In the video and section below, you'll find some important 3D styling and garment design tips within VStitcher which can help you achieve the most successful and realistic EcoShot Images. For more extensive VStitcher advice and guidance, visit the Browzwear Help Centre. You can see additional tips in the Create True-to-Life Seams & Trims, and Set up your fabrics correctly for Ray Trace Rendering articles.
3D Styling and fabrication are some of the most important aspects of dressing your EcoShot avatar, but they can also be the most daunting.
It is worth approaching these tools in VStitcher as you would those in a real-life photoshoot. When styling your garments on a model in a photo studio, you would adjust the clothes temporarily to present the truest intent of the outfits from a chosen angle. This is a helpful way to visualise this process when adjusting your 3D designs for your chosen EcoShot pose.
So here are our Top 6 Tips & Tricks for 3D Styling for EcoShot:
Click on the Styling icon in the horizontal menu bar in VStitcher. The 3D Styling context view will then open up on the right-hand side. This is where the majority of the tools we will be using are located.
At the bottom of this context view, click on 3D Styling Properties. With an area of your garment selected (using Brush, Pinch, or Move), click on the Retouch option (it will show as magenta). You can then Shrink or Stretch that area of the garment. This is a tool that I compare to pinning or clipping garments on a photoshoot model in order to show the true intent of the garment without having to alter it permanently.
Therefore, with Retouch, 3D designers do not have to tailor their garments specifically to our EcoShot models in order to get effective model imagery. You can change the Width and Length with the slider or manually change the percentages. You can also untether Width and Length from each other to change these properties separately. Please note that the Width and Length follow the grain line, shown by the red line.
For example, you can decrease the width of this T-Shirt at the back in order to make the front appear more fitted, without having to resize the entire garment for this one pose image. You can also use Shrink to reduce the linings in garments for better fits on the EcoShot avatars.
One way to avoid losing your 3D styling made in previous simulations is to Lock certain pieces you have styled before changing avatar/poses. This is especially useful for pieces like collars and cuffs, and when you want to explore the wide variety of poses for your chosen EcoShot avatar. The easiest way to freeze your chosen pieces is to open up Advanced Styling and click on the piece in the list below. Once chosen, click the Lock checkbox. When you choose your next pose or avatar, you can then unlock the piece or pieces with the same checkbox.
Another important option is the Grid section. If you reduce this number (ie. between 0.5 and 0.7), the more detail you get in this area, which is particularly useful when working with all-over prints and want smoother curves etc. This can also fix areas where the garment simulation is not true-to-life.
You can also untether Width and Height here too if you want to change their Grid amount separately.
The Grid works similarly to DPI in an image. The more pixels, the greater the detail, thus a smaller grid. It is especially useful for smaller pieces in the garments as they benefit from smaller grids as there will be shorter distance between points, and therefore improves the fabric physics and drapes on the avatar/model.
Layers
When preparing outfits in VStitcher, it is very important that the Layer order of all the pieces is correct for a successful render, especially when combining two separately created garment files.
Like in Photoshop or Illustrator, you can relayer the pieces by dragging them into the correct order in the Advanced Styling section. This is an easier process than the numbering system in the Draping Properties section relating to Layers.
With puffy garments such as puffer jackets, you may want less wrinkles/more body in the fabrication.
In 3D Styling Tools, find Flatten (above Retouch) to smooth the fabric out.
If this does not achieve the desired effect, you can use the Shrink option (Retouch) as well for this purpose.
This also depends on the fabric properties of the garment, and keep checking in the V-ray window as you use Flatten.
Other important aspects to check the realism of, and similarity to their physical sample counterparts, in the V-ray window are buttons, zip pulls and other fastenings.
For example, when you have selected a button, for example, in the right-hand-side context view you can change its Geometry, as well as its Specular Tint and Roughness, which relate to how matte/shiny this fastening is.
Check these fastenings in the vray window regularly as you edit, before Preview Outfit and then Requesting your EcoShot images.