#2D animation software for beginners 2023

[joeabdelsater]

Assignment 6: Part 1

Introduction

My name is Joe Abdel Sater, and I am a master’s student at the University of Hertfordshire. I recently started my studies in games art and design after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer science back in July 2023. Before moving to the UK, I was studying at Notre Dame University – Louaize, while working as a freelance 3D Generalist for local companies in Lebanon. I decided to pursue a master’s degree as I was much more interested in the artistic side of game-making and wanted to improve my skills in creating assets and environments while exploring Unreal Engine 5.

Project Idea

In order to speed up the design process and foster creativity, the fashion industry has embraced digital tools and techniques more and more. This advancement of Digital fashion technology has been in many ways beneficial to a wide range of aspects in the scope of game design, and creating realistic clothing for video games has never been more accessible. In this article, I will be covering the behind-the-scenes workflow of garment creation and integration into Unreal Engine. With the huge advancements in digital garment creation technologies, it has become a bit overwhelming for new artists to choose the method of work to take on, so I aspire to find the most beginner-friendly efficient pipeline for digital fashion creation.

I hope that my project serves as a valuable resource for fashion designers and game artists like me interested in exploring the realm of digital fashion and its applications in various industries.

The process doesn’t require you to have extensive knowledge in the area of dressmaking and couture, it only requires you to have an eye for design, 3D skills, and the proper tools like: Marvelous Designer for pattern making and simulations, 3Ds MAX for prepping and polishing (or a similar software), Substance Painter for texturing, and Unreal Engine to bind everything together.

In order to construct the best workflow possible for my purpose, I went through extensive research of all the possible ways to go about transitioning from one software to another while preventing any sorts of technical issues. The many trials and errors led me to finalize and polish the digital fashion workflow I discovered and share it with you in detail.

Valuable technologies

In Marvelous Designer, two key features that are particularly valuable to my digital fashion workflow are Automatic UVs and Mesh Transformation.

First, Marvelous Designer offers an Automatic UV unwrapping feature, which simplifies the process of creating UV maps for the 3D clothing models. UV unwrapping is the process of flattening a 3D model's surface onto a 2D plane, allowing textures and materials to be applied accurately. Marvelous Designer's Automatic UVs generate optimized UV layouts automatically, reducing the need for manual UV manipulation. In my project, I needed Automatic UVs to ensure that I can apply textures, patterns, and materials accurately onto the garments, while saving time and effort by automating the tedious process of manually unwrapping each pattern piece. What Marvelous Designer initially does is create the UVs following the pattern outlines of the garments that I create, thus preparing the clothes for direct texturing.

Second, Marvelous Designer provides tools for mesh transformation, which allows me to optimize and refine the topology of the clothing models. This process involves converting the initial triangular mesh generated by the software into a more optimized and animation-friendly mesh with quad polygons for example. By creating a cleaner mesh topology, I can achieve better deformations during animation and improve the integration of the garments into game engines or other 3D software. It also has a “remesh” option that allows me to transform the overall topology of an outfit into a clean grid of squares that wraps around the shape of the garments.

Furthermore, when working with game engines such as Unreal Engine or Unity, optimizing the mesh topology can significantly improve performance and rendering quality. Quad-based topology is generally preferred in real-time rendering environments as it provides better support for subdivision surfaces, smoothing groups, and more efficient rendering.

Concept and references:

I believe this is a crucial step before officially starting the practical work. During this stage, I hop on Pinterest and browse through the fashion board where I have been saving my pins of favorite outfits and designer clothes. These images serve as a visual inspiration for the clothes that I will be creating.

Figure 1- Pinterest Fashion Design Board

I later gather the collected pictures into groups that form references for potential assortments that I can recreate in 3D. These pictures are saved in PureRef, an application that allows me to organize the pictures to use them as references for my creations. I keep the PureRef window open all the time to visualize color combinations, fabric textures, and potential pattern pieces for my garments.

Figure 2 - PureRef file of one of the dresses

[josephfebin]

Update: Moving further with 'Light and shadow' and 'Memory and Nostalgia'

I'm proceeding with 'memory and nostalgia'. Story and Animatics are the stages completed for this. And it is so blank how to approach the animation. How to find a style for this work remained even referencing online materials. So I planned to do some book references from the library. As the treatment was the major concern now, my eyes stuck at the book 'Vision: colour and composition for film'. This book is by Hans P Bacher, who is a renowned person in the animation film industry and co-author Sanatan Suryavamshi, is an Art director. Many nice images are included in the book, that really ignites the artist inside.

This book mainly helps to use image compositions in an effective way. And the proper use of elements like shape, line, colour, harmony and contrast. Also referencing online materials continued after this activity. Also I would like to add more reference.

This Animated short inspires in background and character designs.

For the second one I have chosen 'light & shadow' and wish to do 3D treatment for the story. And I found blender will help me to do that. For that I have to get familiar with the software, so started Blender from scratch. Like every time YouTube helps me for this too.

Also referred many sources for the doubts. Created first trial for the 'light & shadow' chase scene. Due to lack of time in the second project treating in a 3D style may change to fully workout in 2D style. The shot for the firefly chased by the frog is done here.

Considering 3D treatment for the second animation assignment I have got inspiration from an artist Katarzyna Mrożewska from Behance, one of her forest photography inspired my 3D style for this Second practice

Bibliography

Bacher, H.P. (2018). Vision : color and composition for film. London: Laurence King Publishing.

www.behance.net. (n.d.). Behance. [online] Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/151584059/King-Midas-forest/modules/855749837 [Accessed 10 Jan. 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). are you okay? [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/tJsGGsPNakw.

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Learn Blender 3D in 20 Minutes! Blender Tutorial for Absolute Beginners (2023). [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/Rqhtw7dg6Wk [Accessed 10 Jan. 2023].

www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Pankajakasthuri Anticid TVC | Eunoians. [online] Available at: https://youtu.be/VrpuPoC1M-M [Accessed 10 Jan. 2023].

[reith-sheep]

Learning and Development |Practice 1 [red vs blue]  /update 4

The background design

I used blender to make the background.In this section, I searched a lot of materials to learn how to better material objects and render them.

This video is talk about make watercolor textures. Although it didn't useful for me in the end. But it is also a very good material.

This video gave me a good idea of combining 3D and 2D to make my own animation in the future. It made me realize that blender is not a pure 3D software. I can use it to make my work even better.

I really like this video on modeling and adding textures which have great detail. I can learn little by little as I make textures.

The progress of scene design

The final product

some models is download on

Such like cactus, bowl , plant, glass and cup.

Reference

Art, R. K. (2021) Texture painting in blender for beginners (tutorial). Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d4N8d4ki2Y (Accessed: January 11, 2023).

Team Miracles (2021) How We Animated a 2D + 3D scene in Blender! | Blender 2.82. Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ninu1gRHmyY (Accessed: December 14, 2022).

Craft Reaper (2022) Painterly brushworks in blender ; Recreate your favorite paintings in 3d! Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10kJdVW8qOs (Accessed: January 11, 2023).

Household pack (no date) Thehappytoolbox.com. Available at: https://thehappytoolbox.com/pack/household (Accessed: January 11, 2023).

Food pack (no date) Thehappytoolbox.com. Available at: https://thehappytoolbox.com/pack/food (Accessed: January 11, 2023).