One-click blending for the true-to-life look

  • Do you spend countless hours on blending elements, aiming for a seamless look that is simply unattainable with the tools available to you? 
  • Do you find that transitioning back and forth between Photoshop and VStitcher / Lotta, again and again and again, disrupts your creative flow? 
  • Do you feel that technical limitations are cramping your artistic vision?

Browzwear’s trailblazing technology is pushing the envelope of digital fashion design yet again. Its new August edition of VStitcher and Lotta includes a revolutionary new feature: use lower layer maps, for flawless blending at a click of a mouse. And what’s more, the result is a genuinely true-to-life look!

Browzwear’s one-of-a-kind blending tool includes ‘overlay’ and ‘multiply’ options, in addition to the traditional ‘transparency’ mode, to enable you to easily create a garment with superior blending. With this amazing new tool, you’ll be able to apply the ‘wash’ effect on jeans, logos on knitwear, etc., with seamless integration of the artwork into the material of your choice. 

Simply check the use lower layer maps checkbox to inherit the lower level maps information as you edit your garment exclusively in VStitcher and Lotta, in one continuous, user-friendly and time-saving workflow. The inherited information will be applied to your 3D design, and the artwork will appear on your screen perfectly blended into the material with its innate properties fully on display – velvet with its characteristic shine, leather with its granular texture, etc. The 3D image on your screen will literally blow you away!  

But the good news doesn’t end there! Browzwear has developed use lower layer maps as a ‘live’ feature so that the inherited information will automatically be applied to any change you make as you continue your design process in VStitcher and Lotta.

The future of blending is here! It’s time to let your creative juices flow, unimpeded by outdated technology!

For more information please visit our support site.

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Harnessing the power of vector technology and placing it in your hands

Vector Workflow

  • Are you tired of seeing your vector-quality artwork being pixelated when you resize it? 
  • Do you wish you didn’t have to tediously export to Adobe Illustrator to change even one single color?
  • Does the design process then leave you frustrated and deflated, instead of elated?

No more!

Browzwear is continuing to revolutionize digital fashion design by harnessing the power of vector technology and placing it in your hands. No more pixelation, reduced resolution and loss of quality! Our end-to-end vector workflow enables you to design and edit your artwork size and color in vector-level resolution in VStitcher and Lotta. And you no longer have to switch to Adobe Illustrator to do so!

Reaping the benefits of vector technology means, for example, that the small logo that you have on the front of your sportswear T-shirt or tank top can now be greatly enlarged and positioned on the back as well, at the same high resolution. Or that you can enlarge the image of the small teddy bear that you have on a child’s pajama bottoms and also place it on the pajama top, covering the entire front. Thanks to Browzwear’s use of vector technology, large artwork remains sharp and crisp, and does justice to your garment! 

And with the innovative software and user-friendly features, you can also edit the colors as part of your workflow. All it takes is a few clicks of the mouse. Exporting to Adobe Illustrator for each change and then importing back to VStitcher and Lotta to see the result in a 360, 3D view, is no longer necessary. 

You can now save so much time, and achieve results that are superior by far to what you have been forced to settle for in the past!

And that’s not all – working exclusively in vector format means that detailed color separation information is available and can be communicated externally, ensuring that the color of the physical garment perfectly matches the color you envisioned.

Thanks to Browzwear, the power of vector technology is now at your fingertips. We invite you to use it, enjoy its multiple benefits, and let your creativity lead the way!

For more information please visit our support site.

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 Love your work more than ever with VStitcher and Lotta – 2019 August  Editions

VStitcher and Lotta August Edition banner

We have been listening to you – our customers – and our developers have been hard at work on delivering the functionality you have been asking for. 

As always, the focus is on making 3D apparel design and development easier, faster, and with less waste.

There are some amazing new features in this release, and we know that you are going to love them!  

Here are some of the 2019 August Edition highlights:

  • Slash and Spread – a super easy-to-use feature that includes real-time feedback and the ability to adjust the pattern as you go.
  • New and innovative fit adjustment capabilities, delivering finely detailed fit corrections with features such as stitch tension release and 3D stitching enhancements.
  • New integrated vector artwork support, smoothing the digital design workflow even further.
  • Introducing a new file format – BW. This new format makes it a snap to share files, and includes a preview image so it’s easier to find the file you are looking for. Don’t worry about your existing files, because VSP and VSGX are still 100% usable, and we will continue to support them.

These features really ramp up the power and convenience of doing your garment fitting in 3D. The new 2019  August Edition will make you love your work more than ever.

 

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How to Virtually Design Your Own Clothes

How to Virtually Design Your Own Clothes

Have you ever dreamed of wearing one-of-a-kind clothes that truly reflect your inner self? Garments that physically match the image you have in your mind? Have you looked for technological solutions that would help you showcase your talent in fashion design? Solutions that would allow you to spend more time exploring where your creativity takes you?

With Browzwear’s technologically advanced, user-friendly fashion design solutions, your dreams can now come true!

Browzwear’s virtual 3D fashion software 

Browzwear is continuing to lead the virtual fashion design revolution. With its latest edition of VStitcher and Lotta software, you now have highly sophisticated yet easy-to-use tools at your fingertips, to help you virtually design your own clothes. What has taken you hours to do in the past, will now take minutes!

These are the main technologically advanced features that we have developed for you, the virtual fashion designer:

Intuitive interfaces

  • Jump in! In no time at all, you’ll feel like a pro. Our intuitive interfaces will guide you through the 3D clothing design process, smoothly taking you from one step to the next, until you see your finished garment on the screen, exactly as you envisioned it.

Materials library 

  • Select a material from an existing library that is rich with options, and change the material at a click of a button until you find the one you’re happiest with. To help you make the optimal choice, the library includes comprehensive information on each material, also specifying its physical properties. 
  • As you progress, you can also create and add your own library for easy access in the future.

Adding trims and artworks 

  • Select trims and add artworks, and position them on the garment by simply dragging and dropping them where they are the most flattering. 
  • You can group your artworks and trims to move them all together, while still retaining the ability to interact with each one separately, if you wish; for example, to scale one or more, but not others.

360° 3D view

  • The garment you are designing is viewed in a window on your screen in 3D, and can be displayed from any angle you choose.
  • The 3D view also allows viewing the draping of the different materials, to help you select the one that works best for you.

True-to-life rendering

  • Browzwear takes rendering to a new level with its exceptionally realistic visualization of velvet, metallic, glitter, PVC and other materials. It enables you to perfectly match the garment you see on the screen to the image in your mind. How cool is that!

Real-time viewing

  • Any change in the selection of materials, seams, artworks, etc., and any alteration you make, appears on your screen instantaneously, allowing you to continue designing without wasting precious time.

Achieving optimal fit

  • The combination of all the advanced features ensures that achieving optimal fit is clicks away. When selecting the right material, artwork, trims and all other elements, and with a 3D view of the garment throughout the design process, you can’t miss!
  • Browzwear software does even more! For example, you can check if a sleeve is at the appropriate length by viewing it not only on a straight arm, but also when the elbow is bent. 

Colorways workspace

  • In this dedicated workspace, you can now create, manage and adjust colorways effortlessly and quickly. Changes that you make – whether in materials, physical properties, trims or other parameters – are updated at a click in other colorways you are working on.

Creating a virtual catalog

  • With Browzwear’s VStitcher and Lotta virtual 3D fashion software with enhanced visualization and multiple state-of-the-art features, creating a virtual catalog of your self-designed fashion is a breeze!

Creating patterns

  • Creating patterns the old way – manually – is such a drag… so you’ll be happy to find that with Browzwear software this task is now also much easier and less time consuming!

Now is the time to let your imagination run free, to tap into your inner creativity and sources of inspiration, and translate your vision into reality. With Browzwear’s trailblazing software, virtually creating unique fashion and displaying your talent for the world to see has never been easier and more enjoyable!

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Native Physically-based Rendering Brings State-of-the-Art Material Renderings to VStitcher and Lotta Users

In our last post, we introduced the new Colorways workspace. In this post, we’ll provide details about the new Physical-Based Rendering (PBR) material system integration for state-of-the-art material renderings. The new integration is native to VStitcher and Lotta and delivers more realistic ray-trace output, as well as real-time output in our 3D window. 

 

PBR makes material renders more robust, enabling a realistic look of materials in real-time 3D including metallics, velvet, glitter, and many more. PBR materials were originally developed by Disney and are used in professional pipelines for films and animation. We are proud to be the first apparel-focused software to integrate this advanced and robust material system.

The new integration enables improved output in the 3D window and when rendering. Users will also enjoy more material maps detailed in the Context view for each material type, as well as the addition of Browzwear PBR FBX format as an option when exporting 3D objects. Users are also free to access and use a selection of high quality PBR materials in the Browzwear online asset library.

 

For our full documentation about PBR, visit our Help Center.

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Grouping and Locking and Hiding! Oh, My!

Just when you thought we couldn’t have done it better… We went ahead and tipped the scales. Some of our most exciting and useful enhancements from the April 2019 update of VStitcher and Lotta, are the upgraded features we incorporated into our Group, Lock and Hide tools. It’s everything you’ve known and loved about grouping, locking and hiding…plus a little more oomph!

All Together Now, 1-2-3

The April 2019 edition added new capabilities and a robust Group feature. Now, you can group internal elements together and perform actions on all the elements together as a group. The following objects can be grouped for easy manipulation: artwork, trims, internal lines, and pieces that are all attached to one base piece. Read more about Grouping Elements in the Support section.

Lock it up!

It’s now easier than ever to lock elements, protecting them from accidental changes. Once locked, the elements cannot be selected or stitched, which protects the element from being accidentally edited or changed. There are several ways to lock elements, and you can read more about it in the Support section.

I Can See Clearly Now

With enhanced “Hide” options, see your garments more easily by seamlessly hiding elements in the 2D window or the 3D window or both. Group all your measurement rulers, lock them and then hide them so you can continue designing freely without any clutter, and confident that your measurement rulers are safe from unintentional edits.  For more detailed information on the updated features, check out the Support section.

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The first and only comprehensive colorways workspace for professional apparel designers

Working across all colorways has never been easier and quicker. With the new, improved workflow, what used to take hours, now takes only minutes!

Browzwear is proud to introduce Colorways – a dedicated intuitive workspace for creating, managing and adjusting colorways, with multiple new features developed to optimally respond to designer needs. With this latest innovative technological tool, Browzwear is continuing to lead the fashion industry and further streamline the apparel design process, to support you, the apparel designer, in unleashing your creativity.

The Colorways interface clearly displays the color libraries, as well as all the materials, fabrics, seams, artwork and trims you can choose from. It provides you with full control of all parameters, and with the ability to introduce modifications more easily than ever before. Any change in the choice of fabrics, colors, trims, physical properties, etc. can be updated at a click,  in either one, several or all the colorways. Icons indicate links to other colorways in which the same changes in trims and artworks have been implemented. To change the color of a material, simply drag and drop the color icon to the material. Artwork, including its texture and physics, is easily added anywhere on the garment, and can be scaled to different sizes, linked to or unlinked from trims, and updated with a click. Another important option provided by Colorways is copying and pasting specific individual features, such as only the physical properties, to provide you with full flexibility in realizing your vision. As you continue in your design process, you can clone, add, import, delete and rename colorways – all with a click or two.

All the modifications are viewed in real time, in a window of adjustable size, in 2D and 3D. Preview images, which previously showed only colors, now display complete images, with the added option of grid view. These images can be reorganized in the order you prefer, which will automatically be reflected in the generated tech pack as well. Furthermore, thumbnails also provide a more true-to-life representation, with the checkered background removed and shadows added to improve fabric viewing.

A supplemental new feature, significant also in terms of its implication on reducing production costs, is the display of ‘colors in use’. This feature allows you to easily identify if you have used, for example, two very similar colors, and unify them by placing the icon of one on the other. 

The one of the two that you have chosen will automatically be updated where the other one has been implemented.

Try out our new Colorways workspace and share your experience with us!

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2019 April Edition Update

New update brings enhancements and improvements to VStitcher and Lotta 2019 April Edition.

We hope you’ve enjoyed working with and getting to know the new features in VStitcher and Lotta 2019 April Edition. We wanted to let you know that the latest software build is now available for download. The build includes enhancements and improvements as detailed in the Release Notes, and we have fixed some issues from the initial release.

Click here to read the full release notes and here to download.

If you have any questions about the update or any of our products, please contact your Browzwear representative.

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Splashing Around with AATCC

Browzwear was proud to sponsor the AATCC Concept 2 Consumer® Student Design Competition for the second year. More than 120 students from 24 colleges and universities submitted 96 entries to the competition with the theme: Splashing Around. The challenge was for students to design a line for a specific outdoor activity that is both fashionable and functional to use in the rain.

We awarded the first place winner a MacBook Pro with a one-year VStitcher software license and the opportunity for a paid summer internship. The second place winner was also awarded a one-year VStitcher software license and an opportunity for a paid internship from Browzwear. Two honorable mentions received a VStitcher license as well.

This year’s winners include:

It has been our pleasure working with AATCC as a sponsor and supporter of this exciting competition. We love to see the creativity and ideas from the students through their incredible designs.

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Springing into Fashion with VStitcher and Lotta – April 2019 Editions

We’re saying goodbye to winter and springing into fashion and warmer weather with brand new 3D clothing design tools and features for brands. We heard our customers and gathered feedback and input to create advanced features which make it easier for you to design your own clothes virtually.

Some of the new features include:

  • Brand New Colorways Workspace provides the first and only advanced, comprehensive solution for professional apparel designers. The new workspace enables full control over all the different colors, fabrics and graphics as well as the ability to apply changes across all, some or one colorway. What used to take hours, now takes minutes with the new highly intuitive colorways workspace that  provides everything for quick decision making and includes advanced tools to make broad changes in a click of a button.
  • Native Physical-Based Rendering (PBR) material system integration for state-of-the-art material renderings. PBR makes material renders more robust, enabling a realistic look of materials in real-time 3D including metallics, velvet, glitter and many more. PBR materials were originally developed by Disney and are used in professional pipelines for films and animation. We are proud to be the first apparel-focused software integrate this advanced and robust material system.
  • New 3D Styling Properties including retouch, flatten and erase make it easier to make adjustments and communicate issues to pattern makers by showing them exactly where to make pattern modifications while keeping the integrity of the pattern pieces.
  • Group/Lock/Hide enable designers to quickly group multiple elements and move them around together (e.g. a graphic and lines or trims), lock a specific element so it doesn’t move when others move, or hide a specific element’s type (e.g. all the measurement lines from the pattern maker) enabling a multidisciplinary team to work on a single garment together.
  • U3M File Format Support enables brands to add a local/custom library and directly manage the brand materials. Now all the material information – from high end visual information to the physics properties of the fabric – is packaged in one single file, making it easier to share. In addition to the standard Browzwear library, everyone at the organization can access the local library as well.
  • Other improvements including reduce points, auto-save and 3D measurements.

Want to hear more? Check out our on-demand webinars for an in-depth look at VStitcher and Lotta – April 2019 editions, or visit our online Help Center.

Let us know what you think…

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Browzwear Introduces Alvanon Compatibility for Ease of Use

With the release of VStitcher 8.0 and Lotta 4.0, Browzwear now support avatars from Alvanon’s new 3D body platform – the Alvanon Body Platform (APB), which recently launched with 6,000 models. The virtual 3D AlvaForms are a standard for body shapes and sizes of consumers around the world and offer useful design and development features including AlvaForm textures and measurement lines; T, A and regular poses; and a high-resolution 3D mesh to facilitate draping functionality.

“We believe brands need an effective method to monitor the correct usage of their fit standards within their supply chain and the Alvanon Body Platform allows brands to view, monitor and distribute fit standards with authorized vendors,” said Jason Wang, Chief Operating Officer at Alvanon.

We are looking forward to seeing the new enhancements Alvanon has scheduled for their virtual 3D AlvaForms in the coming months, including poseable parametric bodies and enhanced textures, which will automatically sync with Browzwear applications.

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Looking (Fashion) Forward: Predictions for 2019 and Beyond

We were ready to say “goodbye” to 2018 and welcome the new year with open arms. While 2018 saw a lot of advancements in the fashion industry, we know the next year or two will see even more and we’re excited to get to work. So what do we think are the biggest trends to hit the fashion industry as we head towards 2020?

Sustainability. And personalization powered by AI.

After so many decades of wastefulness and over-production, we are excited to see the move towards sustainable and scalable solutions. Consumers are becoming more environmentally aware, rightfully, they are demanding a higher level of commitment to the environment from the brands and companies they know. And brands? We are proud to see the efforts to streamline production and know that sustainable and scalable solutions are possible and worth the investment in the long run.

Sustainability

A recent article in EcoWatch examined just how much pollution and waste is created from clothing production, calling it the second largest polluter behind the oil industry!

According to the EcoWatch: “While cotton, especially organic cotton, might seem like a smart choice, it can still take more than 5,000 gallons of water to manufacture just a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Synthetic, man-made fibers, while not as water-intensive, often have issues with manufacturing pollution and sustainability. And across all textiles, the manufacturing and dyeing of fabrics is chemically intensive.”

The Denim Footprint

Let’s look more closely at jeans as an example of a garment that has undergone serious adjustments to achieve more sustainable production. Nearly 3000 gallons of water are needed to produce a single pair of traditional denim jeans. Much of that is needed to grow the cotton, but water is also used in the dyeing process.

Companies like Browzwear partner, Jeanologia, have recognized the need for more sustainable and environmentally-friendly production methods. In fact, Jeanologia has stated that their objective for 2025 is “to achieve the total dehydration and detoxification of the jeans’ industry.” According to their website, a few years ago they developed and released a tool that assesses the environmental impact of the garment finishing processes “by measuring key factors like water and energy consumption, the use of chemicals and the health and safety of workers; giving brands and laundries the tools they need to set goals and monitor their progress on the road to sustainability.”

Smart Factories for Smart Production

According to a recent McKinsey Apparel Go-to-Market Process Survey, 98 percent of executives said it was a priority to improve go-to-market processes and disciplines, and 59 percent said they had already appointed a dedicated team to manage these processes. So how are they doing it?

With 3D digital workflows and smart factories. By implementing a 3D digital workflow, it won’t take two years to produce a new collection. With 3D digitization, in fact, the entire workflow will be shortened to mere weeks, cutting out the infinite waste produced by constant revisions to physical samples. That’s not even to mention the weeks and months (and petrol) spent sending samples back and forth from the studios for revisions.

With the move towards 3D digital workflows, we also predict a real shift towards smart factories over the next few years. We are already starting to see the use of True-to-life 3D digital garments on websites and in catalogs, and we expect that they will only become more and more accurate. The digital garments are becoming more and more detailed and accurate to the point that consumers may not even realize they are purchasing garments that haven’t yet been produced. With smart factories and 3D garments, each order will be filled as it is placed, significantly reducing waste from excess inventory.

Personalization

According to boldmetrics.com, sites like Amazon.com enjoy a 35% conversion rate, while average eCommerce apparel sites only see a conversion rate of 2.5%. Sadly, these conversion rates haven’t changed in the last 20 years. But why? Why is there this glass ceiling that seemingly can’t be broken?

One of the main reasons is because we haven’t yet mastered the art of personalization yet.

So finally, things are changing. With the help of 3D digitalization, we predict a wave of personalization opportunities that will shatter the 2.5% conversion rates.

Predictive Analytics

McKinsey says, “The next-generation model should be based on anticipating what the consumer wants. Powered by predictive analytics and artificial intelligence, this model would proceed from design to delivery in close to real time.” The engine driving this is a digital process enabling brands to keep the momentum by quickly move from the design stage to manufacturing, while integrating customer feedback along the way.

But with those advancements comes the need to make the buying experience more personal too.

Personalized Shopping Experience

In pilot programs, McKinsey says that virtual dressing rooms brought more than a 50% increase in conversion rates for first time buyers and a 30% to 50% reduction in product return rates.

We will start to see a movement towards taking the physical experience of designing, manufacturing and selling clothing straight into the virtual world. By combining digitized 3D pre-production with customized and innovative online storefronts, brands can provide an authentic online experience. Virtual garments and virtual fitting rooms will soon be so realistic that shoppers won’t be able to tell that their avatars are actually trying on digital garments.

The next step will be customized avatars that remember each customer’s personal measurements and past purchases for a truly personalized online shopping experience.

The Future of Design Looks Bright

With the proper digital tools, brands will be able to reduce waste and increase their bottom line. By leveraging speed factories to produce garments after they are purchased, we will see a real shift in the way customer orders are processed. Keeping a finger on the pulse of the market, brands can adapt designs in real time and bring new designs to customers in a fraction of the time. The entire process will be streamlined and the amount of waste – from wasted water to dye to fabric and more – will decrease dramatically. The future of the fashion industry is environmentally sustainable and highly customized.

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