3D BLOG/PRO TIPS/FROM CONCEPT TO REALITY: THE SECRETS BEHIND STUNNING 3D GAME CLOTHING

From Concept to Reality: The Secrets Behind Stunning 3D Game Clothing

Jun 19, 2024

Article by Filip Radivojevic

Cover Art by abuvalove

The creation of 3D clothes for gaming is a meticulous and artful process that involves various techniques, tools, and workflows. High-quality 3D clothing significantly enhances the realism and immersion of a game, and game developers employ different strategies to achieve this. This article explains the techniques used to create 3D clothes, their pros and cons, best use cases, and an overview of the workflow in gaming studios. Additionally, we will explore three game titles renowned for their exceptional 3D clothing and how they achieved such results.

WWII US Soldier Outfit
WWII US Soldier by Albin

1. Digital Tailoring with Pattern-Based Design

Overview:
Digital tailoring, particularly using pattern-based design, mimics the real-world process of garment creation. This technique involves creating digital sewing patterns that are then assembled in 3D space to form the garment. Tools like Marvelous Designer and CLO 3D are at the forefront of this approach.

Best Use Cases:
- Realistic and dynamic clothing for character models.
- Detailed and historically accurate costumes.
- Interactive fitting and customization in virtual fashion applications.

Pros:
- High fidelity to real-world garment construction, resulting in natural-looking clothes.
- Allows for dynamic simulation, where garments can realistically react to movement and physics.
- Facilitates rapid prototyping and iteration of clothing designs.

Cons:
- Requires a steep learning curve, especially for those unfamiliar with traditional garment construction.
- Computationally intensive, which can be challenging for real-time applications without optimization.
- Dependency on high-quality patterns and accurate sewing techniques to achieve the best results.

Examples in Use:
Games that require a high level of detail and realism, such as "Cyberpunk 2077" and "The Last of Us Part II," benefit from this technique. It allows developers to create intricate and varied wardrobes that enhance the believability of the game world.

2. Multi-Layered Shader Systems

Overview:
Multi-layered shader systems involve using advanced shaders that simulate various layers of fabric and their interactions with light. This technique allows for the creation of realistic materials that can change dynamically under different lighting conditions and interactions.

Best Use Cases:
- Creating highly realistic fabric materials like velvet, satin, and leather.
- Simulating wear and tear on clothes, such as dirt accumulation, fading, and fraying.
- Enhancing visual storytelling through dynamic material changes.

Pros:
- High level of realism in how fabrics look and react to light.
- Enables dynamic material changes that can reflect the character's environment or actions.
- Allows for detailed customization of fabric properties, such as translucency, glossiness, and texture.

Cons:
- Requires a deep understanding of shader programming and material science.
- Performance can be an issue on lower-end hardware due to the complexity of the shaders.
- Debugging and optimizing multi-layered shaders can be challenging.

Examples in Use:
"Death Stranding" and "Red Dead Redemption 2" make extensive use of multi-layered shader systems. The realistic appearance of clothes under various environmental conditions contributes significantly to the immersive experience in these games.

Male Cyberpunk Tactical Outfit by abuvalove

3. Procedural Generation of Clothing Textures

Overview:
Procedural generation involves creating textures and patterns algorithmically rather than manually. This technique uses mathematical formulas and algorithms to generate intricate and varied fabric textures, ensuring each piece of clothing is unique.

Best Use Cases:
- Large open-world games where unique clothing for numerous NPCs is required.
- Games with highly customizable character outfits.
- Real-time applications where texture variety is needed without manual creation.

Pros:
- Creates highly detailed and varied textures efficiently.
- Reduces repetitive patterns and increases the uniqueness of clothing items.
- Can be adapted to create a wide range of materials and patterns dynamically.

Cons:
- Requires expertise in procedural texture generation and understanding of algorithms.
- Initial setup and fine-tuning can be time-consuming.
- May result in less control over specific details compared to hand-painted textures.

Examples in Use:
Games like "No Man's Sky" and "Horizon Zero Dawn" use procedural generation to create diverse and unique clothing textures for characters, contributing to the richness and variety of the game worlds

Workflow in Creating 3D Clothes in Gaming Studios

Step 1: Concept Art

Historical Research and Material Studies: Studios like Ubisoft conduct extensive research into historical garments when creating period-specific clothing. This involves studying museum pieces, historical documents, and collaborating with historians to ensure accuracy.

Material Swatches and Fabric Samples: Artists often create physical swatches or use high-resolution scans of real fabrics to capture the texture, pattern, and color nuances. These samples guide digital artists in replicating real-world materials.

Step 2: Base Modeling

Custom Tools and Plugins: Studios often develop proprietary tools and plugins for software like Blender, Maya, or ZBrush to streamline the modeling process. These tools can automate repetitive tasks, ensure consistency across models, and integrate seamlessly with other parts of the pipeline.

Body Scanning Technology: High-fidelity body scanning allows studios to create highly accurate base models. This technology captures detailed body shapes and postures, providing a precise foundation for clothing that fits naturally and moves realistically.

Step 3: Detailing and Sculpting

Micro-detail Sculpting: Techniques such as micro-detail sculpting enable artists to add extremely fine details, such as fabric grain, wear patterns, and subtle stitching. This is often done in ZBrush or similar sculpting software.

Dynamic Wrinkle Maps: To enhance realism, some studios create dynamic wrinkle maps that respond to the characters movement and pose. These maps are generated through simulations and then baked into normal maps for performance efficiency.

Step 4: Texturing

PBR Workflow: Physically-Based Rendering (PBR) is a standard practice, but top studios push this further by creating complex shader setups that mimic real-world material properties more closely. They simulate how light interacts with different fabric types under various environmental conditions.

Advanced Substance Designer Techniques: Artists use Substance Designer to create procedural textures and materials. This allows for the rapid iteration of textures that can be easily tweaked and customized, ensuring consistency across various assets.

Step 5: Rigging and Animation

Custom Cloth Simulation Algorithms: Studios like Rockstar Games develop custom cloth simulation algorithms to achieve specific aesthetic and performance goals. These algorithms are fine-tuned to handle the unique challenges posed by different fabric types and character movements.

Motion Capture Integration: For highly realistic animations, motion capture data is integrated with the rigged clothing. This ensures that the clothing responds naturally to character movements, adding another layer of realism to the animation.

Step 6: Testing and Optimization

Automated Testing Tools: To identify and fix issues like clipping and texture stretching, studios use automated testing tools. These tools run simulations and checks across various scenarios to ensure the clothing behaves as expected.

LOD (Level of Detail) Management: High-quality games often employ multiple levels of detail for clothing models. Artists create several versions of the clothing with varying levels of detail, which the engine dynamically loads based on the characters distance from the camera. This optimization technique helps maintain performance without sacrificing visual fidelity.

Baroque Dress by alenfsl

Notable Game Titles with Exceptional 3D Clothes

1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3 is celebrated for its detailed and realistic clothing. CD Projekt Red used a combination of sculpting and cloth simulation to create intricate outfits that reflect the games medieval fantasy setting. They employed high-resolution textures and sophisticated shaders to enhance the fabrics appearance.

2. Red Dead Redemption 2
Rockstar Games utilized advanced cloth simulation and texturing techniques to achieve the highly realistic clothing in Red Dead Redemption 2. The game features dynamic clothing that reacts to weather and movement, creating an immersive experience. Their use of motion capture and detailed textures contributed to the lifelike appearance of clothing.

3. Assassins Creed Valhalla
Ubisofts Assassins Creed Valhalla features historically accurate and detailed Viking attire. The developers used Marvelous Designer for base clothing simulations and then refined the models with sculpting and texturing tools. This combination allowed them to achieve both visual fidelity and historical accuracy.

Conclusion

Creating 3D clothes in gaming is a complex process that requires a blend of artistic skill and technical knowledge. Various techniques like sculpting, polygonal modeling, cloth simulation, and texture painting offer different advantages and are suited to different aspects of the workflow. By employing these techniques and utilizing powerful software tools, game studios can create stunningly realistic clothing that enhances the players immersion and enjoyment. Games like The Witcher 3, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Assassins Creed Valhalla are prime examples of what can be achieved with dedication to detail and quality in 3D clothing design.

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