How can I get realistic fabric folds in Blender with cloth simulation?

[Kyle9]

I’ve been trying to get better at creating realistic fabric folds for my character clothing in Blender, but my results always look either too stiff or unnaturally chaotic. I’m not sure if my issue is with the cloth simulation settings, the way I’m sculpting the base mesh, or something about the material’s subsurface scattering.

[Aria_P]

I tried turning up substeps and cloth quality in the cache, and the creases softened a bit, but bake times got long and I still saw stiff edges along seams.

[Zoey10]

For me the base mesh was the culprit. If the rest pose was too flat, the sim looked mechanical. I added a few extra edge loops near shoulders and elbows and introduced a little curvature so the fabric could bend more naturally.

[Frank.T]

Are you pinning anything during the sim?

[Aaron_J]

On the shading side I usually skip subsurface scattering for the material; I stick to a simple diffuse or glossy mix with a normal map and roughness. When I left SSS on, light behaved oddly and the layer read translucent in ways I didn’t want.