Wednesday, April 26th, 2017 Posted by Jim Thacker

CLO Virtual Fashion ships Marvelous Designer 6.5


CLO Virtual Fashion has released Marvelous Designer 6.5, the new version of its 3D clothing design tool, adding new tools for editing clothing patterns, and for fine tuning the cloth simulations it generates.

Convert 2D patterns into animated 3D clothing
Widely used by games, VFX and animation studios, Marvelous Designer enables artists to design garments in the same way as real-world clothes, by stitching virtual pattern parts together.

Users can import a character model in OBJ or Collada format to drape clothing over, then export the result back to a 3D application as an OBJ, or in the Maya cache, PC2 or MDD point cache formats.

The 3D clothing responds to gravity and wind forces, and the resulting simulations can also be exported.

New tools for designing 2D pattern parts
Marvelous Designer 6.5 introduces a number of new options for designing 2D pattern parts, including Bézier curve controls for edges, and the option to optimise the distribution of points along a curve automatically.

There are also new options for arranging pattern parts within the 2D layout, including a Match Up function for aligning parts automatically; and a new Smart Guides system.

It is also now possible to set up repeated pattern parts – like the wings of a collar – as instances, and modify each instance simultaneously.

Adjust material properties to fine-tune 3D simulations
However, the key changes are to the 3D toolset, including new options to fine-tune simulations.

Seam Taping stiffens the edges of pattern parts, while Bonding and Skiving increase or reduce the stiffness of large sections of fabric, affecting the way they settle under gravity.

It is also now possible to import meshes representing badges or decorative trims in OBJ format and Glue them to a garment to affect the draping simulation, as shown in the video above.

Other new 3D features include the option to draw lines directly onto a 3D garment and cut the 2D pattern accordingly; to measure the 3D garment; and to arrange pattern parts symmetrically in 3D.

You can read a full list of new features via the link at the foot of this story.

Pricing and availability
Marvelous Designer 6.5 is available for Windows 7+ and OS X 10.8+. A permanent licence costs $550, and there are a range of rental options.

The update is free to existing users of Marvelous Designer 6.

Read a full list of new features in Marvelous Designer 6.5