How to make Perfectly Looping Cloth Simulations in Blender

[@unkaiimusic]

For those of you wanting to know how to do this in 3.4+ all you need to do is switch out the Transfer Attribute node for the Sample Index node using Vector and Point. You then need to plug a index node into the index port and follow the rest of the tutorial. The Mix node looks different also, you just need to change modes on the regular Mix node. Hope this helps!

[@AriaFaithJones]

💕🤗💕

[@geoffreybirt8899]

Did this but as soon as I plug the result from mix into position, the cloth vanishes and nothing I try can get it working

[@cinderbonz]

I also tried using your method, and like Geoffrey Birt, my cloth vanishes as well :(

[@unkaiimusic]

@Geoffrey Birt @Cinderbonz what version are you two in? I will try and figure out where your problem is!

[@cinderbonz]

@@unkaiimusic Thank you very much for the help! I am using blender 3.5 :)

[@edgarfabianfrias]

I am just beginning to explore blender and am THRILLED by the wealth of knowledge and generosity you share here on your channel! Looping for me has always been super hard and this video helped explain it so well! Gonna definitely try this out! Thank you, Aria!

[@AriaFaithJones]

Aww Edgar!! So happy you are getting into it! I can’t wait to see what you will create using blender! 💕🤗

[@kirilica8592]

Miss, I'd like to sincerely thank you for this wonderful tutorial and introduction to idea of geometry nodes as well. I was trying to make some sprite sheets for a game that I currently develop, and making animations looping was almost impossible until now, lol. I admire your content being free and wish you all the best!

[@AriaFaithJones]

Aww so happy this was helpful! Thank you 💕💕💕

[@SickRabbit327]

Amazing tutorial. It helped me a lot. Thank you :)

[@yussufabukar32]

That’s a really smart idea! I didn’t know you could do that. Thanks for sharing

[@AriaFaithJones]

Absolutely! Glad this was helpful 💕

[@Dhruv1223]

Perfect! Had a cape on a walking character and it loops perfectly :D

[@MichaelSievers]

Very well explained, thank you for this solution and the walkthrough, I had been wondering about it!

[@AriaFaithJones]

So happy this was helpful to you! 💕🤗

[@yoavsigler4457]

I did not know about the Transfer Attribute node, thank you

[@AriaFaithJones]

💕🤗

[@borington4317]

I just implemented shape blending in GN yesterday, but I didn't realize you could use mesh caches too. Great tutorial!

[@AriaFaithJones]

Thank you!! 💕

[@cimicher]

Perfect! Just what I needed and more 👍

[@AriaFaithJones]

So happy this was helpful to you! 💕

[@JoshTitus-p2v]

It appeasr the latest version no longer has a transfer attribute geometry node. I'm not sure where to go from here unfortunately.

[@CmanXP]

Excellent tutorial, thanks so much!

[@AriaFaithJones]

Happy you enjoyed it! 💕

[@DeviousShadows]

This was wonderful, thank you!

[@RobertVajda]

I have a problem with this approach, when motion blur is turned on in cycles at random frames some vertices of the alembic mesh get ripped or stretched and it is weirdly glitched. Its probably caused by the Vertex Interpolation setting in the MeshSequenceCache modiffier

[@uxzavr]

amazing tutorial, thank you!

[@AriaFaithJones]

Aww so happy you enjoyed it! 💕

[@denoa3D]

Great tutorial! I just want to point out something, if I may ;) This method doesn't respect cloth self-collisions, because it just interpolates between the vertex positions of the two meshes, so if you have a bit wilder cloth waving, your mesh might intersect itself. To fix this you have to change where the transition begins (in your case frame 182) and check if it has intersections. This if fine, but a bit tedious. I can suggest a faster way to do it, to those interested: NERD ALERT! Ditch the Mix node factor key frames and use drivers instead. Add a Map Range node and plug it into the factor socket of the Mix. Now in the 'Value' field of the Map Range, instead of a number type '#frame'. This will add a simple frame driver that just outputs the frame #. In the 'From Min' field you put your desired start frame of the transition (ex. 182) and in the 'From Max' field we type the end frame (last frame in the timeline, in your case 282). In the 'To Min' and 'To Max' fields we type either 1 and 0 or 0 and 1, depending on witch way the factor has to go. Then right click on the 'From Min' field and select 'Copy as New Driver'. Now we can paste that driver in the 'Cloth_1' and 'Cloth_2' MeshSequenceCache modifiers (the 'Frame Offset' field, Right click > Paste Driver). In the 'Cloth_1' modifier we have to change the driver to have it subtract the full frame range from our selected start frame. Right click > Edit Driver, change the driver type from 'Averaged Value' to 'Scripted Expression'. Then in the 'Expression' field type 'default_value-282' (or whatever the last frame is). Now we can simply change the 'From Min' value for the start frame of the transition, play the animation and hope for the best ;)

[@AriaFaithJones]

Great info!! 💕

[@vuk8550]

This works, in a way. It loops great, but around 300 frames in the middle of the animation, cloth kinda 'freezes' on the cut of frame where it should start looping, but it still moves. It's very weird, imagine a flag outside during the winter, and it freezes from the cold into a shape but it's not completely solid, just firm enough to retain the shape. And if the wind were to blow it would still 'wave' it but the flag would mostly retain its shape as it bends. This is the effect I am having. I tried to follow this to letter, and as I am not good with geo nodes, I have no idea how to fix it. XD

[@denoa3D]

@@vuk8550 Consider the length of the "transition" between the two meshes (the number of frames between the start and end time of the factor mixing) You don't want it to be too long, like 100-200 frames, otherwise you'll get this freezing thing. This depends on the rate of change in the cloth waving - if it is a slow wave it might work, but if the cloth moves faster, you want the transition to be shorter, something like 20-30 frames (it could also be 10 or 5 frames, it depends) That's why I made it this way, so that we can trial-and-error faster. You can set the beginning and end of the transition in the Map Range node, in the 'From Min' and 'From Max' fields.

[@alfredwerwenkel5136]

Amazing. Thank you.

[@AriaFaithJones]

💕🤗

[@res0ula471]

I have a problem, when I set the time frame offset for one of the cloths, I play the animation and it the cloth does not move at all, any fix for this? thanks.

[@denoa3D]

Reverse the factor of the mix node in the key frames (instead from 0>1 make it 1>0)

[@SentinelFRCE]

If i wanted to apply a looping cloth sims to an animation, a walk cycle with clothes how would i do this?

[@mikem.8826]

Thanks a lot!

[@Trem.official]

Can you show how to make cloth texture and light like this or your nft that has light with clothes? You are amazing

[@AriaFaithJones]

Thank you! I did add some textures in blender but a lot of this look was created in post using DaVinci resolve 💕

[@yl161]

Does the geometric node affect the color the shader gives to the cloth? Is this the case with anyone?

[@IamAshishChauhan]

Goddess is right Here !!

[@AriaFaithJones]

Aww thank you so much! 🤗

[@adhamezzat5514]

I know this is a bit old but I was wondering if I can bake this into an action so I can use it in a game engine

[@CharlesDanielCharly]

Awesome tutorial, I was wondering if you are gonna have a tutorial for the new hair curves? Seems like it makes the process for hair a lot easier

[@AriaFaithJones]

I will take a look into it! 💕

[@zapfsaeule2]

Thanks so much! It's so helpful!

[@AriaFaithJones]

Aww happy it was helpful! 💕

[@yoadmoore6072]

best tutorials ever :)

[@AriaFaithJones]

Thank you! Happy you enjoyed it! 🤗

[@Goldenleyend]

Thanks for the tutorial! Only problem seems to be material is not working, the material seemed to work on the original cloth simulation, but the imported cloth just remains white after I assign the material. How do I fix this?

[@Goldenleyend]

nvm I just add a "set material" node before the last node

[@MaryIam13]

thank you so much for making this tutorial!! I do mainly cloth simulations with MD and I often wondered how I could blend cloths so they loop! There's already tutorials for that with Cinema4d but as a 3DS max user I couldn't figure out how to edit Alembics in Max; now after watching your tutorial I was able to do it in Blender T.T!! Since I'm very new to Blender, I couldn't figure out the nodes setup with 3.4 - you mentioned below the sample index node - but when I connect it to the Mix node (color) it scales and makes the mesh appear and disappear when changing the float value; so I did it in 3.3 and it worked out without any problems; I'm sure it will also work with 3.4 but as a beginner to Blender's geometry nodes system I'd need to learn and understand the nodes more first^^

[@AriaFaithJones]

Aww that’s great to hear! This should work in 3.4 as well! I recently updated the blend file for this on my gumroad and Patreon and may have switched out a node I believe for 3.4 💕

[@MaryIam13]

@@AriaFaithJones oh nicee! I'll check out your gumroad/patreon later!! :D

[@arkarproductions239]

did not work for me as the mesh gets squished into nothing, what should i do to fix this @Aria Faith Jones

[@AriaFaithJones]

The best thing to do would be to remove all forces and slowly add them 1 by 1 to test how they will effect the cloth 💕

[@DelaEdits]

youre the best ty for this

[@AriaFaithJones]

You’re welcome! 💕🤗

[@kevinalif1]

can it be done with wind grass animation?

[@AriaFaithJones]

This will depend on what type of simulation/method you are using, but you can definitely do a lopping grass animation 💕

[@kevinalif1]

@@AriaFaithJones i did it with turbulence, and empty with bezier circle, but your cloth simulation helped a lot, thanks

[@Scarlov87]

Thank you very very much :)!!

[@AriaFaithJones]

💕🤗💕

[@cinderbonz]

Great tutorial but I'm afraid I can't get it working with the current version of Blender :( I bought the file since you mentioned you may have updated the nodes for the gumroad file, but they don't appear to have been updated. They come in as "undefined" nodes. I tried using the sample index node that Unkaii mentioned but it didn't work :( Do you have any suggestions as what to do next? I think this would be a great way to loop animation. So close!!

[@foolspyrite8534]

I discovered that I had two versions of Blender installed on my computer, versions 2.93 and either 3.5 or 3.3.6 depending on what I had most recently installed. The computer would randomly pick one when I searched Blender on my computer

[@Mr_Sapphire]

You come back. I'm fine

[@AriaFaithJones]

💕🤗💕

[@tbmcqueen4259]

That's a clever way to do it. I'm curious, though: Why parent the cape to the bone the first time if we have to redo it after importing?

[@AriaFaithJones]

The armature animation effects the simulation the initial time we parent it (which is why it matches perfectly after parenting the second time) and then we need to re-parent it to the original armature after import 💕

[@arkarproductions239]

​@@AriaFaithJones did not work for me as the mesh gets squished into nothing, what should i do to fix this Edit: its working i had not changed to vector in transfer attribute

[@daleroska4971]

Haré esta practica para mejorar mi nivel. Eres una genia. Gracias por compartir tu sabiduría. Te mando un beso desde Uruguay. Por curiosidad. Que cpu tienes?

[@camilocarreno8672]

Que tutorial tan chimba mor

[@mdaffu8040]

Pls make tutorial video for solar beam

[@aliwayne4]

Is that your actual voice or you use effects?

[@AriaFaithJones]

My actual voice 💕

[@100DMark]

❤❤❤

[@meganus3d]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@AriaFaithJones]

💕🤗💕

[@johnrossporter3439]

No longer works in 3.4 as Transfer Attributes no longer exists :( Someone needs to tell the Blender team to stop changing nodes around.

[@AriaFaithJones]

The Transfer Attribute node has been split into 3 different nodes. In this case you can use the Sample Index Node 💕

[@till.sen_wlc]

It doesn’t seem to work, when I move the fac slider it scales the mesh down to 0 and doesn’t morph into the other one 😢

[@staylifted_1232]

Yea it dosnt work with that node

[@Gullar12]

Ok

[@AriaFaithJones]

Ok 💕