Concept & Inspiration

As a fashion designer and costume historian, I am fascinated by the fact that clothes are two-dimensional objects that change into three-dimensional objects when put on a body. Move the body, and the garment comes alive. Add fabric drape (how the fabric hangs and behaves) to the equation and you get a constantly shifting shape. For this project, I tried to capture the interaction between a moving body and a billowy satin dress with a chiffon cape, juxtaposed with a stark desert background. I first executed my vision in 3D with CLO, an apparel design simulation software program, and then constructed the physical dress and cape from digitally printed fabric.

Digital Process

First, I drafted a dress and cape pattern in the 2D window of CLO, linked the pattern pieces, placed the pieces on the avatar, and virtually sewed the pieces together.

I then engineer designed an ink cloud taken from an Adobe stock image by Djero Adlibeshe of ink in water and had it digitally printed on satin fabric by Spoonflower, a sustainable company that prints on demand. I did the same for another Adobe stock image by elinacious of an abstract blue ink wash painting in traditional Japanese sumi-e style, and had it printed on chiffon fabric. After I engineer designed the fabric, I added the textures to the virtual fabrics in CLO.

Before rendering the final virtual scene, I added a picture of Death Valley, CA, taken by my daughter Briana Villarreal, as a backdrop. App State Apparel Design & Merchandising senior Ryan Hummel helped with the selection of a HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image) from Poly Haven and additional lighting of the scene. I used a wind controller in the 3D environment to add movement to the dress and cape.

Top left: Picture of Death Valley, CA, (c) Briana Villarreal. Bottom left: HDRI Fouriesburg Mountain Lookout, (c) Dimitrios Savva/Jarod Guest. Right: Rendered image of avatar, (c) Nicole Villarreal.

After observing the outcome, I fine tuned details such as the fabric rendering by adding shine and lowering the particle distance of the fabric. I added motion to the avatar so it appears she is walking in the desert. Then I prepared PowerPoint slides describing the 3D process and saved them as a video. Finally, I merged the two resulting videos into one for play on a tv-screen positioned behind the physical dress.

Physical Process

Tools

CLO 3D software for pattern development and 3D visualization - Adobe Photoshop for image corrections and adjustments - Poly Haven for HDRI lighting of 3D visualization - Windows 11 for running software and recording of video clip - Spoonflower for print-on-demand fabric - Bernina 330 sewing machine - Manual tools such as scissors, chalk, pins, et cetera for making the physical dress.

What's Next?

The next step is to create a video of the avatar in motion and show how some of the 3D simulation process was done so it can be played during the Transformations exhibition. I also want to finetune the renderings by scanning the fabrics and materials used for this project with Apparel Design & Merchandising's new fabric digitization scanner and software (xTex by Vizoo).

Long term, I want to explore AR/VR/MR technology (Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality/Mixed Reality) and how this can be applied to 3D apparel simulation so that the viewer can become part of the created experience.