair it is often better to bring the chair to the figure rather than sit the figure in the chair.

Having been unable to get my head around conforming for years I now value it as yet another great tool that can add a lot of realism to a render.

 

[eclark1894]

It's also good to remember that some conforming clothes are made with the flows and wrinkles already modeled into the outfit. Personally, I think this is a bad idea, although I do understand the thought that a vendor puts into modeling it that way.

 

[Hornet3d]

It's also good to remember that some conforming clothes are made with the flows and wrinkles already modeled into the outfit. Personally, I think this is a bad idea, although I do understand the thought that a vendor puts into modeling it that way.

I agree, while it is a nice touch to have the wrinkles there it only actually works for a few selected poses for the majority the wrinkles look out of place. I tend not to buy clothes with preformed wrinkles unless it is something really special and then I buy it but use the morph brush to remove the wrinkles that do not look right.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

It's also good to remember that some conforming clothes are made with the flows and wrinkles already modeled into the outfit. Personally, I think this is a bad idea, although I do understand the thought that a vendor puts into modeling it that way.

I like this in a conformer, if the wrinkles are in fairly universal places, like natural bends at the joints, or underarms, backs of knees where cloth is prone to bunching up no matter what position someone is in.

But I like having these wrinkles set up as morph dials. That way the end user can dial them in or out depending on what they want.