Creating Pleats

Creating Pleats

Special Effects

 

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Hair and Cloth Tutorials > Cloth > Creating Pleats > 

Sewing, Seams, and Sections

Sew the skirt sections together:

1. Load tutorial_8.max from your \tutorials\cloth folder.

   This scene contains a mannequin figure and a pattern for a pleated skirt. This skirt has been broken into several sections for a pleated look when it gets sewn together.

2. Select the Skirt object.

   

   Skirt pattern

   This pattern object contains five sections that will have pleats between them. You'll connect the five sections to the five segments on the bottom of the waistband portion of the dress.

3. Apply the Garment Maker modifier to the Skirt object.

   

   Garment Maker applied to the skirt panels

   Next you'll position and rotate the pattern into place at the Panels sub-object level of Garment Maker.

4. Go to Panels sub-object level and then position and rotate the waistband portion of the pattern near the character's waist.
5. In the Panels rollout > Deformation group, choose Curved. Enter a Curvature value of –1.7 around the X-axis.

   This bends the waistband portion of the skirt around the character's waist.

6. Move and rotate the skirt panels so they encircle the character, as shown below. Take your time and rotate the view around the character to get a better sense of where the panels are in relation to one another.

   

   Panels rotated and placed around the character

   Once the panels are in place you can make seams to attach each panel to the waistband.

7. At the Seams sub-object level of Garment Maker, select a segment on the bottom edge on the waistband and the corresponding edge on the top of a skirt panel.

   

   Edges selected to make a seam

8. On the Seams rollout click Create Seam.
9. Attach the remaining panels to the waistband with additional seams.

   

   Seams created attaching the waist band to the panels

10. Create a seam for the back of the waistband to close it off.

    Each adjacent pair of skirt panels need a seam between them to keep them together and define a pleat.

11. Select the edges of the two back panels to create a seam between them and then click Create Seam.

    

    Seam created between back panels of the skirt

12. With this seam still selected, go to the Seams rollout and change Crease Angle to 90.0 and Crease Strength to 25.0.

    Setting Crease Angle to 90 makes the seam try to achieve a 90-degree angle during simulation. The Crease Strength setting defines how hard the seam will try to reach the set crease angle. All of this happens during simulation when Use Sewing Springs is off.

13. Repeat steps 11 and 12 with each pair of adjacent panels in the skirt.
14. Exit the sub-object level, then apply the Cloth modifier to the Skirt object.
15. On the Object rollout, click Object Properties.
16. In the Object Properties dialog, highlight the Skirt entry in the Objects In Simulation list, then choose the Cloth option to designate the skirt as a cloth object.
17. From the Presets drop-down list, choose Cotton.
18. Click the Add Objects button and add Manny to the simulation. Choose the Collision Object radio button to designate the mannequin as a collision object. Click OK to exit the dialog.

    Now it's time to simulate and see how the dress looks.

19. On the Simulation Parameters rollout, turn Gravity off and make sure Use Sewing Springs is on. On the Object rollout, click Simulate Local (Damped) and let the sewing springs pull the skirt together for a few seconds. Press the ESC key to stop the simulation.
20. On the Simulation Parameters rollout, turn off Use Sewing Springs and turn on Gravity.
21. Run the local simulation again to snap the seams together and to define the pleats. When you are satisfied with how the skirt looks, press the ESC key to halt the simulation.

    

    Skirt after simulation is complete