how would you approach doing something like a trenchcoat where the top half would need to be affected mostly by the character's skeleton, but the bottom half would be free flowing? in other words, i'm having trouble having an object that is both skinned AND simulated by cloth dynamics.
i'd rather not split the mesh (bind the top, simulate the bottom). i'd also like to use cloth because soft bodies isn't looking quite the way i want. i've considered having a second level of deformation via clusters or wire deformers or even the new hair curve deformers, but it doesn't seem possible to get the bottom half of the coat to be completely independent of the binding. or is it? =)
why not just simulate the whole thing? well, the top half is rather snug and wouldn't need to move a whole lot. also, i'm planning on using blendshape-like deformers for shoulder/elbow rotations so i'm skeptical of how this would look if the cloth simulation twists my geometry into positions where i did not anticipate. so, in the end, my ideal solution would be that the whole coat is skinned, but the bottom half is free to be deformed with cloth dynamics.
hai