Creating clothing

Creating clothing for 3D characters presents a very fascinating challenge. The problem is twofold: on one side we need to design and model the new garment, something that fits the base figure that we chose, on the other we need to also define how the garment will move and how it will follow the figure.

Clothing in real life is often made of a fabric of a certain thickness and stiffness. Depending on the shape and amount of fabric used, the garment can drape or cling to the body. Silk, for example, is soft, thin, and light. It naturally drapes around the body. Denim, on the other hand, is thick, doesn't bend quite as easily as silk, and it's much stiffer.

When we model a garment, we don't have a selection of fabric. The founding block of all geometry is the polygon, a shape that has either three or four sides. Most of the time, we will use four-sided polygons, also known as quads. Quads don't have the qualities of fabric. We cannot say "these polygons are made of silk and...