Hi everybody, I want to create a dragon and animate it.
And for the cloth, I need help: how can i do for the collision between the cloth object (dragon’s wings) and the displacement texture ( dragon’s body)?
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These are the final wings.
In fact I’ve made some cloth’s test on the white part and it’s ok.
But I don’t know if the cloth will follow the displacement texture.
I explain:
If someone makes a model with displacement, a woman for exemple. And after that he makes a dress with cloth. How the cloth applied on dress can collide with the displacement texture on the woman?
All in Maya
I need Tips Thx
Cute Dragon! 
ryan83 - thx
But I hope it will not be so cute after zbrush work.
So I show pictures of my problem with cloth and displacement.
The cloth get enough subdivisions, so I don’t know how to fix these bugs.
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](javascript:zb_insimg(‘148233’,‘bug.jpg’,1,0))
There are several solutions to this -
Update the base mesh with the horns created in ZBrush. You could export the second division out of ZBrush so it represents the changes made to the model. I find that the higher the poly count the better the solve… but that might not be an option for you.
Another option would be to create stand-in objects in place of your changes. You could parent a sphere to your rig and use a soft-modifier to warp it into a horn-like object. I do not suggest using a cone. Having to many edges converging at one point can dramatically confuse/slow down your simulations. nCloth also includes collision spheres/boxes for exactly this type of situation but they can’t be deformed.
Finally you can change the collision distance of the model so the cloth dosn’t come close enough to the base mesh for this to occur. But that takes away the realisum of the scene. It’s the best solution if the animation is fast and/or the camera is pointed at your model in such a way that no one will notice.
Finnally Finnally… 
You can simply fix the issue with soft-modifiers after the simulation is done, be sure not to delete history after the soft-mods have been added! And to set them up as “relative.”
And lastly… Fix it in Comp! If you render everything in layers and you’re careful about how you mask everything, you can fix the issues in Photoshop or your preferred Compositing program (AE, Nuke, etc).
Good Luck!
If the fabric is not going to translate across the dragon, it would make sense to fix those parts of the cloth that interact with the horns so that they are not part of the simulation. Then you can model them to fit the horns and never move.
Cheers,
Rory
Ok thx very much guys, I will try that.
But I want to know if is it possible to link the cloth to a displacement texture
“But I want to know if is it possible to link the cloth to a displacement texture”
That is a big “NO”
You wouldn’t want to anyway. Think about it. Displacement maps are meant to lighten your load in terms of poly count. They make it possible to animate/rig a model that would essentially be thousands/millions of poly faces. When Maya renders Displacement maps it’s actually subdividing your model at render time. It’s attempting to recreate what you see in ZBrush.
That’s why it’s so important to make your maps as close to “one polygon per pixel” as possible.
Try simming a cloth object with 2-3 subdivisions. It’s SOOOO SLOOOWW! Same goes for collision objects.
The name of the game is to cheat! 
The best way to do this is to:
Model a base (as low poly as possible)
detail it in ZBrush (The UVs should be nailed down by this point and the details should at least be 90% done)
delete the lowest level in ZBrush (your base mesh)
export the second level (it’s important to delete that first level so the displacement maps are accurate)
Import the changed model into Maya
Rig it, Weight it
animate the model
Heres the tricky part - Then create a render proxy, but don’t set it up for rendering! You’ll use it as a collision object for nCloth.
Now you can hide the high res collision object (the proxy)
Simulate nCloth.
Render using your rigged model.
This is the best overall solution for nCloth sims. Esentually you’re seperating the ncloth simulation from the base model. Simulating may be a bit slow but more accurate and you’ll have more control.
It’s important to get everything out of the way before simming your cloth though. It can be tempting to jump ahead a little, but Maya thinks upstream. Anyhting you do before it’s time will hender anything you do after.
As an added bonus, proxy’s are based off of internal algarithums! So you’re not dealing with a heavy scene the whole time! Think “stremline” Whatever it takes to keep your scene as light as possible!
Hope that helps!
MikeC—> Thank you so much man!!!
I found nothing on internet about it and you say all in few sentences!
Next step Zbrush work!
No problem man…
My only other suggestion to you would be to reduce the poly count on the base mesh you’re working with.
Looking at the first post you have I noticed your dragon has a lot of polys already. This will bite you in the butt if you follow my process.
I would suggest that you go over your model and delete as many edge loops as possible.
- OR -
Work on the base mesh in ZBrush, but do not delete the first level. Just export the updated version, and work on that in Maya.
The first option is better though. Look around at other posts. Most base models have nicely distributed polys over the entire model. In some cases even the head is as evenly distributed as the rest of the body. It’s a tricky process to say the least!
A friend of mine would import his models into ZBrush, subdivide it 4-5 times, export the base mesh back into maya, and then set up the UVs. This works well because ZBrush automaticly squares up the polys for you. And makes them all plainer. And cleans up any polys that arn’t four sided!
This still won’t fix a heavy base mesh though.
It’s a pain… I know. :rolleyes:
Best of luck!
A little update of the dragon with the beginning of work on the head.
some screens of Zbrush and a quick displacement render test in Maya to check settings of mental ray approximation editor.
There are some bugs on the map I will correct that.
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