Learning clo3d in 7 days
During the final semester of my academic journey, I took a class called Line Development Studio, a semester long project that required collaboration with five of my peers to develop a small luxury apparel collection. My group and five others would compete against each other for a grant provided by Cotton Inc. For the project we needed, 8 finalized looks, an extensive marketing plan, and a rigorous understanding of the existing brand we were designing the line for, as well as their customer.
In order to fully portray the intention behind our collection, the project required at least one of the eight looks to to be fully rendered in CLO3D, the innovative 3D fashion design software. In order to stand out from the rest of our fellow competitors however, my group was not going to render just one of our looks, we were going to render all of them, and I wanted to be the one to attempt this feat. The relationship between technology and fashion has always fascinated me; two parallel industries made inseparable since the invention of the loom. As technology innovates, so too does fashion, and the inverse is true as well; as the ravenous fashion cycle consumes trend after trend, consumers continue to demand innovative design and textiles, and technology must catch up to satiate their needs. Today, the nasant practice of 3D Modeling allows for the fashion production process to be faster than ever, and I knew that it would be important to learn the trade before my acedemic career was over.
The fast paced nature of the class meant that I would have very little time to complete all 8 models. While my group mates got to work on our marketing strategy, I began my 7 day journey of teaching myself CLO3D. With my experience in other 3D Modeling softwares like Blender and SketchUp, I found navigation and modeling hard surfaces quite practical. The trouble came with pattern drafting. In CLO3D, to model a garment, you need to first draw the pattern pieces, drape them, and sew them together, just as you would a real garment. The problem came with my nonexistent experience with garment construction; I needed to make sure the pattern was as life like as possible to ensure accuracy. To remedy this, I ended up cutting up some of my old clothes in order to copy the patterns into the virtual space. This process was very effective, and made pattern making extremely efficient. Referencing real garments also helped with sewing, a process I was also completely inexperienced with.
Day 1 saw me getting used to the user interface and beginning my first garment: a denim biker vest. On Day 2, I completed the first look of the collection, and began experimenting with fabric generation. The looks needed to be as accurate as possible to both my groups sketches, as well as similar physical garments, so it was important to maintain the virtual fabric within CLO3D as close as possible to our chosen textiles, to ensure the models were simulated accurately. CLO3D uses an innovative live simulation technology that can wildly alter the fit and shape of a garment depending on the textile, just like real life.
On Day 3 and 4, I was feeling a lot more confident, and was working my way through two more looks. The first challenging garment I encountered was my groups spin on a traditional buttoned shirt. Construction details like the shirt’s sleeve placket were important to maintain, although technically very difficult to draft. With resources like forums and tutorials, I was able to push through, finishing the look at the end of Day 3, and finishing another on day 4.
Another difficult construction element I encountered was the fly of a pair of jeans. Compared to the relatively simple construction of a pair of jeans, the fly was a layered a complex piece of the garment, that needed precise patterns and tools I had not yet experimented with, like the fold tool. It was a tedious process, and by the end of the project, I still was not completely satisfied. The fly was one of the aspects of the collection that I ended up revisiting after the project in order to completely understand its construction. On Days 5 and 6, I completed 3 more looks, now having developed a much faster workflow.
Day 7 was stressful; I needed to complete two more looks and render all eight for promotional assets in our marketing campaign. Through my now efficient workflow, I was able to complete the collection in time. CLO3D has almost limitless potential; it allows for designers to quickly draft 3D sketches with realtime physics that can be altered in seconds to different cuts, proportions, and colorways. It saves resources like paper and fabric. It even allows people inexperienced with drawing and garment construction to create their very own life-like apparel. Throughout my academic career, learning the basics of CLO3D in seven days was an important experience for me; it reinforced my trait of adaptability, strengthened my resourcefulness when overcoming unfamiliar challenges, and provided me a tool that I hope to use in my future career path.
