Cloth Modifier, Walk Cycles & Shape Keys

[brkurt]

This is so important that I'm going to post it in stages. There is a little-used feature in Blender on the nearly invisible Shape Key menu that allows transfer of shape keys from one object to another. There are a few tutorials on the web, but they don't deal with creating usuable shape keys while the modifier stack is running. This is very delicate! I've only got it to work perfectly twice, as the keystroke sequence has to be exact. Be that as it may, I want to show everyone what is possible once you have clothed your character.

The first step is to add the cloth modifier to your object stack, and use it only to drape the figure, not trying to perfect folds.
That being done, activate the cloth cache so that you can have your character do a complete set of movements. I'm using a walk cycle with a nod to http://www.angryanimator.com

For example, my first Shape Key (after the Basis of course) is Contact Left, or Contact_L.



This was done by exporting the object at Frame 25, then importing that object into another blender file, and appending it to the original file.

The real trick is to use that nearly invisible menu at the right of the Shape Key dialog to 'Join As Shape'.

Your target object must have a Basis shape key already, as the import object will need to have a 'Contact_L' (for this example) shape key with a value of 1.00 ready.

The result is this:



Now, here is where it gets interesting. I used the Silk settings for the Cloth modifier, and the during the right side of the walk cycle, her blouse nearly came off. The solution of course is to use the Contact_L object again, and mirror it:



and you get this:



try the blend file yourself:

http://www.geekopolis.ca/blender/Blouse1_269.blend