by helene.goedl -

20 | Designing A Digital Fashion Garment – The Final Project

For my final project, I decided to draft a pattern for pants in CLO3D. I am following a tutorial for the basic shape and will modify the garment according to my design preferences.

Preparing the Avatar

To begin the process, I decided to modify one of the default avatars from the CLO library to my own measurements. This was relatively easy and it’s a quick method to get a fairly accurate representation of your body in the digital space. However, the problem with this method is that body proportions vary greatly from person to person and the distribution of certain measurements creates a very different base shape of the body. Even though CLO allows you to input a lot of specific measurements, such as knee, leg and calf circumference, it does still calculate the spaces between the input custom measurements automatically, resulting in certain idiosyncratic body shapes to be lost in the process. For example, the difference between my high and low hip measurement is quite substantial and creates a dip at the hip area but there is no way (that I could find) to represent the shape between those two measurements inside the avatar editor. So to get a very accurate representation of your own body, you would have to make a custom model from scratch and load it into the program. For this project, I decided to go with the approximately correct model achieved by modifying the default avatar.

Drafting the Pattern

After the Avatar was prepared, I started developing the pants pattern according to this tutorial. 

First, I had to calculate some measurements as listed below.

Pants measurements

Avatar:
Hip: 97 cm  (31.2in)
Half hip: 48,5 cm (19in)
Waist: 65 cm (25.6in)
Outseam: 95cm (37.4in)
Inseam: 75cm (29.5in)
Knees: 18in
Ankles: 13.75in

Measurement Percentages (of half hip in inches):
21% 3.99in
55% 10.45in
47% 8.93in
10% 1.9in
20% 3.8in

Math:
Front Waist: 25.6 / 4 + .375 = 6.775
Back Waist: 25.6 / 4 – .375 = 6.025
Front Knee: 18 / 2 +.75 = 9.75
Front Ankle: 13.75 / 2 – .375 = 6.5
Back Ankle: 13.75 / 2 + .375 = 7.25 

The pattern drafting process was very similar to the analog process on paper and gave me lots of flashbacks to pattern drafting class. Especially when following an instruction with different measurements, there can be some confusing moments in the process and my lack of practice over the last years definitely showed while I was developing the pattern. 

Following the tutorial was a very helpful way of getting familiar with all the tools in the 2D Pattern drafting window. Some of them I found to be less intuitive than I originally thought while going though them in the overview tutorial series. For example, the curving tools don’t respond in the way that I would expect and the way I know these types of tools from other programs, so they were challenging to use in the drafting process. 

At the end, I did manage to construct the pattern and I could move on to arranging the pieces on the avatar and sew and simulate the garment.

Fit Issues, Modifications and Fabric Choices 

I tried to correct this issue by re-measuring the inseam of my avatar, going back to the pattern in the 2D window and comparing the measurement to the inseam on the pattern. By gradually editing the curvature and approximating it to the inseam measurements, I managed to somewhat resolve the issue, although the result was still not perfect. 

After sewing, I noticed some significant bunching  issues around the crotch area, a typical issue in pant patterns.

After I was mostly happy with the base pattern, I started modifying it by changing the leg shape, adding a waistband and a zipper. I also experimented with the fabric options from the CLO library and settled on a black woven cotton fabric for the final pant model. 

Sewing Issues and Draping

After I made my modifications, I simulated the sewing again and ran into some issues, especially resulting from new pattern pieces on the waistband and zipper fly that where supposed to be sewn over top of each other. As you can see in the screen capture below, the program was confused as to how to arrange the overlapping seam lines and unfortunately, I was not yet able to find a solution for this issue. Another problem I had was with the developing of the waistband, which was not included in the pattern pieces from my original pattern so I had to develop it myself and as mentioned before, my lack of practice showed once again. The waistband could be improved, especially in the curvature on the side seams.

After the sewing, I draped the garment on the avatar, which was fun but also confusing sometimes, because the mesh of the avatar sometimes interacts strangely with the mesh of the garment model.

When I was happy with the draping, I took the garment model into the final processing step in CLO.

Animation, Render and Import into Blender

As a final step in CLO I took the model into the animation workspace. This workspace is quite easy to use and intuitive for anyone who has used a similar 3D program before.

I chose a preset walk cycle from the CLO library, which worked very well and smooth. For the final render, I went with the invisible avatar render. I exported the model, including the walk cycle animation as an alembic (.abc) file. I then loaded the model into Blender, where I had some issues with the fabric of the model not translating well from CLO. Because I wasn’t able to find the cause of the issue, I decided to use a similar cotton fabric material from Blenderkit for the pants model. Finally, I created a little scene, animated some camera movement and rendered the model with Cycles.

Final Product

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed the process of getting familiar with CLO3D. During the initial phase of learning the basic functions of the program, I had the impression that it would be quite easy to work out the final project. However, while working on my final piece, I realized which functions of the program are still not as clear to me as I thought and which features I need more practice with. Additionally, I learned that there are other methods of developing pattern in CLO, as I have seen some tutorials where users cut out and drape on the 3D model in a more free-form approach. This is something I would like to try out in future projects, because I realized while developing the pattern in the „traditional“ way, that my knowledge on pattern development is quite rusty and I need to either brush up on it or find other methods for reaching a good end product. Another aspect I would like to work more on in the future is the fabric export and modification options because I had some issues with this in my final project.

Overall, I will definitely keep learning more about CLO and hopefully get better and figure out solutions to probelms I was not able to fix this time around.

by helene.goedl -

18 | Designing A Digital Fashion Garment – Preset Fabrics, Materials, Presentation and Customization in CLO3D

I decided to skip some sections of the tutorial series in my blogposts as they are only relevant for internal processes in CLO and would not be relevant to discuss outside of the application context they are used in. Instead, I decided to move to the final part of the tutorial series and explain about fabrics, materials, presentation and customization options in CLO. 

CLO comes with a very extensive catalogue of preset fabrics you can use through your subscription. It also allows you to load fabrics purchased from online libraries. Further, you can customize the default or loaded fabrics in the fabric property editor. 

Using and applying the fabrics is very easy and intuitive. You simply have to select a fabric from the library and drag and drop it into the object browser, from where you can apply it to the entire garment or just individual parts of the garment. This can be done in multiple ways, all of which are very intuitive. 

Customization can be applied to default fabrics and offers the standard modification settings that are used in most 3D softwares in which you can model fabrics. The color editor, in which you can customise your fabrics exact color lets you choose either a self determined color value or it lets you pick from exact Pantone color catalogue. This can be useful for translating the garment from digital to analog as Pantone colours are frequently used as references in fabric production and dying processes. 

Apart from colours, CLO also allows you to import and apply your own pattern designs and customise various things about it like scale and position. There is also an option for applying graphics to garments, which comes with lots of customisable settings, from normal maps to roughness maps and other modification possibilities. Trims and hardware can also be selected from the CLO preset library or imported as OBJs if they were modelled in a different software.  

by helene.goedl -

17 | Designing A Digital Fashion Garment – Cloth Simulation in CLO3D

In the tutorial series of the CLO3D software on YouTube, there is a dedicated tutorial all about the basics of the cloth simulation function and the particle distance setting in CLO. Having used other 3D software before, I am familiar with the terminology of these settings, but until now, I have not yet fully understood how they work and what exactly they mean for cloth simulation. 

The CLO3D tutorial is limited to the basic simulation settings offered inside CLO and only briefly explained what particle distance does in the garment settings. But even this small explanation is already very helpful in understanding the purpose of the setting. 

One aspect of CLO that is interesting to mention in contrast to other 3D programs is that the standard mesh construction uses triangular shapes rather than square or rectangular mesh. This is because the triangular shapes are better suited to creating fabric that is meant to drape over the body. CLO offers the function of changing this setting but it is advised to keep it at the triangular setting for optimal performance. 

Another point that is addressed in the tutorial is the issue of collision. Since 3D objects are constructed of mesh, they can entangle and pass through each other, which is important to know when draping garments in CLO. 

Finally, CLO offers several simulation settings that each have their different pros and cons for different use cases. The settings can affect the accuracy of the garment draping as it is being simulated.  

by helene.goedl -

16 | Designing A Digital Fashion Garment – Critical Pattern Components and Modification Options

In the last blogpost, we learned how to develop patterns from scratch in CLO3D. In this post, we will explore some critical pattern components and the most common way of pattern modification – the dart. 

Previously, we established that there are two basic ways of developing a pattern for a garment in CLO, that is, working with geometric base shapes or using the free drawing polygon tool. As mentioned in the last post, it takes some experience to know what the base shape of a pattern piece should even look like, which is why I remarked that at this point of the learning process of CLO, we have arrived at the point where I would expect people without prior pattern drafting experience would start struggling. To demonstrate the challenges that might come up at this point, I will use the example of a seemingly simple garment to develop – a basic sleeveless top.

Even with an apparently simple base shape, there are critical pattern parts which require some knowledge of pattern drafting to get right. Notoriously, the armhole is one such critical point. The anatomy of the human body makes it difficult to navigate this area since there are a lot of curves and a lot of movement is expected, so patterns must accommodate for adequate mobility in this area of the garment.

In classic pattern drafting, there are usually mathematical formulas that tell you where to place lines and curves using the measurements of your model’s body. When drawing the shape of the pattern freehand with the polygon tool in CLO, you are bound to run into issues as the freehand drawing is simply not precise enough and will lead to messy armhole shapes if you don’t have a lot of experience and a good feeling for developing the shape in the 2D window.  

The most common way of modifying patterns to accommodate curves in the body is the so-called dart. A dart is a small added seam in the garment that takes in parts of the fabric and allows the garment to better fit the shape of the body. CLO also has a dart drawing feature, which is simple enough to use but will be another case of functions that might be too confusing for users without previous pattern drafting experience. 

Dart placement and shaping is another of those notoriously difficult things to learn in pattern drafting. The functions in CLO will certainly offer a lot of help to users experienced in pattern drafting, but might have their limits as well, since darts are sometimes a matter of shaping the mockup garment directly on the body. They not only depend on the individual body shape of the client for whom the garment is made but can also be influenced by the undergarments that are expected to be worn underneath the garment. To put it simply, dart placement and shaping is a whole science in itself and could fill many many blogposts on its own.   

by helene.goedl -

15 | Designing A Digital Fashion Garment – Pattern Drawing from Scratch 

After the last Blogpost, where we saw how already existing patterns are placed on the Avatar, this time, we will start drawing patterns from scratch in CLO3D.  

In CLO, if you want to draw a pattern from scratch, you have several drawing tools that are similar to the tools found in programs like Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign. The program offers the option of drawing predefined shapes like rectangles or ellipses, or you can draw free shapes. 

The rectangle tool is the most useful for pattern drafting, as most shapes in standard clothing patterns are developed from rectangular base shapes with curves added to accommodate the shapes of the body. But  the free drawing polygon tool is also useful because it with a little practice, you can directly develop the base shape of the pattern piece without making the detour of modifying a rectangle shape. The polygon tool also comes with the function of drawing bezier curves while left-clicking and dragging when drawing the shape. This is useful for users who have previous experience with digital drawing programs but might take some getting used to for users who are not familiar with this mode of drawing yet. 

As with all the program’s tools, CLO also offers a wide variety of functions for drawing specific measurements to fit a premeasured shape. In the previous blogpost about pattern development, I talked about how I believe the 2D + 3D layout of CLO would make it easier to understand patterns for users without previous knowledge of sewing and pattern drafting. In this case, I think it might be the opposite case. I believe users without prior pattern drafting knowledge will find the process of developing patterns from shapes or even drawing them free hand very daunting and confusing. Even though CLO has many useful features to make the process easy, I can see how these functions might overwhelm people who are new to the process of pattern drafting. 

In the next Blogpost, we will take a look at critical pattern components and pattern modification options.  

by lea.haas -

Episode #6 from the series: New things I learned this semester – 360 GoPro HDR

Creating HDR images using a GoPro Max 360 camera can significantly elevate the lighting quality in Blender projects, enhancing realism and immersion. The GoPro Max, known for its ability to capture panoramic views, allows you to create HDR images by taking multiple bracketed photos at different exposure levels.

To start, set up your GoPro Max on a stable tripod in the desired location. Unlike some cameras, the GoPro Max doesn’t have a built-in HDR bracketing mode, so you’ll need to manually adjust exposure settings. Take a series of photos varying from underexposed to overexposed, ensuring you capture the full range of light in your scene.

Once you’ve captured your bracketed photos, transfer them to your computer for processing. Use HDR software such as Adobe Photoshop, Photomatix, or Luminance HDR to merge these photos into a single HDR image. This process involves aligning the photos to compensate for any slight movement during the capture, then merging them to retain details across both the darkest shadows and brightest highlights.

After merging, adjust the tone mapping settings in your HDR software to fine-tune the appearance of the HDR image. This step ensures that your HDR image looks natural and realistic, maintaining a balance between light and dark areas.

Save the final HDR image in a format compatible with Blender, such as .hdr or .exr, to preserve its high dynamic range properties. In Blender, use the HDR image as an environment texture in the World settings. This allows the HDR to influence the lighting and reflections in your 3D scenes, enhancing their visual fidelity and realism.

By utilizing HDR images captured with a GoPro Max 360 camera, you can achieve sophisticated lighting effects in Blender, making your renders more dynamic and true-to-life.

by helene.goedl -

14 | Designing A Digital Fashion Garment – Understanding Pattern Pieces, Pattern Layouts and Pattern to Garment Relationships

In the previous blogpost, we discussed the preset avatar options and settings and the avatar editor in CLO3D and their implications for 3D body representation in digital fashion design. In this post, we will turn to the two-dimensional side of fashion design – the pattern. We will take a look at how the pattern is laid out in CLO3D, how the pattern representation relates to the garment pieces and how CLO helps to understand the relationship between 2D and 3D representation.  

In dressmaking education, learning how to construct patterns and how to translate design sketches into a pattern and how that pattern and its pieces relate to the finished garment are some of the most challenging skills to learn. It takes a while to understand the relationships and logic between the two-dimensional pattern and how the curves and darts translate to the fit of the garment on the body. 

Interestingly, the practice of drafting two-dimensional patterns comes from the tradition of male tailoring. In women’s dressmaking (also referred to historically as mantua making), tradeswomen would drape a mockup fabric or muslin directly on the clients body to form shapes of the garment rather than constructing a paper pattern first.1 The practice of draping is still in use today. Some fashion designers work exclusively with draping in the design stage, especially for custom pieces, whereas for mass production, the pattern would be translated into a two-dimensional paper pattern. 

After this short excursion into the history of pattern making practices, let’s take a look at the CLO3D interface and how it deals with the sewing pattern.

CLO by default has a workspace layout with two display windows next to each other – one for the avatar and the 3D representation of the garment, one for the 2D sewing pattern. 

In the 3D window, the pattern pieces can be arranged around the three-dimensional body of the avatar, making it easier to understand how the curves of the pattern correspond to the shapes of the body.  Arrangement points can be displayed on the 3D avatar, making the placement of individual pattern pieces easier. 

In the 2D window, the garment pieces are laid out flat and symmetrically arranged. When selected, pattern pieces in the 2D window are highlighted, as well as the corresponding garment piece in the 3D window. This is another immensely helpful feature that helps you understand how the two relate to each other. It is especially useful for more intricate and complicated pattern arrangements and elaborate pattern constructions that are not obviously easy to understand. 

Speaking from my own experience, the CLO arrangement makes it way easier to understand pattern drafting. However, it might be that because I already have the background knowledge of how pattern pieces work, I find it easier to understand the setup of the program than someone with no prior knowledge. But I think this way of learning pattern drafting, or at least using CLO or a similar digital fashion program along with traditional teaching methods to teach pattern drafting could be immensely helpful for people learning the skill.

1Abby Cox, „Alexander McQueen & The Patriarchy Problem in Modern Fashion“ October 20, 2023, online video, 9:58, https://youtube.com/watch?v=OVwhg8LZnlc. 

by helene.goedl -

13 | Designing A Digital Fashion Garment – Avatars, Body Representations and the Avatar Editor in CLO3D

In todays blogpost, I will discuss the preset avatar options and settings and the avatar editor in CLO3D. 

Preset Avatar options in CLO3D

The program comes with a set of preset avatars – male, female, adults and children. These preset avatars can be edited in different ways. CLO has presets for several aspects of the avatars, like hair, poses and several market standard sizing for US and European sizing models. This already offers a wide range of possibilities to design for a variety of body types.

In case you want to design for a particular body shape that is not covered by the preset options in CLO, the program also offers a very extensive avatar editor. In this editor, you can modify every relevant body measurement and create an avatar that responds precisely to your individual body. 

One aspect that is not covered in this editor are body configurations that are outside the able bodied norm (for example amputated limbs, curved spines due to scoliosis). However, CLO also allows you to import a custom avatar as well, which would allow users to cover these needs as well.

These functions cover an impressive range of needs. In fashion design, it is often challenging to design for a variety of body shapes, and being able to cover so many different shapes in a digital program can be an immense step towards more inclusive fashion design practices. 

In my personal experience, patterning and shaping garments for your own body can be a big challenge, as you can not drape on yourself well. Especially when it comes to marking alterations on the body in the muslin mockup patterning stage, you need another person to assist you when you are making clothes for yourself. There are options of making dress forms with your own measurements, but they tend to be very expensive and additionally, your body changes sometimes, so a dress form made five years ago might not correspond to your current body anymore. 

Digital avatars could be a great solution to this issue, as you can model them after your current body shape quite easily and make adjustments quickly if your body changes. 

The Avatar Editor in CLO3D
by helene.goedl -

03 | Digital Fashion – Topic Overview

Digital fashion refers to clothing and accessories that exist purely in the digital realm, created using computer-generated imagery (CGI) and 3D modelling techniques. It combines elements of fashion, technology, and art to create virtual garments that can be worn and showcased in digital spaces, such as virtual reality (VR) environments, online gaming platforms, and social media. Because of these factors, digital fashion holds great potential for an interdisciplinary case study in the field of media design. It combines factors from different disciplines and intersects in a way that presents both enormous potential and considerable challenges in the design process. Over the next blog entries, I will present several factors of digital fashion that are relevant and interesting to investigate in a further research project. This blog entry presents a brief topic overview to establish some of the main areas of the topic.

History

As an introductory entry, it will be interesting to take a closer look at the history of digital fashion. Arguably, the core concept of digital fashion has existed since the development of digital animation and computer games. These two areas have provided the most opportunities to showcase digitally designed and created garments. In a future blog entry, the history of digital fashion will be revisited in more detail. 

Digital Fashion for Avatars 

In the gaming and virtual reality space, digital fashion is gaining popularity as a way for users to customize the appearance of their avatars. Players can purchase or earn virtual clothing items to enhance the aesthetics of their digital personas.

Collaborations and Digital Fashion Brands

Traditional fashion brands are starting to collaborate with digital artists and designers to create limited-edition virtual collections. Some brands are also emerging specifically as digital fashion entities, focusing on creating unique and innovative digital clothing. Some of the collaboration projects also tie in with the previous topic as they have taken place in the video game sphere. Most notably, the 2021 collaboration between luxury fashion brand Balenciaga and the gaming studio Epic Games for the popular game Fortnite has made waves in the business. A future blog entry will explore said collaboration in more detail as a case study.

Virtual Fashion Shows

Designers are increasingly exploring the possibilities of presenting their collections through virtual fashion shows. These events take place in digital environments, allowing for unique and immersive presentations that go beyond the constraints of traditional runway shows. This has gained relevance especially in the pandemic years and will be looked at in more detail, with a special focus on differences in potential between real life and virtual fashion shows and what the introduction of the new possibilities could mean for the fashion industry in the future.

Sustainability

Digital fashion is often touted as a more sustainable alternative to traditional fashion. Since there is no physical production involved, there is no need for raw materials, manufacturing, or shipping, potentially reducing the environmental impact associated with the fashion industry. At the same time, the discussion around digital products and their sustainability is a point of contention on its own, since the ever growing need for larger server farms, computers and their energy consumption need to be weighed against traditional forms of production. 

NFTs and Digital Ownership

Some digital fashion items are being sold as NFTs, providing a sense of ownership and authenticity in the digital space. Buyers can use these NFTs to showcase and trade their virtual fashion items within specific platforms. This is especially interesting because it brings up discussions around the value of digital products in general, the merit of owning a purely virtual item and the relationship to the analogue equivalent of attributing value to fashion items. An intersting point of discussion for this topic is also the relationship between original fashion pieces and fake products or counterfeit items in the real world and in digital space.

Augmented Reality (AR) Fashion

AR technology allows users to superimpose digital clothing onto their real-world surroundings through smartphone apps or AR glasses. This enables users to experiment with different looks without physically trying on clothes. This also ties in with the previous topic of digital ownership and how this might be handled in AR spaces.

3D Modelling for Fashion Design

Digital fashion designers is mainly done in 3D modelling software to create detailed and realistic virtual garments. This process enables them to experiment with unconventional materials, shapes, and designs that may be challenging or impossible to produce in the physical world. A closer exploration of material qualities and possibilities in digital space will be continued in its own blog post. 

Digital fashion is a dynamic and evolving field that continues to push the boundaries of creativity and technology. As technology advances, we can expect to see even more integration of digital fashion into our virtual and augmented reality experiences.

by antonia.muszi -

Meine Learnings in 3D-Design

Für mein 3D-Projekt habe ich R2D2 in Blender gebaut. Ich habe sehr viel länger gebraucht, als es eigentlich notwendig wäre. Hier sind meine Fehler, Learnings und ein praktisches Gratistool:

Fehler zu Learnings

Ich bin viel zu spät draufgekommen, dass man wenn man zweimal „G“ drückt einen Schnitt verschieben kann, ohne seine Position so zu verändern, dass man die Shape zerstört. Das hätte mein Projekt sehr viel einfacher gemacht. Ich hätte die Achsen auch besser einstellen sollen, sodass ich leichter damit arbeiten hätte können. Zusätzlich ist es schwierig, wenn man wie ich sehr perfektionistisch ist. Dann fehlt einem am Ende die Zeit für Shading, Materials und Composition. Ich habe mich sehr in Details verloren, die kaum jemandem aufgefallen wären. Außerdem muss man nur ein bis zwei Seiten bauen, wenn man ein Foto abgibt. I learned that the hard way. 😅

Tipps

Was jedoch hilfreich war: ein Tutorial zwar offen haben, aber erst selbst Lösungen überlegen an statt jeden Schritt einfach nachzumachen. Ich habe erst nachgeschaut, wenn ich nicht weitergekommen bin. Das Wichtigste war es, sich zu überlegen, aus welchen Formen das Objekt besteht. Das habe ich bei jeder kleinen Ergänzung gemacht.

Zusammengefasst

  • Shortcuts lernen
  • Wenn etwas schwierig ist, dann gibt es wahrscheinlich eine bessere Methode
  • Nicht in Details verlieren
  • Mehr Zeit in Materials investieren
  • Überlegen, wie das Foto am Ende aussehen wird
  • Ohne 🖱️🐁 geht gar nichts

Was muss ich lernen, um effektiver zu arbeiten?

  • Lernen, wie man Seiten spiegelt
  • Lernen, welche Objekte, welches Shading brauchen.
  • Lernen, sich nicht in Details zu verlieren.

BONUS: Hilfreiches gratis Tool, dass ich für schnelle Materials verwendet habe:

BlenderKit

// Einfach auf Download BlenderKit klicken. //

!! Aufpassen: gibt unterschiedliche Licenses für die Materialien !!