Abstract: An alternative to cloth simulation in which a plurality of different poses for a material are established, and then each component of each vertex position of the material is encoded into a polynomial by using corresponding vertices in the plurality of different poses for the material. The vertices are encoded relative to a neutral bind pose. The polynomial coefficients are calculated offline and then stored. At runtime, the poses are interpolated by using key variables which are input into the polynomials as different states, for example the turning speed of the player wearing the material, which may comprise a cloth jersey. The bind pose vertices are transformed into world space using the character skeleton. A smooth interpolation is achieved, and the polynomials can encode a large number of pose-meshes in a few constants, which reduces the amount of data that must be stored.

Abstract: Constraint schemes for use in the computer simulation and animation of cloth, clothing and other materials improves cloth simulation by helping to prevent clothing from excessive stretching, bunching up in unwanted areas, or “passing through” rigid objects during collisions. Several types of constraint systems are employed, including the use of skinned vertices as constraints and axial constraints. In these schemes cloth simulated vertices are generated for the material using a cloth simulation technique, and skinned vertices are generated for the material using a skin simulation technique. One or more of the cloth simulated vertices are compared to the corresponding skinned vertices. The cloth simulated vertices are modified if they deviate from the corresponding skinned vertices by more than a certain amount. Vertical constraints are also employed.

Abstract: Scheme for improving the quality of cloth simulation by providing a good dynamic “wrinkled” look to the cloth as it moves. The simulated area of each of the triangles in the triangle mesh is compared with the original area of the triangle to determine how much it got compressed or stretched during animation. This comparison is then used as a basis for altering the lighting of the pixels representing the triangles in order to improve the appearance of the wrinkles in the cloth. The lighting of each pixel is altered by altering a surface normal of the pixel using a value obtained from each of one or more normal maps. Normal maps are selected by using wrinkle ratios that are calculated based on the above mentioned comparisons.