Solutions for when you can't come up with a design
Added 2022-12-04 08:29:22 +0000 UTCQ. I can't think of any clothing designs
A. Think about what kind of person the character wearing the clothes is, and use that as a reference when searching for materials!
Thank you for your question.
I felt from your question that perhaps you have tried fashion design from scratch and are having trouble getting it right.
If that is the case, I think it is difficult for even professional fashion designers to create from scratch, so I hope you will not be discouraged and refer to this article.
-I can't think of a design for "clothes" .... In such a case, let's think of the "person" who will wear the "clothes".
Professional fashion designers also generally decide on a concept before coming up with a design, based on who will wear it (age, gender, etc.) and where it will be worn. Similarly, in character design, the background of the character is decided beforehand, and then the design is almost always done afterwards.
But how do you go about deciding what to do? I'm sure some of you may be wondering, so I'll try to explain it in order from the perspective of character design!
(1) Decide the worldview Fantasy, school, science fiction, etc.
The first thing to decide on is the worldview.
This is directly related to the design of the clothing, so it is recommended that you decide on this first. Once you have a rough idea of the world, you can dig deeper and come up with ideas one after another. Such a way of thinking is called "mind mapping. Use this method to gradually increase the resolution of your ideas!
↓Recommended mind map creation site Mindmeister
(2) Consider the character's age, upbringing, personality, occupation, etc.
The more detailed the character setup, the easier it will be to create a sophisticated design. It is easier to understand if you see the procedure in action, so we will explain it using a design example.
(The worldview for this project will be a Western-style fantasy, and the period setting will be early modern Europe.)
The character's setting is developed with reference to the world view.
・Born around the end of the 18th century
・Female in her twenties
・High class
・Her character is Gentle and kind.
I'll leave this amount of information as it is the main focus of the clothing design in this case.
Based on this information, we will now connect to the main topic, the image of clothing. Here, too, we will make use of mind mapping.
The period setting gave us an idea of the shape and material of the clothing, and the character gave us an idea of the colors.
Color psychology is involved in being able to imagine colors based on personality, but it would take a long time to talk about it thoroughly, so I will give you a simple example.
Can you all imagine a squadron? Each one has its own color, right? I think the most common images are red, blue, green, yellow, and pink.
I am sure you can also come up with the symbolism of that color, etc.
Red = active, leadership, passionate, etc.
Blue = calm, reserved, cool, etc.
Green = calm, restorative, natural, etc.
Yellow = bright, innocent, light, danger, etc.
Pink = love, lovely, spring, etc.
These are all written in the Japanese color sense.
Some of you may associate them with different impressions, but most of you probably had the above impressions.
Those of you who have watched Sentai may have already noticed that these impressions are reflected in the characters' personalities. The reason why red is basically the main character is because of the image of leadership in the psychological effect of red.
Thus, having a character setting helps determine the color. Color psychology, is very useful, so if you are interested, please look into it.
(3) Once you have some details in mind, use Pinterest to look around for similar designs.
Pinterest is a free image collection service. This site has a feature that allows you to pin (like bookmarking) materials that you like and it will show you other materials related to that material. This feature is very useful, so use it as often as you like. It is also useful when considering the period setting mentioned earlier, so it is recommended.
↓Here is a screen shot of the actual mobile version of the application.
Mosaic processing has been applied to the images for the purpose of copyright law.
↓It will suggest other words and images similar to the search term, like this.
I made a rough sketch using materials I gathered from Pinterest.
(4) Research and combine your favorite decorations and patterns.
This process may be the most flexible.
While the base part has been created in accordance with the historical background, you can accentuate the fantastical and fantastical design by daring to use modern-style decorations, accessories, patterns, and so on. Or perhaps futuristic designs or magical tools. In this case, I would like to draw a royal fantasy, so I would like to use a rococo style design that fits the period setting.
I came up with the idea of a white dove, a symbol of peace, in my mind map, so I used that as the motif for this project.
A lot happened... and it's done! I used baby pink and mint green this time as accent colors. The characters look like they could use some recovery magic.
-If you can't think of an outfit, try to imagine it from what is around you.
As in the previous example, by imagining the character first, ideas for clothing may come to you like a sack of potatoes. When in doubt, it might be a good idea to stop and look at it from a different perspective!
Thanks for reading this far!
Stay tuned for the next article!
