Costume construction for digital characters

Abstract

This paper attempts to gauge how effectively two top-of-the-line cloth simulation programs - MIRALab's MIRA Cloth and Alias/Wavefront's Maya Cloth - could be used by an artist trained in theatrical costume construction to create a digital costume. This question is relevant for the computer graphics industry because as digital characters continue to increase in complexity and realism, so too must the costumes they wear. As digital characters' costumes become more and more realistic, the industry will need to hire artists who have experience in building real-world costumes and can make use of that experience to build convincing virtual garments. Once hired, these costumers will need to be able to work effectively with cloth simulation programs. This thesis documents how one would go through each step of the theatrical costume construction process in both MIRA Cloth and Maya Cloth, lists changes to the interfaces and capabilities of each program that would make the process easier, and then suggests ways to implement those changes for each stage of costume construction.