From Animation to Reality

 From Animation to Reality - Research stage  

Concept- designing a 3D garment using CLO (or any other similar program), exporting and converting the pattern created by the program into a projector supported file (PDF,AI) and projecting it straight onto the chosen fabric. 

An ideal concept- to build a projector that can adjust the measurements according to the surface (using some kind of a built in distance sensor that reacts to the fabric/ table its laid on to).  

The idea of placing the projector at point B and calculating the distance to point A in order to reach the same measurement stated on the patterns is possible but take a lot of adjustments of the File’s size and the projector’s placing + its features. 

 In this picture we can see the alignment of a specific projector to create the perfect distance for correct measurements. 

For example, a throw ratio of 2.0 means that if your lens is 2m away from your cutting table, the width of the projected area will be 1m. If you have a smaller throw ratio of 0.5, your lens only needs to be 0.5m away from the cutting table for the width of your projected area to be 1m. 

Not everyone has the space to keep their projectors at certain ratio and it would have been cool to have it automatically adjusted on its on according to the surface in this case. 

What I’ve learned so far is that there are many factors to consider when setting up the projector.

* assigning cutting space.

* size of cutting surface.

* room’s lighting.

* throw ratio.

* budget.

* angle.

* compatible device.

Advantages of this method 

Cost- saving on fabric (muslin or any other fabric used to create fit and eventually the pattern pieces). 

Saving on pattern paper, tape and ink as well. 

Storage- no need to worry about storing all your paper patterns, or worse, losing them and having to print/buy them again. It can all be safely organized on the computer/hard drive.  

Time saving- I cannot emphasize this enough. It saves so much time!! For example, the garment I am 

working in now took close to 3 weeks of work just to make the pattern and fit. I made the same design 

using CLO in 2 hours and I’m just learning the program.  It an make this process so much faster. It also 

allows to skip printing, taping and pining stage which can take a few hours and be less accurate. 

Pattern making - makes it so much easier to predict and place everything right. 

Tracing the pattern – using fabric pens to draw on the pattern pieces, this makes it a lot easier to copy a design. 

Reduce waste- I can’t stress this enough! The amount of waste created when making a pattern is unbelievable and this process can eliminate a lot of it.  

Overall, my work for the next week is to figure out the best distance from my working surface to place the projector.  Also, create some designs on CLO to play around with and find the perfect file size to reach the best accuracy of measurements  (1”-1”). 

 From Animation to Reality - Progress stage  

In the video I posted here is the design I am going to work on for this project. I was able to export the 2D pattern to pdf with all the measurements on it, according to the model I was working on in CLO.

This is the design. The fabrics I am using for it are denim for the skirt, organza for the ruffles and maybe fleece/light fur for the top.

These are the patters with and with out the measurements. Normally the patters are cut from paper so there is no need to have the measurements, but in this case it will help me measure it while projected onto the fabric to make sure it is placed correctly.  

The pattern without the measurements. 

The pattern with the measurements 

My next step will be setting up the projector I got and start adjusting everything in order to cut the fabric and start sewing the garment.