Out of this World

OUT OF THIS WORLD is a Met Gala-inspired theme for my 2023 Rookie Awards entry. As the name suggests, the idea behind the theme is the bewitching vastness and beauty of space.

This entry showcases my entire process, from concept development to the final renders for OUT OF THIS WORLD.

Additionally, there are additional digital fashion renders featured at the end of the entry.

My initial moodboard is split into two segments. One side features previous Met Gala looks to give myself an idea of how extravagant or unconventional an outfit can be. The second side showcases a variety of space images, including planets, galaxies, nebulas, comets, black holes, and even diagrams.

The beauty of space lies in its unique and interesting forms and shapes, along with the wide range of colors, from deep blues and purples to vibrant reds and yellows.

These concepts were inspired by the fundamental ideas taught in science class, such as our solar system and the planets. I was introduced to physical models of the planets orbiting and the layers that make up a planet.

The first concept was inspired by the solar system as a whole. Since I'm working with digital fashion, I realized that I am not bound by physical limitations. Similar to Zendaya's Cinderella dress at the 2019 Met Gala, I wanted the outfits to come alive, be in motion, and exude vitality, utilizing the possibilities of virtual fashion to my advantage.

The second concept was based on the layers of a planet. To showcase the different layers, the Viktor and Rolf optical illusion dresses came to mind while developing the concept. The layers also reminded me of a jawbreaker, a candy known for its multiple layers of colors (and sometimes broken jaws).

For the third concept, I drew inspiration directly from facts about planets. I was particularly intrigued by Uranus and its icy composition. However, this concept lacked potential as I became too focused on materials and colors.

To generate more concepts, I approached the designs with a focus on the silhouette and aimed for abstraction rather than being too obvious about the inspiration. I didn't delve into specific details about materials, colors, and textures.

Design 1: Black Hole Dress

The first design I decided to develop further was inspired by the first image of a black hole and its shadow. I fell in love with the orange spirals that encased the black centre. I knew I wanted the contrast between the orange and black and the spirals would be the key features of this design. 

When I see the image of the black hole, I think sleek. I knew in my mind the design would be a mermaid dress. Form-Fitting across the bodice with a flare breaking at the legs. It just made sense to me. However, to make sure I wasn't missing out on other possibilites, I played around with the idea of a corset or the design having pants. I ultimately kept with the mermaid dress as the base of my design.

To give myself more shapes to play with, I drew some quick of the black hole. I drew different forms and angles for variety. I really like the idea of the design extending up and out from the shoulders. I wanted it to give visual interest to the silhouette and draw the viewer to the face. I discarded the idea because I wasn't sure of the possbility of creating it in Marvellous Designer, and I had little to none 3D modelling skill to model it.  Also, I felt it competed with the attention of the bottom of the dress. 

The bottom of the dress also had the idea of smoke billowing out from the spirals. Without real world limitations, I thought the effect would be visually interesting with the right settings. It was discarded do to time constraits, but I'd like to explore the idea in the future. 

I still felt the design needed something around the head and shoulders, but wanted to keep the sleekness of the garment. I fell in love with the idea of a loose hood warped around the shoulders, attached to a long scarf that draped past the back. 

For the fabric, I wanted it to beaded. I decided to make the fabric look like scattered stars across the black canvas of space, represented by rhinestones. I also decided for the beads to contrast the background it was on. The orange fabric features black rhinestones, while the black fabrics features the opposite.

Marvelous Designer: Creating the design

The hardest part of creating the design was incorporating the spirals across the front and back bodice patterns. I started by creating the base garment and then began cutting it up using internal lines.

The difficulty arose from aligning the seams for the front and back, as well as ensuring that the internal lines ran smoothly across the darts.

To solve the issue of matching seams, I positioned the front and back patterns as close to each other as possible. Then, I adjusted the internal lines horizontally to ensure they aligned. I made corrections in the 3D view to achieve a seamless line up.

Regarding the darts, I divided the lines and ensured they were aligned horizontally. I made further adjustments using the 3D view. While the lines may not be perfectly parallel to each other, they are seamlessly matched at the seams.

Another design change I made was eliminating the scarf and incorporating the hood into the spiral feature that wraps around the body.

Substance Designer: Designing my own custom fabric

I knew that I wanted to create my own custom textures for this project, and I decided to use Substance Designer to achieve it. The only challenge was that it would be my first time using the software. However, I believed there was no better time to learn.

It proved to be a learning curve, and I encountered difficulties with the node system and remembering the names of nodes. It was frustrating that I had to follow numerous tutorials before I could even start thinking about creating my own designs. I had to set aside my pride and simply follow along, trying to absorb as much information as possible. Eventually, I became more comfortable and started creating my textures.

For the black hole dress textures, I began by creating a general fabric base. Then, I designed two different shapes for the rhinestones. I combined everything using a shape splatter node to scatter the rhinestones across the fabric base. I'm not entirely sure if it was the correct node to use, but I stumbled upon it randomly, and it worked. The only problem with it was that the rhinestones were clipping in some places. I had to adjust the size of the rhinestones to minimize this as much as possible.

Once the base was complete, I added color, ambient occlusion (AO), roughness, and other necessary elements. To create two versions of the fabric, I included two sets of colors in my project.

Finally, I exported the textures directly into Blender, with the help of the useful Substance Designer add-on for Blender.

Black Hole Dress Showcase

Black Hole Dress Final Thoughts

This design was so fun to work on. It challenged my understanding of internal lines and provided an opportunity for me to learn Substance Designer. I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't incorporate all of my intended ideas into the design, but I'm happy with how it turned out given my current skill level.

For future projects, I would like to focus on improving the textures and even try achieving a more realistic scale. I will also need to figure out a way to prevent the rhinestones from appearing cut off at the edges of the UVs.

Design 2: Galaxy Tutu

The first image on the far left served as the inspiration for the silhouette and theme. While the main features of the black hole dress were its spirals and the orange-black contrast, the key element in this design was ruffles. As I considered which garments often incorporate ruffles, tutus and skirts made of layered ruffled tulle came to mind.

Thus, that became my main design to expand upon.

From there, I experimented with different bodice shapes and accessories, such as capelets and ruffle trims. I didn't have any specific ideas for materials or colors, other than wanting it to differ from the black hole dress. Similar to many traditional tutus, I wanted to incorporate embroidery across the bodice and showcase tulle in the skirt section.

This design would only be featured if I could figure out how to create a gravity-defying virtual Tutu. (...I did.) 

The first obvious solution, which I saw in a YouTube video, was to add a mesh and let the fabric drape over it. In a perfect world, this idea would have been perfectly sound and easy to execute. However, whether it was due to the mesh or my lack of knowledge, the idea didn't work. The fabric wouldn't drape correctly and kept clipping through the mesh. As soon as I pulled the fabric out of the mesh, the adjacent area would clip. This idea was a failure from the start.

My second solution came to me while I was working on resolving the issues with a different design that would have replaced the galaxy tutu if necessary. The idea was to sew two pieces of fabric together and then use the pressure setting to inflate it, creating a gravity-defying effect. While it did defy gravity to some extent, the drape looked more like a balloon than a tutu. However, armed with the newfound knowledge of the pressure setting, I had one last idea in mind.

I started by sewing the first circle pattern into the waistband to create the top layer of the tutu. Then, I took two more circle patterns, flipped the normals to face inward, and sewed them into the waistband. These two layers became the underlayers.

After figuring out the tutu, the rest of the design came together easily.

Instead of using a bodysuit, which would be the proper technique for a tutu, I attached the bodice to the waistband I had previously established for the tutu. Since it was strapless, I sewed invisible patterns to the visible bodice to ensure it wouldn't slide down on the model. I also decided that I didn't like the look of the pants and trimmed them down to shorts. Then, I added a large rectangle to serve as the skirt.

I used a similar technique on the collar to create a gravity-defying effect. I incorporated pleats on the collar to achieve evenly spaced ruffles. However, one thing I couldn't figure out was how to make it protrude more from the face. I experimented with different pressure settings on the two pieces, but it resulted in either the collar sticking up in the air or falling down to the shoulders. It was a challenge that I had to accept and settle with.

Texturing

The texturing for the galaxy tutu was my weakest aspect of the design.

I created a custom tulle texture, which is featured on the underside of the tutu and the ruffle along the hem. However, when it came to texturing the rest of the garment, I initially planned to use a velvet texture.

 Unfortunately, there were rendering issues that resulted in it looking  too glossy, so I decided to abandon that idea. In the end, I settled for a generic fabric texture with white speckles scattered across it. I didn't delve into the finer details during the concept stage, and it shows in the texturing stage.

I did attempt to add an embroidery effect across the bodice. Due to the specific placement required, I knew I had to achieve this in Substance Painter. I created a simple star pattern in illustration software and exported it as a bitmap. Then, in Substance Designer, I developed an embroidery texture.

In Substance Painter, I used the exported bitmap as a mask on the embroidery texture to create the illusion of embroidered stars. Using the warp tool, I adjusted the texture across the bodice. I also reused the texture on the tutu to maximize its usage and add additional details to the garment.

Galaxy Tutu Showcase

Galaxy Tutu Final Thoughts

The tutu really challenged my knowledge of Marvelous Designer and achieving gravity-defying effects. I'm proud of myself for not giving up when ideas didn't work and for coming up with creative solutions to overcome obstacles. While the garment texturing may be weak, I'm satisfied with the construction.

If I were to redo this garment, I would spend more time to focus on texturing and incorporating a galaxy theme into it. I would like to utilize both Substance Designer and Substance Painter to further enhance my texturing skills. I hope that the lessons I learned from creating this garment will prove valuable for future creations and continue to push me as a digital fashion designer.

Other Finished Projects