Ring hanging towel.
Towels are notoriously difficult to get looking right in CGI. At the start of the year we delegated one of our skilled 3D artists to create a set of photoreal towels that could be quickly added to a broad range of bathroom scenes. They produced four different variations, but we've chosen to concentrate this tutorial on the more complicated models – a hand towel in a hanging ring – as it gives a broader overview of the various software programs and techniques that can be used to create most of the other variations.
Photorealistic hanging towel tutorial.
Buy the towel 3D model.
If you just want the model you can purchase our version here or here
If you are following along with our tutorial, we've used the following resources and software;
- 3DSMax
- Chaos Corona
- Marvelous designer (cloth simulation)
- Zbrush (sculpting)
- Photoshop (texture and material edits)
- Substance's 3D asset library
Video notes.
These are the settings we used in the tutorial video. The hair and fur values can be adjusted to suit your own model. You may be able to generate a softer, fluffier or more cloth like towel by adjusting these parameters with your own values.
Marvelous designer / simulating.
Simulation properties (before simulation)
- Particle Distance = 16.0
- Additional Thickness - Collision = 10.0
- Additional Thickness - Render = 10.0
(our settings after applying tweaks for folds)
- Particle Distance = 6.0
- dditional Thickness - Collision = 12.0
- Additional Thickness - Render = 12.0
- Fabric density = 14
3DSMax / adding thickness.
Shell modifier properties for the main towel
- Inner amount = 1.0mm
- Outer amount = 3.5mm
Shell modifier properties for the towel trim
- Inner amount = 2.15mm
- Outer amount = 2.28mm
3DSMax Corona materials / shader creation & UV.
Given the complexity of the material configuration you may want to follow along and pause the tutorial (09:20 to 14:20). Adjusting the material parameters will also allow you to amend your towel to better suit your scene.
3DSMax / small fixes.
Shell modifier properties for the main towel
- Inner amount = 1.0mm
- Outer amount = 4.5mm
Edge mapping for the towel trim
- Interpolate - TV Offset = 0.007
3DSMax Corona / hair & fur.
General parameters
- Hair count = 10000
- Hair segments = 10
- Hair passes = 1
- Density = 100
- Scale = 7
- Cut Length = 80
- Rand. scale = 50
- Root thick = 4.5
- Tip thick = 2.5
Material parameters
- Tip colour hex = #C8BFA5
- Root colour hex = #A09B7B
Flyaway parameters
- Percent = 20
- Strength = 0.7
- Mess Stren = 1
Clumping parameters
- Clumps = 50
- Strength = 0.3
Kink parameters
- Kink root = 1.75
- Kink tip = 0.75
Object properties.
Render control (untick the following)
- Visible to camera
- Visible to reflection/refraction
- Receive shadows
- Cast shadows
Reference links.
Substance 3D
Corona hair materials
Reference images.
Images that we used for reference for the towel are displayed below.
