Painting nCloth properties

In a real dress, the area around the breasts (the bodice) is often made of a stiffer material to ensure the cloth does not hang loose. In order to simulate a bodice on your nCloth dress you will use the Paint Vertex Tool to paint Input Attract values on specific areas of the dress.

To paint Input Attract

1. Go to the first frame of the scene.
2. Select the dress and open the Attribute Editor.
3. Select the nClothShape1 tab and in the Dynamic Properties section set Input Mesh Attract to 1.0.
4. Select nCache > Create New Cache.
5. In the dialog boxes that appear next, select Replace and Replace Existing, respectively.

   Maya automatically plays back the nCloth simulation and saves it to disk as a cache.

6. Playback the scene.

   The dress now maintains its shape. This is because the Input Mesh Attract value you set in step 3 makes the nCloth mimic the shape of its input mesh. The input mesh is the original polygon mesh from which the nCloth dress was created.

7. Make sure nClothShape1 tab is still selected.
8. Select nMesh > Paint Vertex Properties > Input Attract > .

   In the Tool Settings Editor, the Paint nCloth Attributes Tool becomes the current tool.

9. Click the Reset Tool button and then set the following settings:
   • Radius(U): 3.0
   • Radius(L): 3.0
   • Paint Operation: Replace
   • Value: 0

   Move the cursor to the dress and you will notice that the cursor becomes an artisan brush.

   
10. Paint over a portion of the dress.

    Notice that the portion you paint over turns black. Black regions of the dress indicate an input attract value of 0 meaning that those areas will be fully dynamic when the simulation is played back. Conversely, white regions indicate an input attract value of 1 meaning those areas will remain identical to the input mesh throughout the simulation.

11. Select nCache > Create New Cache.
12. In the dialog boxes that appear next, select Replace and Replace Existing, respectively.

    Maya automatically plays back the nCloth simulation and saves it to disk as a cache.

13. Playback the nCloth simulation.

    The dress now maintains its shape everywhere except those places which you painted with the cursor. This is because the areas that you painted now have an input attract value of 0, making them fully dynamic.

14. In the Paint nCloth Attribute Tool, click the Flood button.

    The entire dress turns black indicating that a value of 0 has been applied to the Input Mesh Attract attribute for the entire dress.

15. Set Value to 1.
16. Using the Tool brush, paint around the top of the bodice.

    Make sure to dolly and tumble the camera to ensure you have painted the entire top of the bodice.

    
17. Set Value to 0.5.
18. Using the Tool brush, paint the rest of the bodice. Be careful not to paint over your previous values.
    
19. Dolly and tumble to ensure that you have painted the entire bodice.
20. Select nCache > Create New Cache.
21. In the dialog boxes that appear next, select Replace and Replace Existing, respectively.

    Maya automatically plays back the nCloth simulation and saves it to disk as a cache.

22. Playback the nCloth simulation.

    The dress now appears to be made of a light silk, except around the bodice where it maintains its shape. If your dress does not appear as the example below, you may need to increase the values painted on your bodice.

    

This completes the first half of the nCloth clothing lesson. In the second half of the lesson you will work with an animated character.

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