Animating Fashion Design Concepts

The focus of research, in this paper, is the initial illustrated design concept of a fashion collection and how this could be communicated by animation techniques to enhance the design development process that follows. The research is aimed at the young fashion designer or student designer in terms of developing a tool for early prototyping that enhances the illustration and development of design ideas. Any resultant tool needs to be easy to use and apply to the fashion design process. The research reviews changes in the fashion industry that prompted this research enquiry, with particular reference to some of those designers who work at the edge of the commercial side of the industry and the issues that they face. The research is undertaken from a standpoint of research through design, using reflective practices, in the development of case studies and aims to investigate the potential of different forms of animation, which may contribute to the enhancement of the illustration of concepts, in the design development process. Traditional and digital animation are not new, but experimentation with movement, time, and narrative (derived from trend direction and inspiration) could form a valuable part of the future fashion design process. The research will explore simple techniques in 2D and 3D animation software, in order to understand the benefits of such an early prototyping tool being developed. In the fashion illustration element of the research, stylised, drawn representation will be used in the translation of concepts and will reflect the hand of the illustrator/designer, with a view to avoiding the characterless, photorealistic representations that often result from new software developments. Different themes and moods, as well as ideas, could also be communicated in a more elaborate and richer form using animation