Understanding Maya nCloth

Take an in-depth look at nCloth, Maya's toolkit for simulating high-resolution mesh cloth for 3D characters and animations.Take an in-depth look at nCloth, the Maya toolkit for simulating high-resolution mesh cloth for 3D characters and animations. Author Aaron F. Ross explains the roles played by the various "actors" in an nCloth simulation, including the nucleus solver, nCloth objects, passive colliders, and nConstraints. The course begins with basic simulations such as flags and ropes, then progresses to building a simple garment, until finally integrating animation and special effects like falling leaves and tearing cloth. Aaron also covers performance optimization techniques such as nCloth and nucleus solver settings, proxy objects, collision layers, the Wrap deformer, and more. Topics include: Understanding the nucleus solver Adopting a scale convention Adjusting nCloth and nRigid attributes Creating and animating nConstraints Editing nConstraint membership and influence Smoothing nCloth with subdivision surfaces Storing and manipulating simulation data with nCache Improving simulation quality and efficiency Dressing an animated character Painting dynamic attributes such as Stickiness Simulating many objects such as falling leaves