Chapter 1 – Wardrobe Prep

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

Wardrobe Prep (Fit, Markers, Laundering) for Costume Concept Artists

Scans, Wardrobe & Photogrammetry – Collaboration for Capture & Integration

Photogrammetry, 3D body scans, and wardrobe capture sessions are no longer just VFX or character‑art problems. As a costume concept artist—whether you sit on the concepting side or work closer to production—you directly influence what gets scanned, how well it scans, and how usable those scans are downstream.

Wardrobe prep sounds mundane next to designing legendary armor sets and magical capes—but if you ignore it, you’ll feel the pain later: unusable scans, crunchy normals, mismatched fit, or assets that don’t line up with your original design intent. Good prep can turn a single scan session into a rich source of reusable data, textures, and reference for the entire team.

This article walks through wardrobe preparation for scans and photogrammetry, focusing on:

  • Fit – choosing and adjusting garments so they capture the right shapes and folds.
  • Markers – using tracking and calibration aids that make scans and retopo cleaner.
  • Laundering & finish – getting the fabric surface into a scan‑friendly, design‑accurate state.

Throughout, we’ll zoom in on capture & integration: how your decisions before and during the scan session make it easier to integrate captured wardrobe into the game’s character pipeline.

1. Why Wardrobe Prep Matters to Costume Concept Artists

Concept artists often imagine photogrammetry as: take cool costume → point camera → instant 3D magic. In reality, capture is fragile. Wrinkles, seams, specular highlights, reflective trims, and even deodorant marks can introduce noise that makes:

  • Mesh reconstruction harder.
  • Texture baking messy.
  • Material calibration inaccurate.

As a costume concept artist, you’re uniquely positioned to:

  • Specify how the outfit should sit on the body (slouch vs tailored, lived‑in vs hero‑pressed).
  • Plan which parts must be physically built vs. painted vs. simulated.
  • Collaborate with wardrobe, scan, and character art teams so the physical garments capture the shapes and material nuances that matter most for your design.

If you treat wardrobe prep as part of your design process, your concept sheets become practical blueprints for scan sessions instead of just pretty images.

2. Fit: Getting the Right Shapes into the Scan

Fit is the bridge between your 2D concept and the 3D body that will eventually wear it. A good fit during scanning ensures that:

  • The garment’s silhouettes and folds reflect your intended body type.
  • Key design elements sit in the correct anatomical zones (e.g., knee pads actually on knees, chest emblem not half on the ribcage).
  • You capture a stable baseline that can be reused or adjusted, rather than a one‑off accident.

2.1 Aligning Fit with the Design Intent

When you design a costume, you’re implicitly making fit decisions:

  • Military coat: crisp, structured, tailored fit.
  • Wanderer’s cloak: loose, draped, slightly off‑shoulder and lived‑in.
  • Tech bodysuit: compressive, panel‑mapped, hugging muscles.

If the garment used for scanning doesn’t matches this intent, the captured folds and volume will feel wrong, even if the mesh is technically “clean.”

As a concept artist, you can help by:

  • Providing fit notes on your callout sheets: “oversized by 1–2 sizes,” “snug at forearms,” “drop shoulder seam,” “cinched at waist.”
  • Including front/side/back fit sketches showing how much space exists between cloth and body at key landmarks (shoulders, elbows, knees, hips, boots).
  • Clarifying comfort vs hero fit: do we want realistic posture wrinkles, or showroom‑perfect? Both can be valid, but they scan differently.

2.2 Choosing Bases & Layers for Scan

For layered costumes, not every layer needs to exist physically for scanning. Sometimes you:

  • Scan a base garment to capture underlying folds.
  • Layer additional garments in post, or fabricate only certain hero pieces.

Work with wardrobe and scanning to decide:

  • Which layers must be real, physical garments because their drape and micro folds matter (long coat, cape, skirt, unique pants silhouette).
  • Which layers can be virtually added by character art (armor plates, some belts, straps, modular pouches).

Your concept package can mark items as:

  • Scan priority A – must be captured physically to preserve drape and texture.
  • Scan priority B – nice‑to‑have but can be faked with texture or sculpt.
  • Digital‑only – not worth constructing; design for digital layering instead.

2.3 Fit During the Scan Session

Even a well‑designed garment needs last‑minute adjustments when put on a real body or mannequin. Concept and production artists can support by:

  • Attending (or reviewing photos from) test fits, noting how real fabric behaves compared to the concept.
  • Agreeing on scan poses that reflect neutral drape: arms slightly away from body to avoid big occlusion shadows, legs apart enough to separate folds, but not extreme action poses that deform the garment unnaturally.
  • Calling out critical areas where fit must be preserved: “Make sure the chest strap sits just below clavicle; knee pad centered on patella; belt sagging slightly front‑heavy.”

Small adjustments (pins, tapes, temporary tucks) are fine for scanning as long as everyone understands what’s “real design” vs. “scan hack.” Document the difference with quick notes and photos.

3. Markers: Helping the Scan Pipeline Understand Your Costume

Markers are visual anchors—dots, strips, tags, or patterns—added to garments, props, or the capture space to make reconstruction and integration easier.

From a costume concept perspective, markers are about trade‑offs:

  • Some markers are purely technical and will be removed from final textures.
  • Others can be cleverly integrated into the actual design as seams, piping, or motifs.

The more you think about markers early, the less you’ll fight with noisy scans later.

3.1 Tracking Markers for Photogrammetry

Standard photogrammetry pipelines often use high‑contrast markers on:

  • Neutral garments or base suits (for motion capture).
  • Backgrounds or turntables.
  • Large, uniform surfaces that otherwise lack enough visual features.

For wardrobe capture:

  • Feature‑poor fabrics (solid, flat color with little texture) can benefit from temporary markers to give the software anchor points.
  • Large smooth areas (long cape, minimalist trench coat) may need subtle, removable pattern or taped dots during scanning.

As a concept artist, you can:

  • Avoid designing critical garments as perfectly flat, featureless voids. Introduce subtle weave, stitching, or tonal variance that also helps reconstruction.
  • Suggest marker‑friendly zones—places where temporary tape dots or pins can be added and later cloned out of texture with minimal impact.

3.2 Anatomical & Pattern Markers for Integration

Beyond tracking, some markers serve integration and rigging:

  • Seam lines that align with joint breakpoints (shoulder, elbow, knee, waist).
  • Panel boundaries that indicate material changes or deformation zones.
  • Pattern notches that help re‑establish UV seams or layering.

You can enhance scan usability by designing these seams and panels to:

  • Land where rigging and deformation already like to break the mesh.
  • Form readable, stable lines the character artist can use when retopoing and unwrapping.

For example, instead of a random zig‑zag seam across the elbow, you might:

  • Align a seam with the biceps/triceps boundary or natural fabric fold line.
  • Place decorative piping along motion paths where deformation is expected.

These design choices become built‑in markers that guide downstream work.

3.3 Photogrammetry‑Friendly Motifs

Photogrammetry likes clear contrast, recognizable shapes, and consistent scale. You can harness that by:

  • Designing repeat patterns (checks, quilting, panels) with consistent spacing that give plenty of anchor points.
  • Avoiding overly small, high‑frequency noise patterns that may alias or mush into mushy texture blocks.
  • Using motifs that help confirm proportions—e.g., a distinct emblem at mid‑thigh to visually verify leg length and garment scale.

While you don’t design markers purely for software, you can design software‑friendly garments, especially for hero costumes you know will be scanned.

4. Laundering & Finish: Preparing Fabrics for Capture

Laundering might sound like a wardrobe‑department detail, but it strongly affects surface texture, sheen, and color, all of which impact scan quality.

4.1 Clean, but Not Sterile

You generally want garments:

  • Clean – no random dirt or stains (unless they’re deliberate and part of the design).
  • True to intended wear state – a mercenary’s coat shouldn’t be fresh‑off‑the‑hanger pristine if your concept calls for wear, but dirt should be controlled and art‑directed.

As a concept artist, specify wear level:

  • “Lightly worn”: gentle fading at seams, minimal scuffs.
  • “Battle‑worn”: stronger fraying, patched areas, deliberate discoloration.
  • “Ceremonial”: nearly immaculate, only subtle stress at edges.

Wardrobe can then prep garments—washing, steaming, distressing—to match your art direction before scanning, so the captured textures reflect your intention, not random real‑world abuse.

4.2 Managing Specular & Shine

Highly reflective surfaces can cause major headaches in photogrammetry:

  • Shiny vinyl, patent leather, sequins, metallic threads, or glossy puffer jackets bounce light unpredictably.
  • Hot spots and reflections move between photos, confusing reconstruction and color consistency.

To mitigate this, you can:

  • Design mixed materials: pair glossy accents with broader matte areas that can capture cleanly, then add extra specular flair later in shader work.
  • Use subtle sheens rather than mirror‑like gloss on large surfaces that need to be scanned.
  • Reserve extremely shiny, mirror‑like materials for digital fabrication (modeled and shaded after the fact) rather than physically scanned wardrobe.

Production‑side, wardrobe or scan teams may:

  • Lightly dull surfaces with spray for capture, then restore the intended look in shaders.
  • Adjust lighting setups to avoid specular blowouts.

If this is likely, note in your concept: “In scan: accept slightly reduced shine; final look restored in shader.” This keeps everyone aligned.

4.3 Wrinkles, Pressing, and Set‑In Fold States

The wrinkle story of a garment is crucial to realism and can be partially captured in scans:

  • Pressed and crisp for uniforms, formal wear, ceremonial outfits.
  • Soft, irregular, broken‑in for wanderers, rogues, or everyday gear.

Decide and communicate:

  • Should wardrobe press out factory creases and rack wrinkles, or should some of them remain as part of the character’s life story?
  • Do you want set‑in folds (e.g., a rolled‑up sleeve shape, permanently scrunched boots) captured physically, or should those be simulated digitally?

Mark these in the concept:

  • “Sleeve permanently rolled and lightly stitched; capture as is.”
  • “Cloak should be steamed to remove vertical packing folds; drape should be natural and gravity‑based.”

The goal is consistency: the scanned wrinkling should tell the same story as your concept.

5. Capture & Integration: Thinking Beyond the Scan Session

Wardrobe prep doesn’t end when the last shutter clicks. Everything you do before capture is in service of integration—how well the scanned garments fit into character, rigging, and gameplay pipelines.

5.1 Aligning Garments with Digital Bodies

Scans are typically retopologized and aligned to:

  • A standardized body (base male, base female, unisex, or custom build).
  • Rigging conventions (joint placements, deformation regions).

As a costume concept artist, you can:

  • Design with these base bodies in mind—use the same proportions the character artists and rigging team are using.
  • Avoid design elements that conflict with known rigging constraints (e.g., very stiff, unbroken armor bands directly across major bend points without allowances).
  • Provide annotated overlays on a base mesh showing where belts, harnesses, and armor plates sit relative to joints.

When wardrobe selects real‑world garments or builds custom pieces, they can then mirror these placements, making post‑scan alignment much easier.

5.2 Modular Thinking for Reuse

A good scan session can feed multiple characters if you design modular, mix‑and‑match wardrobe pieces:

  • Generic trousers or boots that can be retextured and slightly reshaped.
  • Base tunics or jackets that take different overlays (armor, straps, insignia).
  • Cloaks and capes that can be recolored and re‑symbolized.

When concepting:

  • Flag which garments are library candidates—pieces you expect to reuse across factions, levels, or NPC groups.
  • Keep their shapes and details clean and versatile so scanning them once yields a flexible asset that can be reskinned.

This multiplies the value of each captured wardrobe piece and aligns with production budgets.

5.3 Documentation for Downstream Teams

After the scan, teams will reference your concepts to interpret the data:

  • Which folds and distress patches are intentional vs accidents.
  • Which seams are structural vs decorative.
  • Which elements are missing from the scan and must be added digitally.

Help them by including:

  • Before/after callouts: a page showing “scan target” (what the wardrobe looked like in reality) next to “ideal final asset” (your concept), with notes like “add extra embroidery digitally” or “push color saturation +15% from scan.”
  • Material ID keys: simple color‑blocked overlays labeling fabric types (canvas, leather, synthetic knit, metal) to guide material assignment after scanning.
  • Integration notes: “Chest harness not built for scan; to be modeled separately and layered over captured jacket.”

The clearer your documentation, the less guesswork—and the fewer rounds of painful rework—downstream.

6. Concept‑Side Workflow: Designing for Scan from Day One

To make wardrobe prep a natural part of your process, you can fold it into your usual concept workflow rather than treating it as a last‑minute patch.

6.1 Plan for Physical vs Digital Split

Early in ideation, ask:

  • Which garments and materials would benefit most from real‑world scanning? (Complex drape, hairy knits, subtle wear patterns.)
  • Which can be ** cleanly sculpted or simulated digitally** without needing a real‑world sample? (Hard armor plates, simple belts, gadgets.)

Mark your design sketches with simple tags:

  • [SCAN] – planned for physical garment + photogrammetry.
  • [DIGITAL] – modeled/simulated only.
  • [HYBRID] – part real, part digital; e.g., scan the base coat, model the shoulder armor.

This gives wardrobe and scan teams an early heads‑up and lets them plan builds and bookings.

6.2 Deliver “Wardrobe Prep Notes” Pages

In addition to standard turnarounds and callouts, create a short Wardrobe Prep Notes page that covers:

  • Fit annotations (“loose at waist, tight cuff, boot shaft slouches”).
  • Material behavior notes (“soft drape,” “stiff canvas,” “crinkles at elbow”).
  • Shine level expectations (“satin sheen, not high‑gloss”).
  • Wear level (“fresh issue,” “moderately worn,” “heavily distressed”).

Treat this like a mini tech sheet for the costume. Make it visual, with arrows and quick sketches—wardrobe, scan techs, and character artists will all understand it faster than a dense text block.

6.3 Thumbnails for Scan Poses & Coverage

When designing hero outfits, include small sketches of:

  • Neutral scan pose: arms out slightly, legs apart, head neutral.
  • Key secondary pose: how the garment behaves when seated, running, or aiming (even if this isn’t used in scanning, it informs how to prep fit and drape).

Highlight coverage:

  • “Ensure full coverage of back cape in spin; no hair occluding shoulder plates.”
  • “Roll up sleeve to mid‑forearm for scan to expose bracer fit.”

These thumbnails help scan teams set up sessions that actually capture the information you need.

7. Production‑Side Workflow: Fixing and Enhancing Through Prep

If you’re on the production side, you might inherit concepts that weren’t fully designed with scanning in mind. You still have plenty of leverage:

7.1 Translating Concept Intent to Real Fabrics

Before a scan session:

  • Work with wardrobe to match fabric weights and behavior as closely as possible to the concept. A heavier fabric may drape differently and affect silhouette.
  • Suggest substitutes that scan better if the exact fabric would cause problems (e.g., swapping extreme high‑gloss for a slightly less reflective but visually similar textile).

Then, capture reference:

  • Photograph test‑drapes and quick fittings.
  • Compare them side by side with the concept and mark where they diverge.

You can then decide with the art director and character lead:

  • What should be fixed in physical prep before scanning.
  • What will be adjusted later in digital sculpt or shader.

7.2 Pre‑Scan Checklists

Before the cameras start rolling, run a quick checklist:

  • Fit: Does the garment sit where the concept indicates? Any problem sagging, pinching, or bunching?
  • Markers: Are required tracking markers placed? Are there natural features (stitching, pattern) that will help reconstruction?
  • Laundering & finish: Are surfaces free of random marks and lint? Is shine within acceptable range? Are desired distress and dirt present but controlled?

Adjust on the spot:

  • Add discreet safety pins or tape to hold problem areas.
  • Steam or re‑press localized wrinkles that break silhouette.
  • Blow off dust, lint, or stray threads from hero surfaces.

7.3 Post‑Scan Feedback Loop

After the first test scans:

  • Review mesh and texture quality with character and tech art.
  • Note issues: noise on specular surfaces, blurry regions from motion/occlusion, unresolved folds.

Feed this back into wardrobe prep for the next session:

  • “Tone down shine on this panel.”
  • “Add subtle pattern to this area for better reconstruction.”
  • “Adjust fit at knee—excessive fabric folding causes confusing topology.”

Over time, you build a wardrobe prep playbook tailored to your studio’s pipeline and scanner setup.

8. Collaboration Mindset: Everyone Owns the Scan

Successful costume scanning isn’t about one heroic team; it’s about collaboration between:

  • Costume concept artists
  • Production costume artists
  • Wardrobe and prop builders
  • Scanning/photogrammetry techs
  • Character, tech art, and rigging

As a costume concept artist, you help most by:

  • Treating wardrobe prep (fit, markers, laundering) as part of your design deliverable, not a separate mystery process.
  • Adding just enough technical awareness—how fit affects drape, how markers help reconstruction, how fabric finish affects capture—to avoid common pitfalls.
  • Communicating clearly which elements must be physically true in the scan and which can be enhanced digitally.

When you do this, your designs step cleanly from sketch to mannequin to scanner to engine. Instead of fighting rework and mismatches, your team gains a reliable flow:

Concept → Wardrobe Prep → Scan → Integration → Playable Character.

That’s the real power of wardrobe prep for scans and photogrammetry: turning your costume concepts into capture‑ready, integration‑friendly realities that honor both artistic vision and production constraints.