Introduction

Hello!

 

This is Linco, and in this TIPS article I'm going to be talking about painting uniforms and things you can think about to bring your character design to the next level.

 

The video below will cover the contents of the article and additionally go through drapery and illustrate the 'Types of Folds' such as pipe folds, zig-zag folds, spiral folds, and half-lock folds. Please check it out if you have time.

 

 

The techniques in Clip Studio Paint I will cover to help us draw drapery are two-fold:

 

1. We will go over how the basics of the 3D Pose Material in order to set up a model to draw clothing over.

• Tips on basic operation of the 3D Pose

• Tips on utilizing and drawing over the 3D Pose convincingly

Clip Studio Paint Tools used: Material [Pose]

 

2. We will go over how to use pictures of textures and materials that you take in real life, and utilize them to create custom brushes to give texture or patterning to clothes!

• Tips on using mesh transform to cover clothing with texture or patterning

Clip Studio Paint Tools used: Brush creation, correction layers, mesh transform.

[Info] General Drapery

This article assumes that you have general knowledge on the types of folds: pipe folds, spiral folds, zig-zag folds, and half-lock folds. If not, this is covered in the first four minutes of the video.

 

As a quick review, let's take a look at one of the images from the video.

In this flight attendant uniform, we can see different types of folds.

 

A - The area underneath the arm pit can be seen as a zig-zag fold. See how the shadow shapes repeat in an alternating fashion. The triangle shapes are also good indicators of the zig-zag fold.

 

B - The area of cloth interlocking in the elbow looks like the half-lock fold. One of the harder folds to understand. Easier to see in video, one part of the cloth overlaps and covers fully or partially over the other. This often occurs on the body where fabric can sharply turn.

 

C - Spiraling out from the elbow to the forearm is the spiral fold. These often occur in rolled up sleeves or pants.

 

D - The simplest fold is the pipe fold. It has a cylindrical form and comes from one or two tension points. A bent pipe fold can often result in the zig-zag fold, as demonstrated in the video.

 

 

[Info] TIPS on Painting Folds

1. Study the common types of folds to become familiar with them.

Maybe get a family member or friend to pose for you, or pose yourself with a camera! The advantage is you can adjust your "model" until you get the folds you want.

 

2. Recognize that fabric has volume, and folds have form.

Such as the pipe fold having the form of a cylinder. This will help you with lighting and shadows. If you know what a cylinder in light looks like, you can also paint pipe folds!

 

 

 

3. Common patterns for folds.

Folds can appear very random, and there is no single "rule" or "law" to draw or paint folds. However here are some things that affect folds.

 

• More tight clothing (on the red side above) Tend to have less folds overall, less variety of folds, and thinner folds.

 

• More loose clothing (on the blue side above) Tend to have more folds overall, more variety of folds, and thicker folds.

 

Other factors such as the material of the clothing and the form underneath the clothing will affect the folds as well.

 

4. Have fun with it.

You do not have to copy every fold you see perfectly. You can add new ones you think would look nice, and remove others that confuse the picture. Using the tips above and especially lots of practice, I believe in you, that you will be able to draw convincing folds and clothing straight from imagination!

 

[Technique] 3D Pose Material to Help You Paint Uniforms (Set up)

Clip Studio Paint has a built-in, easy to use 3D posing material to help you ensure perspective and proportion are correct. This can give you confidence to work on-top, clothing a 3D model knowing that you have a good foundation.

To access the 3D Pose materials there are two easy ways.

 

A - Click on the icon with the person inside a folder beside your navigator and layer menu.

 

B - Go to Window -> Material -> Material [Pose]

To bring the 3D model into Clip Studio Paint...

 

1. Choose any 3D model, scroll through the list of options!

2. Click and drag your choice onto your working area. This will create a new layer with the 3D model.

There are a lot of options with the 3D posing model, but they are very easy to understand, take some time with the picture above if you are new to the posing model.

 

A - Here we can control the CAMERA for the 3D pose, a small camera icon is indicated. Control rotation and movement.

 

B - Here we can control the MODEL, the box icon is indicated. Again, rotation and movement is possible.

 

C - When we click on a joint, we will see arcs appear which will control fine tune rotations. These include the rotation of the shoulder. Extension, flexion, abduction, adduction, medial and lateral rotation is all possible. Other joints such as the elbow also allow this flexibility.

 

D - For more advanced fine tuning, click on the bottom right icon. This will bring up the window in purple. Here you can control things such as:

 

• Body shape: the body shape of the model and also proportions of different sections of the body.

 

• Light Source: the direction the light is shining on the model.

 

• Pose: details of the hand can be posed here, opening and closing as well as spreading the fingers are included.

 

Many more options are available. If you are interested, search for many other great TIPS or check out the official documentation below:

[Technique] 3D Pose Material to Help You Paint Uniforms

After you bring your 3D pose to the correct area, it will be easy to put clothing on top. However, here are some common mistakes that can occur when using this technique.

Common Mistakes

1. The 3D pose is not utilized. In the most left image, you can see that the the collar does not align with the centre line.

 

Correction: Be aware of the contour lines and centre lines that are provided. The model helps to draw in perspective, but only if the lines are utilized correctly!

 

2. Clothes are drawn without any slack. In the middle image, the clothes are pressed right up against the skin. Clothes have volume, and doing this can flatten out an image.

 

Correction: Do not follow the contours of the model exactly, give room for the clothes while following the perspective guidelines.

 

The image on the right shows an example of using the 3D model to help clothe a figure. The centre line is followed, the clothes have volume while still following the perspective.

 

 

[Info] Uniforms & Better Character Design

Drawing uniforms is not just about knowing how folds work. That will help you make more realistic artwork, but not necessarily interesting characters.

To utilize uniforms to better character design it is necessary to think of questions such as "why do these characters wear their uniform?"

 

We can break up this question into two parts.

 

1. What function does the uniform serve?

2. Is there any meaning behind it?

 

This can help us understand our characters more and come up with new ideas to make our characters interesting. Let's look at the above example: a military uniform and a chef uniform.

 

Army combat uniform

 

1. What function does the uniform serve?

A: The uniform protects the body, it is also for camouflage and is resourceful with pockets for water bottles, weapons, and more.

 

2. Is there any meaning behind it?

A: Yes, different sections of the military have different uniforms that they identify with. There is insignia on the uniform to signify rank. This is usually placed on the hat, sleeve, or in the middle of the chest.

 

Chef uniform

 

1. What function does the uniform serve?

A: The uniform protects from spills in the kitchen, protecting against burns as well.

 

2. Is there any meaning behind it?

A: Yes, the biggest chef hat in the kitchen indicates the head chef. This is another status symbol. The folds on a chef's hat are supposed to represent the many ways they can prepare eggs.

 

 

[Info] Uniforms & Better Character Design (Takeaways)

There is a lot we can do with this information, the main takeaway is that uniforms can say a lot about a character. It is a way for us to communicate with our audience through a visual language.

 

For instance, in both cases, parts of the uniform relate to their "ranking" or "hierarchy".

 

When designing our own characters, we can think of if the uniform communicates status. Then, we can easily show our audience VISUALLY which characters have more power. We can use things like symbols (like the military), the size of the uniform (like the chef), or come up with our own unique thing.

 

[Technique] Applying Textures and Patterns on Uniforms (Brush creation)

The examples shown so far have not been textured or patterned. We can utilize Clip Studio Paint's easy brush creation and mesh transform to apply texture or pattern to a uniform.

We will add pattern to a detective hat shown above. NOTE: You will need to have a fully shaded uniform to apply the steps, such as in Step 2 above

 

We can use our own photos or references to create a texture or pattern brush. Let us use a picture I took of a plaid pattern from my shirt.

 

First, I will open the pattern with Clip Studio Paint.

I wanted to make my brush with more of a texture, I adjusted my picture with correction layers to give me the image on the right.

The correction layers used are indicated above.

 

New Correction Layer -> Hue/Saturation/Luminosity -> Saturation to -100

(This makes the image black and white)

 

New Correction Layer -> Brightness/Contrast -> Contrast to 56

 

You can copy and paste your image until the pattern you want is achieved. Then, register the material in Edit -> Register Material -> Image.

 

In the dialogue box that appears:

1. Use for brush tip shape is checked

2. Location to save material is in All materials -> Brush

Hit OK.

Duplicate any brush and rename it for your pattern or texture brush. Go into Sub tool detail -> Brush tip

 

If a material is already registered, delete the material with the trashcan icon. Click the button beside the trashcan to register a new material. Search for and select the material we created in the previous step, it should appear in the small window.

 

The texture or pattern brush has now been created.

[Technique] Applying Textures and Patterns on Uniforms (Mesh transform)

On a new layer, place down a few brush strokes to cover a plane of the uniform. Ensure that pen pressure is disabled for this brush, this is because we want the patterns to be consistent, so try to avoid changing brush size once the pattern is placed.

 

Next, go into Edit -> Transform -> Mesh Transform.

 

This will allow you to easily apply the pattern using the points provided.

When adjusting the pattern using the mesh transform tool, here are some TIPS.

 

1. Adjust so that the pattern moves along the form or contour lines of the uniform, in this case, a curving motion on the front plane of the hat.

 

2. Understand that as the uniform turns away from the viewer, the patterning will group up, these areas will likely be darker.

Hit OK on the mesh transform once you are satisfied, set the patterning layer on multiple mode.

 

Repeat the application of patterning until the uniform is completely covered.

At the end, feel free to touch up edges. The application of patterns using this method can have a very digital look with hard cut edges. Create a new layer to do some final touch ups.

For more explanations on clothing folds, to see the steps in motion, and for jokes, please check out the video!

 

Thank you, for reading or watching! I hope that you learned something new, I personally learned a lot while writing this article.

 

• Linco