3D Design - Module 3 - Fabrics

Welcome to Module 3. Anyone who knows me knows fabric is one of my favorite things to collect. When I travel, my first question is, "Where's the fabric store?" I'll get to the tourist destinations later. So, as much as I love fabric in the physical world, I'm also really engaged and interested in what's happening with digital textiles and materials. In this module, We're going to talk about fabrics in the physical world versus the virtual world. There are some differences there, so we'll call some of those out and make sure you know what you need to know to be successful. We'll also talk about simulation engines. That's just a fancy word for the physics, or a fancy phrase for the physics that are going to be applied to your 2D pattern geometry to make them react like fabric. We'll take a look at some of the material partners, just as we have partners that are specifically working in the body space, allowing us to scan or to have a duplicate of our physical forms in our 3D solution. We have a lot of interesting partners in the material space as well. We'll also talk about some of the challenges and benefits that come along with fabrics in a digital space. Let's talk about cloth in the physical world versus virtual materials. New innovations in textiles are being made almost almost every day. And just as we have great things going on with our physical textiles, there are new innovations and developments being made with digital textiles just as rapidly. It's important to remember textiles have been a part of the human environment for thousands of years. We haven't had technology that long. Uh, you know, our 3D simulation technology is tens of years old, where Textiles are thousands of years old. So there's a lot of ground to make up there. When we think about textiles, they're such an everyday part of our lives that we tend to take them for granted and not really understand how complicated they are and how wonderful they are and how much better they make our lives. So when you look at technological advancement, like learning to weave cloth or to knit, we can almost compare that to being as important to our lives as cooking. Learning how to take our food and prepare it with heat was something that it took a while for us to develop a long time ago, but it's an everyday part of our lives. Textiles are the same way. It's something that it's very complicated. There's a lot that goes into it, and it's something that our friends in the tech space are really struggling with. So we need to make sure we help them out with understanding how we're going to use textiles. So one of the things to note about virtual textiles is a lot of them are what is considered to be infinitely thin. That means any appearance of thickness is just that. It's an appearance and an optical effect that the material is given. So it's one thing that varies quite a lot from fabrics in the real world. Thickness of a material is just the thickness of a material. But with our 3D solutions, we need to sort of communicate how thick and extensible a material is. So let's talk about simulation engines. Each solution has its own ways of digitizing material. So each has its own simulation engines. Um, some of them are optimized for speed, some of them are designed to, uh, maximize realism. Uh, so when you're talking to your solution provider, make sure you talk about how they're developing their textile science in-house and how that affects their simulation engines and how it will affect your results. Because the simulation engines are unique to each solution, the metrics that you need to get from your fabrics may also be different for each solution. Uh, this is something that your solution providers can communicate with you, but they usually fall along the lines of understanding what the stretch and the drape of your material, as well as the shear and the thickness and the weight are so that they can use those numbers to put them into the simulation engine to give you the most realistic drape possible. Software updates may include upgrades to the simulation engines, uh, within your solution. So you wanna make sure that you're keeping track of the updates and how they'll impact the results that you're getting. Fabric simulation is a field of research that goes far beyond apparel. We have a lot of great friends in the tech space that are working on cloth simulation for other areas like automotive, aerospace, and in film. So definitely make sure you're reaching out and you're getting an idea of what's going on with cloth simulation in other fields, because those are definitely things that we can bring back and work on as well in our own industry within apparel. And it's just great to know what's going on. And the more we make and build those connections, the closer we get to really closing that gap between virtual materials and physical materials. So we love our apparel conferences that that we get to go to and, you know, speak with our friends within the apparel industry, but it's also a great idea to reach out and connect with some of the other trade shows and the other tech fields to see what they're doing with cloth simulation, because the more we communicate, the further we get. And you also know and have a better idea of what's coming. Recently, we've had more and more content that's being offered online, and that's always a good thing. That's always a great way to see what's going on at some of these other conferences, even if you're not necessarily able to attend yourself. Another important thing to know about virtual materials versus physical materials, uh, is in your 3D solution, your optics of a material and the physical properties of a material are two separate entities. So what do I mean by that? When you're trying to replicate a virtual cloth, you need to make sure that you get the physical properties So this is measuring the numerical values that you can get from a fabric. So the thickness of the material, the weight of the material, the warp and weft stretch and bend of the material, as well as things like shear. Those are all numerical values that can be plugged into the cloth simulation engine to give you the most realistic looking drape. Now, the optics of your material, how fuzzy it is, how soft it looks, how it reflects light, how transparent it is, these are all optical properties that are handled a bit differently. So these are two separate things, and you need to capture both if you want to get a really great representation of a physical material in a virtual space. When you're thinking about the challenges that come with trying to capture both physical and optical properties of a material, it can sound a little overwhelming, but don't be too worried. Your solution providers have very extensive libraries of materials already ready to go with the software on day one. And very often, these properties that they provide can be tweaked and modified so that you can get as close as possible to the drape or the appearance of a material that you want to replicate in 3D. So there are more things to consider, but that also means there are more ways to have fun. There are lots of different things that we can do with our virtual materials that we cannot do with physical materials. Physical materials. Some of your solution providers may even have physical swatch books that go with the digital libraries of swatches that they provide when you install their software. So definitely ask about that when you're, uh, looking at software solutions and figuring out how you're going to approach digitizing your textiles. Okay, let's talk about some of the partners that are available for you in the material space. So when you're looking at scanning, uh, the optical properties of a material, There's Visu and X-Rite that are on the market, and there are others as well that have different types of solutions, but you may even run into X-Rite or Visu at one of the trade shows, and it's always great to see their solutions up close and also get an idea of how they can fit in with what you're doing. These solutions also come with a software component that allow you to do really great things with the appearance of your materials, so it's always great to look into. You also have solutions like SwatchBook. That help you build out your digital library of materials. And again, this is a space that a lot of people are interested in, and it's used in fields outside of apparel. So there are lots of really cool things that are available on platforms like Swatchbook. If you really want to dig into creating your own materials, we also have new solutions becoming available every day to build out your own materials and create your own materials. One of them being within the Adobe family, we have Adobe Substance. So you can go in and create and adjust and modify materials and bring them into some of your 3D solutions. So definitely take a look at how these different partners can interact with the solution that you choose. Throughout the course, I'll also talk about a little bit of the— what's going on within the network of 3D users. Really, really great things are happening. People are doing very cool things. One of my good friends, Ovanc Bedimir, she has been working with Adobe Substance and bringing those materials that she's creating into a 3D solution. To play around with the effects that she's able to achieve. And you have people like Avant who have experience all over the world working in 3D solutions and with multiple solutions. So definitely make sure that as you jump into figuring out how you're going to approach your 3D implementation, look into who's out there and what they've done and what they're doing, because these are the people that can really help you get the job done and done very well. Virtual materials have a lot of opportunities and they also have a few challenges. So one of the things to consider, definitely take a look at the type of textiles that you utilize most within your company and make sure these are materials that can be digitized well and can give you the kinds of results that you're looking for to help you move forward with your implementation to success. So one of the things that I'll call out as a challenge is sometimes when you're dealing with virtual materials, Having materials that have surface treatments can be tricky to capture correctly. And also, there are some treatments to fabrics that impact not only the material's optical properties, but its physical properties. So if we think about a Fortuny-style pleat, these are pleats that are not necessarily set into the pattern, but do have an impact on the visual appearance of the material, and also on the physical properties of the material. So if you are using chemical pleats or really specialized materials, before you dive right into picking a solution, make sure you have a path forward to digitize those materials successfully. So I saved the best for last. Let's talk about some of the benefits. One of the things that I love about virtual materials is we have new opportunities every day to digitize more of the physical world of our materials, but It allows you to really jump into experimentation and play that you just don't get with physical materials. If you decide you want to combine the optics of one material with the physical properties of another material, you can do that easily and, you know, end up with a new solution or a new type of material or look that you want. The world of textiles is pretty unlimited, and virtual materials allow you to really explore and play with what the possibilities could be before you actually go through having a milk create that yardage for you. Another really great thing with being able to work with virtual materials is you just get to play and really try out multiple materials on the same 2D pattern geometry without having to create samples. Sometimes we really hold ourselves back because we don't want to go through iteration after iteration after iteration with physical samples to see how one garment will look in multiple materials. And 3D really removes that apprehension that we may have with experimenting. You can test multiple materials on the same garment in seconds and really make sure we're picking the best material for that specific garment at that time. It's absolutely a way to set your designers free and to make sure you're getting the best product for your end consumer. All right, well, I hope you enjoyed that chat about fabric, virtual materials, are growing and expanding in their capabilities every day, just as fast as we are developing new textiles. So this will always be an area of growth and new opportunities. So make sure you're taking advantage of those. That was Module 3. I hope you enjoyed talking about fabrics as much as I did. There's always so much going on in the material space, and digital textiles are advancing and moving forward just as fast as we are with our textiles in the physical world. It means there's always opportunities for growth and new advancements in that space to keep us moving forward. Thank you so much. Next, we'll have Module 4 where we'll talk about 3D for design.