My creation is alive! Scroll down for more info on my process.

Mary Katrantzou’s work is a little mind-blowing. Often when designers approach modernity in fashion it comes off as cold, technical, and a bit science fiction. Katrantzou’s stunning patterned dresses are every bit the ambassador of a present/future, a time where we exist conscious of how far we have advanced and yet hyperaware of the importance of history, details, and society.

Now that my complete respect and admiration for Katrantzou’s work is out in the open, you can understand why I chose one of her dresses as the subject my 3D animation final project. I love fashion illustration and I thought extending a drawing into a fashion animation would the ideal way to create something very me in a new medium.

the chosen dress

I began by pulling together images of the mood for the animation. I wanted to go for a 2D ink & watercolor feel with black and white people and hyper colorful backgrounds.

Next I started sketching out what the girl & environment might look like.

Then I created a style frame to illustrate the final look.

Finally it was time to actually crack open Maya so I started modeling the girl.

Next I got to work on the patterns for the dress. I simplified the print and broke it into 4 patterns which I drew in Adobe Ideas and assembled in Illustrator.

Then using the UVs from the dress I created a map for the dress and the sleeves.

Then it was camera time, a long and only sometime painful rendering process, it was After Effects and Premiere for me! I made backgrounds for the scene and got editing.

Annnnd here we are, the finished product. Hope you like it!

Music by the talented Camera Obscura.