Hello All! I wanted to make an updated version of clothing design TIPS. I have searched and not many posts go in-depth or have that much information. So I would like to.
Note: If this is in the wrong category, let me know.
Some points are doubled as this is a list I made and wasn’t sure if I wrote it or not.
How To Be A Successful Designer
- Keep designing (try at least twice a day)
- Change your style
- Start simply (start simple then start adding shading, highlights, full details, etc step by step)
- Find some inspiration (Pinterest is the one most useful)
- Make event outfits (e.g. egg hunt event; create pants and shirts that match the eggs) (another e.g. when a new hat [by ROBLOX] is created, especially a limited, create a matching outfit)
- Sell for 5$ Robux
- Don’t use free templates (don’t use shading templates, make your own) (don’t copy shoes, make your own)
- Make a group (if your membership stops, your clothes are still on sale)
- Use your imagination (your imagination can help create unique clothes)
- Share your designs on social media (Is like advertising for free)
- Take advantage of your opportunities (applications for malls, etc.)
- Connections (making friends in the designing community; collabs, advice, etc.)
- Make a home store (shopping in a physical store can be more appealing for some rather than shopping in an inventory or on the catalog)
- Sell your clothes for only 5 R$ (cheaper prices = more customers)
- Don’t copy clothing
- Social media is your best friend (increases engagement in your designs, more engagement = more sales, Twitter or YouTube = main socials that help)
- It’s not all about the sales and robux (1. Quality over quantity, 2. Motivation/ drive, 3. Don’t design for a quick cash grab, it won’t last, designing is a PASSION!)
- Design when you are inspired (don’t force yourself to make clothing, you will enjoy it more if you’re making what you want, main inspiration source; Pinterest)
- Quotes; 1. The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it. - Pearl S. Buck, 2. I think the foremost quality - there’s no success without it - is really loving what you do. If you love it, you do it well, and there’s no success if you don’t do well at what your working at. - Malcolm Forbes, 3. Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong. - Ella Fitzgerald
- Make a collection and post it on social media (all designers do this, holidays; Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentines Day, etc., it’s fun and gets your designs more engagement)
- Watch designing videos on YouTube (helps to gain more knowledge and techniques about designing)
- Make your own custom template
- Find your designing style (design whatever you want, your passion of designing will last longer if you are making clothes that YOU like, not so you can just get sales. Your designing style is whatever you like, don’t fit it into one category as it allows you to be creative and make whatever you want, or it can be your clothing style irl)
- Watch speed designs (helps with inspiration and techniques)
- Run ads (gets more exposure for your group, designs and homestore)
- Work for other groups (helps to get your name out there to other big creators and groups)
- Add a try on tool in your homestore (allows the customers to see if they like the clothing on their avatar
- Join creator mall (gets you more sales and can help with your designing career)
- Open commissions
- Practice makes perfect (you won’t become a professional overnight, it will take time)
- Progress takes time
- Robux shouldn’t be your main motivation and shouldn’t just be the reason you’re designing
- Don’t steal or copy clothing
- Be creative
- Design block will happen
- Success is different for everyone
- Set goals
- Comparison will get to you
- Design clothes that you like
- Give your designs a creative title (don’t just name it blue dress, instead name it like ocean sky, e.g.)
- Sell your clothes at the lowest price (5 R$)
- Take design requests / custom clothing requests
- Join multiple small clothing groups and design for them
- Run ads (especially around the holidays and the summer)
- Don’t copy clothing
- Don’t be a kiss-up (don’t be fake towards other successful creators or say, “Oh, you’re like my idol it would mean so much to me.” DONT SAY THAT. Just be successful on your own.)
- Ask other creators for feedback on your clothing (link the clothing and contact them through ROBLOX messages.)
- Get a useful and easy to work with software that you know well
- Put yourself out there and advertise your group (run ads)
- Always look for trends to follow
- Look at what other designers and groups are making (to get inspiration and know what trends are going on.)
- Design for other group and get yourself out there
- Have fun and don’t give up, keep trying!
- Make friendships with other designers and learn from them; learn from each other.
- Watch design videos and learn from nearly literally anyone
- Have and build a homestore with a try on tool (include clothing that are the most popular, event clothing, clothing you’re proud of, etc.)
- Apply to anything you can (even if you aren’t accepted they will remember you and will get in contact for future needs.)
- Make a custom template (it will save you from getting your designs stolen. Also add your username permanently somewhere on your designs, e.g. bottom of the torso.)
- Post your new collections/ designs on Twitter
- Tag game developers and/or designers on your posts about your designs, etc.
- Make designer friends (learn from each other, create relationships/ possibly friendships.)
- Make a perform portfolio about you and your designs and designing background so games and other designers will know what they are looking at when you offer your works
- Use creator mall
- Find something that your obsessed with or you like and run with it in your designs
- Put logos on your clothing (it will stop people from copying your clothing)
- Find games that need designers and apply for positions
- Make a homestore when you have made at least 30 pieces of clothing
- Find a style that works for you but don’t just limit yourself to that
- Find your way of shading (no shading at all, minimal shading, over the top shading, etc.)
- Don’t just limit yourself as a clothing designer; also so that you have something to fall back on (try other things like building and texturing models, making games, selling gfx’s, etc.)
- Stop comparing yourself to other people (they have had multiple years of practice, it will take time and practice for you to get better and improve.)
- Be original (if you’re using a reference credit it and change it by at least 50% to call it your own and original, dont copy or steal others’ clothing)
- Don’t put logos like Nike, Adidas, KitKat, etc. if you don’t have the licensing rights or permission to use it (they can place a lawsuit against you, don’t use anything that isn’t yours [e.g. a picture of the sky], USE YOUR OWN ASSETS!)
- Be careful of who you are friends with, being a designer comes with negativity
- Put a lot of time and effort into your designs (quality and consistency is key in the ROBLOX clothing industry, upload frequently, make clothes detailed as possible.)
- Create a homestore
- Don’t change your username (if you do, don’t do it often
- Run ads (don’t spend too much robux on them)
- Apply to feature you clothing in malls and game
- Make clothing collections
- Collaborate with other designers
- Do NOT copy
Do’s and Dont’s
- Don’t: Use brands on your clothing
- Do: Use your group name or username (as a logo)
- Don’t: Copy and paste images taken from the internet
- Do: Draw and paint anything yourself (apart from using royalty free patterns)
- Don’t: Take images of details from google (flowers, emojis, etc.)
- Do: Draw and create your own version (you can use inspiration)
- Don’t: Replicate designs other people have already created
- Do: Come up with your own outfit ideas
- Don’t: Do loads of recolours constantly
- Do: Make a big selection of different outfits
- Don’t: Use boring colours in your clothing
- Do: Use fun colours to draw people in/ stand out
- Don’t: Make clothing you dislike
- Do: Make clothes you enjoy creating
- Don’t: Copy!!
- Do: Make your own clothes
- Watch tutorials and speed designs
- Add as much detail as possible to your designs
- Don’t make hundreds of recolours of every outfit
- Use different sites/ apps for outfit inspiration
- Don’t let ‘bigger’ designers intimidate or discourage you
- Ask more experienced designers for feedback
- Make different social media accounts to branch out
- Try new and different styles to see which is best for you
- Stay away from using brands on your clothing
- Add watermarks to your clothing
- Don’t just do it for the money
- Join designing servers on discord
- Do short-term commissions
- Join the DevForum
- Know how to use your designing software
- Learn shading! You can’t copy real clothing forever
- Get out of your comfort zone
- Only design when you feel like it
- *Find out and get the template she uses
- Make your own template
- Sign up for any mall/ designing game
- Work for any groups that need clothing/ merch
- Join designers’ discord servers
- Have a homestore
- Create original clothing; don’t copy
- Social media (make and post collections; that have at least 3-8 outfits)
- Talk to other designers
- Make a homestore
- Sign up to malls
- Use a clothing tracker to track sales
- Have a homestore
- Use creator mall
- Make your own template
- Promote your name (apply for various groups, promote your clothing via social media by making commissions or posting your work, many discord designing servers provide free assets for use with credit)
- Interact with your group and post as much as often
- Never shade with black (recommended colours; blue, purple, yellow, orange; depends on general tone. Black is a lot more harsh and harder to blend in.)
- Research (watch tutorials, watch speed designs, etc., recommended to watch; avaeta, siskella, blessed Jenna and skatedevil)
- Practice makes perfect
- Add textures and remove outlines (if you can’t remove outlines; change the opacity.
- Find inspiration
- Join discord servers
- Don’t use the shading template (it is ugly and it’s better to do your own custom shading)
- Don’t copy other designers
- Use reference photos (Pinterest or online clothing stores are good references)
- Practice
- Watch speed designs
- Have a set clothing theme
- Sell the clothing that you want and be creative!
- Have a homestore
- Always look out for group designing positions
- Seeking a good payment (100-300 R$ is considered a good payment, plus 20 R$ if there is a clothing extensions like shoes)
- Make good showcases
- Produce weekly clothing (to receive the robux your desire)
- Be creative when building and creating a homestore
- Keep active when designing (more clothes = more sales. more sales = money. more money = more success)
- Don’t make clothes for a quick sale or two
- Get inspiration from places like Pinterest (boards) or google
- Give your designs cute and quirky names (basic names work sometimes but ‘blue skies’ is better than dark blue jeans. cutesy, cool, quirky, etc. names will get more attention = a lot of sales)
- Price your clothes at the lowest price possible (5 R$)
- Have a homestore
- Don’t copy clothes
- Watch tutorials, practice makes perfect
- Make your clothing’s descriptions cute
- Have a good looking group bio
- Find clothing ideas
- Don’t steal
- Have a good description
- Make ads
- Hire designers
- Save your funds
- Come up with a good group name
- Have a cute logo/ pfp
- Do qotd’s
- Upload consistently (at least twice a week)
Shading Tips
- Don’t use the darkest/lightest colours
- Add lines (gives it texture, set Gaussian blur to 2)
- Add noise (effects>noise>add noise. makes it look somewhat fluffier)
- Outline
- Up your brush side and lower the hardness
- Smudge (smudging makes more realistic wrinkles)
- Use a lighter colour to highlight (instead of white use a colour lighter than your outfit)
- Add extra shading when something is on top of something else
- Reference pictures
- Shading using the B&W
- Using multiple layers
- Fixing harsh lines
- Changing overlay mode
- Outline, blur, change to overlay mode, change opacity
- Wrinkles; draw lines where you want them, smudge both ends of each wrinkle to make it look whispy, set to overlay mode, change opacity
- Add white in the empty spaces to create highlights
- Outline the shape
- Add lines
- Effects>blur>Gaussian blur
- Blur then switch mode to overlay
- Highlight
- Colour all the edges of the piece of clothing with a darker colour than a colour on your outfit
- Apply Gaussian blur then change mode to Multiplicate
- Lower the opacity
- Stick to the same colours don’t change it (e.g. if you use dark purple and light pink don’t shade with black on other parts)
- Colour in the place that need shading (usually the edges, with a darker colour of the main outfit colour)
- Turn the hardness of the pen all the way down so it is soft
- In the empty spaces, fill it and highlight it with a lighter colour than the outfit
- Set Gaussian blur to around 20 and lower opacity
- Shading 101
- Chapter 1: Base Shading
- This is done using the same colour with a lower value
- Outlining the edges of the parts
- Sometimes using the smudge tool (smudge into the inside)
- Chapter 2: Where there isn’t shading, there are highlights
- Highlighting is very important
- It brings out the shading and gives the outfits more depth
- You don’t always have to necessarily highlight where shade is
- You can highlight and shade wherever you want
- Chapter 3: Take advantage of your outfits
- Outlining your outfits is recommended
- Gives a base of where you should shade
- Chapter 4: Clothing creases
- Creases are normally done by drawing lines in the desired location
- Sharpening them with a chosen tool (recommended is smudge)
- Duplication the layer you drew on and lightening it (then drag it up or down, blur then lower opacity)
- Creases are used on clothing like tight dresses or jeans and they are done by just drawing lines across the outfit
- You don’t always need to highlight them, e.g. ruffles
- Chapter 6: What about texture?
- Gives your design more depth
- Shade and add texture anywhere
- Adding highlights (optional) can even make them glow
- This could include using a thin black line the draw along the outfit
- Adding noise can help to texture any outfit
- Select the middle part, follow the outlines, blur it (Gaussian), set to overlay,
- Do the highlights, blur (Gaussian), overlay, change opacity
- Outline the template in black, blur, overlay
- Highlight again, blur, overlay
- Outline arms/pants, blur, overlay
- Add highlights, blur, opacity
Hope this helps!