sarakawa - My goal when creating cloth, specially when working on personal projects, is to end up with a model that looks like it was 3D scanned. As much as I can model cloth in zbrush like I’ve often done and still do, some time it’s more logical to use physic simulations to get the best possible result.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t just add a piece of cloth and press simulate and say “There, I’m done with it!”. I actually do a lot of work in Marvelous Designer in order to get the result I want. I re-ajust the pattern many times and pull on the cloth to get folds where I need them. If you think about it, it’s sort of sculpting but with physics. I still get to add my “own flavor” without overdoing it which could make it look more artistic than realistic. Once I’m done in MD I get into zbrush to adjust the different parts, smooth what’s too drastic and exaggerate the parts that are too smooth to my taste. After that I add bump maps to make all the little details of the fabric.
The vertical mud marks are made to look like it was dripping down and dried up. I’ll go back to make it less regular. I’ll also change the specular of the hair to give it more contrasted highlights and also add dirt marks because it’s way too clean right now.