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Workshop

Creating Clothing for Characters in Marvelous Designer

A Workshop
by Olena Zykova

3D Workflow using Marvelous Designer, Substance Painter, Blender & Photoshop with Olena Zykova

beginner
2h 27m 3s
6 Lessons
A Workshop
by Olena Zykova
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Learn how to create professional quality clothes for 3D characters using Marvelous Designer. Instructor Olena Zykova is a freelance concept artist and 3D character generalist specializing in creating character concept art and assets for AAA game characters. In this comprehensive workshop, she shares her workflow for creating three layered costumes, from block-out to final detailing, and from texturing to the final render.


This 2.5-hour workshop is perfect for character concept artists and character artists specializing in creating clothing assets, as well as costume and fashion designers. Whether you’re an absolute beginner in Marvelous Designer or have some prior experience, Olena covers all the basic tools and shares her pattern-making techniques for all levels to follow along. Key techniques covered in this workshop include blocking out and detailing clothing assets, working with double-layered garments, using internal lines and fabric presets, as well as layering, texturing in Substance Painter, and rendering in Blender.


By completing this workshop, you will be able to construct and texture your own realistic 3D clothing assets to use for any concept art or character art purposes. Project files provided with this workshop include Olena’s Marvelous Designer file for the finished costume, along with her textures, and the Substance Painter files for each garment.

6 Lessons

01Blocking Out 3 GarmentsFree

Olena Zykova introduces her comprehensive workshop, which provides a complete workflow for creating a multi-garment outfit in Marvelous Designer. She emphasizes the importance of sourcing reference materials, building systematically from simple to complex, and using tools such as pattern copying and symmetric editing efficiently. She demonstrates that successful digital garment creation relies on understanding both the technical tools and the iterative pattern adjustment and simulation testing process. Her blockout phase establishes the foundation, with detailing to follow in subsequent lessons.

Duration: 50m 12s

Blocking Out 3 Garments
02Detailing the Jacket

This comprehensive lesson demonstrates that achieving photorealistic 3D garments requires refinement through multiple technical parameters working together. Olena shares key advice to work progressively from low to high resolution, strategically applying different fabric properties and mesh densities to different garment components while managing computational load. By combining proper particle distance settings, fabric presets, internal line manipulation, and double-layer techniques with shrinkage parameters, designers can learn how to transform simple blockouts into production-ready garment visualizations with authentic fabric behavior and detail.

Duration: 38m 49s

Detailing the Jacket
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03Detailing the Pants

This lesson emphasizes the iterative and detail-oriented nature of digital garment design, showing that creating realistic clothing requires careful attention to multiple technical parameters working in harmony. Olena demonstrates how achieving professional results involves constant simulation testing, troubleshooting unexpected issues, and making incremental adjustments to particle distance, fabric presets, and shrinkage values. Her methodical approach of freezing layers, duplicating elements, and fine-tuning settings ultimately creates convincing fabric behavior with realistic folds and draping.

Duration: 18m 10s

Detailing the Pants
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04Detailing the T-Shirt & Creating UVs

This lesson completes Olena's Marvelous Designer workflow by finalizing the T-shirt design and preparing the costume elements for the texturing phase. Her systematic approach to UV organization and separate garment exports creates a clean, organized foundation for detailed texture work in Substance Painter. Her method allows for greater flexibility when combining garments in the final rendering stage while maintaining individual control over each clothing piece.

Duration: 6m 14s

Detailing the T-Shirt & Creating UVs
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05Texturing in Substance Painter

This lesson provides a practical, efficient workflow for creating realistic fabric textures in Substance Painter that appear naturally worn and used. Olena's approach of building from base materials to progressively detailed layers, combined with strategic weathering techniques, demonstrates how to achieve professional results without over-complicating the process. Her emphasis on proper technical setup (baking maps, using correct shaders) and thoughtful detailing (focusing effort where it's visible) makes this an excellent foundation for anyone texturing cloth assets for 3D characters or game assets.

Duration: 19m 42s

Texturing in Substance Painter
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06Finalizing Assets in Blender

This final lesson provides a comprehensive approach to presenting 3D garment designs professionally, from technical setup through final presentation. The combination of Blender rendering techniques with Photoshop post-processing creates portfolio-quality images suitable for client presentations. Olena emphasizes the importance of attention to detail, particularly in showcasing custom design elements that carry storytelling significance, ensuring the final renders effectively communicate the garment's design intent and craftsmanship.

Duration: 13m 56s

Finalizing Assets in Blender
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Primary tools

For this workshop you’ll need:

Marvelous Designer
Blender
Substance Painter
Photoshop

* Note that these programs and materials will not be supplied with the course.

Project Files

This workshop provides project files for artists to download, which gives access to Olena Zykova's project. Inside the package, you'll find:


  • Substance Painter project files (.spp) – Ready-to-open projects for garments that artists can explore and modify to learn the texturing techniques
    - Marvelous Designer project files (.zprj) - Designer projects for garments that artists can explore and modify
    - Texture sets (.png) - Finished Base Color, Normal, Height, Metallic, and Roughness maps for all three garments, ready to use
    - Concept art & references (.jpg) - Visual guides and inspiration materials to understand the creative direction and design process
  • These project files have been provided by the instructor to make it easier to follow along with the workshop.

Skills Covered

Who’s this Workshop for?

This workshop is designed for character concept artists and 3D character artists who create clothing assets for games and entertainment. Both absolute beginners and those with some Marvelous Designer experience will find value in Olena's comprehensive approach to garment creation.


Costume designers, fashion designers, and 3D generalists looking to expand their skill set will also benefit significantly from these lessons. The workshop provides practical techniques for creating professional-quality clothing assets that can elevate any character art or concept design project to industry standards.

Learning Outcomes

By completing this workshop, artists will have mastered the complete pipeline for creating realistic 3D clothing assets from initial block-out through final rendering.


Key skills include:

  • How to block out and detail layered clothing assets using Marvelous Designer's core tools.
  • How to apply professional pattern-making techniques for complex multi-layered garments and costumes.
  • How to work effectively with double-layered garments and internal construction lines for realistic results.
  • How to utilize fabric presets and customize material properties for different garment types.
  • How to texture clothing assets in Substance Painter for photorealistic surface details.
  • How to render finished 3D clothing assets in Blender for professional presentation.
  • How to integrate completed garments into character art and concept design workflows.
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Workshop
Creating Clothing for Characters in Marvelous Designer
3D Workflow using Marvelous Designer, Substance Painter, Blender & Photoshop with Olena Zykova
A Workshop by Olena ZykovaFreelance Concept Artist
beginner
2h 27m
6 Lessons
Instructor Olena ZykovaFreelance Concept Artist

Olena Zykova is a Freelance Concept Artist and 3D Artist with over a decade of industry experience. She specializes in designing characters, props, concept art, and 3D clothing assets, combining strong aesthetics with meticulous attention to detail. Olena has collaborated with a wide range of companies across AAA games, mobile games, and TV commercials, including VOLTA, MOOD Visuals, UGI Studio, and Gameloft. Her work is known for its creativity, precision, and ability to bring concepts to life in both 2D and 3D mediums.

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  • Olena’s eye for style brings elegance and flair to every piece she creates. I've seen her ability to blend aesthetics with unique attention to detail, delivering impactful artwork on every project. Olena’s dedication and passion to her craft make me want to learn from her; I have been curious about her creative process for a long time, and I can’t wait to watch her workshop.

    - Sergio Castaneda
    Freelance Concept Artist

  • I have worked with Olena on several projects at Time Based Arts as Creative Director and I could always count on her to elevate each one. She is a sharp-eyed concept artist with great taste and is a pleasure to work with. The work involved many rounds of comments and refinement, and Olena was always a great energy to have on the team in that process.

    - Francois Roisin
    Creative Director at Selected Works

  • Olena is a very professional, hard-working and enthusiastic artist with a high level of skills and endurance. I worked with her on several projects in the past decade. Not only had she shown exceptional professional ethics, but every team she worked in benefited from her easy-going and cheerful personality. She also contributed to students’ education and showed herself to be a kind teacher.

    - Tina Bulba
    Background Painter at Titmouse

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