Alright, let’s dive into my AR in clothing adventure!
So, it all started when I saw this cool demo online about trying on clothes virtually. I thought, “Hey, I gotta try this myself!” I’m no expert, just a regular guy who likes to tinker with tech.
First thing I did was research. A lot. I spent days reading about AR frameworks, platforms, and what kind of tech I’d need. Heard a lot about Unity and ARKit/ARCore, so I figured that was a decent starting point.
Next up: setting up the environment. Downloaded Unity (the free version, of course!). Then wrestled with getting ARFoundation and the right AR plugins working. Let me tell you, getting all the versions to play nice was a proper headache. I think I spent a good evening just troubleshooting import errors. Finally got a blank AR scene up and running, with the camera tracking kinda-sorta working.
The clothing part was the tricky bit. I knew I needed 3D models of clothes. I don’t know 3D modeling! So, I hit up some free 3D model websites. Found some okay-ish shirts and pants. They weren’t perfect, but good enough for a proof of concept. I managed to import them into Unity as .fbx files.
Then came the fun part (and more headaches): getting the clothes to “stick” to the person. My first attempt was super basic. I tried just parenting the 3D model to the AR tracked body. It was… janky. The clothes would float around and clip through the body. Not exactly the seamless AR experience I was hoping for.
I went back to the drawing board and did more digging. Turns out, body tracking is complex! ARKit and ARCore give you joint positions, but you need to do some serious work to deform the 3D model to fit the body correctly. Bone animations are way above my skill level right now!
So, I cheated. I found some tutorials that showed how to use pre-built avatar systems. These systems have pre-rigged bodies and blend shapes that allow you to morph the body to match different sizes. It helped a lot! I got the basic avatar in my scene and it followed my movements with some accuracy.
I then tweaked the code. I ended up writing a script that would detect when a user selected a piece of clothing (think tapping a button on the screen). When selected, the script would attach the clothing model to the avatar’s corresponding bone (e.g., the shirt to the torso). I messed around with the offsets and rotations to make the clothes sit in the right place. Lots of trial and error here – rotating the shirt 10 degrees this way, moving it up 0.05 units… you get the idea.
The final result? Well, it’s not perfect. The clothes still clip a bit, and the models definitely need more detail. But you know what? It’s pretty damn cool! I can stand in front of my phone, tap a shirt icon, and see it (roughly) on my body. It’s far from production-ready, but it’s a fun demo and a great learning experience.
- Learned a ton about ARKit/ARCore and Unity.
- Got a taste of 3D modeling challenges.
- Realized body tracking is a whole rabbit hole.
- Most importantly: built something cool!
What’s next? I want to dive deeper into body tracking and figure out how to get the clothes to deform more realistically. Also, gotta find some better 3D models! Maybe I’ll even try learning some basic 3D modeling myself. Who knows? This AR thing might just become my next big hobby!
Hope this gives you guys some inspiration to try your own projects! Don’t be afraid to mess around and break things. That’s how you learn!
