Whereas the manufacturing and distribution of apparel industry has advanced in past years with the applications of new CAM and ITC technologies, the design process is still very traditional. Sketching ideas, creating story boards, draping and developing technical drawings (also known as technical sketches) are just some of the tasks that are still being done either in the old-fashioned way or with the aid of digital tools, most of which are spinoff uses of technologies developed for other industries, and not adapted to the necessities of the creative apparel industry.
Tasks that other industries have long replaced with automatic tools are still being carried out manually by teams of specialists, which do not only add to the cost of garment development, but also to the time required to take the garment to the market. The design process is a bottleneck of the current apparel industry’s production cycle.
At the same time, there are emerging technologies that could reduce the timing and the cost of the design process, such as 3D scanners and 3D sketching tools. New low cost 3D scanners have indeed appeared in the market, and could allow a real customization of the clothes design. Moreover, libraries of 3D realistic avatars adapted to the target population of a new clothing collection will be a great improvement for mass production.
However, major problems hold back the application of 3D scanners and 3D sketching tools. The current low cost scanning technologies do not produces 3D avatars ready to use by sketching tools and CAD software.
InKreate solves the problems holding back the implementation of low cost 3D scanners and 3D sketching tools.
Inkreate has developed a tool that address the above mentioned issues by making it possible to sketch over real bodies and in real proportion. Inkreate tool includes:
• A collection of 3D avatars that represents different statiscal body shapes.
• A tool that that creates human 3D body models from existing low cost scanning devices, and ready to use by CAD and 3D design software.
• A sketching tool that relies on manipulation of pre-defined basic shapes. Free hand sketching is available as a complementary tool that the user will use to sketch different design details, pattern pieces, embroideries etc.
Designers are able to design directly over a 3D body shape. Designers can choose a statistical body, convert a body scan or upload a 3D body created in another 3D environment. Inkreate will save development time, will make it easier to manipulate shapes in a 3D environment and will be a great base for future inclusion of 2D pattern development process.
