Hanging a dforce cape on a hook, suggestions?

SnowSultan

I'm trying to drape a dforce cape on a wall hook and one of two problems keeps occuring: it either keeps breaking loose during the simulation or it has weight maps that prevent most of it from being affected by gravity. I've tried clearing the weight maps (which did nothing), and I've tried using the dForce Magnet add-on and neither is giving very good results. Does anyone have any simulation settings or other suggestions that might help? I don't even care which cloak or cape I have to use, I just want some fantasy wear hanging from hooks.  ;)  Thanks in advance.

richardandtracy

To stop it breaking loose, try positioning it so the end of the hook just pokes through the top of the cape. This should pin the cape at the hook point. Then move upwards after the simulation.

Alternatively, put in a temporary rod to pin the simulation, then delete it afterwards.

Hope this might offer you a solution.

nicstt

Use a weight map if you can freeze a part of the cloak that looks good.

Richard Haseltine

If filling the weight map at 100%, or unassiging it in Tool Settings, doesn't work check that there are no surfaces with dynamic strength set to 0 or Visible in Simulation off.

If it isn't staying hooked, try a higher quality setting for collision in Simulation Settings or perhaps try adding a dense primitive such as a sphere as a emporary collision object to "firm up" the hook.

maikdecker

I'd use a zero weight spot added manually at the point where the cape is supposed to be "hooked", so that spot isn't influenced by dForce and should stay in place, while the rest of the cape simulates...

But without any pictures of what happens when dForcing your cape I don't think a proper solution will be found ^^

Havos

If you can not find out where a particular setting is that is making part of the item non-dynamic, a crude (and fast) but effective solution is to remove the dForce Modifier from the item, and then re-add it. This has the disadvantage of losing any special properties the PA of the item added to the surface settings or weight maps, but since they were tuned for draping on the body this is not necessarily a bad thing.

SnowSultan

Thanks to everyone who responded. I got a fair result by just trying very different angles and such, but I think I'll need to better understand all the draping parameters to really get it to work well and I don't have the time or patience for that right now. These just need to be distant background items, so as long as they're not exploding and actually touching the hook, they'll be fine. I will bookmark this thread for later experimentation though. Thanks again.

edit: forgot to ask, how do you clear the simulation of one dForce item but not reset all the others? I thought turning Freeze Simulation On for the others would work, but they get reset as well.

Havos

SnowSultan said:

Thanks to everyone who responded. I got a fair result by just trying very different angles and such, but I think I'll need to better understand all the draping parameters to really get it to work well and I don't have the time or patience for that right now. These just need to be distant background items, so as long as they're not exploding and actually touching the hook, they'll be fine. I will bookmark this thread for later experimentation though. Thanks again.

edit: forgot to ask, how do you clear the simulation of one dForce item but not reset all the others? I thought turning Freeze Simulation On for the others would work, but they get reset as well.

Are you on DS 4.12? This has an command on the Simulation Tab to only clear the simulation of the selected objects.

SnowSultan

Oh, from the little top-right drop-down menu? I see it, will try it soon. Thanks for that info.