Something I am very interested in and haven’t seen much of is combining my two passions: 3D and Fabric Design. I like the idea of creating something on the computer but its finished result is dependent on the fabric and its final stitching and embellishments. One project I worked on this revolved around Humpty Dumpty. Below you can see the original render I created with Maya.
I wanted to create something that can be recognized from the nursery rhyme but still be a bit of a surprise. I first drew a small sketch to build the composition. Looking at the rhyme, I knew I wanted a rock wall for Humpty to fall off of and mountains in the distance for the King’s men to come from. But with my twist I decided it was too late for Humpty to be put together again. I hand painted all the textures in Photoshop and applied them to the models in Maya.
Once the main render was complete, I took the composition and started breaking it into sections to render out separate areas to print onto fabric. I used my own personal printed and fabric made especially for it. The fabric does need to be treated with water and let to dry after printing, but using my own I could decide how to break up the sections. Below you can see the final result.
Similar to how the ground can look from the sky, I stitched the ground together first to create strips of patchwork and give the scene some additional depth. Next I quilted the rock wall over the background mountains and ground plane. And for the final touch I added the fabric pieces of Humpty Dumpty and quilted him into the final wall hanging composition.
This was a lot of fun and I have two more pieces I plan to embellish, The Beanstalk from Jack and the Beanstalk and the Spider from Little Miss Muffett.
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