Why do 3D fashion designers venture into the world of 3D character models? - An interview with Ultimate Yui

I first started thinking about making avatars about two years ago. While looking at various avatars wearing my clothes, I started to see a vision of the ideal "model silhouette" for my outfits. The desire to make that ideal model myself is what inspired the creation of LUMINA.

Of course, that’s not to say I didn't like any existing avatars. I mostly just wanted an avatar that perfectly matched the outfits I designed. I thought that making my own avatar would help me get closer to the image of the clothes I had in my head.

That's why I decided to create an avatar. However, as I was releasing outfits monthly at the time, it took about a year and a half to complete.

Not at all. At first, I was groping around in the dark, trying a bit of everything and researching constantly. I made the base model about a year ago, but have been slowly reviewing it and changing it up, until I gradually reworked it to its current shape.

If I had learned anatomical drawing first, it would have made the job much easier. I plan to study the human body thoroughly before I make another body model. However, I am satisfied with LUMINA―she really is my ideal model.

When designing an outfit, there are parts of the body that are inevitably visible, especially the shoulders, thighs, and ankles. I paid special attention to those areas.

For LUMINA, I put a lot of effort into the thighs. I wanted them to have a particular kind of plumpness. That's not something you see as much in other avatars.

Also, I often design high heels. When people in real life wear heels, their toes are compressed and there’s a slimming effect on the whole foot, so I implemented a shape key that recreates that phenomenon in the virtual world.

On the other hand, I had to make a lot of compromises. One of those was the silhouette of the shoulders. I tried making full use of constraints to create shoulders that wouldn't round out when the arms were lowered, but I had to give up because it made it more difficult to make outfits for the model. Maybe I'll revisit that in the future.

It won't be easy, but I would like to if possible.

Originally, EXTENSION CLOTHING and MAISON DARC. made a lot of clothes that were closer to pieces you could find in real life. Clothes like that look especially good on tall avatars, like Mora for example.

But as a point of personal taste, I really like cartoon-like faces. I set the head-to-body ratio on the taller side, like Mora, but gave the mouth and nose extra definition and the eyes a more cartoon-like look. I really just made my own ideal model.

I'm thinking of using her as my main avatar for a while, and use the knowledge and experiences I accumulate as a learning opportunity.

Of course, we are actively trying to use her to model our 3D outfits, but there are outfits that suit other avatars better. Recently, I have been using "Shinano" a lot. I would like to be able to use LUMINA in a lot of different ways in thumbnails, whether that's solo shots or in pictures with Shinano.

Yes. I'd be thrilled if she was accepted as a VRChat avatar and would love to see her stand side-by-side with many others.

For the body production, I was conscious of how the topology was different from my usual work, but I was able to utilize my previous experience to retopologize without too many problems. However, there were many tools I had never used before, and it took a lot of researching to learn how to use them. I think LUMINA already has room for improvement. I keep learning new things and wishing I’d known them earlier.

It wasn’t just me, though. I asked illustrator Momoko to do the textures for the body, hair, and makeup, but there were also a bunch of tools she had never used before either, so we were struggling together.

Yes. We used Blender for both. However, this time, I worked by layering a low-poly mesh over high-poly. The functions I used were really different to what I'm used to for clothing production, so I had a hard time mastering it.

Yes. Especially the shape key I used to narrow the toes. It works by selecting a mesh at the boundary of the topology and narrowing the shape, but if the mesh is not cut in the right place, the corners don't look very uniform. I had to keep experimenting until I was satisfied. I would like to improve that next time too. I made a lot of mistakes along the way and was researching and learning the whole time.

I have about 600 on the face alone and around 70 on the body. The more shape keys, the bigger the FBX file is, so I couldn't use many more than that even if I wanted to.

I focused especially on the shape of her mouth. I prepared multiple presets in advance, so you can shape and adjust her mouth in one go, or you can move the detailed shape keys around more precisely. The corners of her eyes and tear bags can be adjusted too, as well as the shape of her ears.

You can. I made it possible to slim the whole body, narrow only the pelvis, or slim down just her legs. For tights, we also have multiple shape keys such as "somewhat tight" and "super tight". On the other hand, you can also adjust to make her bottom and thighs even thicker.

Uh-huh. I wanted her to be able to cover a wide range of styles.

Yes. The default clothing is exclusive to LUMINA. We don’t plan on releasing it as a separate item any time soon.

I wanted LUMINA to mostly wear clothes that could exist in real life, but I was concerned that putting her in realistic clothes from the beginning would give people too fixed an image of her. So I adjusted the design to look a little more fantasy-like, like a character rather than a real person, like the other existing avatars for VRChat.

As for the direction of the clothing we plan to make, we plan to avoid sticking to one single style by making both cute and stylish designs. For example, I want to try putting her in a culotte that looks like a skirt. At the same time, most people don't want their avatar's underwear to be visible when wearing a skirt in the public VRChat spaces, so we plan to have the default be the pants style instead of the skirt.

I have been testing clothes from MAISON DARC. on her and they were all really well balanced. I hope clothing creators make a variety of clothes for her in the future.

Emotionally, I want to make a lot of outfits that look good on LUMINA. We don't plan to start developing outfits for her from EXTENSION CLOTHING and MAISON DARC. right away, but I think we will release more realistic outfits that suit her in the future.

Actually, I want to challenge myself to see how sexy outfits I can make with LUMINA. I spoke to Pondero, who made Shinano, about the terms of use, and I plan to use Shinano as a reference in my work. I hope to push LUMINA as a sexy older sister avatar.

I have a very positive view of VRChat's unique culture. There are parts I could criticize, but I personally want to cherish the culture that was born there.

I've been creating outfits to suit that culture, but also outfits that are stylish and realistic, which are my personal preference.

That’s why I have two brands. I don't want to mix EXTENSION CLOTHING outfits with the more realistic MAISON DARC. style, so each brand has its own, unique concept and direction.

The first costume we released with EXTENSION CLOTHING immediately after the launch of MAISON DARC. was "Danzai Sailor". I think a lot of people noticed at that point that MAISON DARC. was born to separate the realistic clothes from the more costume-y outfits.

I like both realistic clothes and sexy costumes, so I want to make both. However, if you only have one brand, you can only really release one outfit per month. I thought it would be a good idea to divide the direction and theme by brand, so I didn't have to worry about which style to release each month.

I think this has also led to an increase in the number of creators who want to do something similar. Recently, the number of shops selling sexy costumes has increased, and some of them are making quite extreme designs.

I don't think this is limited to costumes for VRChat avatars, but also for avatar design in general. I’ve seen more and more radical designs in the recent smartphone games sphere. That's why I had the confidence to create such a sexy line of costumes.

Exactly. I hope she will be accepted as a representation of the wide range of cultures nurtured by VRChat’s community.

Yes. Avatar creation is different from clothing creation, and I think it excites me to see how far I can push myself. I'm looking to work on something new soon.

If I stopped making apparel completely, I think I would be able to finish it in about three months. However, I don’t think I could give up making clothes, so it will be a while before I even get started.

Maybe a smaller avatar, in contrast to LUMINA's big sister style. Or a male avatar!

Hmm... I think I want to make cute boys rather than muscular, cool men.

We plan on holding a try-on event. I've already spoken to some people I hope will join in. The date hasn’t been decided yet, but it will definitely be after her release.

I found creators in a wide range of fields, including not only clothing, but also makeup, textures, and hair. 140 people joined the dedicated Discord server in about two days.

I've never seen anything like it before. I set some conditions and restrictions, but basically I just asked everyone to create a new outfit or texture for her. I hope the final designs will be available on BOOTH at the same time as LUMINA!

I think it's good to have a wide range of options. It gives you a chance to use your imagination a bit!

I'm also really honored that people are making outfits for her already.