Critique on Cloth Sculpting

StephenC

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on some cargo / army pants for a character I'm chipping away at. Cloth sculpting has always been difficult for me so I've come here in the hope that one of you can help me correct these forms.

Thanks for your time!

- Stephen.

slosh

What might help is posting the reference images you are using. It looks ok so far but it looks quite blocky. Not sure if you're going for a stylized look but its straying from realistic folds. The right top below the butt and the left side front below the crotch looks very strange to me. Zoomed out, it looks pretty good near the bottom. Also, I think you might be sculpting at too high a subdivision. Pants with that many large folds will probably break the silhouette more and urs barely do. Like from the front, some of the folds look like they are folding in quite a bit but from the side, there is hardly any silhouette changes which looks strange as well. It's better to get major folds in at lower subdivisions so you can really push and pull the material realistically.

StephenC

Hi slosh,

Thanks for your reply. Here's the reference image I'm working from:



I'll drop the subdivisions down and flatten out those peculiar areas. I am going for a more realistic cloth look, so I'll look into how they should break the silhouette from different angles. Thanks for the tips!

slosh

Yea, looking at the ref image, you can tell the material is fairly thin as you the folds tend to be very sharp and creased...something to keep in mind.

StephenC

Ah, that's a good point, I hadn't thought about the thickness of the material, instead I was just sculpting the contours. Thanks for your help I'll rework those forms and repost!

DireWolf

It looks like you're trying to copy the fold without enough observation. When looking at references, you can tell which folds are being pressed by weight. On yours it just looks wobbly without sense of weight nor sense of squash 'n stretch.

I suggest you take a step back and start from simpler projects, like, simple cloths hanging on things. Also study more about how cloth folds on other forms.

http://www.lostonwallace.com/folds2.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iE8WLTkODJ0/TKY34yoGX6I/AAAAAAAACqI/PdUaVLMIcG4/s1600/Folds_creases_04.jpg

A quick search gave me these.

StephenC

Hi Direwolf,

Thanks for the feedback. I've added those two references to my library to study them further. I understand there are Memory, Tension and Gravity folds generally, I struggle with knowing where to place them and thus I end up getting a wobbly result. I'll look into doing some drapery studies as well to try and gain a better understanding of the way folds should work. Thanks!

- Stephen.