Monday, January 27th, 2020 Posted by Jim Thacker

Master production workflows for Maya’s nCloth toolset


The Gnomon Workshop has released nCloth for Production, a complete guide to using Maya’s nCloth toolset to simulate clothing, recorded by Method Studios lead creature FX TD Rohit Jain.

Over six hours of video training, Jain sets out his workflow for using nCloth to set up and simulate a warrior monk’s robe, including some of the tricks he relies on in daily VFX productiuon.

Discover production-proven tricks and workflows for cloth simulation in Maya
The workshop begins by exploring how to assign motion-capture data to the character to drive the simulation, including how to generate and clean up mocap assets.

Jain’s own mocap files are available for download alongside the videos.

The training also explores the importance of good topology for the low-res simulation mesh, revealing how to identify problem areas, and how to use Mudbox to retopologise the geometry.

Other topics covered include the five most important menus in Maya for cloth simulation, how to convert any mesh to cloth, and how to simulate layers of clothing and accessories.

Later chapters also discuss how to fix simulation issues when they occur.

About the artist
Rohit Jain is lead creature FX TD at Method Studios. He has worked in character effects for over a decade, at studios including Industrial Light & Magic, MPC, Mr. X, DreamWorks and Prime Focus.

His resume features work on movies including Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy, Justice League, Goosebumps, Madagascar 3 and How to Train Your Dragon 2.

Pricing and availability
nCloth for Production is available via an online subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, providing access to over 300 detailed tutorials. Subscriptions cost $49/month or $490/year.

Read more about nCloth for Production on The Gnomon Workshop’s website


Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon.