Types of Clothing Styles

"I can do that like under 5 minutes!" 
 "Pixelated-style clan uniforms are more superior to handrawn and colored clothing. "    
And vice versa.
These are common comments from designers (and clothing buyers) to other designers. I can understand why people often have those judgements in their mind, but I made this post to put my two cents out there. Also, if you are new to designing you may find this post pretty helpful.

   NOTE: I wrote this post years ago. The styles of clothing designers have changed a lot since then. The designers I've placed in this category may not use these methods anymore. 



Designing Methods
     

                                  1. Collage based designing aka. Copy-pasted designing

(By iOozi)

It is exactly what it sounds like. You get images, textures, and real-life outfits off of google and strategically compose the clothing garments onto a Robloxian template. 

     This huge fashion trend started around 2012, and since then every Robloxian seemed to gravitate towards the beautiful realism of this. 

Designers known for this: iOozi, blubaby, Soulstreets, Papermousee

Difficulty: I think that this may be the easiest out of all the methods. If you are a total beginner but don't know where to start, then I recommend trying this kind of designing first. 


CRITICISMS/MYTHS AGAINST THIS TYPE OF DESIGNING:

1.  x This is not creative! There is nothing special about this, all you do is barf from google images.

 You can get as creative as you want with this! These skilled designers often mix and match  clothing pieces, then often recolor and add sparkle as they please.  Composition is an art. 

Just take a look at the (old) Youtube videos of Nilvou, and iOozi! 

2.   x This is the same thing as plagiarism! 

       This is nothing but a mashup, and mashups are allowed. There are so many famous photoshop  artists who take portions from google images, and use them for their compositions. It all gets deformed onto a blocky body anyways! 

3. x I can do this under 5 minutes! 

Honestly, it takes way more effort to do this in only 5 minutes. Composing the images, manipulating them, and putting them together.  It is true that this method is faster than the handpainting methods. But the same thing could be said about minimalism and abstract art: "My kid can do this!" 
At the end of the day- creativity is fun, and fun is creativity. 


2. Lineart/Color/Shade 

(Grottypuff's old design)


 It often starts with deciding the shapes by drawing the lineart first. Then, laying down solid color beneath it. After that, shading is applied often by using a blend mode such as "overlay" or "multiply". 

This is for those who want complete freedom to design every element of their clothing from scratch. 

This is NOT the same as a "painterly" method, however many designers can easily emulate brushstrokes by using the smudge tool and layering highlights and shadows and create a painterly style.

Difficulty: If you've got the hang of using an editing program, this will not be hard at all. All I can say is that practice makes better! Timewise, it will definitely take 1 hour+. 

3. Pixel Art


(By Tokui)

The first step is to turn off "antialiasing". This makes the lines hard, and easier to fill in spaces with color. Opacity all the way, so that the brush is completely solid. The effect is created with the use of cel shading, where values of solid color are layered upon each other to create a gradient without blending.

With the characteristic hard edges and highly contrasting values, this gives clothing a life-like look as opposed to upbeat and cartoonish. It is an ideal style done for war groups by uniform + armor makers. 

Designers known for this: Sheric, Diesoft, Tokui, Sukarettohea, more 

Difficulty: This is the most tedious out of all methods. First of all, meticulous shading like this takes a heck load of time. However, it gets easier with practice. 

This takes 2 hours+ of work, and people often spend days on this. The great thing about this is that it can be done on any free software like paint.net or gimp. 


4. Painterly 



(By BrutalStrudel & Vond)

It is method #2, except that it is completely handrawn using a drawing tablet, and a painting software. In other words the method is similar to real life acrylic or watercolor, except on a tablet. With a painting software, you can mix and blend a spectrum of colors to create the image with ease

This differs a bit from method #2, where you are mostly dependent on blending modes and smudge tool (Some programs are not as supportive of brush strokes).

In the example above (not my best), you can clearly see the brush strokes. 

Designers known for this: Jinxyjill, Anzu_TL, Mockeri, Kiouhei, brutalstrudel,  so many more


Difficulty: Once you are great at using editing softwares and designing in general, you can move on to purchasing a graphics tablet.  In my opinion, I find this most easy and quicker at the fingertips. 

An art software is required for this method, as GIMP and paint.net provide only simple functions. There are many art softwares which are free such as Medibang Paint. 


4. Mixed



A mix of 2 or more designing methods! A good example of this is the work Jadendava. Her work incorporates the crisp lines of the pixel style, but the process of lineart/color/shade style. 




(Me)

In this work, I mix painterly with pixel. There is a lot of blending and mixing, but with most hard edges preserved and anti aliasing. It is my favorite method for commission work with clients that require formal attire. It has the sharp 3 dimensional appearance preserved, but lacks the soft cartoony feel. 
I like this because I prefer to use a painted method while faking a cel-shaded look. Fast & detailed! :)


 Not one of these methods are superior over another. These are different mediums, not levels. Roblox implemented designing for having fun, not competition.

 If you have a fashion blog, please tell me in the comments so that I can display your link on this blog page. Thanks for reading!





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