Create a 3D Waving Flag

Create a 3D Waving Flag

Hello guys and welcome to yet another Cloth tutorial. This short article will help you create a realistic flag animation in just a couple of minutes. You’ll be using the cloth modifier and you’ll learn a thing or two about Cloth Groups.

3DS Max is a complex beast. If you expect to get results then please read the tutorial, don’t just follow the images

Preview

1/3 The Scene

Fire up 3DS Max and maximize the front window by clicking it and pressing alt+w. create a plane of roughly 190 by 110 units and set the Segments to at least 50 by 50. Size is not exactly important here but be sure to get the general proportions right.

Also create a simple cylinder to act as a Flag pole.

For the sake of clarity you can set a standard material to both of your objects. Press “M” to open the material editor, select an empty material slot and Apply it {} to both the objects.

2/3 Forces

In the real world a flag is affected by gravity and wind. Let’s simulate that. Click the Space Warps icon
{} from under the Create tab {} . Create a Gravity force anywhere in the viewport. It’s position doesn’t matter as it’s a global force.

After you’ve positioned the Gravity force create a wind modifier and set its Strength to 25 and Turbulence to 15 and make it spherical. The wind modifier need to be placed close to the flag. It is not a scene independent force.

3/3 The Cloth

Select the plane you’ve created earlier, click the Modify tab {} and assign a cloth modifier to it.

Unlike tablecloths or or other horizontal, friction-based, cloth simulations this flag needs to stick to our flag pole. Click the + sign before the Cloth modifier and select the Group entry. Select the first row of vertices and click Make Group

With the group still selected click the Node button and click on the pole. This will make our group stick to the pole.

You now have to tell the cloth modifier to use the forces you’ve set-up. Click the Cloth Forces button and add both the forces we’ve created.

Select the plane you’ve created and click Object Properties. Select the plane entry in the window that appears and select Cotton from the preset drop-down menu. Click ok.

Now just click the simulate local button (or simulate local (damped)) and click it again when you’ve found a nice render shot for your still.

La fine

In order to render an animation you have to click the Simulate button and wait for the calculations to finish. Depending on your settings you may need to increase the segments on your plane and tweak your wind/ gravity forces .

You can now apply any maps you want to the flag and the pole. You can check out our basic texturing tutorials to find out how. Rats to you too.