The spring 2011 FashionCAD class worked on a Buffalo Loves Cotton in Second Life project. This was but one of many class projects for the FashionCAD class and one of multiple Fashion and Textile Technology course projects that are part of the Buffalo State Loves Cotton Inc. Education Grant.
Students initiated the project by setting up free accounts Second Life accounts, familiarizing themselves with learning the basics of moving, flying and communicating with thir avatar before all meeting up on the Buffalo State island. [note: The Buffalo State island in Second Life is sponsored by the Research Foundation at Buffalo State College]
Students familiarized themselves with the Appearance menu to develop basic clothing inside Second Life, then they practiced using the poseballs and learning how to take snapshots to disk while in Second Life and extract the backgrounds in Photoshop. They uploaded their original repeat pattern textures and applied them to flexi skirts and use them to create custom outfits in Appearance.
UV Map
The next step was to learn how to develop a customized design using a UV map. Their first UV map project students worked on was with a t-shirt using one of their custom designs. Once they became familiar with how a UV map could be used to develop custom garments, they uploaded some of the custom repeat patterns they developed for previous assignments.
Buffalo Loves Cotton Second Life Girls
Their final Second Life project goal was to replicate the Buffalo Loves Cotton garments using surface patterns and garment designs developed by a previous group of students. They used Robin Wood’s Second Life UV maps to draw garments similar to the ones that were developed and constructed for the Runway 4.0 event [above left]. We all went to freebie places in Second Life to locate hair, skins shows and accessories to wear for the fashion show were preparing for.
Once their Buffalo Loves outfits were created they used the poseballs to take snapshots of their avatars [image above right].
The conclusion of the Second Life module was a Buffalo Loves Cotton fashion show. Students activated an animation object and rehearsed walking their avatars up and down the runway before the final video [above] on the runway.