Ever since she was little, @Calilies dreamed of becoming a fashion designer. Unsure if sewing was her true passion, she looked to designing digital fashion — a faster way to get her creative ideas out into the world.
With over eight years of professional experience creating avatar items and working with brands like Spongebob, Barbie, and Walmart, Calilies now works full-time freelancing for experiences and keeping up her own femme-forward catalog. From sparkly cowgirl hats to ruffled heart earrings, Calilies designs trendy pieces and creates fun animations for the most stylish Roblox avatars.
Keep reading to learn how Calilies has built her digital fashion collection and manages major brand collaborations 👇
From Drawing on T-Shirts to Modelling Tiaras 
How did you start creating on Roblox?
I joined the platform in 2011 when a friend told me I should start playing this “lego-type game called Roblox”. Then I found out you could make 2D clothing for the avatars, and I thought that sounded really fun. I’ve always loved fashion, so this seemed like the perfect creative outlet for me.
However, the first thing I ever made was horrible. It was black shirt with a bright green animal that I thought resembled Yoshi.
I had a lot to learn from a technical perspective, but my passion drove me to dive deeper into item creation. At age 14, I started learning Blender through YouTube tutorials and first tried my hand at making icons for my own games. From there, I tried hair and then more complicated 3D fashion items, like hairs, purses, earrings, and hats. I found that creating things for my own avatar that fit my style was super fun and a good creative outlet for me. So over the past 8 years, with lots of practice and error, I grew more comfortable as a 3D modeler and have been able to build an extensive collection.
Creating a Cute and Stylish Wardrobe
How do you find inspiration and get out of a creative rut?
Typically, I’ll spot fashion trends in everyday life on TikTok, Pinterest, and X. And when I see something cute, I wonder, “How can I add my own spin to this?” I would define my style as whimsical, cute, and colorful.
Whenever I find myself stuck in a creative rut, I’ll sometimes ask my followers and others in the community on social media what they’d want to see next from me. Or, I’ll often ask friends who aren’t on Roblox what they find aesthetic and trendy. It can help to get an outside perspective when I’m not sure what to experiment with next.
From start to finish, how do you create your items?
Let me walk you through how I built a corset top, using this inspiration:
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Finalizing the Concept: Once I’ve solidified my idea, I open Blender and import my reference images to kick off the modeling process.
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Beginning 3D Modeling: For clothing designs, I extract geometry from the mannequin model and reshape it. Using the mannequin as a reference ensures a perfect fit.
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UV Unwrapping: After completing the 3D model, I proceed with UV unwrapping to prepare the surface for textures. Blender provides great UV unwrapping tools, including “Follow Active Quads” and “Mark Seams”. These are particularly useful for unwrapping cylindrical meshes, ensuring that they look polished and well-defined. This is a great tutorial.
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Texture Creation: With unwrapping finished, I create my textures in Substance Painter, bringing my design to life. Substance Painter is a life-changer — it accelerates the texturing process by utilizing smart materials and advanced tools within the program, eliminating the need for hand painting or Photoshop. Plus, you can preview how the texture appears on the mesh in real-time, without the hassle of repeatedly importing it into Blender. All in all, it helps me work so much faster.
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Material Editing: If the textures from Substance Painter don’t meet my expectations, I edit the material further in Adobe Photoshop or Paint.NET. I usually begin by selecting one color for the initial texture. Once the design is complete, I refine the texture to create different color variants. I also experiment with how each option looks before deciding on my favorites.
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Importing to Studio: Once the product is polished, I import it into Studio and use the Roblox Accessory Fitting Tool to prepare my item for uploading to Marketplace.
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Crafting the Name: I brainstorm a compelling item name that incorporates key search terms to attract customers. For this item, I’d call it “Lovely Heart Corset” to emphasize the keywords “love” and “heart”.
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Writing the Description: Next, I craft a captivating description and add relevant tags to enhance discoverability. To market my brand, I also include my tagline “Sweetness All Around” and include a link to my catalog. For this item specifically, I’d use tags like “Cute”, “Trendy”, and the color. If I’m unsure about what tags to use, I’ll ask other creators and they’re usually very helpful!
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Publishing: It’s time to publish! Once uploaded to the catalog, I await moderation and check how the icon appears on Marketplace. If everything looks good, I set the item for sale!
Watch me speed-build this corset:
And here’s the final item! This took me about 2 hours to make, start to finish. Items like clothing usually take me 2 hours, while hair can take up to 4 hours.
Adding on Animation
You’re also an animator — how did you pick up this additional skill?
I’ve been animating since around 2015. I made a dance game and created the animations for all of the dance moves. It started as a fun hobby and came pretty naturally to me. I taught myself how to animate by watching lots of tutorials: a mix of Blender tutorials (like this one) and developer YouTube tutorials on how to use Moon Animator. It took me a few months to become comfortable with animating. I also learned a lot from my friend @Sparklings, who helped me improve my animation skills.
Once I practiced more and built out my portfolio, I was commissioned to 3D model and make animations for most of the pets in Robloxian High School. The pets run, sit, and fly! To make these movements, I studied videos of specific animals moving from a side view and then mimicked those movements using my pet rig in Blender.
Since then, I’ve also made a dance emote for TMNT Battle Tycoon and the Spongebob Animation Emote. For the TMNT animation, the brand provided me with a reference GIF of the older TMNT cartoon of this dance. If you’re ever feeling stuck, ask them for more references!
Collaborating With Brands on Fun Items
What has been your favorite brand collaboration?
Since I was young, I’ve always been a diehard Spongebob fan — so when I was contracted to make items for Spongebob Simulator, I was overjoyed. I made some really funny stuff, like Angry Tom screaming about chocolate and the Glass Bones and Paper Skin fish.
I also really enjoyed creating for brands including Barbie and Walmart. For the Barbie DreamHouse Tycoon, I made a collection of cutesy pink stylish items.
And for Walmart Discovered, I created some hairs and other accessories:
Calilies’ Lucky Clover Braided Pigtails (left); Calilies’ Cherry Lollipop Ponytails (right)
Lucky Clover Backpack (left); Gardener’s Button Up (right)
I like working with brands because it challenges me and pushes me to try new techniques and ideate experimental items.
How do you conceptualize and iterate on items when working with brands?
When I take on a brand project, typically the brand will present a brief on what they’re looking for, sometimes including reference photos and a detailed concept. Some brands give me more creative freedom and let me come up with my own concepts, like Walmart did. I’ve actually had to encourage brands to give more feedback than they initially do to ensure we can create something we’re both proud of. Ideally, a brand will provide enough feedback to only require 1-2 rounds of edits and back-and-forth. Sometimes, it can take up to 6 rounds of feedback, but generally the process moves quickly. For the Barbie dress, they only asked for a quick edit of adding the Barbie logo for branding purposes.
How do you manage contracts and payments for brand collaborations?
I’m usually commissioned by a studio that’s working with a brand. The studio draws up the contract and we negotiate pricing. I’m typically paid $200-$300 per asset, scheduled through websites like Deel. I set my rate by comparing my styles and quality to peers – other creators are pretty transparent about how to price your services.
What advice would you give a creator looking to collaborate with brands?
Network! Making connections is very vital to becoming known and also getting opportunities to work for big studios or brands. Research game studios that are already working with the brands you’re interested in. I like to send a personalized email, highlighting my previous work and how I can contribute to their vision. I include my portfolio showcasing relevant projects and explain why I’m passionate about collaborating with the studio specifically.
What would be your dream brand to work with?
Taylor Swift!! Any fellow Swifties here?
Thank you so much Calilies for chatting with us about your Roblox journey as a creator. Stay up to date on what Calilies is up to on X and Roblox, and check out her catalog here!
