Will 3D models take real models jobs? Umm...no. Well maybe a little.

Will 3D models take real models jobs?  

Umm, no...well maybe a little.

Last year, I'm sure a lot of models stopped and looked at the Louis Vutton ad with a 3D rendered model from the video game Final Fantasy wearing some of the latest fashion pieces and sporting a Louis Vutton hand bag.   The question might have popped up in their head, "Is this it? Is this the end of my modeling career?"  

I started down the 3d Modeling path around a year before, originally just to have a digital mannequin to design on.   But when I saw Kadajj's Another Galaxy, 

Another Galaxy by Kadaj777 on DeviantArt.com
http://kadaj777.deviantart.com/art/Another-Galaxy-464574870

I knew this could be so much more.   With the ever growing appetites of users of Social media for digital content, I figured, heck why not look in to this a little deeper.  

I decided that 3D would be great for the purposes of making digital lookbooks.  Frankly, in the real world, hiring the model wouldn't be the issue...but purchasing and storing wardrobe would! Since I only work with basic cut shirts, I could just buy a 3D model made by a good 3D modeler.  If I made my own unique cut and style of clothing, using 3D models would be a different matter completely.

So, if you're a model reading this, you probably want to know, how this affects you. Here's the skinny :)

1. REAL CLOTHES NEED REAL PEOPLE...Period!   

If you're a clothing designer like I am, no amount of perfect 3D sculpting would ever match a picture of the Real Deal (unless you’re talking about luggage, that’s a different story).   Secondarily, the consumers want to see what that clothing looks like on a Real person in Real life.  How the fabric falls, the texture of the material and how it’s thin or thick are all important factors for customers making clothing purchases.   I doubt a customer would ever buy something they would trust wearing if they only saw pictures of it on a 3D model.

2.  3D Modeling is HARD/EXPENSIVE!

If a designer whips up a new blouse with a couple of cuts and stitches and it is ready to wear (pun intended), that same blouse would cost hundreds of dollars and countless hours to be replicated in 3D perfectly.   Not to mention the work needed to get the lighting just right on the final rendered image and the computer processor power needed if this was a complex photo (i.e. a woman standing in a jungle...or even a simple grass field for that matter). 

Will 3D modeling ever get cheaper?  Maybe as more of the next generations studies 3d modeling, there will be more talent for less money.  Also as 3d modeling software companies advance the ease of use for the 3D industry, it’s possible.

But, no matter how you cut the cake, a good 3D object / Model takes at least a good 10,000 vertices to make it look realistic.   A vertex is a corner point of a surface.  A square has 4 vertices.  A cube has 8 corners, so it has 8 vertices.   The last major human looking 3D model from Daz had around 20,000 vertices. 

If an untalented 3D modeler is employed on a project and moves those corners around too much, it would destroy the model.  The corners of a 3D model can get extremely bunched together making it impossible to work with.  Ever tried untangling christmas tree lights? So, having someone work on a realistic 3d model requires a very talented and very expensive employee.   Shoot, I'd rather hire a model for the day.

HOWEVER, here's the "maybe a little" part.

If a designer uses Marvelous Designer to make their fashion line, than, YES, they technically could use 3D models to model their clothes.  Marvelous Designer is a 3d program that takes measurements and makes 3d objects for clothing.  Similar to Photoshop, except on 3D objects.

  

Will 3D models ever replace a good Catalog shoot?  No!  Never! Nada! Caput! But it may affect the Look book side of the industry.  For those who are not familiar with look books, they are mini fashion shoots used for catalogs that only go from Company to Company and may never reach the view of the general public. 

I've seen a couple of look books in my time, and many have photographs that are Magazine Ad and catalog ready, so a designer might just skip the 3D look book route for a real one. But for budding designers who use Marvelous Designer with a lower budget, 3D might become a more affordable option when shopping out their clothing style to other brands and retailers.   Also, if a new clothing design originally made with Marvelous Designer has to be passed from one office to another quickly, a 3d model could resemble what the final product would look like fairly fast.   I suppose mannequins might have more to fear than models concerning this issue.  Poor mannequins :(

Ultimately, at the end of the Day, Vogue is not going to turn in to some sort of fashionable version of Electronic Gaming Monthly, but a small chunk of the industry might go to quick mock-ups and prototypes that need to be made fast. HOWEVER, the designer ALSO has to know and use 3D design software to make their clothes.  A shot-in-the dark, I'm guessing the percentage of designers' using Marvelous's Designer is way less than 50%, however I'm sure fashion students are being introduced to the software. Regardless, fashion has been around for centuries because of a simple pair of scissors, needles and thread, and that's still the fastest way to creativity.  I personally still use my sketch book to get the ideas out fastest.

If you're a model and want me to be honest about how long it takes me to make a good 3d rendered photo, it takes a couple of hours...and that's for just one image.  It's not the rendering part that takes so long, it's the setting up, texturing, posing,  camera placement, lighting and fitting of the 3d clothes that makes a good rendered image great.  3d clothing is like working with melting cardboard.   If you use it as is, it's stiff and hard to soften.  If you apply computer gravity to it, it melts down easily and all the textures look like designs on a stretched out balloon skin (no joke).   Not to mention the Photoshop post work.  Lastly, if you don't get the lighting just right, you're image will look like a plastic Barbie doll, so be prepared to change lighting around for a while (hours).  

A post shared by @nflyc on Jul 5, 2017 at 12:44pm PDT

Models! breathe a sigh of relief.  You probably still have another 5-10 years before 3D possibly starts intruding on the fashion industry, and even then, no one is going to buy clothes off a 3D model, not even in business-to-business look books.    Unless some strange event happens where real objects can be simply scanned in to the 3D universe matching every physical aspect, appearance, and replication of gravity on the object perfectly...it ain't going to happen...soon?