If you’ve ever tried creating realistic tearing effects in Blender, you probably know how messy it can get. Between cloth simulations, shape keys, and modifier stacks, things are not easy, and they often break once animation comes into play.
Cloth Ripper, developed by Masoud Rezaei, is a Geometry Nodes-based modifier that focuses on this problem by letting you procedurally rip and shred fabric with full control over how and where it breaks apart.
Originally built as a personal tool for animating torn denim, Cloth Ripper evolved into a flexible system for any mesh type. It works in real time, supports UVs and animation, and can even handle complex shapes without losing performance or detail.
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Main Features
- Procedural tearing system
Add realistic or stylized rips to any mesh with control over tear placement, intensity, and direction.
- Animation support
Works seamlessly with animated meshes, rigs, and Alembic caches, preserving deformation throughout the tearing process.
- Simple setup
No node trees or baking needed, just assign two vertex groups to define fray and tear areas, and you’re ready to go.
- UV-friendly workflow
Maintains proper UVs for both the base mesh and generated strands, so textures remain consistent even after tearing.
- Customizable look
Fine-tune the tearing effect with adjustable parameters for edge fray, randomness, and thickness to match your project’s visual style.
- High performance
Despite the visual complexity, the setup runs efficiently in real time (around 226 ms for the default animation setup, according to the author of the add-on).
🎥 Here’s a quick video guide explaining how to set up and use Cloth Ripper by the author:
Upcoming Features
Masoud mentioned that several new improvements are planned for future updates, including expanded tearing behaviors, improved control over strand detail, and potential optimizations for even faster performance.
These additions aim to make the modifier more versatile for both stylized and realistic use cases.
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Other Alternatives
- Simply Tear: A Blender add-on that lets you define tear or cut lines on any mesh and quickly simulate realistic fabric, leather, or paper rips with physical motion and wrinkles.
Differences: Compared to Cloth Ripper, Simply Tear focuses on physics-based tearing rather than procedural control. It uses simulation presets (“Rough,” “Regular,” “Sharp”) for real-time cloth behavior, while Cloth Ripper stays fully procedural and animation-friendly through Geometry Nodes.
- ClothFX: A dynamic tearing plugin for Blender that enables real-time fabric rips triggered by collisions or proximity. It supports custom tear maps, viewport preview, pinning, and simulation baking.
Differences: Unlike Cloth Ripper, which procedurally controls where the fabric splits, ClothFX emphasizes real-time simulation and physical triggers. It’s better suited for cinematic or physically reactive effects rather than stylized procedural tearing.
✨ Cloth Ripper is now available on ArtStation.
📘 Want to build your own Add-on? Check out Blender Tool Development Fundamentals, a complete guide to creating custom operators, UI extensions, gizmos, and Qt widgets for advanced add-on development.
📘 Want to build your own Add-on? Check out Blender Tool Development Fundamentals, a complete guide to creating custom operators, UI extensions, gizmos, and Qt widgets for advanced add-on development.
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