What Can 3D in Fashion be Used For? | 3DKN | PI Apparel

Hi everyone, my name is Kristina and I'm a 3D fashion specialist and founder of 3DCAN based in Denmark. I have been self-employed for 2 years, a little bit more than 2 years. And I started as a one-person company, but since recently we kind of expanded it to a very, very small team, I would say. Before I became self-employed, I was working in bestseller for Only and Veromoda. For about 4 years, and I started as a traditional fashion designer before, until I became a 3D designer. So now you may wonder why I switched from traditional designer to 3D designer, and the answer is kind of simple. When I was working in Bestseller, and as a lot of you are working in big companies, and you know how many samples you have, and also the processes in design development, how they were before. So, I was like sketching, like in Illustrator, as everyone else, and when we were sending sketches to suppliers, there is something that I noticed, especially because I had also opportunity to spend 6 months with working with suppliers in Nantong, in China, in the very small city, 7 million people, technically bigger than the whole Denmark. But when I worked together with them and we were receiving— when I say we, I mean my supplier and I were receiving sketches— I noticed that actually there are a lot of discussions, a lot of back and forth. Nothing is straightforward. And it's just such a long process to design even a good proto. So there were a lot of, I would say, not perfect protos. It was kind of like a shooting in the dark a bit with the flat sketches. And I thought, okay, there must be a little bit better way of working. And on the same trip, I was introduced with 3D for the first time. It wasn't love at first sight, so it's not like I figure out everything as soon as I try 3D. It wasn't like that. I tried to work in 3D for a bit, and I was thinking like, yeah, it's okay, but what is the purpose of the whole 3D program? So what can I do with this? And when I got back from China, this is where my journey started, and this is where I started exploring 3D, how does it work? And this is where things start kind of rolling out for me. So today I work with a lot of different brands and companies, and they're all different, from small companies to bigger companies. So it's very diverse, and I'm happy for that. When it comes to software programs, so there is no such a thing as one size fits all. So, I started with using Clo3D, but I expanded my skills through time using several different software programs, such as KeyShot, Blender, Daz 3D, Cinema 4D, Adobe-like package, as I guess every other designer is using, Substance Painter, Substance Library, and also plugin for Illustrator, which is Aquaria. I like to say that 3DCAN is a digital fashion studio aimed to help fashion companies on their digital journey and express their designs with innovation, but with high quality. And that's key what 3DCAN is providing. So that being said, so the services that 3DCAN provides are 3D apparel and accessories, Technically, this is something that can be provided in any size and form, any sort of categories. So there is no limitation to what can be done. So I design from sportswear to workwear to a lot of different— to accessories. So there is pretty much a lot of things. 3D footwear is kind of similar story. So in high quality, we with every single detail, which is very important. All genders and womenswear, menswear, kidswear. So it's pretty much— I wouldn't say there's limits to that either. Digital models. So I would keep a little bit longer on this slide just because when we say digital models, first we look at all those rendered images. Yes, like, I mean, I think they look very realistic. And they can be used for, I call, digital photo shooting. I also created like some models that are being rent by clients. So I'm going to talk about that later a bit more in depth. But I give them also name because it's easier for client to pick which model they want to style garments on. But what is more important in modeling part is fitting and the size of the model. So I, as we all, when you work in 3D, you work with the fitting a lot, digital fitting. You work with the patterns, and it's super important to have the right size in the right model made according to standard measurements. So every single thing has to be correct because if you use, let's say you use a dummy in your office, you need to make sure if you want to work in 3D that you have exactly the same dummy in 3D. Because only when you have exactly the same dummy, exactly the same size, that's where you're going to have exactly the same fitting. And then you can rely on digital fitting much more. I'm also a guest teacher in Design School Kølling in Denmark, where I teach Mastering Prototyping in CLO3D. And this is something that, of course, given you experience working with students and seeing how they figure out how to use CLO3D, So this is being a really good journey for me and exciting to do. But let's go on the main topic now. So saying all of this, what can 3D in fashion be used for? I'm going to focus on 3 very different topics included into this. And that's product development and showcase. And some of you talk a little bit about this. I heard on other people's— panels talking. Production-ready designs. I always like to say that it's not a very popular topic, sometimes a bit boring, and the market is not ready for it yet, I believe. But I still want to talk about it, as I think it's very valuable. And fashion and games, like, coming outside, like, totally different. But I just want to give true to, like, real case samples, something that I did with my clients, and what also value brought in their companies. So product development and showcase. So what does that mean? We're all familiar with this, as a lot of you probably still use Sketches, and this is a flat sketch. So me as a designer, like, I don't know about you, but when I see this, I'm not sure how this is supposed to look like, because it's just a flat sketch. For me, it would be a lot of guesswork, and I would need a lot of information from client, for example, how can I, like, you know, what this, how this is supposed to look like, right? So can you imagine then as a designer who was also doing the same thing, how is then for suppliers to understand your sketch, and what do you mean by this? And this is where 3D come in game. When I see the second one, which is a 3D sample, I can't tell what this is going to be and how this is going to look like. And we underestimate a lot 3D imaging. A lot of people would say maybe, oh, but how can I use 3D image? What is this for? What is the purpose? There is a purpose for 3D image. In this specific case, so I got a 2D sketch from a client, and I sketched, and I made this 2D sketch into 3D sample. And this 3D sample is treated as a 3D prototyping. So this is your first proto. Sometimes we forget about that. This is not just an image that, you know, what should we do? Maybe show, maybe we should have an opinion about, but it's also like a proto. And here you can also make certain changes, of course, if you want, or maybe you just don't want to produce anymore. So imagine if you, in reality, you will send a sketch, you will get a physical product, and then you will say, I want this or I don't want this. But imagine if you have 2D and you turn it into 3D, and then you say, okay, I want this or I don't want this, then you can say, I saved time and money in that specific case scenario. This is something that a lot of people already do, but I decided to include it, and that's like showing your collection, an overview, to a sales team. So in every company, you have a sales team, you have a marketing team, and everyone likes to be involved when it comes to 3D, and I think that everyone should be involved. It's very important. So when you show to a sales team an overview, they can have a good perspective of the whole collection. And they can pick and choose what they want in or what they want out. And this is, for example, really good for news products. So, or sorry, never out of stock. So never out of stock products are like 3D is perfect for this case as usually every sales know exactly how that style looks like. So what you can do in 3D Instead, you can decide to create one style and show it in several different prints. Again, maybe this is something that some of you are already doing, but I'm just going to go through it. So you can show in several different colorways or prints how this design is going to look like. And again, this is giving a really good perspective to sales, what they want to get in collection and what they want to get out. In this case, we didn't physically produce any out of stock product. So this was produced only digitally, and this was enough for sales to decide if they want in and out, like certain style. Another very specific, very similar but very specific case. So I had a case where a designer who is from Saint-Tropez by D&K company emailed me, and she asked, okay, we have a print, and we are spending time here deciding if we want this print or not. We are not sure. And we don't want to produce this sample. So can you put a print on a 3D sample so we can decide if we want this in or not? And this is so easy in a way because I put a print on and it's true to size, the print, and you just get a 3D sample and you can decide if you want this in or not. Later on, it was on e-commerce as well on the website. Oh, the middle image is not real. The first one is real. Just to make it clear. This is Showcase, and this is something that is used for product experience and marketing. And a lot of you already use this, so this is not something that is new at all. And if we think what is the value of this, I would say that the value is that you can tell a story about your product, but the most important is that if you don't do the real photo shooting. So if you do only digital but not real one, then you can say that you are saving time again. If you're doing both, then you're not replacing anything. And yes, you can still tell a story and could be interesting. But I believe that 3D should replace some of the stuff to be really valuable. I have a short video as well that I made for Bugner. And we can have a look. It's a very simple turntable video, nothing spectacular about that. But this is something that they already had, existing product. It's their famous product called Faña down jacket. And they, you know, we just created a video for product experience and marketing just to showcase the jacket. If you remember the digital modeling part and digital photo shooting. So something that is also possible in 3D is that you can rent existing model, and you can create a digital collection on that model. So you can pick the model that is maybe already existing. Maybe you want a new model for your collection, and you can feed that collection on that specific model. What you can use this for really depends. In this case, it was used for e-commerce, but it was fully introduced only in 3D. But there are a lot of different cases what you can use this for. And a little bit more practical, I already mentioned it, e-commerce again, but this is like very simple example, two different case scenarios. So the first one, the example StyleMate, so that was, we had like physical product prototypes that we turned into digital, and then we changed different colorways. So they were not produced at all physically. It was faster and it was easier to do. And we set up like lights like you will set up in a real studio. They were rendered. So if you go on shop online, majority of the images are 3D rendered. Another example is Saint-Tropez, where again, this is a 3D sample. So this is not a real sample. It was late, and it didn't arrive on time in the office. So they decided to just proceed with the 3D. And that was all when it comes to this part. And now the boring part, production-ready designs. I would definitely like to talk about that because again, I have like two different cases that I would like to talk about. And I believe that this will become better or bigger in the future, but let's see. So one of the examples that I have here is like something that I did with the client. So I received the flat sketch and supplier got a flat sketch as well. And the reason why we sent flat sketch to suppliers is because we wanted them to develop patterns based on the sketch. So they developed patterns. They were 100% correct. They also had really good suppliers, I have to add. They're 100% correct. They were very detailed. They sent patterns to me, 2D patterns, and I stitched them in 3D. When I stitch those patterns in 3D, so they were already production-ready patterns. Correct, in the correct size, in correct measurements. And this is where we had a 3D prototyping. So again, we treat this as a prototype. So can we make any changes here? Of course we can. We can make as many changes as we want. Maybe we want to make small changes. Maybe we want to make big changes. And what we did here afterwards, then we send the picture to suppliers and then we made a comment on what changes we did and then they make product. If you ask me now, was the whole collection made without Proto, like real Proto? No. Some of the styles were made with Proto, some of the styles were made without Proto. Another case that I wanted to test myself, how can I do this? So I wanted to create a dress from scratch with the patterns that I have. So I wanted to develop patterns myself and to create like a very simple dress, nothing too crazy. And I found the suppliers that I want to send patterns to. So I sent to suppliers of patterns, 2D patterns and some 3D imaging. And I ask, can you make this production ready using the patterns that I sent to you? And even if there are some small mistakes, leave them. I just want to see how this sample is going to look like in real life. I received the sample, and I thought like, OK, this looks pretty good. Pretty accurate. But what I decided to do to make sure that it's accurate, I started measuring. So I was measuring digital and I was measuring physical sample. The reason why I did that is because I wanted to check how correctly and how close they are to each other. And they were very, very close to each other apart from one thing. I had a problem with the armhole. So it was 1 centimeter too small. or too big, sorry, 1 centimeter is too big. And I thought like, okay, but you know, why is that? And I asked suppliers, well, you know, I have a problem with our home, it's like a little bit bigger, and why is that? And their explanation was that due to the shrinkage. And this is what I thought like, okay, so there are challenges of course in this process. So this is not a perfect process. It is possible, but there are some challenges. And That's okay. There are some challenges. It's just that every single challenge in everything can be overcome. So if I did this for the first time, wasn't really for the first time, I'd done it before production-ready, but first time that I was on my own, and it was kind of close to be correct, then what are the possibilities if you do it second time, third time, fourth time? And it's like practice makes it perfect. But what are the pros and cons of this? Way of working. So you can simply skip sample process. So imagine if you want to design collection without proto, like without any single proto. And this could be a way if this would work, of course, perfectly well. So by doing so, you can save time. And you can save cost because suddenly you don't have— you cut down a lot of samples. I like to say that this is efficient way of working because it is efficient way of working if you think about sampling process. I know that you have to spend much more time in Clo3D or browser, wherever software program you use to adjust the patterns. You have to spend more time there, but you're saving time for later on in the process. So technically, you are saving time. You just have to spend a little bit more on the 3D modeling. And reduce overproduction, which I guess would be a key for, for a lot of people. And when it comes to cons, so limitations due to the fabric. This is my experience. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't try to do production-ready a lot of things, but there is definitely a problem with drape and physics because when you do something production-ready, you need to have everything correct. Correct patterns, correct model. Like this is where we talk about having the right measurements. And you need to have correct fabric physics. So if you have— I noticed that if there is a lot of elastane in the fabric, then it doesn't work that well. And that's probably because of the shrinkage and all the— yeah, how the software simply works with the shrinkage. So I would not— you probably use it for jersey knitwear unless that gets improved. But, you know, like woven fabrics, for example, could work. Some of them, probably. And when it comes to suppliers, so this is again like something, you know, having a good supplier of course helps a lot, and having a good communication with suppliers helps a lot. You know, just sending something to suppliers, say, can you do this for me so I can test it and stuff? I mean, yeah, sure, but what is the purpose of this? So I think that they also need to see the value in this, that they also don't have to to produce that many samples. So it has to be value for everyone, and this is where the key relationship with supplier is really, really a key. Mindset. Mindset is probably working in everything when it comes to digitalization and digital world in general. So yeah, like how are your workflows and how you educate people as well. As again, it's not enough just to come to your design team or pattern-making team and say, can you make this production ready? I mean, they need to understand also what is the value of this. They need to understand how they can do this because you can do it, but you need to understand also what are the limitations, what are the problems, and also see how can you overcome those problems. I would never give up on this. I think that this can be just better and better and better until you reach a certain level. That was it when it comes to practical stuff and practical visualization. But I want to talk a little bit about fashion and games, as that's also something very different, but it's super interesting as well. And I will tell you why. So last year, I had an opportunity to work with XLABEL and work on a Betty Boop character and also clothes for Betty Boop. And this is, for example, this is a real Betty Boop. So the Betty Boop that existed in the animation was kind of put in 3D world, and it was created for— you will see what kind of purpose on the next slide. So it was created for, to put on the gaming marketplace. And yes, it was sold as NFT, but I'm not going to talk about NFT. I'm not going to focus on that. Back then, the NFT was still in the peak, and by doing so, then the collection was successful because it sold well. The whole point here for me is like just to explain how interesting it is to find so many different people to collaborate together, like animation studio, which is a Flyshot studio who made Betty Boop originally. You may create clothes for Betty Boop, and you can also sell it on gaming marketplace. So imagine now creating Betty Boop as a game character, for example, and then you create garments for Betty Boop. So even if you take out the NFT part of it, there is a value in this. And this is where I done a little bit of research where I find out what other people did. And those are such good examples from the other brands. So we have example with Louis Vuitton and Final Fantasy. I'm sorry if I'm pronouncing it wrong, Louis Vuitton for French people, I apologize. Moschino and The Sims 4 and Gucci and Tennis Clash. So those collaborations were done in a way that they, design a collection, for example, for Louis Vuitton and Final Fantasy. So they design collection for a character the players could purchase for their character. And by doing so, they reach younger and a much more diverse audience. And they also had an opportunity to create new revenue streams together with the gaming companies. And this is where I see a life of a 3D asset being even longer. Lasting longer in the digital world. If you may wonder how big the video game player community is, it's a huge market. This is US market, and there's 66% of Americans playing video games at least weekly, and 71% of American adults playing games, so under age of 18, which gives us approximately 250 million active video players across US all ages. It's a huge market. And all of that being said, so what can 3D in fashion be used for? I would say it like practical stuff. Product development and production ready. And this is where we can save time and save costs. I know that everyone is repeating that, but it really can be, if it's used in a smart way, and if you decide, as I said, try to run without protos. I'm not saying you should do this tomorrow. I don't say that everyone should suddenly go home and create collection without proto. I think it has to be done first as a small kind of capsule, like a trial because it doesn't cost anything to do a small trial version and see how does that work. Start small so you don't make huge mistakes. I would then at least try that. Imagine if you can save even 20%, especially for the big companies, like 20% of sampling is a huge number. It's such a big number and I think it could be done definitely. Marketing, that's like showcase, tell a story about your product. So it has its own value as well, telling a story. And digital products where we extend or expand the life of a digital asset. And all of it should be, at least that's how I see it. If 3D cannot save you time, cannot make you more sustainable, cannot make you more efficient, and cannot create a new revenue stream for you, then I believe that I don't know what the value of 3D should be if it's just an extra. Thing in the company. Thank you. I finished very early, I guess. Thanks. Is this the question part? Okay, so any questions? No questions? OK. Mm-hmm. Common collision issue. Here's Avatar's 3D models. Long hairs of others because I'm not simulating hair. I use render. So when I— I don't know if you mean hair like hair, but I never made animated hair so far. So if I would make animated hair, that has to be made in— OK, now I have to talk about the technical part. But the cap you have to make in each string like you will do it in Blender if you want to make hair animated. But otherwise, it's render. So it's a rendering process where you press fur, And then you can render fur. I hope I answered it well. But it will be very heavy file for sure.

Oh, what is it? Is that all? Yeah.

Hi. Oh, sorry. Yeah, hi.

You mentioned that you are working on education right now. Can you tell us a little bit about how you implement all the experience that you know into the curriculum? Curriculum on the university where you're working at?

Sorry, can you repeat?

You mentioned that you're working on education right now.

Yeah.

And you are training students to work with digital tools.

Yeah.

How are you implementing everything that you have learned so far on the industry into the curriculum of the education?

I don't do everything that I learned, but there are like courses are very different. And there, I would say that they're a little bit customized according to how far students are. So if they're at the very beginning, then of course the course is for the beginners. But if the course is a little bit more advanced, like let's say sometimes it's very niche, they want to learn how to render, for example, and they want to make good quality render, then we focus on that part. Sometimes we focus on production-ready. I think this is something that Design School Calling is so good at. They ask their students to produce what they make in Clo3D. So they have connection. They have plotter where they can create clothes in 3D, and they can print them out, the patterns, and then cut them and stitch them. And that's something amazing that they do, because then they can compare the difference between 3D and physical world. So it's very different depending on the group.

Thank you.

Welcome. What is your flow for digital fittings? What are the main challenges for designers to deal with, and how do you help them time in solving this problem. So what is your flow for digital fittings? Something that is— I didn't mention that, but it is, you know, like I heard a lot of time actually someone saying high quality or quality takes time. And I kind of agree and disagree. You know, like it's all about the system. And if you make a very strong base, a very good library, very good system, like meaning that you already have something to work from and you test it out, once you're sure that this is ready to go and you use that, then you can be much faster. And this is exactly what my workflow is. I have a lot of presets. So I already have things prepared. I reveal my secrets. But I guess everyone does. It's just that I try to— my presets are very high quality from the beginning so that I don't have to work on them later. And what are the main challenges for designers to deal with? I think the main challenge, I would say, you know, like, there are several challenges, but a lot of designers, not to be mean in anything, but a lot of designers are not educated in pattern making. And if you are, it is a plus. It's such a huge plus. Otherwise, you have to work together with a pattern maker, and then you have to work very close together. So I would say that could be a challenge for a designer to understand the patterns, or yeah, but the more you work in the patterns, you can get, you can develop your knowledge better. So, for example, I believe that my pattern skills were okay, not the best, but I learned, I improved my pattern skills by using 3D. And how far they need to give you the product? Oh, this is another question, sorry, okay. How much time do you spend creating the showcasing for the brands? How far they need to give the product to showcase? How far they need? How far they need? So, how much time? Like, it depends what kind of project it is. This is very, It could be from 3 days to 2 weeks. It really depends. So how big the project is, what they want, what I have to create, do I have to create environment, do they want simple environment? So it's like, yeah, it's very different. How do you visualize the fabrics you use in 3D projects? I use— so if I have to focus on the physics, I do use default CLO fabrics for the physics if they match. If they don't match, then I need to find a company. There are a lot of different companies scanning fabric physics and fabric texture. When it comes to texturing, I use Substance Fabric Library a lot because they have really good quality texture. And sometimes I make texture from scratch in Photoshop as well. This is a bit more time-consuming, but if it's something super specific. Yeah, that's an answer. When do you think 3D assets will be quality tough enough to be used on PDO eCommerce directly. When do I think the asset will be— I think, again, we need to go back to the base. So I think having an eye for a real sample quality and for digital is a bit different, but I think it can be trained. So the more you work in 3D and the longer you use, the better you will become naturally. And I think your quality for the assets will develop as well by time. So that's why if you see someone's early work, designer, they usually are not as good as later work, because that improves. Your eye improves the way you look at things, so it's all training and it's all practice. I know it sounds boring, but it really is. There is no magic tool. It's not like you sit down and you are good in it. You need to spend time in it to be good. Yeah. And how much time you're going to spend depends on you, actually. So yeah. But I guess that's all, right? Oh, it is? Oh, I'm done. OK. Thank you so much, everyone.