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Taylor, Andrew, Unver, Ertu and Worth, Graham

Innovative potential of 3D software applications in fashion and textile design

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Taylor, Andrew, Unver, Ertu and Worth, Graham (2003) Innovative potential of 3D software
applications in fashion and textile design. Digital Creativity, 14 (4). pp. 211-218. ISSN 1462-6268

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Innovative potential of 3D software applications in
fashion and textile design
Andrew Taylor; Ertu Unver; Graham Worth

To cite this Article: Taylor, Andrew, Unver, Ertu and Worth, Graham , 'Innovative
potential of 3D software applications in fashion and textile design', Digital Creativity,
14:4, 211 - 218
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 Digital Creativity
2003, Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 211–218
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Innovative potential of 3D
software applications in fashion
and textile design
Andrew Taylor1, Ertu Unver2 and Graham Worth1
1
The Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
2
The University of Huddersfield, UK
a.taylor2@hud.ac.uk
Abstract
Advanced cloth simulation plug-in tools are increas-
ingly being used by designers in movies, television,
advertising and computer games, to take the strain
out of creating and simulating realistic cloth effects
for dressing virtual characters. This paper describes
experiments into designing textiles and clothing
using 3D graphics software and a digital cloth dy-
namics plug-in, which are an integral part of PhD
research in progress. The methods used in testing
the 3D software and the cloth dynamics plug-in
illustrate the experiences of a designer/learner. The
results identify designer/learner needs and expec-
tations for the further educational development of
the research and use of cloth simulation tools in
textiles/fashion design in the near future.
Keywords: cloth dynamics, fashion design, plug-in,
simulation, 3D software
1462-6268/03/1404-0211$16.00
© Swets & Zeitlinger
1 Introduction
This paper discusses PhD research work in
progress at the Manchester Metropolitan
University and the University of Huddersfield
into 3D computer graphics software and 3D
CAD software for designing textiles and
clothing. The aim of the paper is to test 3D
computer graphics applications and a digital
cloth dynamics plug-in for their effectiveness in
enabling 3D digital cloth to be simulated and
clothing to be created in a 3D environment.
The main contribution of this work is the
development of new methods in 3D design,
construction and movement for application in
fashion/textiles learning and teaching environ-
ments. The structure of the paper is as follows:
section 1 defines the aim and introduces the
paper; section 2 outlines the important physical
reality of fashion and textiles design relative to
3D graphics clothing design, discusses current
3D graphics software research and explains the
function of the plug-in; section 3 describes the
different aspects of the experiments, software
applications and the construction of the test
objects, sections 4 and 5 describe the methods
and analysis of the results of the two digital
cloth experiments; section 6 concludes the paper
and provides details of future work.
2 Background
2.1 The physical reality of textiles and fashion
design
This research into digital cloth simulation
combines the established, traditional skills of the
fashion/textiles designer, with the new digital
 Taylor, Unver and Worth
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Digital Creativity, Vol. 14, No. 4
methods of 3D graphics technologies. There-
fore, it is essential to emphasise the importance
of the established skills in textile/fashion design,
as these traditional skills are integrated into the
outcomes of the experiments and the educa-
tional focus of the PhD research project. All
textile products have character-
istic behaviour based on the
construction and properties of
their material content …specific textile
(Wingate 1970). Woven or
knitted structures create the data and ‘intel-
dimensional stability or the
handle of the fabric. The
ligence’ needs
overall effect of these structures
often changes when reacting
to be written
with a printed pattern or into plug-ins…
embroidered textural effect
applied to the structure or
surface of the cloth. The fact that the cloth
moves around in space, often colliding with
itself and the body, is a hugely significant factor
in the success of any textiles and clothing design
(Braddock and O’Mahony 1998).
2.2 3D graphics software
The use of 3D graphics software applications as
tools for modelling, rendering and animating
product ideas in three dimensions is an essential
everyday aspect of most industrial design
activity (Sener and Wormald 2001). The fashion
and textile industries are currently experiencing
a phase of digital change, as they react positively
to the challenges of ever increasing research into
the areas of 3D graphics simulation technology.
3D computer graphics software presents these
industries with new and innovative possibilities
for 3D design and virtual sampling of clothing
products (Wentzel 2002). Since the mid 1980s
research groups have been developing diverse
approaches to modelling and simulating digital
cloth for an array of digital clothing projects
(Bhat et al. 2003, Cordieret al. 2003, Huanget
al. 2003, Stylios et al. 1995, Volino et al. 1998,
Weil 1986).
212
As a result of this research, advanced
cloth simulation plug-ins have been developed
over the last six years, and there is now a wide
selection of quality cloth dynamics plug-ins
available that are compatible with the high
specification 3D modelling and animation
software applications (Wentzel
2002). A plug-in is a small
software program that is
written for, and runs inside of,
another host application to
help enhance its functionality1.
The additional plug-in
software program provides the
generic software program with
extendable architecture,
although several recently
updated versions of 3D
modelling and animation
packages now include cloth simulation tools as
standard. Plug-ins are seen as essential creative
tools, with which artists, designers and anima-
tors can customise and ‘supercharge’ their
software to produce tricky visual effects more
effectively and increase their productivity when
working within the structure of a core program.
The plug-in used in the experiment
provides extendable menu tools in the interface
to allow association of advanced soft-body and
rigid-body dynamics, free-form deformations,
cloth, and rope simulation properties on to the
3D model/object. Real world dynamics simula-
tion tools in the plug-in enable the variable
density of a 3D object to be altered to simulate
different physical properties. Natural forces such
as wind and gravity can be applied to the 3D
models/objects.
3 Preparation for the digital clothing
experiments
3.1 3D graphics software applications used in the
experiment
The main software used throughout the experi-
ment was 3DS Max v 4.2, which combines
 Innovative potential of 3D software applications in fashion and textile design
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advanced tools for 3D modelling, animation
and visual effects production. Poser 4 was chosen
to generate the human body to use as a model
for the cloth simulation experiments. Poser 4 is a
3D character design and animation software
application, which provides moveable figures
from a library of male, female and child human
body shapes. The 3DS Max animation modifier
tool, called Flex, was initially tested to establish
the potential of 3DS Max software to simulate
cloth without the use of specific cloth plug-in
software. Subsequently, the real world dynamics
plug-in software called Reactor, from Havok, the
game and animation dynamics developers2, was
selected from the list of plug-in software being
evaluated in the research project.
3.2 3D design of digital clothing
2D womenswear illustrations (Figure 1) were
used as working drawings in an attempt to
accurately model a fitted top and skirt in a 3D
graphics environment. During the cloth
simulation experiments, only the 3D skirt was
used to provide a test object for simulation, as
Figure 1.
2D fashion
illustration of
collection. The
University of
Huddersfield.
Final Year 2003
BA Fashion
Design student
Gemma
Saunders.
Digital Creativity, Vol. 14, No. 4
attempts at modelling the fitted top became
problematic and time consuming. Firstly, even
though 3DS Max contains very advanced
modelling tools there were difficulties with
modelling the top object to fit the female Poser
character. Secondly, testing the different cloth
parameters values using two objects in the cloth
simulation slowed down the rendering time too
much during repetitive simulations. 3D male
figures will also be used in future research work,
as there are challenging 3D design and fit issues
in the construction of men’s trousers, which are
often worn differently, for example, higher or
lower on the waist of the male body (Anon
2003).
An unclothed female character was
selected from the Poser library for use as a model
in the experiment. The female character was
exported into 3DS Max from Poser 4.
To be able to manipulate the female
Poser character in 3DS Max, each of the body
parts were linked to each other and then
grouped together using the appropriate tools in
3DS Max. The skirt was modelled within the
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Digital Creativity, Vol. 14, No. 4

3DS Max environment using 3DS Max tools.

Following extensive experimentation with
different modelling techniques, several skirt
shapes were created using Non-rational Uniform
B-Splines or NURBS, which are the best
method for modelling irregular surfaces3. Several
circular NURBS were created, to provide a mesh
structure that could be easily manipulated
around the female Poser character. A NURBS
surface was generated to connect a surface to the
skirt mesh structure, and a printed fabric texture
sample was scanned and added to the surface
using the materials mapping browser function in
3DS Max.

4 Experiment 1: cloth simulation using

the Flex modifier tool in 3DS Max 4
The Flex modifier in 3DS Max was initially used
to test the potential of 3DS Max to simulate
cloth without a dynamics/cloth plug-in. The
Flex modifier simulates soft-body dynamics via
virtual springs between the object’s vertices. The
spring stiffness can be set to actively influence
vertices to stretch, or move apart or together. At
a more advanced level, the Flex modifier can also
be used to control the sway, or how much the
spring angle can change the movement of a 3D
object. At its simplest, this tool causes vertices to
lag behind an object as it moves. Flex works
with NURBS and can be combined with space
warps such as gravity, wind, push, and motor to
add realistic physically based animation to an
object. In addition, variable deflector tools can
be applied to soft-body objects to simulate
collision effects between the skirt and the
character.
4.1 Method of Experiment 1
The modelled skirt was converted to a NURBS
surface, attached to the model’s waist and the
Flex modifier applied to the skirt object. The
simulation was set up and played to visualise the
cloth behaviour of the skirt under the test
conditions.
Figure 2. Poser character wearing a 3D top
and skirt modelled in 3DS Max using NURBS
and the Flex modifier. Andrew Taylor 2003.
During the play back of the simulation
the skirt model was fragmenting in the wind. To
adjust this, force intensity was reduced from 1
to 0.5. Collision quality between skirt and the
Poser character was improved by adjusting the
deflectors. Figure 2 shows the outcome of the
experiment, setting a space warp to generate a
low intensity directional wind that creates
colliding movement in the soft body object (the
skirt) worn on a female Poser character.
4.2 Analysis of Experiment 1
The outcome of Experiment 1 tested a method
for designing, constructing and simulating an
object into behaving similarly to cloth using
3DS Max. Although the deflectors were acti-
vated, adjusting the wind parameters to a
stronger force seriously affected the stability of
the skirt object as it moved and collided against
the body. This provided valuable insight into the
difficulties of simulating independent objects
with very different properties in a dynamic 3D
animation.

214
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Digital Creativity, Vol. 14, No. 4

Figure 3.
Cloth simula-
tion sequence
of 3D skirt
using 3DS
Max and
Reactor plug-
in. Andrew
Taylor 2003.

test the Reactor plug-in software with 3DS Max.

The experiment established that specific
Reactor is a dynamics extension to 3DS Max
textiles parameters for assessing or varying the
tools which enables the use of more specific
properties of a cloth object are not available in
tools to simulate soft-body and rigid-body
3DS Max 4. Also, as a result of difficulties
dynamics, free-form deformations, cloth, fluids,
encountered with fitting the top object to the
and rope simulations whilst working inside the
female character, it was found that specific
3DS Max software. Reactor contains a specific
clothing design construction tools for learning
menu within its interface for cloth dynamics,
how to solve fit problems are not included in
providing adjustable parameter dials to alter the
3DS Max 4’s extensive modelling tools. Apply-
properties of a 3D object created in 3DS Max.
ing the Flex modifier gave unacceptable results
as a realistic cloth simulation, although as an
5.1 Method of Experiment 2
aesthetic simulation to indicate the flexibility of
The Reactor plug-in associates specific physical
the object in an animated 3D scene, the Flex
properties to different bodies or objects by
modifier is a satisfactory tool. It is clear from
including them in soft, rigid, cloth and rope
this result that specialist plug-ins like Reactor,
entity collections. The Poser character was
which include specific textile parameters in their
selected and added as a rigid body and the skirt
range of dynamics tools, need to be tested to
mesh was assigned as a cloth body into collec-
evaluate how they can support the accurate
tions. To ensure the skirt was attached to the
design, construction and simulation of 3D
Poser model during simulation all the vertices
digital clothing.
were selected except the top edge, which
effectively became the waistband. The physical
5 Experiment 2: cloth simulation using properties parameter dials available in the
Reactor plug-in with 3DS Max 4 Reactor menu are mass, elasticity, friction,
buoyancy, compressibility, damping, mesh
This section describes the second experiment, to

215
 Taylor, Unver and Worth
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Digital Creativity, Vol. 14, No. 4
smoothing, fold stiffness, spread angle, and air
resistance. Each of these parameters was experi-
mented with in order to test the effectiveness of
the Reactor plug-in for associating different cloth
characteristics to the 3D skirt object.
5.2 Analysis of Experiment 2
At the beginning of the test the cloth weight
parameter dial was set at the lowest weight level
(0.1 grams) to register a movement in the skirt
object. On this setting the properties of the
cloth object behave in a similar way to light,
floaty materials such as a silk. By increasing the
parameter dials in increments of 0.5 the stiffness
of the skirt developed noticeably heavier handle
qualities in the resulting simulations. Adjusting
the levels of fold stiffness was an additional
method used for adding stiffness to the skirt.
The setting for fold stiffness controlled the
degree to which a cloth was able to bend,
affecting how it folded and moved against itself.
Using this parameter extended options for
simulating heavier materials such as wool or
linen. Altering the value of the air resistance
parameter created the added effect of weight
into the cloth, by simulating some drag in the
skirt object.
A significant, yet problematic result
occurred repeatedly in each running of the cloth
simulation. During the digital cloth simulation
the mesh of the skirt object collided against
itself and the Poser character, causing intersec-
tions or overlaps in the vertices of the mesh.
This deficient cloth-to-cloth response is the
most serious shortcoming of most cloth simula-
tion systems (Baraff, Kass and Witkin 2003).
Selecting the parameter setting called ‘avoid
intersections’ failed to improve the skirt collision
outcome, making it impossible to successfully
create a complete digital cloth skirt. Figure 3
shows four selected images from 10 seconds (10
x 25 =250 total frames) of the animation
sequence.
216
6 Conclusion and further developments
The experiments discussed in this paper demon-
strate the potential of 3D digital tools for
creating and simulating fashion and textiles
design. 3DS Max computer graphics modelling
and animation software and Reactor dynamics
simulation plug-in were tested for their effec-
tiveness in enabling 3D digital clothing to be
created in a 3D graphics environment. Applying
the software combination of 3DS Max, Reactor
dynamics plug-in and character software such as
Poser 4 offers very exciting possibilities for
fashion/textile designers to enable them to create
and conceptualise innovative designs without
incurring material costs.
However, the experiments showed that
there are currently some limitations to using
these software tools to achieve accurate cloth
simulation for fashion and textiles designers. In
Experiment 1, applying the Flex modifier in
3DS Max gave unacceptable results for use as a
3D fashion/textile design simulation tool,
largely due to lack of accurate cloth behaviour
tools in 3DS Max. In Experiment 2, the Reactor
plug-in interface provided more specific tools
for solving the problem of simulating cloth in a
3D digital environment. When linked to 3DS
Max and Poser 4, the Reactor plug-in allows the
designer to vary physical parameters such as
mass, elasticity, friction, buoyancy,
compressibility, damping, mesh smoothing, fold
stiffness, spread angle, and air resistance to
achieve cloth type properties on the 3D mod-
elled skirt. However, as a result of extensive
parameter adjustment and simulation it was
established that 3DS Max tools and Reactor only
simulated extremes of cloth weight and handle,
for instance floaty, light, medium or heavy and
did not associate accurate cloth quality and
behaviour to the 3D skirt. The results also show
that during the simulation, when a directional
wind effect is applied, the cloth collides against
itself and the character, causing intersections in
the mesh of the object and the skirt to
 Innovative potential of 3D software applications in fashion and textile design
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deconstruct in places where the mesh combines.
Successful cloth simulation methods must deal
with collisions between cloth and non-simulated
objects like characters and props as well as
collisions of cloth with itself (Baraff, Kass and
Witkin 2003). The results of testing the 3D
software tools indicate that for textile and
fashion designers to effectively learn to design,
construct and then simulate cloth/clothing
accurately, specific textile data and ‘intelligence’
needs to be written into plug-ins or included in
the 3D modelling software applications. Further
developments in the PhD will test the use of 3D
graphics software and cloth simulation plug-ins
for the design and construction of textiles and
clothing in learning and teaching environments.
Notes
1
http://www.maxusers.com/whatisaplugin.asp
2
http://www.havok.com/products/animation/
index.html; http://www.discreet.com/
products/reactor
3
3DS Max v4.2 Software User Reference,
NURBS concepts.
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Andrew Taylor graduated from Manchester
Metropolitan University with a BA (Hons) in
Textiles/Fashion, and has since worked in many
textile and fashion product areas. He is a
lecturer at the Batley School of Art and Design.
His PhD research, titled 3D software tools in
Fashion and Textiles education, focuses on
developing new methods of learning and
teaching using 3D scanning, 3D graphics
software and 3D CAD/CAM applications.
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Digital Creativity, Vol. 14, No. 4

Ertu Unver is senior lecturer in 3D design at the

University of Huddersfield, School of Design
Technology. He studied at the University of
Cukurova in Turkey, completing his MSc in
1990 and PhD in 1994. Dr. Unver has lectured
at international universities on engineering,
computing and design. His current research
interests include 3D modelling, animation,
programming, interactive 3D content develop-
ment for web, CAD CAM, and applications of
laser scanning techniques.

Graham Worth is senior lecturer in textile

design at the Manchester Metropolitan Univer-
sity Textiles/Fashion Department. He was
educated at the High School of Art, Manchester
and Winchester School of Art. Before taking up
his post at Manchester he was design manager
for Deryck Healey International, responsible for
a number of clients in the U.K. and abroad. His
current research interests include textile design
consultancy, the preservation and documenta-
tion of textile pattern books and Computer
Aided Art and Design. He completed his PhD
in 1998.

218