8

558 Chapter 8: Modifiers
apply the HSDS modifier after Cloth on gar ments
created with Garment Maker and subdivide all the
triangles once.
Note: MeshSmooth does not give goo d results w ith
Garment Maker meshes.
Left: Garment Maker Delaunay mesh
Right: Modeled quad mesh
How Cloth Work s
Cloth exists within 3ds Max as a pair of modifiers:
Garment Maker and Cloth. Between these two,
you can turn just about any 3D object into a
cloth object, or you can create clothing in a more
traditionalmethodfrom2Dpatterns,andthen
sew the panels together. However, before getting
into the specifics of the two modifiers, it’s useful
to discuss how to preplan for using Cloth. This
includes how geometry affects Cloth behavior as
wellasthedensityofthemeshesyouuseasfabric.
Effect of Geometry on Cloth
Ideally, the way you model your cloth should
notaffecthowitbehaves.However,inpractice,
thenatureoftheclothgeometryimpactsthe
simulation. First of all, the density of the mesh
defines how fine the folds are that can develop. If
youcreateaplanewithonlyninevertices,when
you drape it over a sphere, you are obviously not
going to get much detailed folding.
In addition to this aspect, there is the nature of
the edges in the mesh. Folding can occur only
at edges between triangles, so the regularit y
or irregularity of the mesh also dictates the
resulting deformation. For example, a plane all of
whosetrianglehypotenuseedgesarealignedwill
result in a cloth with folds a ligned along those
edges. Garment Maker creates meshes w ith an
irregularlayout(butwithfairlyequal-sizedand
close-to-equilateral tr iang les) that avoids this
folding bias. However, this can also result in
rendering artifacts with low-resolution cloths, so
itisadvisabletoapplytheHSDSmodifierafter
Cloth on garments created with Garment Maker
and subdivide all the triang les once.
Note: MeshSmooth does not give good results with
Garment Maker meshes.
Left: A low-density s hirt.
Right: The same shir t with HSDS applied, ab ove Cloth in
the modifier stack
Note: There should never be any modifiers that can
alter topology between Garment Maker and Cloth.
For example, you can use Unwrap UVW, but not
modifierssuchasEditMesh,MeshSmooth,or
HSDS.
Thetypeofgeometryyouworkwithcanhavea
greatimpactonhowtheclothwillreact. You’re
probably accustomed to using triangular and
quadrilateral polygons for modeling. Garment
Maker uses a Delaunay mesh subdivision that
promotes non-uniform deformation. When using
quad polygons for cloth simulation be careful of
getting uniform or sy mmetrical results.