curtain model

[DRedshot]

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This thread will become a progress thread, but at the moment i will be posting help questions.

I've started updating the curtain model. So far so good, but i need some tips for painting the weights. It turns out that I have jumped right into the advanced stuff, without really knowing the basics.

Question: what tips do you have for painting the weights for the joints? Should the joint control 100% of the vertices directly below it, or should all joints have some influence on all of the vertices?

I'll post a pic to show you what i have so far.

Spoiler below!

  curtain.jpg (Size: 104.19 KB / Downloads: 115)

here is the problem...

  curtain2.jpg (Size: 86.38 KB / Downloads: 94)

[Acies]

This is how I would do it:
Apply a texture. Then create your animation. Go through the animation frame by frame. If anything looks odd (stretching or unnatural movement) do some weight painting - that particular frame will change before your eyes. Soon enough the animation will look natural. Save it then.
Edit: Forgot to add: Once done go to Skin--> Edit Smooth Skin--> Normalize weights.

Step two is to skin-->go to bind pose then export the object (without animations).

[DRedshot]

cheers, i'll let you know how it goes

[DRedshot]

I've been trying to solve this problem i have for a couple of hours now, and have finally decided to ask for help.
For some reason, when I export the mesh (as OpenCollada) it is all messed up. It's not a general export error, it's something to do with the joints, I know this because the right side of the curtain looks fine, and i haven't binded that side yet. However the left side is very distorted, and looks a lot different to the version in maya...

I'll update the first post with a pic, so you can se the problem.

ps: the mesh in ModelView is static, it has no physics, so the error isn't the joints 'stretching' apart...

[Acies]

Are you sure that you have normalized weights before exporting? Otherwise that might occur

[DRedshot]

Thanks for the help Acies, as it turns out the problem was that the Max Influences was too high. A video recommended to use a value of 3 or 4, but with my model a value of 1 looks fine. By the way, what even is Max Influences?

[Hermoor]

I don't know if this will be of some use for you. But in blender there is a wave modifier. Basically you just cut up a plane then put the wavemodifier on it. The plane will now behave like a wave...which is kind of like how a windy piece of cloth behaves. Then there is of course also the inbuilt wind physic simulator. I'm sure there is some way to bake the physics of the cloth into an animation.

Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBcg4SuAwZ0

[Acies]

I use 3. I has to with how the mesh is bound to the skeleton. Perhaps something like each vertex may only be bound to *max influence* number of joints. I'm not sure though