Chapter 4 – Scan kitbash collaboration and pitfalls

Chapter 4: Scan / Kitbash Collaboration & Pitfalls

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer using ChatGPT)

Scan / Kitbash Collaboration & Pitfalls

1. Why Scans and Kitbash Matter in 2D / 3D Hybrid Costume Pipelines

In many modern studios, costume concept art doesn’t start from an empty canvas. You often inherit:

Body scans of actors or base characters.
Clothing scans (scanned jackets, pants, boots, armor).
Kitbash libraries of reusable 3D pieces.

Combined with 2D paintover and photobash, these resources form a powerful 2D / 3D hybrid workflow for costumes. They can make your work faster, more realistic, and more consistent across a roster.

But scans and kitbash can also cause real problems: design drift, unclear authorship, technical headaches for 3D, and even ethical or legal issues around asset use. As a costume concept artist—whether on the concept side or the production side—you need to know how to collaborate with these resources intentionally, and how to avoid their pitfalls.

In this article, we’ll focus on:

How scans and kitbash interact with blockouts, pattern sims, and paintovers.
Where they speed things up and where they need extra care.
Common pitfalls (stylistic, technical, and ethical) and how to avoid them.
The different responsibilities of concept‑side and production‑side costume artists.

2. What We Mean by “Scans” and “Kitbash”

Before we look at workflows, it helps to define terms.

2.1 Scans

In this context, scans usually mean:

Body scans: high‑fidelity captures of actor or archetype bodies used as base meshes.
Clothing scans: real garments scanned with photogrammetry or specialized equipment.

Scans give you highly realistic form, wrinkles, textures, and proportions. They are extremely helpful as grounded starting points for costumes.

2.2 Kitbash

Kitbash refers to reusing and recombining existing 3D parts to build new designs:

Armor plates, belts, pouches, buckles.
Helmets, shoulder pads, knee guards.
Holsters, bags, gadgets, jewelry.

Kitbash pieces might come from:

Internal libraries created by your studio.
Asset packs licensed specifically for your project.
Previous characters or skins in the same game.

The key idea is that you’re not building everything from scratch. You are designing with a vocabulary of parts, then painting and refining on top.

3. The Role of Scans and Kitbash in a Hybrid Costume Pipeline

A typical 2D / 3D hybrid pipeline for costumes might include:

Blockouts: Rough 3D volumes and silhouette tests on a mannequin or base body.
Pattern sims: Cloth simulations to test drape and movement.
Kitbash and scans: Add realistic detail and known shapes to the blockout.
Lighting renders & material ID passes: Evaluate form and material read.
Photobash and paintover: Push style, mood, and design polish in 2D.

Scans and kitbash sit mostly in steps 1–3, but they affect everything downstream. If you integrate them well, your paintovers feel grounded, your pattern sims reflect plausible garments, and your final packages are easier for 3D to build.

If you use them poorly, your concepts may be:

Overly dependent on specific scan wrinkles and details.
Inconsistent in style and material logic.
Hard for 3D and tech art to replicate cleanly in production.

4. Collaborating with Body Scans: Getting Proportions and Fit Right

4.1 Scans as the “True” Mannequin

When you have a body scan, that scan is often closer to the final in‑game proportion than any generic mannequin. Using it as your base:

Ensures your costume fits real proportions and muscle mass.
Reveals how cloth and armor sit on a real body, not an idealized one.
Makes your blockouts automatically align with rigging and animation later.

Concept‑side artists can import scans, pose them in key animations, and design costumes knowing they’re on a truthful foundation. Production‑side artists can refine those same scans into official mannequin meshes used across the team.

4.2 Pitfall: Treating Scan Wrinkles as Design

A common trap is to treat scan wrinkles and noise as part of the costume design:

Deep folds in a scanned jacket might come from how it was stored, not how it should look in motion.
Random creases may conflict with your game’s stylization level.

Solution:

Use the scan for macro form and fit: shoulder slope, chest volume, hem length.
Simplify or repaint micro folds and noise to match your style.
When you run pattern sims, let the sim determine fold families, not the scan artifacts.

4.3 Pitfall: Over‑Reliance on One Scan

If every costume you design is wrapped around the same scan without variation, your characters can start to feel like they all share the same body.

Concept‑side mitigation:

Build a small set of scan‑based mannequins for different body types: tank, agile, slender, bulky.
Vary pose, posture, and proportion slightly so costumes don’t feel copy‑pasted.

Production‑side mitigation:

Maintain an official library of base bodies and keep them version‑controlled.
Encourage designers to choose the appropriate archetype for each character’s role and story.

5. Collaborating with Clothing Scans: Realism with Caution

5.1 Clothing Scans as Real‑World Reference

Scanned garments can be incredibly useful:

They show real construction: seam placement, paneling, closures.
They embody authentic material behavior: where leather creases, how padded jackets puff.
They provide high‑quality textures and normal information for later stages.

As a costume concept artist, you can:

Use scans as base meshes for blockouts.
Paint over them to adjust style, proportion, and details.

5.2 Pitfall: “Scan Worship” and Lost Design Ownership

The danger is when you simply recolor or lightly tweak a scanned jacket or pants and call it a new design:

This can blur the line between interpretation and copying.
It may not actually fit the world’s aesthetic or the character’s role.

To avoid this:

Treat scans as raw material, not finished design.
Change cut, length, proportion, and detail language to serve your game’s style.
Combine scanned elements with pattern sims and fresh blockouts to discover new silhouettes.

5.3 Pitfall: Incompatible Style Levels

A hyper‑realistic clothing scan dropped into a stylized world can create visual dissonance.

Concept‑side approach:

Use scans for underlying construction, then re‑draw or paint the surfaces to match your line weight, value structure, and palette rules.

Production‑side approach:

Ensure that any scan‑based assets are processed to match the game’s shader and texture style (color range, roughness behavior, edge sharpness).

6. Kitbash Collaboration: Designing with a Parts Library

6.1 Why Kitbash Is Powerful for Costumes

Kitbash libraries let you:

Build complex outfits quickly out of compatible pieces.
Maintain visual consistency across a faction, class, or game.
Reuse successful solutions (boots, belts, shoulder pads) while still designing.

Concept‑side artists use kitbash to explore variants rapidly:

Heavy armor vs. light armor.
Different chest rigs over the same under‑suit.
Multiple accessory loadouts built on a shared base.

Production‑side artists use kitbash to:**

Maintain an authoritative library of approved parts.
Ensure that concept designs map to existing assets when needed.

6.2 Pitfall: Franken‑Costumes without Cohesion

Combining many different kitbash parts can lead to:

Conflicting design languages (sci‑fi knee pads on a medieval plate set).
Overly busy silhouettes and unclear role reads.

To avoid this, both sides should:

Define style rules for each kitbash set (edge language, motif, material type).
Limit the number of distinct part families per costume.
Use blockouts and silhouettes to judge whether the overall design still reads clearly.

6.3 Pitfall: Hidden Technical Debt

Not all kitbash parts are equal:

Some might be high‑poly, unoptimized, or using outdated rigs.
Others may have poor UVs or material setups.

Production‑side role:

Curate the kitbash library so that only production‑worthy assets are in the main pool.
Flag legacy parts and either upgrade or retire them.

Concept‑side role:

Use approved libraries as much as possible.
When pulling from experimental assets, be explicit that they are visual placeholders, not final production sources.

7. Blockouts, Pattern Sims, and Kitbash: Who Leads What?

7.1 Blockouts First, Kitbash Second

Even with a big kitbash library, start with a blockout:

Establish the core silhouette and mass on the mannequin (scan‑based or standard).
Check gameplay reads before you start layering on details.

Then use kitbash to:

Replace primitive shapes with realistic components.
Test alternative treatments without losing the original silhouette.

This ensures you’re designing based on function and read, not just shuffling parts.

7.2 Pattern Sims as a Reality Check

For cloth‑heavy designs, pattern sims help you see whether:

Kitbashed skirts and cloaks behave reasonably in motion.
Straps, harnesses, and belts interact well with simulated cloth.

If a kitbash piece constantly causes sim collisions or weird draping, you may need to:

Adjust the design (shorten a coat, change a slit position).
Replace or redesign the part altogether.

Production‑side artists often own the pattern‑aware refinement, using sims to confirm that kitbashed combinations are animation‑friendly.

8. Photobash Ethics Around Scans and Kitbash

8.1 Layering Photos on Top of 3D

In 2D paintovers, you may:

Use photobash to enhance scan‑based geometry with real fabric textures.
Add surface detail to kitbash parts (scratches, stitching, insignia).

Ethical practice:

Use licensed or studio‑approved photos only.
Avoid dropping in materials that are clearly recognizable as another artist’s work.

8.2 When Is It “Too Much Photobash”?

If your final concept art:

Is mostly unedited photos with minimal structural change.
Obscures whether the underlying model even matches the game’s style.

Then you risk:

Misleading downstream teams about what’s actually built.
Creating concept art that 3D can’t reproduce convincingly.

Better practice:

Let scans and kitbash handle structure.
Let photobash focus on surface suggestion, always guided by clear material IDs and pattern‑aware logic.

8.3 Transparency with the Team

Inside a studio, it’s important to be clear about:

Which parts of the design come from existing assets or scans.
Which details are conceptual paintover only.
How much of the surface detail is derived from temporary photo textures.

Production‑side artists may do a simplification pass on heavily photobashed concepts to produce clean, understandable orthos and callouts for final packages.

9. Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Let’s summarize key pitfalls and practical ways to dodge them.

9.1 Pitfall: Losing Design Intent to Asset Convenience

It’s easy to let available scans and kitbash pieces dictate your design. The costume turns into “whatever was in the library” rather than a solution to the brief.

Avoidance strategies:

Start each design with a clear written intent: role, faction, personality, gameplay hooks.
Use blockouts and silhouette passes to commit to big decisions before opening the kitbash shelf.
Treat scans and kitbash as servants of intent, not the other way around.

9.2 Pitfall: Style Mismatch Between Elements

A scanned leather jacket, a stylized fantasy pauldron, and a realistic tactical belt may clash even if they fit physically.

Avoidance strategies:

Define style pillars: edge sharpness, detail density, value range.
Apply consistent paintover treatment to unify surfaces.
Use material IDs and value grouping to balance contrast across elements.

9.3 Pitfall: Technical Silos Between Concept and Production

If concept artists use scans and kitbash in a way that production doesn’t understand or can’t access, misalignment happens.

Avoidance strategies:

Share asset libraries and naming conventions between concept and production.
Regularly review concepts together, identifying which parts map to existing assets and which are new.
Have production‑side artists flag “danger zones” (hard to rig, hard to sim, heavy geometry) early.

9.4 Pitfall: Legal and Licensing Issues

Using third‑party scans or kitbash assets without proper licenses or clear documentation can create legal risk.

Avoidance strategies:

Use studio‑approved sources only.
Keep a simple internal record of where assets came from.
When in doubt, consult leads or producers before basing major designs on external kits.

10. Concept‑Side vs. Production‑Side Responsibilities

10.1 Concept‑Side Costume Artists

Your responsibilities around scans and kitbash include:

Using scans to ground proportions and fit without being trapped by every wrinkle.
Using kitbash to explore options quickly while maintaining a clear, cohesive vision.
Keeping designs aligned with the brief, genre, and role, not just the library.
Using photobash ethically, as a tool for surface suggestion, not as a replacement for design.

You are responsible for the visual intent and storytelling of the costume.

10.2 Production‑Side Costume Artists

Your responsibilities around scans and kitbash include:

Curating and maintaining official scan and kitbash libraries.
Ensuring that concept‑side workflows map to buildable, rig‑friendly assets.
Running or coordinating pattern sims and blockout reviews to validate cloth and mobility.
Cleaning up heavily kitbashed or photobashed concepts into clear orthos, material IDs, and callout sheets.

You are responsible for clarity, consistency, and technical feasibility.

11. A Practical Hybrid Workflow Example

Here’s how a scan/kitbash collaboration might look in practice.

Start with a body scan of the hero archetype. Pose it in a few key gameplay poses from the pose library.
Block out the costume volume in 3D using primitive shapes on top of the scan. Check silhouette and role read.
Kitbash key elements: boots, chest rig, shoulder armor, utility belt. Adjust them to fit the blockout, not the other way around.
For cloth‑heavy areas (coat, scarf, skirt), build basic patterns and run cloth sims over the scanned body. Capture drape in key poses.
Set up a neutral lighting rig and generate lighting renders plus material ID passes.
Move into 2D: import renders and IDs, then paintover, using photobash for fabric textures and micro details. Respect the big truths from the scan, blockout, and sims.
As a production‑side artist (or in a production pass), clean up the design into turnarounds, seam maps, and material callouts, referencing which parts come from kitbash libraries and which are new.
Deliver a final package that 3D, rigging, cloth sim, UI, and marketing can all rely on—fully aware of where scans and kitbash were used, and what they should reproduce vs. reinterpret.

12. Turning Scans and Kitbash from Crutch into Craft

Scans and kitbash are sometimes seen as shortcuts or crutches—ways to avoid drawing, sculpting, or thinking deeply. In a healthy 2D / 3D hybrid pipeline, they are none of those things. They are tools that:

Preserve real‑world truth about bodies, garments, and materials.
Accelerate exploration and variation.
Help create a coherent visual language across a large cast of characters.

For concept‑side costume artists, the challenge is to use these tools without surrendering design intent. You are still responsible for silhouette, story, role readability, and style.

For production‑side costume artists, the challenge is to structure and maintain these tools so they’re trustworthy, efficient, and easy for the rest of the team to use.

If you treat scans and kitbash as collaborators—not as shortcuts—your costume concepts become more grounded, more consistent, and easier to build. Combined with thoughtful blockouts, pattern‑aware sims, and ethical photobash, they form a robust hybrid method that lets you move from idea to production‑ready costume with confidence and clarity.