Cloth Simulation in Blender

Today we’ll be making a cloth simulation in Blender. I’ll be using the 2.81 version of Blender. In particular, we’ll be making use of the following tools and techniques:

• cloth physics
• collisions
• bake simulation
• solidify modifier

Here’s an image from the simulation so that you know what we are aiming at:

And now let’s get to work. Here are the steps:

Step 1 – Add the Ball

Delete the default cube and save the file.

Add a UV sphere.

Add the subdivision surface modifier to the sphere and set subdivisions to 2.

Shade the sphere smooth.

Apply the modifier.

Add a material and set the color to black.

Step 2 – Add the Cloth Plane

Add plane and move it above the sphere: G Z 4

Scale the plane: S 3

Go to edit mode.

Subdivide the plane: Edge → subdivide, number of cuts: 100

Step 3 – Cloth Physics

Go to object mode.

Add physics: physics tab: Cloth

• Quality Steps: 10

• Collisions:

– Quality: 5

– Self Collisions: +

Step 4 – Bake the Cloth Simulation

Select the sphere and add physics: Collisions

Select the plane, go to Cache in physics tab and bake the cloth simulation.

Play the simulation (Play button in timeline).

Step 5 – Solidify and Add Material

Add the subdivision surface modifier to the cloth and shade it smooth.

Add the solidify modifier to the cloth to add some thickness. Set thickness to 0.005.

Add a material to the cloth and set its color to hex E73128.

Set world color to black.

Play the animation.

Step 6 – Render the Cloth Simulation

Align active camera to view.

In the Output tab select a folder for the video.

Set file format to FFmpeg and encoding to MPEG4.

Make a test render: Render -> Render Image

Render the animation.