BlakOpal Designs Next Chapter

Creating clothes for avatars in virtual worlds was obviously something I was enjoying doing. By this time BlakOpal Designs had a large catalog of outfits and accessories. At the same time, Second Life was a bit limiting in their adoption of new technologies I was interested in taking advantage of. The use of mesh objects for accessories was slowly being rolled out, and I was able to create a lot of great shoes and hats, but I really wanted to be able to do more with complete mesh outfits. Fortunately there were options in other online communities.

One virtual world we brought BlakOpal designs into was called SineSpace. It was being created by company that also had a history in Second Life, with their focus being on animations there. This virtual world was built on the Unity engine, using entirely mesh objects to build everything. They were a small start-up and were interested in working with us to help push the boundaries of what could be done with clothing, including advanced materials that could take advantage of bump texturing, metallic reflections, and soft mesh with colliders (so you could finally wear a dress that brushed against your leg instead of passing through it). These are all properties that are regular features now, but it was still early days, and we enjoyed pushing the boundaries to see what could be created.

The first thing I wanted to do was to see what existing outfits in the BlakOpal collection could be re-imagined in full mesh. It was a fun exercise to see what I could do to bring them to life in a new way, not just recreate them but do more with them as the technology allowed. Making leather that looked like leather, and metal buttons that reflected the light correctly. And having the technology behind the scenes that could resize the mesh to fit any body size or shape.

As I worked through that process, I learned more about what I could do with advanced PBR materials, and enjoyed seeing how well I could recreate specific materials, and how they would look under different lighting conditions in-world.

The more I played and created, the more enamored I became with creating shoes and boots. The shapes and materials were so much fun to work with, and there was a good market for them. I created the models in Cinema 4D, did the texturing in Substance Painter, and assembled outfits and uploaded via Unity.

As with many stories that begin during this time, the pandemic unfortunately brought an untimely end to this chapter. But who know where BlakOpal Designs will grow from here. Virtual worlds, games, online communities, and the technologies that support them continue to grow. And we keep looking towards the next opportunity to put fun fashions on new avatars.