nCloth Dynamic Properties Explained

nCloth can be overwhelming for a first time user because of how many settings there are. We broke down each setting with visual examples that you can always reference it easily. Let's dive in!

Dynamic Properties

Stretch Resistance

The higher this number the less the nCloth object will stretch. It is resisting the amount of Stretching allowed.

Compression Resistance

This creates a resistance of the pressure placed on bend links. It looks like a type of volume retention the higher the number is. If the number is low, there's no resistance to when the object has pressure applied and the cloth crumbles. Whereas a higher number will cause the pressure to spread out until it forces nearby edges to bend.

Bend Resistance

Resist bending on edges. The higher this number the more the faces will retain their shape and act stiff. The lower the number the more they will bend and wrinkle.

Bend Angle Drop off The angle in which the bend resistance will act. The higher this number the hard it will be for it to bend at high angles versus low angles. Low angles are closet to when the cloth is flat on a table versus high angles when the the face is perpendicular.

Shear Resistance

Similar to stretch, but it applies the resistance to cross links and calculates stretch unevenly causing a distorted look. This calculation does slow down your simulation and you can usually get away with having this value at 0 and just adjusting your stretch and compression resistance values.

Restitution Angle

Good to use in combination to bend resistance. When no additional force is being applied, It determines across which angle a face can bend along an edge before it goes back to its rest angle, original position.

Restitution Tension

Think of this as silly putty. You can stretch silly putty and it won't go back to its original shape. Restitution tension determines how much stretch can occur before the point of not going back to its original form may be.

Rigidity

Only use this when you want an object to truly maintain its form. This is good to use if your adding simulation to a ball or concrete or a box. Value of 1 makes the object act like a rigid body. any number between 0-1 will act as a hybrid cloth/rigid body. This value is very sensitive.

Deform Resistance

This is similar to rigidity, but not as extreme. Increasing this value will try to maintain the volume and form of the nCloth object. A low value is good if you want to make a dent on a pillow, whereas a high value is good if you want to simulate something that is both hard and soft like a convertible top.

Input Mesh Attract

Think of this 0-1 as a percentage, though you can go higher than 1 for this value. 0 means that the cloth will behave as cloth. 1 means that the nCloth object will react to forces, but will try its best to go back and retain its original shape and of where the input mesh existed. If you have a big force acting on the nCloth, you may want to go at even high value than 1 to really get the cloth to return to its original form.

Input Mesh Method

This determines how the input mesh attract will be calculated.

- Non Locking: Default behavior in which all vertices are being calculated at all times with all the forces it interacts with. (This is what you will use the most)

- Lock values of 1.0 or greater: Values of 1 or greater are 100% stuck to the input attract mesh and are not calculating any other forces. This will decrease simulation time and memory, but will be a much more stuff cloth object on those vertices.

Input Attract Damp

Think of this as a springy value being calculated with input mesh attract. The higher the value the less springy and more smooth your object will blend back to its original form when input mesh attract is on. The lower this value the more of a spring or bounce affect you will see when the cloth is trying to form back to its original shape.

Input Motion Drag

A 0-1 value. 0 means no effect, whereas 1 means the nCloth object will move in the same path as t the input mesh. If the input mesh stops, the nCloth object will slow down to a stop as well.

Rest Length Scale

Think of this value as a multiplier to the length of each edge on your nCloth object. The value of 1 is the original length of the edge and will try to maintain that length as much as possible. A value of .5 will try to shrink all of the edges by half while it is simulating.

Bend Angle Scale

Determines the angle of bend length.

Mass

Back to science class on this one. This one is really based on what type of material you are trying to simulate. the lower the value, the lighter your object. Lowest values will act like silk, whereas a value like 1 will act more like felt.

Lift

Science times 2. This is a calculation of the aerodynamic force parallel to the relative wind force, or... how much your cloth will lift when being pushed or dragged by a force. If it is moving really fast and there is a high lift, your nCloth object will literally lift in the air as its traveling at that high velocity. If you are making a flag. Its a good idea to combine this value with drag and the nucleus wind speed.

Drag

Opposite of lift, but with similar thought. It is the resistance of aerodynamic force parallel to wind. If the nCloth object is moving fast it will have more of a drag or linger before making the motion.

Tangential Drag

Default is 0 and you wont typically touch this value. 0 means drag will do as explained above. A value of 1 means that the force gets applied through all directions of the nCloth.

Damp

Gives a heavier feel to your cloth. Forces the cloth to hang down more. Almost like the motion when you soak a cloth in water. The fabric is heavier and wont lift or sway as much. The force of the secondary motion diminishes.

Stretch Damp

This damp only affects your stretch. It reduces the amount of bounce your object will have when it is stretching.

Scaling Relation

This is an important one, and probably should be at the top of the list instead of the bottom. This determines how all your values are going to react. It determines the scale of the motion.

- Link: Dynamics are applied to each individual link based on vertex density.

- Object: Dynamics are calculated based on the object as a whole, versus vertex density.

- World: Similar to world, but calculated relative to its world space.

This one you really have to play and experiment. I have found object to be the best that allow me to have all of y dynamic settings at reasonable values. The scaling relation really changes how your nCloth property values will behave. I suggest changing stretch and compression and then immediately coming down to this value and seeing how the different scaling relations affect your simulation before proceeding.

There you have it! All of the nCloth properties that we think will help you out the most. Comment bellow if you have any questions or comments.

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Industry standard nCloth rigging tool that straemlines nCloth processes.

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Reference: Maya Documentation https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2018/ENU/Maya-CharEffEnvBuild/files/GUID-D0B22CD1-6DC1-4883-B2E2-4198C1B0B291-htm.html