The title of this article is certainly aimed at the fashion industry. We took this form a meeting at a recent PI conference. Of course, designers and engineers of all the fancy smartphones and cars are rolling their eyes because you have already answered this question over the last 25 years. It`s hard to imagine that more than 40 years after the first introduction of 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, we`re still talking about the transition from 2D to 3D. You might think that the transition is now complete, and anyone who develops any product is now using software to create 3D content.
Sketches are still important.
Of course, almost every design starts with a sketch. Whether you`re designing a smartphone, a car, a house, furniture, shoes, or shirts, it all starts with a sketch.
Sketching is still the fastest and easiest way to communicate ideas, as it is and remains an integral part of the design process. Good designers must be able to make good sketches. But what comes next?
The transition to 3D.
When you talk about “3D” in terms of digital modeling, many industries have been doing it for years. Whether they do this before or after – like in the design process of an automobile – a physical sample is created. This point is they end up with a digital model.
In my opinion, this is still rarely the case in the fashion industry. The transition to 3D means physical samples. The process, which produces many unique pieces that are either made in-house or often requested by the manufacturer, remains the core of the industry. Manufacturers of sportswear are a little more advanced than the rest of the fashion industry, but they still have a long way to go so that 3D can`t be used just for product development.
A new way to get to 3D is scanning. “New” in the sense that it is now more accessible. With tools like the HP Z3D camera, scanning a 3D object is certainly much easier. But first I need a physical model. And then what? Surely it works for fast visualization and sharing instead of transporting a physical object. But to use this digital object more effectively, you need software and a specialist to bring these scans to a quality level so that they can be used throughout the process.
Beyond product development – what about retail?
Especially in the fashion industry there is a lot of discussion about 3D. Especially what the value of 3D really is. “Is it more than just a nice picture? We hear that a lot. Or “we’re a company that relies on emotion,” as an excuse why a company hasn’t made the transition to 3D yet.
What is often overlooked is how 3D can contribute to the end result and go far beyond pure product development. Too many fashion brand executives are looking at one and the same problem: retail. Because retail affects the bottom line. To solve the retail problem, we just need a configurator and maybe some augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR)? So companies go out and hire service companies to build just that: a unique solution. And although this solves a problem for the team, it is not a scalable solution.
What is often misunderstood is the simple fact that configurators, AR and VR experiences are not built without a 3D model. Of course, you can also use external resources to support your 3D development, but whether you choose internal or external development, you need to ensure that 3D becomes an integral part of the product development process so that it becomes a scalable solution.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t today. But even if 3D exists, I don’t think it’s as lean and optimized as it could or should be. The ability to use the same data used for design, decision making and manufacturing and use it for sales and marketing can be a simple image creation, or the creation of a configurator will significantly reduce lead time, time to market and costs.
What about the materials?
Materials are a very important aspect of any product. The colours, the texture, the finish, the highlights, the haptics and the feeling – all this is an essential part of the appearance and the haptics of a product. It is the difference between “like” and “love”. People make a decision in 25 nanoseconds. “I like it”, “I want it”, “What is it?” – in that order. It all happens in 25 nanoseconds in a human brain.
With this importance of materials, materials are not an integral part of the construction process. In particular, people dealing with materials do not have easy access to a system that allows them to visualize their material creations in 3D. For the most part, they have to rely on a specialist to either create the physical sample or translate the material into digital form and then use it in a 3D application to visualize it. And only when all these steps are done will it be possible to see them in AR or VR.
Although all this is possible with today’s solutions, it is a long and time-consuming process that is not well suited for immediate production. At a time when product development cycles are getting shorter and shorter, when management is demanding better and better products in shorter and shorter times, these traditional processes cannot survive.
3D is about visualization.
Of course, 3D is ultimately about getting involved in production. But the most common denominator of 3D and its use throughout the organization and supply chain is visualization.
Visualization – that means seeing a 3D object in front of you with the right materials, details, color combinations, configurations, at different levels of detail, in the required quality, depending on what the task is.
Here are some areas:
There are certainly many more applications that can be listed depending on the industry. But it should serve as a general inspiration to understand where 3D and the visualization of 3D data can be used.
It has to be simple.
One thing to keep in mind is that while there are many wonderful 3D solutions out there, there are many people involved in the development process, including sales and marketing, who don’t have direct access to a 3D solution that fits their needs and skills. It’s not about replacing the visualization or 3D modeling artist, but about being able to use the content these people produce on a much wider scale.
By simplifying the 3D tools, these tools support the “non-experts” in their process and allow them to use their content in unprecedented ways, if done right.
One thing that is often overlooked when developing 3D applications is the use of the computing power of mobile devices. What design tools, especially 3D design tools, are there 12 years after the introduction of the iPhone or iPad? What applications are used for designs other than Instagram, Pinterest, and maybe a few others?
With all this digital evolution, we’re not advocating the use of touch and feel. Until we can do this on mobile or dedicated haptic devices, we need to have the physical sample in hand to make the final decision. And so you still need a physical sample of the product in your hand to hold, feel and experience it. But what it does is reduce dependence on physical samples. Because I don’t need a physical sample for every color variation of a shoe if only the color changes.
Even with generic representations of 3D constructions, materials can take people a long way. Creating a platform that allows 3D artists to share their designs while gaining access to everyone directly or indirectly involved in the design and decision-making process will dramatically improve communication, reduce errors and dramatically shorten the overall design and decision-making process.
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