Lynda - Understanding Maya nCloth with Aaron F. Ross

Maya 2013 Tutorials with Project Files

Take an in-depth look at nCloth, the Maya toolkit for simulating high-resolution mesh cloth for 3D characters and animations. Author Aaron F. Ross explains the roles played by the various "actors" in an nCloth simulation, including the nucleus solver, nCloth objects, passive colliders, and nConstraints. The course begins with basic simulations such as flags and ropes, then progresses to building a simple garment, until finally integrating animation and special effects like falling leaves and tearing cloth. Aaron also covers performance optimization techniques such as nCloth and nucleus solver settings, proxy objects, collision layers, the Wrap deformer, and more.

Topics include:

Understanding the nucleus solver  

Adopting a scale convention  

Adjusting nCloth and nRigid attributes  

Creating and animating nConstraints  

Editing nConstraint membership and influence  

Smoothing nCloth with subdivision surfaces  

Storing and manipulating simulation data with nCache  

Improving simulation quality and efficiency  

Dressing an animated character  

Painting dynamic attributes such as Stickiness  

Simulating many objects such as falling leaves