Cinema 4D - Animating Cloth Tutorial

[Fragma]

This tutorial will take you through step by step on how to animate cloth using Cinema 4D.


Your end result will look a little something like this:



This is a very simple technique which you can do so much with.

Start off by adding a Sphere. Go to Objects > Primitive > Sphere.

Alternatively:




Now, go to Objects > Primitive, but this time select a Plane.

Once you've inserted a Plane, use the Move Tool (Tools > Move) to move your Plane above your Sphere like so:




The next couple of steps will revolve around our Objects Manager located to the top right of your screen by default.



Now right click your Plane layer, go to Clothide Tags > Cloth.

And right click your Sphere layer, go to Clothide Tags > Collider.




Our next step is to make both objects editable. If they're not editable, you won't be able to animate them. Highlight both of your layers, and click the Make Editable icon located to the left of your preview window.




Fantastic, all of the hard work done! Now, press play and watch the magic happen.




Note: The following steps are additional steps which will help improve the look of your scene.

Ok so a few additional steps. First up, we need to create a floor. To do this go to Objects > Scene > Floor.

Now, a bit of light would be nice. So go to Objects > Scene > Light. Position your light where you want it using the Move Tool.

If you want your light to cast shadows, select the General tab in your Attributes Manager, and change Shadow, to Shadow Maps (Soft).




Finally, we'll add some shaders to them. In your Materials Manager, go to File > Shader > Danel.




Drag and drop your Danel material onto your Sphere layer in your Objects Manager (Or, just drag it onto the actual Sphere in the Preview Window.)

You can then add this Shader to the cloth if you like.

(Oh, and if you don't want your cloth going through the floor, instead of using a floor, just use a Plane, make it editable, and put a Collider tag on it!)


Hope this helps some of you!

[Braco22]

Neat set of tutorials you have, Fragma. And, animating a fake cloth over a ball is nice. Would the same tutorial apply to animating it over a box?

[Fragma]

Neat set of tutorials you have, Fragma. And, animating a fake cloth over a ball is nice. Would the same tutorial apply to animating it over a box?

Yes, you can animate the cloth over any object.

[Braco22]

Wow, great. Although I just noticed is a little pixelated at the end.

[Delicious]

Wow, great. Although I just noticed is a little pixelated at the end.

It still looks pretty good. This is really starting to bug me, how they get all those effects in the movies. It's amazing.

[AceInfinity]

I don't like how the edge of the cloth goes into the ground lol. You should have added that as an object somehow to stop the cloth's motion after the longer edges hit it. It looks good, but you can see most of the imperfections in the cloth as it hits, it looks a bit pixelated somehow with the rendering.

Overall it looks great though

[Fragma]

I don't like how the edge of the cloth goes into the ground lol. You should have added that as an object somehow to stop the cloth's motion after the longer edges hit it. It looks good, but you can see most of the imperfections in the cloth as it hits, it looks a bit pixelated somehow with the rendering.

Overall it looks great though

Yeh this is just a basic tutorial, so I left all that stuff out.. If people want I can make a more advanced tutorial.
Also the image is a GIF so that doesn't really help the quality much.

[Fragma]

Working on an advanced version now. The tutorial will cover creating a T-shirt which moves as the character wearing it does. It will also include rendering tips.

[Charles]

That's epic. I can't wait for the advanced tutorial

[The Don Killuminati]

No offense, but that Picture looks beast.

I mean, the way it's blowing lmao.

Cinema 4D good for video editing I'm guessing. ;D