Modeling Cloth

June 6, 2019July 28, 2020 New Media Supply 0 Comments Cloth, Collision, Modeling, Physics, Soft Body

The Modeling Cloth addon has features for modeling your mesh with help from cloth- and soft-body simulation. On top of that there are settings for physics like wind, gravity and turbulence. You can also create pins.

While we could sculpt a pillow, cloth, curtain, or other cloth-like meshes, we can also use simulation. Since simulations in Blender are all over the place, the Modeling Cloth comes in handy. It feels like it offers more than the build-in tools in Blender and that is always a good sign. Those addons could be the addons you don’t want to miss. With Modeling Cloth we can model a cloth like mesh way more natural and faster.

How to use the Modeling Cloth?

One Thing to keep in mind is that the Modeling Cloth addon uses shape-keys. There will be a stage that you get a little bit confused how that is arranged. Another thing that it seems there is no written documentation. There is a good video-tutorial instead which takes a bit more than 50 minutes. Therefore I will explain briefly a few settings.

Some of the settings

Modeling Cloth. This is the most important button. This seems to turn the selected object into a Cloth. After that we can use some other buttons. Best to start with the next one.
Continuous update. Only pressing de button “Modeling Cloth” seems not to do much. When pressing Continuous update it looks like we are activating the simulation. Maybe it feels like we are starting a kind of time-line.
Grab. For immediate fun, press Grab. It’s a bit addictive so play around but look a bit further after playing time. (Still I have to find out how to make emoticons, getting old here).
Reset. Mind you can always press Reset. It will bring the mesh to it’s original state. So don’t worry about messing up. (Kids learn so fast because they are not scared of messing things up.).
Create Pins. Next experiment I recommend is to right-click on Grab to turn it off. So that you have the chance to play with other settings: Create Pins for example. After pressing that button you can drag the mouse-cursor and click on the mesh to place one or more pins. To finish, right-click. Then press Grab again.
Another option is not to press Grab, but move SLOWLY one of the pins.

That should give you enough tips to start with. If you want to discover move, experiment or watch the tutorial. Rich Colburn gives you pretty interesting tips.

Where to get the Modeling Cloth addon?

Rich Colburn gives you a few options. You can get it for free, purchase, or donate. I think the developer deserves some donations and it seems I am not the only one. He sold quite are few on Blender Market in just a few days. On his page on Blender Market he describes you can get is also for free. Of course it’s up to you how you get the addon.