Animating with Blender

Cloth

New in Blender 2.46 is an actual cloth simulator. Previous to its introduction, the Soft Body simulator was used for cloth, but the results were less than stellar. Much like the fluid simulator, a basic cloth simulation is easy to set up but tough to tweak for a specific effect in a production environment.

For a basic demonstration of Blender’s cloth simulator, take a look at Figure 14.20. It shows a blanket draped over the Beast’s couch. The blanket was created as a subdivided plane, then “dropped” onto the couch with the simulator. Because Cloth appears as a modifier in the mesh modifiers panel, the Apply button was clicked on the modifier to make the shape permanent.

Figure 14.20. A blanket draped realistically on the couch

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