Stephy Fung

0:04 hi Steffy how are you welcome to nice Tuesdays how you doing yeah thank you for having me not at all no thank you so much for for joining us.

0:13 So we're going to see some of your work in the background just for everyone out in the audience and that's going to kind of roll on behind us.

0:17 But I guess I wanted to start by talking about your skills because you were kind of yeah you're an auto died like you taught yourself how to do 3D right do you want to just talk us through a little bit how you how you came to 3D and how you taught yourself how to do it yeah yeah artist s thing you know when I graduated so I actually studied graphic design I study at LCC I thought I was going to be this awesome graphic designer in advertising and branding did not happen I ended up loving 3d motion design so from graphic designer I think I saw maybe I have a YouTube video there is this designer called grayscale gorilla if you guys who are motion designers here you guys would definitely know who I'm talking about he was one of the first to be posting tutorials about 3d motion design and I was just like infatuated by what he did and I was excited so I decided that instead of just creating graphic design that was static in Publications and editorials or in posters I wanted it to move I found it way more exciting and it's probably because when I grew up I absolutely loved watching animation I loved watching Disney Ghibli anything of the sort of that I think it's the storytelling aspect that really talks to me.

1:44 And so having graphic design move was just like wow it's exciting so that was my dream after I graduated of course still within advertising and branding that was where. I thought I would be actually in post-production.

1:57 But then covered hit I ended up being at home quite a lot. And I actually worked on a project that sparks my interest in digital fashion okay interesting you have to tell us about that project what was that. So that with this before that you didn't know what digital fashion was and this kind of opened your eyes to that did it yeah no clue before I think it was the year 2019 and I actually joined a collective because I I think I just needed to be in a group that I could relate to especially being a POC woman a designer in that case there wasn't a lot of us there.

2:36 So there was this Collective called actually not was did they still exist it's called digital and I joined this group and they are a collector full of lgbtq plus women-led 3D artists or XR artists as well and they were commissioned by selfridges to create a collection that is physical but make it digital so of course it's digital fashion now at that point I had no clue what it was but they needed help with 3D motion designers for animation for of course lighting texturing all of that business so I put myself forward I think I was freshly graduated at that point it had nothing to do so this was just like the perfect I suppose first project for me outside of uni and so I went for that.

3:21 And then I saw there were two digital fashion artists they were working in Marvelous Designer or glow 3D at that point and they were well they were recreating these garments these physical garments into digital I just found it fascinating I thought oh wow this is so cool and then it clicked because I realized what they were doing was it was 3D and I thought well I know how to do 3D and I've always wanted to design my own clothes just couldn't be asked to actually physically make it.

3:54 So this is just the perfect time to make my dream clothes almost like you know have you guys played Sims that's the best part customizing your own clothes that I spend the longest time in that section.

4:08 So this for me was the perfect thing to do and at that point I was just playing about. And then. I just did it so much that.

4:16 Now I do it every day that's a lovely story yeah I feel like the interior designers are in here going that wasn't the best bit of Sims no way I guess for those people in our audience who don't know could you just maybe give us a little bit of an insight into how you think about digital fashion like what is it and what's the definition I guess from your side yes we think we should have started with that really there's no fashion it is a new industry so it's completely new it has been here for a while especially if any of you guys are Gamers if you guys know we talked about Sims just a moment ago so anything to do with skins customization of the clothes and that that is digital fashion essentially so it's very closely time to to gaming but digital fashion in the most basic sense is I suppose representing cloves using pixels instead of fabrics and I guess like as I said in the introduction. There is a an augmented reality version.

5:10 That's I guess for human bodies and then a more digital version I guess this is fully on yeah in VR for avatars is that right there's many ways you can wear additional fashion now. And I think it's going to set to grow in future I think one of the ways you can wear it is with avatars and online games or in VR or in metaverses you can customize your avatar and wear your skins or your digital fashion pieces the second way is wearing it using either your photograph and you kind of Photoshop it on it's not that glamorous bespoke and it can be done or you could use augmented reality which is similar to of course using face feature face filters but instead it's body tracking and they'll use this body tracking so that you're actually as soon as you move it will track your body and it's as if you're wearing this digital garment on top of your what you're wearing so you're actually wearing two in one yeah. So it's kind of cool flaring yeah I mean I guess it's obviously as you've said it's like a very rapidly growing discipline when you give us if you give us a bit of a like snapshot of what it's like today what are you most excited about in the digital fashion world like what's what's the stuff that you're seeing now that you're like this is at The Cutting Edge of what's going on yeah.

6:26 I think fashion is set to go a lot more especially the younger genre generate they of course they they grow out with theirs too.

6:37 And it's just second nature to them so a lot more people are going to express themselves digitally they're going to have of course if you're going to have a digital version of yourself you're going to want to customize that so digital fashion is going to go along with that. And I think the more that people have access to certain Technologies whether it's augmented reality or maybe we'll have glasses I think there's a Apple's making some I believe yeah there might have been some news about that yesterday.

7:04 I think yeah and Snapchat's already got some out they call it Snapchat spectacles where you you put on some spam and you can actually see augmented reality on top of whatever you're seeing and the technology yes there's some limitations because it's the battery might be it won't last long enough currently and I would say as a 3D artist in terms of the what you guys see here these types of garments they take a lot a lot of memory and of course polygons to make when you convert that into game-ready assets like augmented reality and virtual reality you have to compress the heck out of them and that almost makes the quality a lot less and that's as a designer that makes me really really sad so I'm just waiting for the technology to get better so that we can of course have the Dynamics of when clothes move because clothes look great in movement yeah they are very organic materials so as soon as that happens I'll be very happy yeah I can imagine yeah I mean you've already already kind of touched on this I guess like I'd love to know how your process works and I'm sure everyone in the in the audience as well would love to know can you just talk us through like where does I guess a garment or a collection where does it begin how do you kind of get from there to the finished design what programs are you using I think yeah let's get into the process of it yeah every time I talk about this it.

8:30 Actually makes me cry inside because I use at least six programs to make all of this happen and I wish it was easier but I'm hoping AI will actually speed up the process so you start with I usually start off with a SketchUp to get the idea into my head and also to show it if I'm working with clients it's just to show it visually and very quickly and then we move on to actually choosing the Avatar that you want to put the digital fashion garment onto you use the program does 3D for that it is free it seems that it seems like every 3D artist knows about it because it's free and it's great so I highly recommend it.

8:51 And then we move on to actually making the garments now there's many programs for this.

9:14 Now the most popular ones are Marvelous Designer and Khloe 3D so you make your garments once you're done with that I usually go into texturing so of course you can use Photoshop you can use I tend to use substance painter and then the next part you add them all together you put it into a 3D program of your choice and my 3D program is Cinema 4D just because I come from immersion design background and lastly you render it and you composite it you make it pretty and you make it you know color corrector and all of that you edit it in After Effects and Photoshop so it's it's almost like a whole long Pipeline and there's not an easy way to do it I mean I don't want to sound like a complete technophobe but I'm going to focus on the Sketchbook part of that process just because I'm interested in where your inspiration comes from I mean we're obviously seeing so many of your your Creations behind us.

10:08 But yeah where do you get where do you kind of come up with your ideas where does that inspiration come from I think the reason why I'm so drawn to digital fashion is not only because I was so drawn to customizing in Sims that was one that's only one reason.

10:23 But I think it was the best medium for me to express myself as an artist or designer so with digital fashion I got to express my British Chinese identity which I think is really important for me as I said in in the creative industry there's still not enough POC designers so I just really wanted to kind of like hold the Torchlight and be like I'm here I'm here.

10:52 So I didn't find that feeling with 3D motion design nor graphic design but I found it in digital fashion.

10:58 And it's interesting because with fashion fashion is all about expressing your character your identity your confidence it's not always about what you wear actually it's about expressing of course how confident you are in yourself so I feel like with digital fashion that was one way of me. Actually not only just expressing my British Chinese identity but also a way for me to learn more about my Chinese Heritage because I was brought up in London so a lot of my a lot of my learnings were very eurocentric and then I grew up as an adult and I thought huh I don't know much about Chinese history Chinese culture I mean yeah I eat the food it's great I love the food but I kind of want to know more so this is a way for me to learn about my Chinese Heritage but also share it back to my audience as well you mentioned your audience there and you have this kind of amazingly engaged and loyal Community online yeah across your social media channels but also you have a regular twitch stream as well I'm just interested why have you put so much emphasis on that side of things I guess it is slightly more educational it's slightly more community-minded yeah what's your what's the reasoning behind that because you're also like revealing your process as you go I guess the reason why I'm so I'm so everything I learned is from the school of YouTube so thank you YouTube no truly it's everything I learned that is that that is technical to my career I learned through the people who put out free tutorials on YouTube and I thank them wholly so that is why I'm doing the same thing and also because I've noticed there is a gap in the digital fashion I suppose designer Market you either got 3D artists and you either got fashion designers but none that have the understanding of both so I come from a 3D background I actually don't have a fashion background which is very interesting so I'm actually finding that I'm learning currently still fashion terms and you know even just fashion history so of course there's going to be fashion designers who want to get into this.

13:06 But they don't have the 3D skills so what I'm trying to do right now as I suppose one of one of the few digital fashion artists in the space is actually just showing the process and helping people understand what goes into it I mean if anyone wanted to you know set up their own Community online what have you found are some of the most successful tips I guess for for building a community because you've done it yeah.

13:30 So kind of organically and so successfully what have you found has really landed with your with your audience what are they kind of actually hungry for and what are they I guess by by extension what are they less interested in I think running a community is hard that's what I've learned that's for sure but you need to you need to turn up you need to you need to have a place to meet every single week and I think that's where my twitch streams really help because with live streams you can see the process straight away but you can also see my face and I can also answer your question straight away so you're already building that relationship there.

14:03 Now I know not everyone's comfortable with live streaming so if you're not comfortable with that I wholly recommend maybe going on to places like a Discord where you can have instant messaging there and you can share your process there I find Twitter is also a good space to to find the art community as well Instagram I don't really have luck finding I oh I didn't find it as easy finding new designers there just because of their algorithm but Twitter Discord and twitch I found it a lot easier that's interesting I wouldn't have thought Twitter is is better than Instagram there.

14:37 But yeah very interesting I guess digital fashion is also intrinsically connected to web3 and to nfts again not kind of assuming anyone here necessarily knows those terms that well first off yeah what do we mean by web3 I mean I guess yeah probably everyone's heard of it but maybe doesn't know what it refers to so web free is it's like the new generation of the world wide world Wide Web it includes decentralization it increa it includes I suppose the blockchain and it includes token-based systems now these might sound like huge terms but I'm going to try and break it down as simply as I can the way that I use web free I suppose is you have a digital asset which is your nft token you upload this digital asset it can be artwork it can be audio it can be an AR filter anything digital so you upload that onto the blockchain and then someone who likes it for any reason they can collect it they can buy it they purchase it in exchange for cryptocurrency and that is now owned by them.

15:48 And is as simple as that.

15:51 So the reason why I use it is because I suppose digital fashion it is really closely connected to web free and I really like the transparency because every single transaction the transaction that I just mentioned everything is documented on the blockchain so you can see it's almost like a receipt on the blockchain and you can't change it you can just see where it's gone who it's gone to who owns it and that is something you don't really see in web 2. And that's what I think that's why a lot of people are drawn to it because they like the transparency they're like the authenticity of it and they can see where everything's going yeah yeah I mean I guess nfts you've obviously mentioned that the kind of tokens and that market I guess when particularly when nfts were everywhere probably 2020 2021 maybe last year as well you know they really hit the public Consciousness then.

16:44 And it felt like there was a lot of backlash I think partly around sustainability as well which has kind of became quite a big talking point are there things about nfts that worry you or do you feel like actually. There is maybe a bit of misinformation out there about how bad they are how good they are ♪

17:03 this nft rage I suppose it was yeah 2020 probably the reason why I joined it was just a way for me to actually sell my artwork and digitally in exchange for cryptocurrency it was a new way of income I didn't have to rely on clients so at this point currently I'm still a freelancer but you know for as a freelancer I was just solely reliant on client work. And if I didn't get a client work oh God what am I going to do next month so this was just a new way of earning income.

17:34 So it was very exciting for a lot of the digital artists back then what we didn't know of course was the energy consumption that was of course noted in I think it was in this article that completely blew up on Twitter on the internet and everyone thought oh my God nfts they are ruining the environment and rightly so right they were you know they had fats and they had the data to back it up as I said on the blockchain everything is transparent you can see it on the internet there's no lying there's no covering up. Now it's been about it's been three years oh my God it's been three years so within I think last year the blockchain that everyone was quite concerned about which was ethereum which is the second most used blockchain it's quite popular within two years they have managed to change from there they used to use proof of work system and now they changed to proof of stake now what that means is that they cut their energy emissions by 99.95 percent which is quite a lot yeah it's a lot. And I'm like good I mean have you ever heard of another industry that has switched that quick within two years.

18:40 Now the reason why I get this comment all the time on my tech talk or whatever like online saying oh nfts are the worst they're so bad but you know times have changed they have made improvements I think they took the feedback on and people are still referencing an article that happened what two two three years ago.

18:59 So the thing that really irks me is that because with web free everything is transparent you can see it online people will attack that but people don't think about all their other digital assets that they use or programs so whether it's email or social media where they're still this you know information on servers whether you store if you've got photos for the cloud videos for the cloud all of these digital things are stored in servers somewhere in the world right they're going to be using energy somewhere.

19:32 But is that information being shared out freely to everyone so I find it quite interesting because we've of course they're private private companies right.

19:43 So these types of informations aren't fully shared which is why when something is completely transparent people are in uproar so I hope that has debunked a lot of what people think is the worst thing in the world yeah well I mean that transparency is kind of its biggest I guess like positive and its biggest challenge as well is that yeah people have ammunition if they want to find something there's always it's fully transparent as you say I'd like to focus on on just just one project.

20:11 Actually now you carried out this project while you were in Paris I think earlier this year when you're talking an nft Festival there can you just talk us through that project and what it entailed because it was kind of it's an interesting example of what we were talking about earlier the kind of AR versus VR side yeah.

20:25 So I was invited to go to nft Paris to do a talk for digital fashion. And it in terms of nfts digital fashion is like minuscule it's a in comparison to everything else that's happening in the nft world.

20:40 So I really wanted to go to Paris and just showcase what digital fashion is all about and also just introduce people to what digital fashion is so I was running around Paris and I actually printed out a hundred envelopes because I physically gave it out to people inside these envelopes were QR codes to nft artworks that I created of digital fashion pieces and so with each envelope I gave out people would be receiving a free NFC to Mint on top of that they could also try this nft token this digital fashion piece as an AR filter and that for me was the best part.

21:20 Actually getting people involved using an AR filter and I actually partnered with a company called zero 10 and they have the best body tracking for AR or digital fashion pieces at the current moment so I think once people tried it they were fascinated they loved it but when you just see it as an artwork they didn't really get it because with digital fashion it has the word fashion in it and people want to wear fashion right.

21:45 So I think going forward what I've learned from that experience is that you know AR or VR or having the experience to wear digital fashion is really going to help push this industry forward and so for me that little experiment because it was really it was one just to introduce people to digital fashion. But also a way to Market myself to people who had no clue about what digital fashion was I guess I mean you touched on the kind of the future I'd like to look at the future of digital fashion now you mentioned that it's in a very exciting space right.

22:21 Now there's lots of interesting things happening I guess when you look to the Future where do you see this field moving in the coming years.

22:28 And I guess by extension then where do you see your own work moving in the coming years because yeah you're hopefully going to stay as a digital fashion artist but yeah I'd love to hear where you think this is going to go next oh it's so exciting I feel like in five years time there's going to be so many things that I'm gonna say now that probably will happen in a year's time just because technology is advancing so quick I definitely believe in augmented reality the fats that we use face filters without even thinking now I think digital fashion is going to be that easy in the future as well where you just swipe and then you can wear your whatever digital fashion piece that you want so that's the first thing I also think that a lot more of you guys in the future will be using digital fashion on your cameras but also like I said with Apple's new spectacles or even Snapchats new spectacles a lot more people are going to be using AR fashion or ar in that way as well because it will become more accessible and in terms of educating actually I hope the industry will actually the universities and actually are just companies in general will actually pick up digital fashion I think there's one or two universities now that just solely have a digital fashion course wow yeah.

23:44 I think one of them is ravensborn and the other one is in UCA I need to check that second one there.

23:52 But it's it's a good sign it's a good sign so what's really great about digital fashion of course people think of course what's the point sustainability wise is going to be a lot better for the fashion industry it's I think it's one of the most polluting Industries in the in the world right. So for digital fashion it's going to counter that and of course change the way that we interact with fashion yeah.

24:16 I think it is the second after the automotive industry I think fashion is the second biggest polluter don't quote me on that.

24:24 But I think that's right we're good we've got a bit of time now for questions from the audience so we obviously had quite a lot submitted by by our audience it's fantastic I'm gonna just go through them if that's all right.

24:34 So Dan and Jay is the first one how do you connect with the digital fashion community the digital fashion Community is time to count them on the palm of my hand so that means there's definitely more space for more designers to come in and also just you know create their own digital fashion brands there's definitely space for that and the way you connect with them well it's as I said on Twitter actually.

24:59 That's where all the web free nft people hang out I would say and on Discord as well.

25:05 So that's where you would find everyone that's where you've got to go down and Jay cat asks what's the best software to try on AR fashion I think AR specifically you're talking about the programs or the actual I think it means yeah.

25:20 I think that means programs I'm sorry if I've mistaken that.

25:23 But I think about both yeah I mean if you're thinking of making AR fashion you've got of course lunch Studio that's owned by Snapchat you've got of course spark AR you have also oh there's one more zero ten are also they've got their own one as well so those are programs you can mess about with I believe Unity of you guys any of you guys are into Unity you guys can make your own assets turn them into filters with that.

25:53 And in terms of apps you've got of course Snapchat it's still one of the pioneering for augmented reality of course and dress X ero ten and of course you've we've got meta can't forget about Facebook yeah them as well. That's for trying on clothes in in I guess like in AR is that right.

26:11 I think meta has a little bit more to go but definitely Snapchat right definitely dress X definitely zero ten okay perfect Stephanie asks do you have any advice for someone struggling to develop their 3D skills whilst working a full-time job which I imagine is yes the answer yeah 3D is hard just because there's so many things that go into it you're talking about of course you know modeling lighting animating texturing I think there's way more to that.

26:40 So I think the best way to approach it just because it's such a huge topic is probably setting yourself a goal to make a little project every single week and you need a counter buddy accountability buddy I don't know someone's mentioned that to me before you need someone who's going to tell you have you done it yet have you done it this week so I think you know setting yourself a little project of what you want to do whether. That's in blender Cinema 4D and then.

27:11 Actually or you could either follow a tutorial that would take you through something. That's also really helpful I just will caution following tutorials to the T just because it doesn't involve you creating or using your creativity too much you're just actually copying so if you're going to use a tutorial just actually take it.

27:27 And then turn it into your own I'm going to ask another one from Dan and Jay actually because this one's great have you ever thought about making your digital clothes physical I know you mentioned at the beginning that you wanted to be a fashion designer but I didn't want to make them in physical form is that something you're interested in doing or anything like yeah a physical fashion kind of scares me because I've never made it before.

27:48 But it is something I'm willing to learn and actually I just want to mention this hoodie that I'm wearing right now just because it is by a brand called artifact which is a digital fashion company and they're owned by Nike now.

28:01 But this hoodie I bought it using an nft token and this NFC token only if you own this nft token you can redeem this physically now it did take a few months to come. That's another thing. That's another issue I wish it you know we're so used to the next day delivery from Amazon and all that.

28:22 So that's something of course these companies need to work on but what they are using is what they called a made to order system so you of course you purchased an nft token then they know how many they got to make they're going to make it then they send it to you which is why it takes longer but there's one key thing I want to show you guys I wonder if I could if you guys can see this Patcher it is an NFC tag so what this allows this garment to do is to connect the physical piece to your nft token and it's a good way of verifying things to make sure that they're legitimate so I know there's a huge issue in the fashion industry where things are fake but with this I owned a token nobody else can own it.

29:11 This is connected to my nft token which maybe in the future since I own this token I might get certain perks to go to events or maybe redeem another physical piece so the possibilities with nft technology is really endless and that's where I see digital fashion going will I make physical pieces in the future maybe I think I need to do a bit more research into what actually goes into the production and Manufacturing but yeah it's definitely an exciting time.

29:43 And I do see a lot more Brands using this type of system thanks so much for everyone who submitted a question there they're really wonderful finally I guess a last question from from me some some career advice maybe for our audience you've mentioned in the past that you're an opportunist I think is how you describes it an opportunist when it comes to your career can you just explain I guess what you mean by that and yeah how you feel that's helped you being an opportunist I guess I'm always very curious. And I like to learn I think that's a key part I do like to learn it's the whole reason why I'm very self-taught in many many things especially for my career if I didn't bother learning 3D I wouldn't be here if I didn't bother learning digital fashion I wouldn't be here.

30:28 I think it's because I was curious.

30:30 And I had nothing else to do that I found pleasure in learning I don't I don't know. Now it sounds weird I'm saying it to myself but I think as a creative because sometimes when we start working in jobs it get you turn into a robot and then your creative Soul dies so I feel like if that's happening to you guys maybe spend an hour really doing something a bit different doing something that you want to do because I would not be a digital fashion artist if I didn't push myself to learn and be I've failed so many times have you guys looked at my first iterations of my digital fashion pieces they did not look like this okay.

31:10 So they were really bad at first but I got better of course with practice so I think staying curious is the key and if you guys want to become something you've got to just put a little bit of effort into making it happen yeah that's a great a great note to end on I'm afraid we have run out of time there but Steffy thank you so much for your time thank you so much for joining us it's been a pleasure [Applause]

31:36 thank you [Applause]