Understanding fabric behavior - ZBrush Tutorial

- [Narrator] So let's talk really briefly about fabric behaviors so that we can understand how we can bring that knowledge into our sculpt. So a few things for you to have in mind, the first step will always be to research the fabric type that you're trying to recreate. And this is going to be a per project thing that you're going to have to do. Next, you need to understand the situation that the fabric is in your sculpt. So is it tense? Is it stuffed? Is it stretched? How it is, you need to learn that and you need to get as much reference image as you can. So that you can learn exactly how that fabric behaves in that specific situation. Next, please remember gravity. I know that sounds obvious, but we tend to forget about gravity halfway throughout the process. So always try to remember that gravity is a force that will always be pulling your fabric down. So you need to keep that in mind as you sculpt. Also, where there is a seam there's distress, try to keep that in mind as well. We tend to add just a little level of detail around seams because that will make them more realistic. And always try to identify the areas of tension first, because usually what we have is draping around the areas of tension. So when you have the areas of tension, creating the draping will be easier. So let's take a look at a few reference images and discuss the fabric behavior on them. So in those images here, you can see that in both images, you can tell that the folding happens beginning from the hooks and go down. And even on the image to the right, even though you don't see the hooks, you can sort of tell where they are because of the way that the fabric behaves. So always remember that the fabric will tell its story by the way that it folds. So the curtain is being pulled to the side and it makes a curve as it goes down because of gravity. So even though it's been put on the side, there's still gravity in action here and that's why he makes a curve. So when you have that behavior on curtains, the straighter it is, the tighter it is, but most of the times there will be some curve. Okay so remember to add some curvature to that. So in this example here, you can see the mattress is the area of tension of these blanket, especially the corners. And you can see that there's an area there's more folding and wrinkles, that's because probably someone was sitting there. But if you look to the other side, you can see the other folds that basically go straight down. And this happens because the only force in action here is gravity. So this is something that people tend to mistake a lot, they tend to create curves in every single draping that they add. But if you only have gravity and tension, then the folding goes straight down, okay. In this curtain here, you can see that the folding comes straight and it only makes a curves in the end because it's scrunching in the floor. So keep that in mind. If you don't have any other forces in action, then what are you going to have is just straight down draping. Let's take a look at these images here, you can see that the thicker the fabric is, the less folding is going to have and also the thicker this folding is going to look. So in this couch here you can see that he doesn't have a lot of folding and this is another common mistake people tend to create leather, but they add as many wrinkles as cotton and they're not as many wrinkles. The thicker the fabric the less it folds. So take a look at the pillows there, you can tell that the fabric is thinner because it folds more. Also in this image of the lady with the towel, you can see that we have the tension area and all the folding happens on the opposite side of it. So this is a good rule for you to try to add to most situations, it won't work all of the time but in most situations you will try to add folding on the opposite side of the tension. So I hope that this was helpful for you and always do research before you begin sculpting your fabric.