Creating realistic flags
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I have been using Sketchup for some time and find it rather addictive, but have recently got stuck on trying to create a realistic looking flag. I would like to take a flat surface with applied image as texture for the design and deform it as if wind is blowing it (static, no moon on a stick just yet!). Any ideas gratefully accepted.
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Hi Gadgetslave (and welcome to SCF!).
You will need a plugin that can both freely deform geometry and also preserve UV mapping (or two plugins that can do this consecutively).
Have a look at Tgi3D and its wrapping feature in the video below:
http://www.tgi3d.com/index.php?Page=PhotoScanVideos&Type=Feature&VideoID=27195347Tgi3D full version is not free but there is a (polygon limited only) free PLE as well as a (time limited) full trial version for it.
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You can of course make a 'rippled cloth' surface and project a flag image onto it... but if you find my ImageAnimator Tool in the Plugins Index it has an example of some actual real-time fluttering flags [and flames, hamsters-in-wheels etc etc]. It needs an animated gif of a flag that's been split into its frames as png files [there's also a tool to do that in the zipped set that you download!]. There are thousands of animated gifs available free on the www, or if you are feeling adventurous you could try to make your own from a movie clip. You insert the first frame png file for the flag as an Image, and then use the Tool to animate that; there are various options like frame-rate etc. It will then 'flutter' until you switch it off, and the good part is that its animation runs smoothly 'in the background' whilst you do other things within the SKP file...
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Yes, that's definitely another (cool) way of doing it.
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Wow, thanks for the rapid replies guys!
TIG, you say "you can, of course, create a rippled cloth effect and project an image on it". I must be more of a newbie than I thought, because it is not obvious how to me, sorry. The Tgi3d plugin looks promising, but that seems to depend on a textured image existing BEFORE transformation. Is there another way?
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Here is a video showing how to project an image material onto a curved surface:
As for the Tgi plugin; yes, you start from a simple shape (onto which you can easily map the image) and end up with a warped shape where image mapping is retained.
Here is a quick example (waving and rippling could be enhanced - also with more subdivision, it could be smoother - but also watch your poly-count always). When at it, I (of course), made a flag of our own...
If this is already "enough", you can simply reload the image file in the model to apply another flag. The aspect ratio is ~ 2:1
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Ah, I see - thanks Gaieus. So easy when you know how! I notice that your flag has a reflected version of the image on the reverse. To prevent this (my flag is not symmetrical, see http://www.flyingcolours.org/product-detail.php?ID=62) I assume that I need to give the surface some thickness first?
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I hoped you do not notice it (I only noticed when I was done).
Actually, when you are with the simple, rectangular shape first, you can right click on the face > Texture > Position and the Flip it horizontally (left/right). This can be done separately on either side but be aware that some rendering applications will not be able to render these different maps (they generally render whatever is on the front face).
The reason I ended up with this is that I imported the image as an image entity and exploded afterwards. In this case, SU creates a face with the image projected on it - and the mirror on the other side (it has the reasons we can go into later if you want).
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