3ds Max Tutorial - Cloth Simulation 2 (Flag and Wind)

This is our second foray into cloth simulations. This time we go over attaching your cloth to an object during the simulation so that parts of the cloth stay static. Think of flags or curtains.
As a bonus, I took it a step further and show you how to put wind in the scene to give your cloth a little more life!

[@Nivellen67]

Great tutorial. Finally I understood how it works, which is what and where to press to get the desired effects. Thanks a lot!

[@hugon06]

So great even 5 years later :D I must say that I had to tweak the static cylinder option to avoid weird behaviors but otherwise it works just fine !! Thanks a lot !

[@polyflow3d]

polyflow.xyz/vertex-animation-tools.html

[@ScarletSnake]

This is great! Short, sweet and fun! Subscribed!

[@Ramon_asekas]

good tutorial, thanks for share your knowledge!

[@daneli.a.9781]

Still works fine. ThankYou

[@ss54dk]

2023 still great

[@greenlightning7117]

Hey man, hope you havent stopped posting vids! theyve been really helpful

[@solidworksextraordinary4855]

good job man....thanks a lot ....

[@manuladijakarta]

Thanks for the Tuts...

[@MaxSMoke777]

Simulate Local damped isn't a solution if you need the geometry. I just go a much better result by upping the Air Resistance under my cloth properties.

[@sarahmendes1689]

That helped me a lot thank you!

[@DoraKage]

Ok ok, watch both your cloth tuts. Thank you for the videos! Quite easy to understand, and I managed to pull it off. BUT max's simulation is quite touchy, without this simulate local damping, I keep getting the whole vertices flying infinitely into space. :/

[@federicovergelli8471]

Hey man, i have a problem when i try to attach the "Seam" to the pole surface, i just can't do it, i am running 2014 version. It just don't let me to assign to any surface of any mesh.

[@StefWillemse]

Im using 2017 and the same problem. The select cursor doesnt show up so i cant select anything edit: okay add the object you want to select to the object properties window, and set it as a collision object. it should work then.

[@jorari71]

This was the question. Mike Woolf forgot this detail.

[@9268779733]

make sure you have added both cylinder and plan in cloth modifier if its not added plz heck it again by selectin both one by one ,if they are not added repeat the colision and cloth options in cloth modifier .

[@tripplesea]

You have to make sure that the collision object is sharing the cloth modifier AND is defined as a collision object in the Object Properties window. It can be easy to overlook this part.

[@MIchaelSybi]

Just to clarify which object properties are meant: in the modifier cloth menu, the first upper panel is Object properties. Go into it, and choose the object from the left to be active (one is for cloth, one for collision object). Once selected, choose from the right menu, whether it's a cloth, or a collision object.

[@poilagratter6564]

Thx a lot !

[@voidvr2607]

Thanks!

[@paolotonolo3581]

Mr. Mike Wolf , what a great Tut , thanks so much...you made it easy for us Ole Guys lol any chance on Curtans or Drapes ? that would be Awesome ...thanks again :)

[@Martial-Mat]

Very useful, but I'm confused as to why the damped option worked?

[@specialyze]

+Mat Broomfield I gloss over it here, but explain it a bit more in the first Cloth Simulation video. The damped option allows for more time/calculations per cycle which gives the simulation a more accurate response. So if the Local option isn't working alone, it's probably because Max isn't given enough time to calculate where everything should actually be.

[@chrismokoena6334]

Thanks allot man got assignment due L

[@ashrafgaber9770]

nice

[@jpt7331]

cool video man . i added one piece texture to it

[@Kokuyous3ki]

I was trying to do a looped cloth animation but so far all I could do is turn the animation into vertex animation (create keys feature) and then copy the first key to the last position and remove some keys to create a transition. I could not achieve an ending frame identical to the initial frame. The cloth modifier has a bunch of stuff like target state and such but even though I tried searching I found no way to keep it in "simulation mode" (without turning it irreversibly into vertex animation) yet make proper looped animation. I want to create a knight as a character for a game and the very first hurdle, a simple walking animation already looks weird because of the battleskirt flipping when the animation transitions from last frame to first. Sadly the game engine does not support cloth physics so I have to do that part in max completely. Any ideas other than the "create keys" thingie? (By the way, the biggest problem with the conversion to vertex animation is that by removing keys to enable a transition so it looks less unreal, the vertexes that act as anchors and are sticking to an object might start floating as the cloth won't follow the object properly anymore - since I removed some keys. I can remove those keys only from vertexes that are not "anchored" to an object to create a close-to-perfect illusion but since I can't move my vertex selection from editmesh straight into the animation/curve editor, it means I have to find the name for the anchor vertexes and make sure not to touch those... one-by-one... tried parameter collector but either I'm too enexperienced or that's just plain not for this purpose.) Anyways, do you know a way to make a looped cloth animation? Of course everyone else is welcome to answer this question too :D

[@VTAWolf]

Hey nice tutorial...I did everything you mentioned, but I have another problem..when I added material for the flag it only shows on one side ..???? How do I get the flag material to show on both sides???

[@JaySamurai79]

Bro when i hit the simulate local, nothing happens. Could anyone tell me what i'm doing wrong. thanks ..

[@DoraKage]

Question, I'm trying to test this on a single object that is made up of several separate elements (a sail to be exact) and it has ropes and such that are not attached as one geometry. unfortunately when i start the simulation, the ropes start blowing in all directions when i need them pinned to the sail tho. :/ can I group and pin vertices of a mesh to other vertices in the same object?

[@letgameslive1454]

Hey bro, Do you know how to export such objects like this flag with modifiers on it into Unity as fbx???

[@polyflow3d]

polyflow.xyz/vertex-animation-tools.html

[@Microgenxy]

how can we make an looping flag ?

[@LucidOreo]

And how do you render it?

[@JaySingh-ju9fd]

if we have already premade curtain .. do we need cloth simulation on it ? or we can use directly wind effect on it?

[@specialyze]

A curtain is just a piece of geometry until you tell it to react to physics, like wind. You do that by applying a modifier (cloth is easiest) to the object. Otherwise, the wind will have no effect.

[@JaySingh-ju9fd]

Mike Woolf thanks

[@JaySingh-ju9fd]

i am trying and its reacting but only have one problem its not waving...its just pretending like wind is not stoping or have variations..like your flag has.

[@specialyze]

Review the part where I add the wind and play with the wind settings. You will want to decrease the force and increase the turbulence.

[@JaySingh-ju9fd]

Mike Woolf thanks i need to work on it to get perfect.

[@leandrotarsia7212]

Not so sure about this tutorial... >> Puts on a pirate flag. SOLD.