Marvelous Designer Jackets
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
This is a Marvelous Designer tutorial that covers three distinct jackets. One is a sweatshirt hoodie, the next is the jacket worn my Michael Jackson in the 1982 Thriller music video and the third is an 18th century Justaucorps.
What follows in the video script. You can watch the video and then use the script to work in the program and follow the techniques.
Download the Thriller jacket Marvelous Designer project file.
Download the Hoodie Marvelous Designer project file.
Download the Justaucorps Marvelous Designer project file.
Marvelous Designer Tutorial on Jackets - Video Script
In this video we're going to cover jackets. These three jackets couldn't be more different. They are all requests from my YouTube viewers.
The first jacket is a hoodie. Sakhile Nkomo and Chris Sanders requested this. The second is the jacket worn by Michael Jackson in the Thriller video. This is requested by William Fisher. The last jacket is an 18th century Justicorps requested by Thomas Adr.
Although these jackets were chosen based on requests, the history can't be ignored. From the very elegant clothing of the 18th century, to leather in the 80's and then standard sweatshirts of today, fashion has certainly changed immensely over the years.
The funny thing is that our technology today would allow us to create complex, well formed garments, yet we choose not to. That Justaucorp was probably made by hand. With all our electronics, the best we can do is a hoodie from China. To me, that is a very sad thing.
We've lost our workmanship in the real-world, but maybe you can bring back the details and high fashion of the past in 3D. I encourage you to go back in time and base your creations on the best we've ever done. Don't let the world forget the artistry of fashion.
Marvelous Designer Hoodie
We'll start off with the hoodie. I'm going to show you the drafting technique for the hood in QCAD. There are many types of hoods and they can go on capes or jackets. There are so many applications for a hood, that I think it's worth the time to show you how it is done.
Just do a Google image search for clothing with hoods to get an idea of how often they are used. Parkas, sweatshirts and capes all have hoods. Hoods can be round at the top back of the head or come up to a point. Children's hoods are often pointed.
Taking Measurements for the Hood - Video 2:21
Before you can draft your hood, you have to get some measurements to use. I used some fabric strips in MD to create these to measure with.
There are three measurements that we need. The first is an ellipse shape that starts at the center front neck point and goes around the head. This is essentially the hood opening.
The second measurement is a horizontal measurement starting at the front of one ear, going around the back of the head and ending at the front of the other ear.
The last measurement is from eye level to center front neck. I drew an internal line on one side of the first ellipse to measure this.
MD Male Avatar Hood Measurements
- 88 cm Center Front Neck Point around head vertically (ellipse)
- 35 cm front of each ear horizontal meeting at the ellipse listed above on each side
- 25 cm to eye level fromCenter Front Neck Point
Drafting the Hood in QCAD - Video 3:29
In QCAD, we start with the standard top draft for the male avatar. Hide the Reference, Notes and Label layers and make a copy of the front with Ctrl C > Ctrl V.
We want to create Line to extend front shoulder at armhole out by shoulder width for reference. Select the shoulder line and get the Length in the Property Editor. Line Tools > Relative Angle > Relative Angle 0, Length (shoulder length), Reference Point Start. Select the reference line, which is the shoulder.
Copy the back pattern next to the front. When you are manipulating an entire pattern piece, sometimes its much easier to turn it into a block. A block is simply a group of entities. Once it is created, it becomes one entity.
To create a block, select all the entities you want included. Choose Create Block from Selection. Select any corner as the reference and give the block a name.
Now we can work with this as one unit. We need to flip this pattern over. Select the Back block, Modification Tools > Mirror. Down in the Command Line, you can see QCAD is asking for the First Point of Symmetry Axis. When you flip something with Mirror, you need to select an axis for the flip. We are going to use the Center Back line as the axis. Click the top of the center back. Now QCAD is asking for the Second Point, click the bottom of the center back. See how QCAD just mirrored over that line or axis? Delete the original and finish.
Now we need to line up our pattern. Select the back block, Modification Tools > Move/Copy. QCAD asks for the Reference Point, select the point where the shoulder line and neckline meet. Now QCAD asks for the Target Point. Click the point on the Front where the shoulder line and neckline meet and delete the original.
Now we need to rotate the back. With the back block still selected, click Rotate. QCAD asks for the center point, which is the rotation point. Select that same point as we did for the move. Select Delete Original and make sure the little arrow is grey. Then QCAD asks for the Reference Point. Select the end of the back shoulder line where it meets the armhole. Next select the end of our new reference line as the Target Point.
I know this looks really crazy, but I promise this works very well. We need to mark the Front at the center front point on the neckline as A.
Next, we need to draw a line that is half the distance of our face ellipse. The MD male measurement is 88. We need to add 2.54 cm (one inch) to this for a total of 46.54cm. Line Tools > Vertical Line, Length 46.54, Reference Point Start. Place this line at point A. The end of this line is point B.
We need to mark where the eye level is on the A-B line. This is the third measurement that we took and it is 25cm for the MD male. Select Point Tools > Single Point > Distance and enter 25 in the box. Now use the Measurement Tool to make sure that you did that correctly. This is point D.
Now we'll use our second measurement, horizontal around the back of the head. It is 35cm for the MD male. From point D draw a horizontal line that is half of this measurement, which is 17.5cm. Line Tools > Horizontal Line > Length 17.5, Reference Point Start. The end of this line is point F. While you still have that line, click point B. The end of this line is point H.
The next line length is somewhat subjective. How far forward do you want your hood to extend passed the ears? For this example, we'll just use 10cm. From point D, draw a horizontal line 10cm long. Line Tools > Horizontal Line > Length 10, Reference Point End. The end of this line is point E. While you still have the line, click point B. The end of this line is point G.
Point K is the point where the center back line meets the neckline. Connect Points G to E and H to F just for reference.
Now we can use the Spline Tools to draw in our hood shape. Point E is at the front and point F is the back. The curve you draw between B and F can be square, curved or pointed, depending on the look that you want.
Here I've draw in the basic curves for a rounded hood. You can play with this and make all kinds of interesting shapes.
You may think this was a strange way to manipulate the patterns, but let me show you why this is such an amazing technique. Down at the bottom of our hood, you can see the two curves from A to K. These are the actual necklines of the front and back patterns. What this means is that this hood is guaranteed to fit the neckline opening perfectly matching every nuance of the shirt patterns.
Once the hood is drawn, we can copy off all the entities that we need over in MD. Put this next to the original front and back. Draw the 5cm square box, put the entities you want on a new layer, hide the others and save the bmp file. If you want sleeves, make the sleeve draft on a new document and then copy it over here with the others before making the bmp file.
Hoodie in Marvelous Designer - Video 15:26
Here's the hoodie in MD. You can see that distinct curve I showed you in QCAD. This is the basic top draft and sleeve. The I added sleeve cuffs and bottom cuff. I created a front pocket and two ties. The ties are made using the piping feature.
This is a super easy project and would be a great way to do a little drafting in QCAD to learn the process.
Michael Jackson Thriller Jacket in Marvelous Designer - Video 16:48
Our second jacket is the jacket worn by Michael Jackson in the Thriller video. This was interesting to create. Let me show you the images I selected to use as my inspiration.
There are a few problems here that weren't immediately apparent to me. This set of photos is of a replica jacket that was made, signed and sold. The problem is that it isn't the same as the original.
The other image I used is of the original jacket being worn. Looks pretty good at first, but the image has been flipped. Looked at the flaps on the front. They are facing the wrong way.
I still used all of these images, but there is a lesson here. Be very careful with what you use for inspiration. Magazines and websites will flip images so they fit the layout more appropriately. Always use several reference pieces so you can get the correct orientation for your project.
I started with the regular QCAD top and sleeve drafts. I used the male MD avatar measurement file that I created for vests and jackets, with a larger chest diameter.
This jacket has a lot of overlays. All the black pieces of leather are laid over the base jacket. You need to be careful when simulating because sometimes MD will swap the layers. You can always use the Layer feature, if necessary. Just make sure to turn it off for your final work.
You'll notice that there are lots of internal lines draw on the patterns. You need to create these to attached the overlays. All of these lines need to be exactly the same, or you get puckering. Getting all of these to lay correctly and trimmed at the ends was a good challenge.
This jacket needs more texturing done outside of MD. I've placed the snaps, for sewing, but it really needs real snaps here. Also, I created extensions on the sleeves and sides where you can pull the jacket to adjust it. The ring hardware needs to be added to make this more authentic.
The shoulders and collar were done with Pressure and Layer cloning. I used the Leather preset with Specular Color to get the shine.
One thing you may notice is that the avatar's arms are dropped. After I was done with the garments, I loaded a Pose file to drop his arms down. I like this better for taking snapshots of my finished work. You'll see this on most of my projects from now on.
Justaucorps in Marvelous Designer - Video 20:46
Our last jacket is called a Justaucorps and it is from the 18th century. This was a very unusual build for me because I didn't generate the pattern. I found it online.
The first thing I did was translate the verbiage to English. I wanted to know what they were saying about it and get labels for the pattern pieces.
If you watched my fabric video, you understand what the bias is. As you can see, they are very specific about the pattern being laid on the bias.
There are some very strange things with this pattern. It looks like just a quick hand drawing, but I can assure you it is not. I traced it and the pieces matched up almost exactly without modifications.
One thing they did that I have never seen before is to create add-on pieces. Piece D goes over there and piece B goes over here. They needed to add additional fullness to the garment, but the pattern wouldn't allow it. They just drafted out supplemental pieces and sewed them on. This was a real eye opener for me. It never would have occurred to me to do such a thing.
I didn't have an image of this exact jacket, I looked at many others to get a general idea of what I needed to do.
There are a few things that I thought were mistakes, but I don't think they are. You'll see that the arms are drafted bent. This is really strange. If you look at reference images, nearly every photograph or painting has the man's arms bent and there aren't any creases in the sleeves. This is actually how they made these. If you straighten your arms, it would look very strange.
The other odd thing is the shoulder seam. Generally, you want this running exactly down the shoulder ending at the top of armhole. You can see this seam is angled down the back. I thought I messed up until I saw the results.
For whatever reason, these jackets were supposed to push forward at the chest. I can only surmise that broad chests where very fashionable at the time. Having the shoulder seam to the back, pushes the front chest out like this. Pretty amazing.
You'll see that the avatar's chest is very full. I had to push it out to fill up the jacket. I did this by using Pressure on the little shirt he has on under the jacket.
There are 50 buttons down the front and 10 on the sleeves. That makes 170 internal circles that had to be drawn and sewn. Arranging the buttons for simulating was a test of my patience.
The buttons are my own attempt at putting some style on the jacket. It was a little boring without them.
As with the hoodie, this jacket is just asking for good textures. These were often beautifully embroidered and my MD texture really doesn't do the jacket justice. I created simple little straps across the front, but chains or something more ornate would be really great.
The fabric for the jacket is my own creation. I needed something that was stiffer than the Leather preset, but not as stiff as the Leather Belt. I think I found a nice balance between the two.
In some images, the skirt of the jacket is flared out. I suspect that they wore something similar to a bustle underneath. I played around with it using fabric and was able to get it to flare using the Leather Belt preset, but I didn't like what it did to the rest of the garment in the process.
I would suggest that you model the under-support with the avatar in another 3D program and import it to MD. Then you can drape the jacket over it during construction.
That's the end of our jackets. They certainly got harder as we progressed through them. I hope you got some handy tips that you can use when making jackets for yourself.