u/mykedo

After reading the positive response to my initial post I decided to create a test run pf a demo build with some of you - and the feedback was very good! Thank you a lot!
https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterEffects/comments/1t2kcc0/any_interrest_in_physics_based_looping_cloth/

Today I would like to share "ClothLoopFX" with you. You can find a link to GR in the YT video description.

ClothLoopFX lets you create physics based looping (and non-looping) cloth simulations without leaving after effects. It made my life much easier and hope it will make your workflow faster and easier as well. All the demos in the the video can be achieved within minutes basically. As it is a solid layer its easily combined with all the other effecst AE has to offer. I love combining it with godrays or deep glow.

Here are some key features:
Real cloth simulation
Built on distance constraints with controls for stretch, bend, damping, mass, gravity, solver iterations, substeps.

Looping cloth playback
Create baked 4, 5, 8, or 10 second cloth loops. The plugin records deterministic simulation cycles and blends them for smooth loop playback.

Keyframe animation mode
Disable looping and use ClothLoopFX as a non-looping animated cloth simulation effect.

Flexible mesh generation
Use a standard rectangular cloth mesh or generate cloth from an alpha source for custom shapes.

Layer-based texturing
Map front and back media layers onto the cloth, with support for separate front/back textures, alpha sources, tiling, roughness maps, and normal maps.

Lighting and stylization
Includes environment lighting, cel shading, ink outline, depth-of-field, z-buffering, backface controls, and depth map output.

Pinning controls
Pin edges, corners, upper corners, custom amounts, path-based pins, distributed pins.

Currently it is Windows only. I hope one day I can afford a MAC and create a MACOS port.

GR link to plugin can be found at the YT video description: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9GZRQmo-JQ

I created a plugin which is a physics based cloth simulation in after effects. As i love loops the major use case is seamless looping.

Until now i had to use blender or create "fake cloth behavior" via displacement and noise. Now this Plugin is fully physics based with variable physics, cloth properties, pbr textures, pinning points, shading options and much more.

Additional capabilitties are non-loop mode with keyframing, cel shaded rendering, depthmap output, varable wireframe resolution, alpha mask for wireframe ( think old tattered pirat flags)...

I was working on this quite a while and think now it would be ready for testing and feedback before a potential release.

If anyone with Windows ( sorry i have no mac to compile and build with xcode) would like to test the comming week, i would provide a demo build. Send me a dm with you AE version and pc specs.