Tutorial — Period Layers, Hoops and Skirts

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19th-century dress is built in layers: chemise, stays or corset, petticoats, hoop or crinoline, bustle, then bodice and skirt. This tutorial covers how to get the silhouette those layers make, in MD and in Unreal's Chaos Cloth, without simulating every layer.

Draft. Wide hoop skirts in Chaos Cloth have no documented Epic solution. The approach below is our plan; test it on the first skirt before committing.

1. The rule: simulate the outside, fake the inside

Layer In MD In Unreal
Chemise, drawers Leave out (not seen) —
Stays / corset Shape the avatar (frozen or sculpted torso) Part of the body shape, or a skinned mesh
Petticoats One simulated stand-in for fullness while fitting Usually left out; the outer skirt carries the shape
Hoop / crinoline cage A frozen or sculpted shape object that the skirt drapes over A skinned, non-simulated mesh, used as a collider for the outer skirt
Bustle pad (1870s–80s) Sculpted in ZBrush, imported, frozen Skinned to the pelvis; collider
Bodice, skirt, shawl Simulated Chaos Cloth (kiosk); skinned-only (phones and standalone headsets if needed)

2. In Marvelous Designer

  1. Build the understructure first.
    • Corset: simulate simple stays, or import a ZBrush torso, then Freeze. The bodice is fitted over this, not the bare avatar.
    • Hoop (1850s–60s): model a cone or bell of hoops as a thin shape. Use the Past Patterns 1850s hoop diagram for size. Freeze it.
    • Bustle (1870s–80s): sculpt the pad, import it, Freeze.
  2. Simulate the bodice, then freeze it before adding the skirt, so the skirt's weight doesn't drag the bodice.
  3. Add the skirt:
    • gauge or pleat it into the waistband;
    • simulate over the frozen hoop;
    • use Strengthen on the waistband and tacks at the hip line to keep fullness where the period put it.
  4. Set fabric thickness early. Changing it late shifts the fit.
  5. Check in motion:
    • a short walk cycle;
    • sitting (a hoop skirt lifts at the front when seated, which Mitchell's observing chair would show);
    • turning.

3. In Unreal (Chaos Cloth)

  1. Export separately:

    • the understructure (hoop cage or bustle) as a skinned mesh, weights from the pelvis and thighs;
    • the outer garments as the USD for the Cloth Asset.

  2. The kinematic collider: Chaos Cloth collides against physics shapes and a kinematic body collider. Use a merged body-and-head mesh plus the hoop shape. Remove the render mesh that comes in with the USD import from the collider set.

  3. Paint the cloth (Max Distance / weight maps):

    • waistband and bodice: zero movement; they follow the skin;
    • upper skirt: small movement;
    • hem: most movement.

    Leaving the whole hem unpainted to "hold a cone" looked unnatural in forum tests. Drape over the collider instead.

  4. Tune:

    • raise bending stiffness for heavy wool;
    • add damping so the skirt settles quickly after a gesture;
    • set self-collision for multi-panel skirts only if clipping shows at kiosk distance.

  5. Per surface:

Surface Skirt
Kiosk (Windows GPU PC) Chaos Cloth simulated
PC-VR (tethered) Chaos Cloth if within budget
Quest / Vive standalone / Android XR Start skinned-only (no simulation), with shape baked from the MD drape; test simulation later
Phones (AR postcards) Skinned-only or a static pose
Vision Pro Skinned-only first

Turn simulation off for tests with the console command p.ClothPhysics 0.

4. Check

Sources