Runway 2.0 Summary Posts

Two recent posts on the BSCRUNWAY Blog summarize the Runway 2.0 experience. The first is this fantastic video overview of the Runway 2.0 show by lovelyjunkie

 

The second is Runway 2.0 Wrap-Up post that will lead you to a display of student’s initial sketches alongside their final collection garments. We have already started our plans for Runway 3.0. The theme will be Technology: Progression Obsession.

OptiTex at Cornell: Kudos to Susan Ashdown

Susan Ashdown

 Susan Ashdown, Professor from the Fiber Science & Apparel Design Departmentat Cornell University  is a former collaborator that I was recently very happy to see again in person. Susan is an expert researcher in the area of FIT body scanning technology. During my visit to Cornell [4/29/09] I had a chance to see the exciting integration of the multidimensional OptiTex system that is taking place there.

In the past I posted an article titled “OptiTex#2: FIT Technology” I wrote about the critical importance of developing accurate real life fit when working with a virtual avatar form as well as the creative strategic partnerships that are in continual development at OptiTex.

I stated that :

“The benefits of using 3D avatar/ mannequins for fashion product development are perfect fit, mass customization, cost effectiveness for design, development, prototyping and e-commerce marketing. “

I also wrote about the partnership that OptiTex developed at ALVAFORM but Susan has immediate access to a  body scanner so she can develop customized virtual avatar dress forms for the OptiTex application or work from the measurements of the ALVAFORMS she has.

Susan is teaching the OptiTex system at Cornell and I observed first hand how she has creatively integrated the use of ALVA dress forms into the OptiTex class. Students print out the patterns that they created on the OptiTex system in half scale. They then construct the half size garments and fit them on to a half size ALVAFORMS that they have at Cornell. The half scale forms were made from the 3D file created for the full size dress forms, so rescaling the full size patterns by 50% results in an accurate fit on these small dress forms, with half the materials, time, and space that it would take to make full scale garments. This is really an exciting OptiTex accurate real VS virtual FIT project for students to work on. I am posting some images of Susan holding up some of the OptiTex garments that students developed, constructed and fit on to the ALVAFORMS.

[UPDATE: I asked Susan why she selected the half size ALVA forms to experiment with and not just any other half size dress form. She replied that the difference is that the Alva forms are  1) body shaped, they have realistic breasts and buttocks, since they were made from a scan of a real person (not a scan that Susan made, but one that they did at Alvanon), 2) they are all identical, and all a precise half scale of the full forms as they all come from the same forms that are used to shape the fiberglass (the Wolf forms are shaped by hand and vary a lot), and 3) they have legs - Susan stated that she has never found another half scale form with legs!]

Here is a link to the ALVAFORM Academic Series Web page.  

CLICK HERE for ALVAFORM academic information and contact information for Susan Ashdown.

RUNWAY 2.0 BLOG: BSCRUNWAY

The official blog for the RUNWAY 2.0 is BSCRUNWAY.WORDPRESS.COM

The two sold out RUNWAY 2.0 productions at the Burchfield Penney Art Center were an extraordinary success thanks to the talented and dedicated students, Erin Habes, David Brinson, The Burchfield staff and the Buffalo State College administrative support.  The BSCRUNWAY blog will continue to post links and RUNWAY articles relating to the collaborative extravaganza.

Some popular posts from the BSCRUNWAY blog are:

• RUNWAY 20 Wrap Up
• RUNWAY 2.0 on Vimeo
• RUNWAY 2.0 Nancy Belfer Award Winners
• RUNWAY 2.0 Evening Show I
• RUNWAY 2.0 Student Show @ 4PM [great shots at the end of the RUNWAY here]
• RUNWAY 2.0 Rehearsal [the lights were amazing]
• RUNWAY 2.0 Getting Ready for Rehearsal
• RUNWAY 2.0 Senior Collection Slides
• RUNWAY 2.0 Preview 
• BSC Runway 2.0: Before the Show I [This post documents the long journey these student designers have traveled]

BSCRUNWAY 2.0 – #1

http://www.runway2.org/

Here are some  links to  posts on the WordPress site I have created for the upcoming Fashion Technology Student Runway 2.0 show that is scheduled for Saturday April 25th at the Burchfield Penny Art Center in Buffalo NY.

There will be two shows. The 4pm student show tickets are $5.00 and $7.00 at the door and ALL proceeds will go to the Fashion Student Scholarship fund. Tickets are on sale at the Rockwell Hall Ticket booth at Buffalo State College.

The evening show will be a fundraiser for the Burchfield Penny Art Center. Details are HERE.

• BSC Runway 2.0: Before the Show I - students preparing patterns and draping garments for the upcoming show and the first initial review of some of the students on April 1st.
• RUNWAY 2.0 Preview - this is a post that has a SLIDESHARE presentation of work leading up to the show.
• Senior Collection Slides - These are the bio slides for some students participating in the Senior Collection class.

IBM & FRI UPDATE: Virtual Fashion for Real World Production

The video below illustrates a 3D Fashion LookBook titled “Nautical Dreams,” on the FRI island of Shengri La. The book contains Technical sketches, color chips, textile fabric swatches  and a large variety of possible product protypes for various styles under the “Nautical Dream” fashion trend theme.

IBM announced on 10/09/08  that “it has signed a multi-million IBM Global Business Services agreement with the Fashion Research Institute (FRI) to implement a first-of-a-kind Virtual World Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Enterprise System.”

“Fashion Research Institute, headquartered in New York, NY, conducts research into technology-based initiatives and develops emerging technologies to overhaul traditional fashion practices and methodologies. FRI’s mission is to reduce the carbon footprint and change the environmental impact of the industry in ways that are sustainable, replicable, respectful of the practitioners, and meaningful for all stakeholders. FRI maintains Shengri-La, a five-island complex in Second Life, and an OpenSim complex.”

This is a really exciting project. It will empower fashion designers to use 3D tools via a Second Life interface that connects to the OpenSim virtual world platform to create fashion products. The system currently in development will enable a highly efficient and creative workflow process for small and large businesses that encourages modifications, collaborations and the generation of virtual product samples that can be formulated into accurate specifications for cost effective mass production for real world manufacturing.

In the past, Shenlei Winkler (pictured to the left),  the Director of the Fashion Research Institute (FRI) was a designer for WallMart so she knows first hand the time and costs that are involved in development of a fashion product from start to finish. [ note: Fashion goes 3D [FORTUNE] Jon Fortt] 

According to Shenlei,

“Shengri La is the Fashion Research Institute’s Second Life ‘collaboratory’, which is maintained both to offer a permanent home for collaboration and to offer a shelter to the new and recently rezzed avatars of FRI’s collaborators.  Everything on the Shengri La is designed to encourage our collaborators to bring their associates into a virtual world and assist them in learning to use the virtual world to best advantage. 

Activities help people learn to move around and to use the associated tools to look at and learn about this world.  Events encourage social and business networking, which in turn allows avatars to develop deeper bonds with others and with the virtual world.”

This image links to FLICKR slideshow

 Some of the  goals of this project are to provide a simpler and more intuitive design interface, and to reduce market time

“As the Fashion Research Institute continues to enhance the IT capabilities of the fashion and consumer packaged goods industries, IBM’s deep knowledge in product design, enterprise systems, and virtual worlds will help FRI bring new market opportunities to the fashion world,” said Jeffrey Russell, IBM Global Business Services. “A design house implementing this solution could reduce dozens of weeks of design time, minimize the number of physical samples manufactured, and increase product manufacturing quality enough to put into development and production many additional collections.”

Read the rest of the announcement HERE.

Previous Posts relating to FRI:

• Virtual Fashion What is it?
• Technology Day at FIT Part III
• Technology Day at FIT Part II
• FRI & IBM: Community Gateway for the Apparel Industry
• IBM Presents The Future of Fashion Product Development & Shopping

How Clothing is Made in Second Life: Summary

I hope this little introductory series about how clothing is made in Second Life has been informative to you. From my own personal experience it all can be quite confusing to a new user or someone that has no past experience with 3D virtual worlds or applications. I have just about completed updating my Introduction to Second Life For Fashion OpenCourseWare Learning Module series. The video above will provide you with a quick overview of the learning modules [listed below for you] that are posted on www.fashionCAD.info

OpenCourseWare Learning Modules

• Module One:  Getting Started in Second Life – Signing On
• Module Two:  Getting Getting Started in Second Life After Orientation Island – Video Tutorials o f the Basics in SL; Practicing SL Basic Skills; Snapshot to Disk; Prepare First Avatar Presentation in Photoshop.
• Module Three: Getting Started in Second Life – How Clothes are Made in Second Life: The Basics; Some Review, First Tee & Outfit in Appearance – File Permissions, Poseball, Snapshot, Make Transparent Mannequin
• Module Four: Practicing and Modifying Pre-Made Patterns, UV Mapped Items, Flexi-Skirts
• Module Five: How Clothes are Made in Second Life: TEXTURES Preparing and Uploading your SL Pattern Texture Files 
• Module Six: How Clothes are Made in Second Life: UV MAPS and More File Permissions
• Module Seven: How Clothes are Made in Second Life: PRIMS 
• Module Eight: Fashion Collection Presentation Package
• Module Nine: Prepare for the upcoming Fashion Show in SL & Set-Up  Franamation OverRider 
• Module Ten: Create a layout presentation image of your fashion collection
• Module Eleven:  Prepare for the Fashion Show

You can complete the learning modules (above] at you own pace or you can register for the Virtual Fashion class I am offering as an online and in world class this coming fall semester.

Register for College Level Intro to Virtual Fashion in SL [fall 08']

If you are interested in registering for this course – you better hurry because fall 2008 classes start 8/25/08. This class will need instructor permission to register so make sure you get permission from me before you attempt to even register for it.  You will need to have Second Life loaded on your computer and should have an introductory knowledge of Photoshop [basic functions] as well as the application itself.

One last thing – Here is an informal index to the videos I have created for Second Life. Please keep in mind that while some of these videos represent finished products others are just rough guides completed as an aid during a class project that was in progress.

Second Life for Fashion Students-Video Tutorial Index

 I want to share this information with the hopes that others can use them for educational purposes.

Previous Posts in This Series:

• How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part IV - PRIMS
• How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part III – UV MAPS
• How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part II - TEXTURES
• How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part I- THE BASICS

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part IV – PRIMS

PRIMS TO CREATE GARMENTS IN SL

You may have noticed that the hair and shoes and other items you create using the APPEARANCE menu are not as visually appealing as many of the fashions you see in Second Life. This is because many fashion outfits are enhanced by belts, accessories, scarves, ties, handbags, flexiskirts, etc that are created from PRIMS. PRIMS are the basic 3D building tools in Second Life. If you like making clothing in Second Life – you need to learn to build. An excellent place to learn how to build at your own pace is the Ivory Tower of Prims in SL.

Here is a video Tour of the Ivory Tower of Prims by Torley Linden: Learn building at the Ivory Tower of Primitives

Here is a short video I made that will demonstrate how PRIM hair is different from the hair that you can create in the APPEARANCE menu: APPEARANCE and PRIM Hair.you can use the BUILD tool to create simple prims that will enhance your garments in SECOND LIFE. Here is a video that will demonstrate that for you: Create Simple Prims to Enhance Garments in SL . With regards to flexiskirts – you may be wondering, what makes the skirt panels move when your avatar walks? In the EDIT menu under the FEATURES tab the FLEXIBLE PATH field is checked, that makes a prim flexible-there are various adjustments there to fine tune the amount of flexibility you want on the panel. You set the proprieties of the skirt panel before you make it into a flexiskirt.

MORE ABOUT FLEXISKIRTS

Now more about flexiskirts – they are made from multiple panels of PRIMS but it would be an exercise in torture to try to make flexiskirts without a SCRIPT. SCRIPTS are what make all things in SL interactive. You can automate PRIMS in SL by using scripts. If you notice things like HOVERTEXT – that is the text above items that you see in SL – this text is also created by using a SCRIPT. Sometimes you click on something in SL and a NOTECARD opens or a link to a WEBSITE opens or you sit on a chair or a poseball and your avatar assumes a pose or sitting position – these are created by dragging and dropping a script and sometimes an animation into a PRIM in SL.

The very basic flexiskirt script is free. Here is a link to Natalia Zelmanov’s Blog post titled, Day 97: Flexi Skirts Part 1 (Ged Larsen’s LoopRez Script) which will provide you with excellent instructions on how to create your first flexi-skirt and there is a SURL link that will teleport you into the location SL where you can get the Loop REZ script for FREE in SL. [NOTE: you can also get it on the SLEXCHANGE for $L1]

I have some flexiskirt’s created with this script with open permission for you available on the Buffalo State Island, this is the SURL LINK. Once you complete Natalia’s basic Flexiskirt tutorial you can go to her part II post to learn how to set up the attachment set. It will adjust your flexi-skirt so that it will not melt through another PRIM when your avatar sits down. Day 433: Flexi Skirts Part 2 (Self-Adjustment with AttachmentSet).

Natalia Zelmanov’s blog has excellent detailed how-to instructions for building all kinds of clothing and textures  in Second Life including prim hair shoes and jewelry, fur, satin, semi transparent textures, animations and poses. Here is the link to Natalia’s BUILD TUTORIAL INDEX.

Ged Larsen also has two other models of the Loop Rez for you to choose from. The first is the LoopRez Deluxe.  Here is a link to the LoopRez Deluxe  tutorial on his blog. In addition to purchasing the LoopRez in-world you can purchase it on the SLEXCHANGE. If you purchase something to use in-world here you pay at the SLEXCHANGE and it will automatically be delivered to you in world. Here is a link to the LoopRez Deluxe Personal Edition v0.81 [L$220]from the SLEXCHANGE but keep in mind you CANNOT SELL THESE FLEXISKIRTS IN SL that is why it is called the “personal edition.” The Permissions are : LoopRez Object: COPY [that means for you only] / NO MOD / NO TRANSFER … Skirts: COPY [that means for yourself] / MOD [that means for yourself] / NO TRANSFER

Here is a YOUTUBE Video to show you how Ged Larson’s LoopREZ Deluze works.

If you want to purchase a flexiskirt LoopREZ so that you can create and sell the flexiskirts you create you need to purchase the LoopRez Deluxe Commercial Edition v0.81[L$2200]It is the same as the LoopREZ Deluxe but the permissions are set so that the skirts you create can be copied, modified and transferred.

Here is an interesting video of a Flower Power2 Building tool to create a Flexiskirt…

Previous Posts in This Series:

• How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part III – UV MAPS
• How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part II - TEXTURES
• How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part I- THE BASICS

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part III – UV MAPS

UV MAPS TO CREATE GARMENTS IN SL

Another way to create fashion in SL is to download the UV maps and create garments directly on to the UV maps an upload them to SL and apply them on your avatar in APPEARANCE. Avatar UV Maps are 2D representations of a 3D virtual avatar. The markings on the UV map serve as guides to help with matching the seams of the virtual garments that are created that will then be virtually “mapped” on to the 3D avatar.

An excellent way to start is to follow Robin Wood’s T-Shirt Tutorial and create your very own T-shirt graphic for your avatar. Robin provides a link to download a ZIP file of the T-Shirt Template and there are links included  to follow the step by step tutorial.

Here is a link to a video tutorial I made to demonstrate how you can use Robin’s T- Shirt Template to very quickly make a custom T-Shirt & upload it to Second Life. The next video in this mini-series will demonstrate to you how to create multiple garments that coordinate with the new T-Shirt you created and explains the file permissions on the new garments. It is titled Make Outfit in Appearance, Save it and Set Permissions. Once you created and saved your new outfit you need to wear it and go to the poseballs and take a snapshot to disk – here is a third video tutorial titled Pose With the Poseballs, Snapshot to Disk in Sl. The fourth video this mini-series will demonstrate for you how to make a mannequin for Second Life by extracting the background, making a transparency channel, using the Smudge Tool and uploading it to SL.

Once you get the idea how UV maps are used by using Robin’s T-shirt template you can download a full set of her UV templates from her site and move on to creating more UV mapped garments. Robin’s site is an excellent resource and there are additional links to how to make lace textures, how to add transparencies, adding patterns to cloth and so on.

Just like in the real world of fashion there are many different quality levels of fashions in Second Life. Some UV Mapped garments in particular can require an exceptionally high level of digital graphic illustration skills. There are many extremely talented and highly skilled digital virtual fashion design artists in Second Life. SL fashion design artists use their digital illustration skills on the UV Maps to create highly detailed garments from scratch and they often enhance their creations with prim attachments like flexi-skirts, hats, collars, shoes, belts, etc. UV Maps are also used to create a variety of custom avatar skins as well as tattoos.

There are many beginner SL fashion designers and amateurs that create and try to sell tons of rip-off or knock-offs of fashion items just like in the real world of fashion. Many of the freebie garments in Second Life are created by placing the front and back of a Web image on to the UV Map. Some of these images are then modified and others are just copied “as is” from the real world item. Also as there are technical “product quality” issues in the real world there are also digital quality issues such as “are the seams closed?” “are the seams matched?” What is the digital overall technical quality level of the UV Mapped garment in addition to creative originality of the virtual UV Mapped fashions?

The creation of TEXTURES correlate indirectly to the creation of surface print patterns for industry that fashion designers in the real world need to make but the skills needed for UV Mapped garments and PRIM building in Second Life are only remotely related to the skills that real world fashion students require. Real world fashion students need to know how to create fashion product sketches [flats or fashion croquees], technical product specification and costing sheets, a variety of client presentation boards as well as to gain flat pattern drafting and pattern-making skills to actually create the garment pattern and then acquire the skill to assemble the garment in the real world. The file organization skills that are required to create and sell fashion garments in SL are excellent organizational and basic business start-up skills for fashion students as well as learning to work in a 3D environment. [ex: store layout & design and fashion show production] The fashion industry is shifting over to multi-dimensional product development for use in design as well as merchandising so gaining 3D conceptional skills in a virtual application like Second Life is a valuable transitional skill for fashion students.

Here are three excellent links from Natalia Zelmanov’s Blog that explain the UV Maps and how to use them to create clothing in Photoshop. Natalia has a variety of highly detailed and well-illustrated  step-by-step directions on how to build all sorts of fashion related items for Second Life. Robin Wood’s and Natalia Zelmanov’s blogs were a Godsend to me when I first “literally fell” into the virtual world of Second Life.

Clothing Texture Templates: A discussion of SL clothing templates (Robin Wood’s in particular) and how the flat template files map onto the avatar’s body

Creating Clothes Pt 1: Making clothes using the Second Life texture maps

Creating Clothes Pt 2: Making clothes using the Second Life texture maps

Here is another link from Natalia’s  blog that will show you how to create clothes using the UV maps with GIMP (free program like Photoshop) and UV maps to create a garment. Day 181: Creating Clothes with GIMP

Next Post in this Series: How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part IV – PRIMS

Previous Posts in this Series:

• How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part I- THE BASICS
• How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part II - TEXTURES

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part II – TEXTURES

TEXTURES

A very easy way to make your SL APPEARANCE clothing look more unique is to create and upload your own textures. Before you begin using this method you should understand how textures work in SL. Textures work differently in the APPEARANCE MENU then with the TEXTURE TAB in the BUILD tool that is used to create PRIMS. I created a video to explain the difference for you – here is a link to the About Textures in Sl video.

Once you understand how textures work differently in APPEARANCE and with the TEXTURE TAB in the BUILD tool you can make adjustments when you create and upload your own textures. In a nutshell – the textures that are on a prim [like a flexi-skirt panel] can be tiled and flipped and set into different scaled repeats – this is not possible in the APPEARANCE. I personally think this is a BIG DRAWBACK for flexibility and creative expression using the APPEARANCE menu with custom textures in Second Life but we have to work with what we have.

I have lots of student-created free fiber design seamless textures on the Buffalo State island and I made a video that will demonstrate how you can insert them into garments you create using the APPEARANCE menu in SL. There is a color set and a grayscale set that you can add your own tints to. Here is the link to the video: Fiber Textures in Second Life. The SURL pasted below in this post will take you to the location in Second Life [pictured above] where there are plentiful textures for you to experiment with and the permissions are all opened for you.

Here are a short series of video tutorials that will get you started with creating your own custom textures in Photoshop that you can use on garments you create in the APPEARANCE menu. [NOTE: in these videos I make the textures 256px by 256px - you can make them more detailed by creating them 512 X 512 px or even 256px by 512px , or 1024 or 1024 px but keep in mind larger texture files will need more processing time to come in clear. To get fine detail into your textures you can create them at a very high resolution and creating them in Illustrator will give you even more control. Once you have completed them you can resample [rescale] them down in Image Size before you upload them. I would not go over 512px unless there is very fine detail that is very important to keep in. Here is a link to a site where you can download free high resolution textures to get your creativity going with custom texture development. You will get a really good look if you create a seamless texture of an area you apply filters to and then place it into a half-drop and make it seamless again.

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• Making a Seamless Texture for Second Life
• Making a Stripe Texture for Second Life
• Recolor Stripe and Create a Plaid Texture for Second Life
• Multi Print Texture for Second Life – this is a really neat way to make your APPEARANCE garment look more complicated then it actually is – just by adding multiple pattern repeats to your SINGLE texture file.
• How to make a Half-Drop Single Repeat and In-Repeat Seamless Swatch for SL
• Add a Translucent Background to your Half-Drop Pattern Texture.

SL TEXTURES/PATTERN DEVELOPMENT FOR INDUSTRY

The pattern repeat techniques for developing seamless TEXTURES for Second Life correlate somewhat with the pattern repeat development skills that CAD Textile Print Designers for industry need. The primary difference is that when you are developing print repeat designs for industry you need to know how to create and work in reduced colors as well as tonals, there are size constraints that need to match print methods and skill is required to recolor the pattern to match current color trends. If you are working in tonal images [photographic or true color scans of maybe watercolors] you need to know how to create layer masks to recolor your tonals. Here is a link to what is covered in the upcoming online Adobe Pattern Development for Industry class I will be offering this fall 2008 semester. If you are are interested in more expansive and controlled TEXTURE development for Second Life as well as learning how to prepare designs to be commercially printed. you are welcome to register as a non-matriculated student either for college credit or you can register to audit this upcoming online class. You can easily convert any of the images you create in this class to upload to Second Life.

PRACTICING APPLYING TEXTURES & TINTS TO CLOTHING

I have created a series of videos that will demonstrate to you step by step how to change colors and textures on UV clothing and flexi-skirts. All of these items in the video are available for you with the permissions open so you can modify, and or transfer them and  customize them to make them your own. Here is a SURL that will take you to the location on the Buffalo State island [pictured above] where these garments are available so you can follow along with the videos. All permissions on the garments and textures for the video tutorials are open.

• 6 Make a Garment in Second Life
• 7 Make a Garment in Second Life
• 8 Make a Garment in Second Life
• 9 Make a Garment in Second Life

Next Post in this Series: How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part III – UV MAPS

Previous Post in this Series: How Clothes Are Made in Second Life:Part I- THE BASICS

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Multidimensional Fashion Technology I

There is a reason that my posts have not been frequent since the spring semester ended. I have been focusing on developing two on-line courses for fall 2008. One is totally in world and on ANGEL. See post titled: Register for College Level Intro to Virtual Fashion in SL [fall 08'] I would like to invite Fashion professors from other countries that would like to sponsor a fashion student for an independent study to participate in this class with me. If you are interested – please e-mail me at polvinem@buffalostate.edu. Learning to conceptualize, work and develop in a free 3D virtual application like Second Life will introduce fashion students for the transformative changes that are currently underway in the global fashion industry. If students gain a comfort level working in a virtual world, their learning curve for a multidimensional product development application will be substantially reduced.

I have also been “officially” retooling over to the multidimensional OptiTex technology; it is the next logical step to prepare future professionals for the 3D transformational changes that are currently taking place in the global fashion industry. I have a twenty year CAD/CAM technology background that includes retooling, developing course materials and teaching surface/textile design for industry, computer pattern making, marker making and more recently 3D fashion applications.

The 360 degree rotational images that are possible with this system can be used for marketing or pre-marketing. Perhaps even using the digital 3D imagary for a mass personalization retail marketing application like MVM’s BrandMe. Developing a fashion product in digital format from square one will save time, cut costs and facilitate marketing of the product on line in addition to collaborating directly with the manufacturer in 3D to eliminate costly development miscommunication errors.

I would like to integrate the OptiTex cutting-edge CAD/CAM Marker, PDS and Modulate programs in the curriculum. The reasons why I selected OptiTex to retool on are listed in my blog posting titled: Technology Day at FIT: Teaching and learning in Four Dimensions.

I have been working on it for the past three-four weeks now and it’s a totally amazing application! I am planning to develop some basic pattern development and modification tutorials, so I thought I would begin by sharing a bit of the stitching, simulation and 3D viewing for a basic sloper video [posted above] that I created following the instructions from Helen Joseph Armstrong’s Patternmaking for Fashion Design. The Optitex online support Wiki is both an exceptional learning and teaching tool, it will facilitate quick response retooling for educators and industry.

Oh by the way – the fabric pattern in the video above was from a portion of a Second Life screen shot during a visit last evening with Bettina Tizzy [and some close colleagues from FIT] at CHakryn Forest. Bettina founded the working group “Not Possible IRL,” : 1) To identify, showcase and promote content creation in virtual worlds that would not be possible in Real Life; 2) To seek and disseminate knowledge that empowers content creators; and 3) To advocate for better recognition and protection of the rights of content creators in virtual environments. Here are some FLICKER links to NPIRL [Not Possible In real Life]  : Situations Not Possible in Real Life (NPIRL) and Avatars Not Possible in Real Life (NPIRL).

Here is the one screenshot I took…

…and here one of the textures [that I used in the video above] that I developed from the image above in Photoshop.

Here are two more from the same inspiration…

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I stated during my presentation at Technology Day at FIT, RMIT and Ryerson, if fashion education does not initiate the type of quick response solution (that students are taught with regards to the real world) to the unprecedented transformational technology shift that is taking place over to 3D, they run the serious risk of becoming redundant and obsolete and could actually be the driving force for industry to develop private training institutes.”

The primary focus of this Virtual Fashion Technology blog is to document the transition and expansion from 2D traditional to 2D Digital to 3D virtual for apparel textile product design, development and retailing. Retooling on a multidimensional fashion product development application will be a major contribution.

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Register for Online Adobe Pattern Development for Industry

[UPDATE: CLICK HERE  for tenative course content]

This Adobe Pattern Development for Industry class was developed after a specialized custom course development request I received from a well known global retailer several years ago. I developed and taught it to designers that had a variety of CAD backgrounds that needed to know how to use off-the-shelf CS to develop and prepare designs for industry.

This course prepares students and/or professionals techniques to use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to develop, separate, clean and recolor graphics and pattern repeats [that are ready for production] for a variety of fashion products.

It is an excellent course for expansion of Adobe skills for a specialized production end use.

 

 
A basic knowledge of introductory functions of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are necessary to successfully complete this course. OpenCourseWare videos with audio  are available: Level One: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop Functions  and Level One: Introduction to Adobe Illustrator Functions

 
If you are interested in registering for this online college credit course FTT304 (1439) - please contact Buffalo State College Admissions. If you want to apply for college credit to be transfered out or do not want college credit – register as a non-matriculated student. Contact me if you have a problem registering.

Here is a LINK to some student work from several years ago.
 __________________________________________________________________________________
Course Code:  FTT304-1439
Offered by:  Buffalo / University College
Taught by:  Elaine Polvinen
Credits:  3

Course Description:
Creation of original motifs for printed fashion fabrics that are marketable for women’s, men’s, or children’s wear; professional methods of transforming media into digital format to separate, clean, develop basic repeats, and color combinations using Adobe Creative Suite based on awareness of current trends, color impact, marketability, and industry standards.

• Design and development of colors, prints, and fabric simulations.
• Re-coloring and designing of prints, plaids, stripes – a variety of patterns.
• Scanning and cleaning up prints to assist with executing a specific number of screens.
• Execution of flat and tonal color separations.
• Creation of a variety of repeats patterns in Photoshop and Illustrator.
• Creation of print and color chips for manufacturer spec packages.
• Creation of mini-boards for client presentations.

Prerequisites:
FTT 208 or instructor permission [student needs to have an introductory knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to successfully complete this course.] CS, CS2 or CS3 of Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop will work for this class. You can locate educational pricing HERE.

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I am also offering a College Level Intro to Virtual Fashion in Second Life [fall 08']

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Virtual Fashion – What is it?

Shenlei Winkler (aka: Shenlei Flashart in SL] has an excellent post titled, “Avatar Apparel vs. the Real Apparel Industry,” clarifying the differences between what FRI [Fashion Research Institute]  terms, virtual fashion that is designed specifically for virtual worlds and gaming and the “1.7 trillion USD apparel industry.”

Actually it’s even becoming even more confusing then Shenlei mentions because the global apparel industry is now transitioning over to multi dimensional product development applications like Optitex [in the video below & see previous posts] that will empower the industry to develop in virtual 3D digital format [using virtual avatars] from square one.

So the term “virtual fashion” can refer to fashion developed specifically for end use in the the virtual world or fashion that is developed “virtually” via a multi dimensional application or “in the virtual world” for the real world global apparel industry. To add to the confusion  I  have developed a totally in world Introduction to Virtual Fashion online college course that prepares real world students of fashion to think, create, develop and work together and communicate in a virtual world setting. Register for College Level Intro to Virtual Fashion in SL [fall 08'] I believe that an application like Second Life provides fashion education programs with the tools to teach students a specialized (fashion) conceptual skill set from working in a 3D virtual reality environment that is free and open access for all fashion programs. Gaining these introductory virtual skills will begin to prepare students for emerging employer expectations relating to 3D conceptualization.

Some real life fashion designers like Nyla from the House of Nyla design and create one of a kind real world fashions and replicate them for virtual sales in a virtual world like Second Life.

 

And then there are the real life fashion designers like KOZMARA that create real world fashions using a multi dimensional product development application like Optitex that enables virtual development of a real world garment that can be easily manufactured.

What Shenlei is developing with IBM is real world apparel production design and development in a virtual world setting – this is really quite exciting and it takes a bit just to wrap your brain around it but once you do it leads to endless possibilities!

Shenlei goes on to describe how virtual fashion for end use in a virtual world is often developed in a 3D application like Photoshop or Illustrator and is never actually manufactured so the designer does not have to conform to a variety of size, trend, quality, production and time constraints.

She continues with a comparison of funds generated by the gaming industries and the global apparel industries. In her post, she eloquently details the four years of dedicated highly focused multi-faceted cross training involved in preparation to become a fashion designer in today’s global fashion industry.

All of these real world production details that a fashion design student must gain an understanding of are not required for a virtual fashion designer that designs specifically for the virtual gaming worlds. As Shenlei states, “the realities of manufacturability and wearer’s comfort are not even a consideration.”

Her blog post explains that the FRI research is not about fashion designing for the virtual world but working “in” and using virtual worlds to develop real world apparel for manufacture. FRI is,”focused on helping the apparel industry to cut its time to market, slash its development costs, reduce its carbon footprint, and enhance its profitability and revenue opportunities.”  FRI is, “using virtual worlds to insulate designers from technology and to enable them to focus on design.”
 

The real world apparel industry product development research that FRI is conducting is exceptionally exciting and has the potential to have a transformational impact on the global apparel industry. Anyone involved in the real world apparel industry is welcome to visit the Fashion Research Institute [FRI] in SL.  The FRI has made available new resident avatar kits in the welcome area of the FRI corporate sim complex in Second Life tm Shengri La. Here is a link to Shenlei’s post titled “Beautiful People….”

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Register for College Level Intro to Virtual Fashion in SL [fall 08']

I will be accepting students for my first totally in-world Introduction to Virtual Fashion in Second Life class. Students can register for credit or non-credit. I have been teaching fashion in Second Life for three semesters now st Buffalo State College as a Web enhanced course. I am working over the summer to develop this special course so it can be taught totally online on ANGEL and inworld in Second Life.

This course will require very basic level one introductory Photoshop and Illustrator skills.

Here is a link to my OpenCourseWare Level One Photoshop functions

Here is a link to my OpenCourseWare Level One Illustrator functions

Course Name: FTT495: Intro to Virtual Fashion in Second Life

Semester: fall 2008
Credit Hours: 3  credits 
Catalog no.: 3347
Location of class Buffalo State Island in Second Life and ANGEL online course

Days: TR 7PM-10PM EST on BSC island in SL 
Instructor’s Name: Elaine Polvinen aka Finn1 FLintlock
e-mail: polvinem@buffalostate.edu

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Learn the basics of the 3D world of Second Life. Learn how to navigate, communicate with others and create fashion related projects. Introductory multi-disciplinary skills for 3D virtual fashion design, brand development, presentation and fashion show production. Research projects focusing on incorporating 2D into 3D conceptualization in Second Life.

Prerequisites: Basic introductory skills with Photoshop and Illustrator. You are required to already have established an Avatar in Second Life and to have worked through orientation island. Second Life is a free application that must be downloaded and installed on your computer. Download Second Life HERE. Information about hardware requirements for Second Life can be located on the download page. Any version of Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop will work for this class.

OBJECTIVES:

At the completion of the Virtual Fashion CAD Project student will demonstrate introductory:

• 3D virtual organizational skills.
• 3D virtual creative Thinking skills
• 3D virtual visual Communication skills
• 3D virtual multi-tasking skills.
• 3D virtual creative Problem solving skills
• 3D virtual collaborative skills
• 3D virtual technology skills.
• 3D virtual presentation skills
• 3D virtual Market trend research skills
• Flexibility to link existing and learn new concepts.
• Skills for working and strategizing completion of various assignments in a multiple 3D virtual reality settings.
• Skills for 3D virtual fashion garment development.
• Skills for 3D virtual fashion garment presentation and product packaging.
• Development of a 3D virtual fashion collection.
• 3D virtual fashion show production videos
• Web 2.0 skills

If you are interested in registering for this online college credit course FTT495 (3347) - please contact Buffalo State College Admissions

Here is a link to student fashion collections and shows from a spring 2007 SL project.

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Here is a link to another online course offering this fall ‘08 Register for Online Adobe Pattern Development for Industry

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Technology Day at FIT – Part IV

Technology Day at FIT: Teaching and learning in Four Dimensions

Panel Presentation: Preparing the Next Generation of Industry Executives for the next Generation of Marketing Tools: YouTube and More. Susan Reda, Executive Director of Stores Magazine, Kathy Savitt, Chief Marketing Officer, American Eagle Outfitters & David Polinchock, Founder and Chief Experience Officer, Brand Experience Lab.

Ms. Savitt began speaking about AEO – American Eagle Outfitters. Their mission is to be generous with their brand. She stated that, “Content is King, distribution is Queen and the Arch Duchess.”

77E is a dedicated unscripted content entertainment platform on A&E. MTV will run the show. It has unscripted content with social community building blocks via Stylehive, a new media application. Stylehive is a social community where users can share and bookmark trends. [note: another similar community is Stylefeeder]

No sharing between divisions was mentioned by David Polinchock as an example of a growth stifling issue within a company. [note: that is also true in an educational institution.] He went on to state that some of the rules are changing with new instant social community media. An example was described about a customer that had a very unpleasant experience trying on clothing at a well-known retailer – the experience was “twittered” from the dressing room and was immediately picked up and amplified by multiple blogs.

YouTube was mentioned as a new media and postings of the The Charmin Potty Party promotion. The Charmin Potty Party was group of custom designed Charmin Bathrooms set up in Times Square as a Christmas gift to New Yorkers in 2006.

An example of a brand that uses new media technology to their advantage is Zappos. They made use of Twitter  as a promotional community marketing and promotional tool by selecting someone from their Twitter community for a free pair of shoes.

The panel mentioned some  top leaders in the next generation marketing and why they stand out.

• Zappos Twitter channel – they are using new channels and helping people engage.
• E-Shirts – took an industry that never changed and to rethink how they do business.
• Nike ID on  Facebook– a consumer destination for designing personalizing and customizing NIKEID footwear, apparel and equipment.
• Webkinz – building a social marketing community

When something is launched online there is immediate attention. Relevance is now the criteria. Unscripted content like concerts, music, spring break is not vulnerable but scripted content is vulnerable because when you create scripted content you may get comments that you don’t want.

The panelists felt Second Life would evolve into a mixed reality. They mentioned some RL business ventures and why they “dabbled” in SL but then abandoned it after 12-18 months. Many business people walked away perhaps because they did not take the time to truly understand how to integrate the RL and the virtual world experiences. Businesses did not want to get involved if they did not want to deliver a unique and compelling experience.

One of the biggest problems with a brand trying new things is that they don’t understand the media. Unless they really make a commitment and find their voice they will be lost. The definition of success differs from brand to brand. If the focus is “only” on the product or “only” on the brand you could get in trouble with your message but if focus is “only” on the customer then stupid irrelevant material will not be developed if new media is your content.

The panel discussed “standards” on a site. They stated that standards can be limiting but some people go to a place specifically because they have standards. There is room a a lot of different options regarding standards.

How new marketing tools could impact marketing strategies was a topic of discussion. New media is an unbelievable opportunity to get customer data. [note: the new viral marketing tool that MVM has developed for retailers popped into my mind at this point]

New media:

• offers a way for companies to get smart.
• empowers companies to directly engage with their customer base.
• enables creation of a customer community that can be integrated into a company Website.
• provides branding authenticity.
• provides companies the opportunity to engage outside of the bricks and mortar.

Because of the new media tools – people are using brands to do more. And finally the most important statement for last  – companies that focus and serve customers will take on a level of honesty that is contagious.

Raymond Yee, Author of Pro Web 2.0 Mashups: Remixing Data and Web Services presented “Create Mashups to make the Web Your Own.”

Raymond gave an excellent demonstration of what is involved in building a customized mashup with the Pipes Web application. He also demonstrated the Picnik application that is integrated into FLICKR  to photo edit images on the Web.

 Raymond also spoke about the Open Source FLICKR viewer in Sl.  Here is a link to an article about it. This is a fantastic development! Up until now we had to upload each image that was needed to present a slide presentation in SL for $10L each upload. Now it will be possible to use our FLICKR images to project into SL.

 …to be continued.

Link to my FLICKR images from the conference.

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.

Technology Day at FIT Part III

Technology Day at FIT: Teaching and learning in Four Dimensions

 Round Table Discussions: Virtual World Community Gateway for the Apparel Industry presented by Shenlei Winkler, Director of the Fashion Research Institute [FRI]. 

 

 

Shenlei Winkler aka Shenlei Flashart in SL is the lead developer of building a Virtual World Community Gateway, an orientation space developed expressly for apparel industry personnel where they can learn to navigate and use virtual worlds safely and free of any hassles that may exist in the general SL community environment. Virtual world skills will become increasingly more important as new industrial solutions incorporating virtual worlds are developed for the apparel industry.

The Virtual World Community Gateway for the Apparel Industry is located in Second Life on a group of five sims (a utopian micronation in Second Life) owned by the Fashion Research Institute. Shengri La is one of the islands, here is the SURL location to visit the Fashion Research Institute in Second Life.

The Second Life Virtual World orientation space is currently open by invitation only to apparel industry personnel. The gateway is open 24/7, 365 days and trained helpers will be available on a limited basis. Individuals will be encouraged to learn at their own pace with tutorials so they can gain a virtual skill comfort level at their own speed. Shenlei’s contact info is Shenlei@fashionresearchinstitute.com.

It is not open to the general public. If you are a member of the apparel industry or fashion educator and are interested in introducing yourself and your faculty/staff contact Shenlei Winkler to gain access to the specialized virtual world orientation gateway she has created for the apparel industry and fashion educators.

According to Shenlei, this virtual world introductory experience will also include a  variety of customization options (provided by some of the top designers in SL) that will include everything a new user will need to develop their own style.

Industrial solutions incorporating virtual worlds are currently in development within the Black Dress Technology (Black Dress) subsidiary that FRI and IBM recently announced to develop an end-to-end enterprise solution for virtual-worlds-based product design for the [real world] fashion industry. This solution will serve small niche fashion product developer as well as mass market private label retailers.

Shenlei spoke about her past experience as a fashion product developer for a multi million dollar retailer. 2D designs are often misunderstood at the factory, presenting the designs in 3D virtual reality would eliminate multiple time wasting errors. A virtual reality product development application will allow real time development. The virtual world design solution that FRI & IBM are currently working on will result in a faster more robust and stable environment for apparel design. It is designed and set-up specifically for [real world] apparel and product designers. This will finally resolve the issue of accurate creative development time as time studies for creative work will be automatically calculated. FRI & IBM are also developing and testing the virtual world platform OpenSim, which is an enterprise alternative to Second Life(tm).

One last note about Shenlei Winkler – to locate multiple posts about Shenlei and the Fashion Research Institute please search within this blog for “Shenlei Winkler” or the “Fashion Research Institute.”

There were plenty of other Discussion Roundtables but alas I could not split myself into multiple personalities to participate in all of them. I would like to invite other roundtable leaders to comment to this post to summarize your discussion. Some of the other roundtable leaders were:

• [Blogging in Italian] Isabella Bertoletti
• [Conversations About Design] Leslie Blum [COM DES], Nancy Deihi [TEX/SUR DES], and Gordon Frey [INT DES]
•  [Education: Product and/or Process] Daria Dorosh from the New Media Institute, University of East London
• [A Second Life for the Classroom?] Larry Dugan, Finger Lakes Community COllege and Beth Ritter-Guth, Lehigh Carbon Community College
• [Virtual Astonomy for Hybred Courses in the  Physical Sciences] Joseph Liddicoat [Science & Math]
• [Online Teaching and Learning in Spanish] Madeline Millan [Foreign Languages]
•  [Science & Math] [Having Technical Discussions Online]Karen Pearson [Science & Math] Calvin Williamson
• [Web 2.0: Distributed Creativity and Framing Thought] G. Brett Phares from Marist College
• [The Information Dimension of the FIT Library] NJ Wolfe [Gladys Marcus Library FIT]

[note: if a college is not mentioned after the name, the person is an FIT faculty member]

Continued on …Technology Day at FIT – Part IV

Link to my FLICKR images from the conference.

© 2008 All Rights Reserved.