Discover how 3D artist Boo Changhun blends technology and creativity in Chocolate & Coffee, a virtual fashion project inspired by rich flavors and textures, crafted using CLO, Unreal Engine, and MetaHuman.

Interview with
Boo Changhun | Lecturer & 3D Artist, CONNECT Supporters

How Did Changhun’s Virtual Fashion Journey Begin?

I'm Boo Changhun, a virtual fashion lecturer and creator with five years of experience. My journey started with graphics in high school, leading to CLO in graduate school. Now, I use CLO, Twinmotion, Unreal Engine, and 3D Vista for 3D modeling.

What Inspired the Chocolate & Coffee Project?

Inspired by Mocha Mousse, this year’s color, and my love for mocha lattes, this project captures the balance of chocolate’s sweetness and coffee’s bitterness in fashion design. Soft, curved elements like arched windows, ionic pillars, and ruffles reflect chocolate’s richness, while coffee’s rough texture appears in concrete, leather, and fitted silhouettes, shaping the project’s aesthetic.

How Did You Approach the Workflow for Your Chocolate & Coffee Project?

For the Chocolate & Coffee project, I managed everything—from music to costumes, avatars, and architecture—to fully capture the desired mood. I used Metahuman for the avatar, customizing its motion and refining its face with Daz Studio's Facetransfer2, blending AI-generated images with Daz’s asset ratios for the perfect look.

I imported the avatar into Unreal Engine as an FBX file, adjusting its body size, skeleton, and materials to fit Metahuman. Though tedious, this process streamlines motion creation using Unreal’s ControlRig.

I designed the clothes in CLO, blending chocolate’s softness with coffee’s rough texture through shape, color, and material. While CLO supports Metahuman avatars, I adjusted its FV2 avatar to match Metahuman’s size for rendering with AI Avatar Studio.

Using the referenced images, CLO was used to create a central space where chocolate flows into Mocha Mousse color, with one side featuring rough concrete and the other showcasing an arch-shaped window and Ionic column.

To visually convey the concept, CLO created objects like chocolate-filled columns, mugs, coffee beans, and leather sofas. These objects, along with the designed spaces, were exported to Unreal Engine in OBJ format and scaled accordingly.

Materials were created using Unreal Engine’s Blueprint function, with concrete textures from Quixel Bridge, and chocolate and coffee textures generated using Photoshop’s AI tool, alongside other materials for smooth chocolate effects.

The body and facial expressions of the Metahuman avatar were recorded frame by frame using ControlRig and saved as an animation.

The recorded animations of the faces and bodies were exported as FBX files and imported into CLO, where they were then applied to the clothing animations.

After recording the animation, the costume animation was imported into Unreal Engine using the LiveSync feature. The geometry cache of the costume was saved to align the avatar's position, simplifying the rendering of the animation with the costume matching the avatar's movement.

What Challenges Did You Face, and How Did You Overcome Them?

A major challenge was mesh distortion and crashes when importing CLO garments into Unreal Engine via LiveSync, often due to stretched or tangled patterns near the avatar’s arms. To fix this, I adjusted Metahuman’s control rig motion to keep body parts apart. For close-contact movements, I rendered the final animation using a costume without a collision pattern, preventing mesh errors.

How has CONNECT and CLO helped in your design process?

The Chocolate & Coffee Project modified CONNECT's block patterns, streamlining early-stage design and enabling broader exploration. CLO, initially fashion-focused, proved versatile for modeling beyond fabric, sparking my interest in using it for solid structures like buildings. With intuitive tools like LiveSync, CLO empowers fashion designers to explore broader 3D modeling, unlocking endless creative possibilities.

Explore Changhun's portfolio and follow his creative journey on social media!

• CONNECT Portfolio

• Instagram @fadyboo