Capes & mecanim?

So I have a character rig. I am using mechanim for my character animations in my game.
I'm trying to find a way to add capes to my character. I can add an additional bone in my model software, but it seems mecanim will ignore it because it is not part of the avatar.

I was considering rigging the cape where the top part around the neck is attached to the neck, and the bottom part is connected to a single bone. Then in Unity, make a script to artificially move around the bottom bone to slowly follow the character (kind of like fake cloth) but never to collide with the character's butt bone. Is this a good idea? Will there be complications if the character attempts to do certain animations such as a flip?

All ideas, tips, and help is appreciated. Not sure what to do yet.

 

I'm thinking you will probably need a few more bones to get the cape to articulate appropriately.

Check out this video using Dynamic Bone to help animate a cape:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/uma-unity-multipurpose-avatar-on-the-asset-store.219175/page-27

 

Unity also has Interactive Cloth. But you may find it better to rig your cape with joints. In either case, the Physics engine is doing the work, not Mecanim.

 

@GambinoInd
I saw an awesome reference to animating a cloak in one of the unite videos but I can't seem to find it now. I do specifically remember it was pre-mecanim but I don't remember which one.

From what I remember the setup was something like - create the cape/cloak in external software package - rig/skin to bones - (can't remember how they did this) In unity I think they linked the bones to physic controlled game objects which were parented to a link point in the characters shoulder blade area. Linked ridged body game objects to the calf and quadriceps and pelvis which made the physic cloak bones interact with the legs realistically. The video only showed the bones being animated not the mesh cloth, but it looked like a great setup and the guy said it added a lot of realism with very little overhead.

Dang! Anybody know the video I'm talking about? Help!

 

Just a guess, but was it the Unite 2012 keynote? I think at about 30-40 minutes in they talked about hair and cloth with DirectX 11.

 

HA!
Found it -- Unite 2010 - Battlestar Galactica MMO Art Production
Yeah it was before mecanim. It's a great talk all around but the character animation content begins at about 29 minutes.
@GambinoInd The speaker talks about additive animation which is specifically relevant to your other thread regarding lots of animations, though now this can be accomplished with mecanim, for bipeds.

The cloth/cloak part is 40:30

Hope this helps - One point the speaker drills home is the emphasis of pre-planning.

 

Thank you guys! I'll look into it. I think the way he did the cape in that unite is exactly what I'm looking for. Thank you guys for helping me

 

Show some results when you get it set up!
I'd love to see a cloak/cape using this process. I think this could add a ton of realism to attachments - accessories and additional extra pieces not directly skinned to a character rig.

 

Will do! Also going to do uh... Gigantic realistic angel wings that attach to the character's back, that flap independently.
I'll post my results with both of them once I get it done. This one might be a week.