FASHION MADE: Creator of Shudu, Cameron-James Wilson - The Man Behind The Model

so I moved out of London about five six years ago I was just totally sick of living there and aha he moved back home

with my mom like I said I've moved into my shed in my mum's garden I was only supposed to be there for a year ended up being there for three yeah so and in

that time I went from from back and forth between like what do I actually want to do in my life you know I had that kind of crisis yeah that you have like what am I actually doing with my life

I'm in a shed yeah how do I get out here and I knew I didn't want to do fashion and fashion photography I tried like I did my own shoots I flew out to Trinidad

and like spent a month there like shooting and in Trinidad yeah it really was absolutely incredible but just confirmed more and more that my heart was in there and I never thought that I

would be able to learn 3d like I just didn't think I was that capable but I picked it up and in three months I've great to do well so never touch 3d and

then in three months the created shoe - and she went viral and it was just it's mind-blowing to me yeah it really is incredible I mean all amazing tech projects I Bashar didn't think you're

paranoid an egg that I I think it just has to do with the point in time when technology is so accessible I love to gain so I had a gaming PC which obviously is great for rendering and

stuff like that yeah and it allowed me to kind of very easily get involved in 3d yeah the imperfections in your models are quite important right mm-hmm

so when I first created Trudy she was pretty much flawless and I I started more and more to add like new

imperfection natural flaws I like to call them okay into her her kind of skin working in fashion photography I've done retouched thousands of images been half

my life behind a computer so I'm very knowledgeable of what the kind of things I need to add because I'm so used taking them away one of the first things

I wore in 3d because the programmer I used - even by assets was peachfuzz because absolutely in every beauty image I've ever had to turn I've had to take away peach fuzz from the sides of

people's face so I was like right I need to add peach fuzz because that's the one thing that makes people look real so yeah so I'm very knowledgeable on kind of what needs to be taken away so I was very knowledgeable about what needs to

be put back in but it had a really huge positive impact on my mental health because I was no longer associated this things with oh god I'm gonna have to take this away I'm actually looking at fine lines and stuff and thinking how do

I put that in that's really interesting turning a negative into a positive mm-hmm yeah um have you heard of the uncanny valley mm-hmm yeah so I was talking to a guy called Adam peacock

yeah you al have you met him or no no he's really cool guy and deals with genetics and architecture and design and light is sort of a post disciplinary

designer eCourse himself really really interesting guy and he was telling me about the uncanny valley mm-hm and this

this mental perception of what is real and what is not I just thought that was such an interesting thing yeah well and obviously it applies to this yeah I mean

some people have even said that some of the work I've done it's like post uncanny valley and I think it's to do with the fact that I don't really aim for realism like total realism my

inspirations come from fashion which are already kind of in the fantasy kind of area you know they're not really realistic interpretations of real life and I think the more human you try to

make something the more kind of creepy it gets like I made a digital baby and that was the fall for you definitely like you definitely kind of touched on

on that yeah why doing it it's a struggle yeah I know that I'm you saying that people are now trying to make things it's so easy to make something

look real that actually they want to make people realize that actually this is a well I was gonna say fake but well how how would you call it digital yeah

yeah yeah yeah you know and people are trying to make their audience know mmm actually this is a digital person you know isn't a real person well like I touched on as well like you

know that was a campaign my dude who didn't look as real but it didn't it doesn't bother me I like I'm not pretending she is real and that's gonna be cases which he doesn't look house real and there's gonna be cases the way

she does it really depends on what we have to do you know what I mean the point is we can achieve like very very realistic look now and adverts like

we saw one of the car adverts they clearly had purposely made the model the digital model look less real because they want people to know that it's a virtual person yeah I think it comes

back to that level of transparency that I was talking about where we go yeah can you touch on that as well for this interview I mean yeah yeah yeah yeah I I just think it's so important to be

transparent I think with technology there's this kind of instinctive fear of it I think that a lot of people have they generally think all god it's bad or all this but if you actually show people

the process of how it's done you know if you actually put a face to that technology and you tell a story and you make it personal I think people connect with it more and that's one thing I've really tried to do is to be very honest

open and transparent about my journey and people are being much much more positive about that they even feel personal connection with me like I've made friends through through Instagram

which is great for me as well I'm not really that social so it's great I think transparency is it's always a good thing yeah being honest yeah the only people

who aren't honest so got bad intentions you know I mean exactly why yeah there's no point in hiding anything exactly yeah I completely agree that's really nice actually to have that's kind of social

positivity in one's own personal life from the work that you do hmm I guess it makes it even more rewarding yeah I mean I really really try to do things

ethically with why do I feel that there is potential that you could abuse this technology digital models I feel you'd like you could and you take things away with it but that's not

my intention I actually want to work and find a way that everyone can kind of collaborate and work together and and grow together and I I think that is the only way that it will continue for many

years to come I think if you try to use this for for bad people would just have an adverse reaction to it and it would kind of stopped dead in its tracks I think yeah we see a lot of collaboration in this industry you know

more than others fashion industry seems so open to collaboration yeah that's a really good thing yeah I think it's what the consumer wants to see and at the end of day this is powered by the consumer and

if the consumer has a negative response to something that you're doing you can't really do that anymore so I have to be very conscious of what consumers want when it comes to digital models and they want transparency they don't want to

feel like they've been deceived they want to be inspired and a lot of them want to learn and think oh how can I actually get involved with 3d which is really cool yeah people have a good

story as well um obviously you try and do storytelling through your work mm-hmm how do you do that with a still image um I think it just comes back to my fashion photography background I'm used to kind

of creating editorial content where you kind of tell stories and also just with the little narrative I can underneath the image I try to collaborate with different people like I collaborated

with a real model I recently collaborated with somebody who draws African prints African face paint sorry

okay and then I also collaborated with a designer who provided me with some fabric you know so you tell story through the people that you collaborate with and I also use my Instagram story

itself to tell a lot my background I get quite personal on there sometimes and it just gives a real face and personality to this yeah um

you've created an alien super model could galaxia why I love sci-fi I absolutely love sci-fi and galaxia to me

I have a huge backstory to that and I I think I do really love storytelling and character building and that for me is like a world that I want to create a bit like James Cameron's Avatar or

something like the hurt you know or valerian like those are movies I absolutely love because I love to escape I love to kind of just be transported to

a different world I play a lot of online games and things like that and I just like to kind of detach myself a little bit sometimes and drift off and again this is what I do for a living with with

digital models I mean it's a fantasy world it's and I don't pretend that it isn't you know and I I don't think there is any real need to pretend that it's not you know it it's nothing wrong with

drifting off to just some kind of fantasy world but I just what I'm trying to do is make that fantasy world kind of push through and do kind of reality a little bit and be very realistic and

believable yeah we call it in gaming my breaking immersion you know I want people to be immersed in my world so yeah so Galaxia has got a huge story but

I'm not quite ready to kind of develop here she's kind of on the back burner okay but if somebody came along was like we wanted a Clark though I'd be like yeah for sure that would be amazing yeah but we'll see she's maybe she's

that how tall is she galaxia gosh she new is like 511 six four two okay so I can't imagine how it'll relax it's probably I I think in

the story and below much much taller anyway then because yeah we like growth so we've gotten taller throughout centuries so they're much much taller anyway so she'll be huge

it's she based in the future yeah yeah yes based in the future yeah yeah yeah because I mean obviously she's otherworldly but I guess it raises an

interesting point in about time she do is potentially timeless yeah you know infinite yeah and I guess that's quite an interesting thing sort of relates to

sci-fi is run a little bit yeah I mean with galaxia one of the things that I wanted to add is that she is so old she doesn't remember who she was and one thing I read if I if we were to live

forever we would eventually not be ourselves anymore because of the way we change and grow and developers people and we would actually be a totally different person to me well here we were like three four hundred

years ago yeah so I know that's a bit kind of far off but again it's just exploring that kind of concept of time mmm and sure do kind of touches on that with the fact that people asked is she gonna age and that for the actual choice

it's you know I can actually choose whether she ages she could become younger she could become older looking mm-hmm but she has aged in her own way and I love the the 3d world has a

different time have those completely different effect on it yeah it's a different kind of aging but it's still matures in a same way well yes that's the thing aging in terms of looks and

maturing in terms of maybe personality as well yeah have you got plans for how she might mature what do you think that's going to be a reactive process so she's kind of matured naturally like I

said I've added different natural flaws and imperfections but again like like I said in the in the speech that I want to

develop her backstory with somebody who has an authentic kind of experience kind of has experience of being in someone actually do shoes and can tell that

story authentically and I think it's important to again support other people being be inclusive and collaborate with people who have talents I'm not writer

you know why would I why would I write a story I'm great at building characters and I'm great at coming up with concepts for stories but I don't think I'm a writer in that sense so why not actually

what was somebody who has authentic experience and you are working with someone right yeah yeah we just started working I did a casting cool on Instagram and I just love that I think of how you can just be like hey guys I'm

looking for a writer kind of like this and I got like 30 or more responses which is a lot like a cow and some of them were amazing and yeah we've got some great candidates

lazing yeah and you're still going through that selection process yeah I want it to my idea is not to necessary have one person there is one person I think is amazing but I want you to

always be like a collaboration okay like almost like a collective rather than an singular or an individual like I said in my presentation she has different models

have actually stepped in and and been a stand-in model for shooting I love that I love that different models can actually bring different things and I think different writers and different people with different experience also

have something to give so I definitely see shooters as like a collective experience and and only through 3d can we create someone like that who isn't an

individual but is almost lots of people yeah that's really interesting how many models have you got I think there's like six that we currently represent there

there's like some now behind the scenes and being worked on and things like that so there's there's definitely more kind of outlet stuff in the pipeline yeah for sure and she do to me seems

like the Queen you know she's she's a pioneer she's like our flagship model and everything I have I put in to kind

of shoot as she do when you go and work on new ideas do you first you're like I go to shooting sometimes it really depends because they have different personalities shoo-doo is very high-end

but she's also very classical and traditional and kind of styling and things like that she also has huge kind of cultural references and things that

were in her work whereas models like Danny I've done some much more kind of out there concepts with her she seems kind of more

valuable to certain other things like I put her in kind of like sci-fi stuff and which wouldn't necessarily shoot the suit shoot his character so they all kind of bring something different again

Bren has a much more kind of casual style very much more like lifestyle so it really depends on the idea when I have a new idea I I think of you know I want to do this with this person I guess

yeah yeah so depends yeah it depends on the story that you're trying to tell and then you can you book the model right for the story yeah but generally yeah if somebody somebody wants something really that involves

pushing tech boundaries I would love it to be what you do because she's a game like I think the pioneer yeah yeah I saw the developed one of your models is may I think just got one male right yeah

yeah yeah yeah when did Kofi come about ah Kofi came about a few months ago girl sure I remember the exact day but yeah he is he was actually somebody that I was working

with up to do with galaxias story okay um but then he developed into his own character and I kept coming back when I'm forward from him because I didn't really know how I wanted to create him

and I decided to just make him a complete counterpart to she do so what that means is he actually uses the same skin texture and everything is shooting and that was an actual a conscious

decision okay because I wanted them to be almost the same thing like they brother and sister like they're like Adam and Eve it's our day right though

yeah and how Eve was created from a rib from from Adam Kofi is created from elements of shoe do so and I want to imagine them as almost the Adam and Eve

of this kind of world like the kind of digital world the kind of first humans in a way so it's kind of conceptual sometimes I think a bit wrapped up in

the whole in the whole like oh I don't know narrative of it t-they is really cool very cool people like people enjoy they enjoy in the comments and stuff when I explain certain concepts I love it honestly honestly there's such an

original idea and the way that you're developing it I think really admirable thank you um one of the things one of the big reactions when you first created Chitti was obviously the racial thing yeah she's she's black

you're a white guy some people called you out on it I mean what do you say to that um this is one of the reasons why I really adopted at the transparent and

honest stance at the end of the day I put a face to kind of Who I am I I don't say that I'm not who I am and I I don't say that I don't create you do that's

why I do and it's really up to people to choose whether or not to follow me or support why do I don't see anything I

think it's beautiful that me as as a white eyes created a black woman I don't think enough people actually do that you know I think why I should be creating

more depictions and positive uplifting to pictures of women of color and that's something that needs to change within the industry but some people saw as a

negative it's not up for me to speak to them fair criticism I took some of it on board you can't take everything on board social media is a place where everyone gets their their opinions and you can't

really get overwhelmed you just have to stay true to your mission as a person and if people want to support that they support that if they don't they don't you know you can't take it too personal

yeah absolutely and you also just have to listen you know everybody everybody deserves to have a voice you listen and you decide for yourself if that's something that you agree with them on

our kind of adopt absolutely absolutely well I think you've got a very positive outlook on adore and a very positive story and I think people can really see that yeah what is the importance of

perceived race in digital models in general really forgetting the designer does it really matter in the future I

mean for me who plays a lot of games I'm so used to people playing characters of different races anyway or even genders

species sometimes because I come from that gaming world but you have to understand not everyone is so immersed in tech in tech and it's

not so used to do that you know yeah I've seen I've seen people play black characters white characters females you know and in kind of gaming

it's so these these concepts are quite loose mmm you you don't really think it's somebody trying to pretend to be that it's just how they want to their character to look and I think that's

gonna change in the future I think we're going to become more used to seeing people creating avatars of all kinds of racism yeah stuff and I think it's actually better you know why why you

don't have to have the labels that you were kind of worn with you can kind of move past it and I think that's kind of positive but again like I said not everyone is so on board and that's fine

some people might criticize it but I you know I don't think it's so we so important in the future absolutely

I I agree um you created to do she's obviously the pioneer I understand that she wasn't the hardest model to make

they no no there's a Margay yeah there's Margo why did Margo give you so much trouble so basically obviously at the time margaret was created for the valmont

campaign I was working alongside bomb on and also the sunshine company who did the production for the for the campaign and it wasn't trouble

it was just challenging my own beauty ideals as an artist I'm very tied to what I want you know I'm very passionate about what I believe in I think it's

right and I you know I have this right way of seeing things and when people say oh you know we want to make these changes on this changes and you're like oh no it's not she's you know it's

challenging your beauty ideals they're asking the things that you think oh it's not gonna look good but then you take them on board and you do it anything actually you know every

have everybody has their own idea of beauty and adopting it you know and taking that on board and it's great yeah

I and I and I'm really really proud of how Margo came out and it taught me that actually collaborating with other people like bellman and the sunshine company is

important in creating diverse Beauty if I was left in charge of creating every single digital model in the world people would be like they all kind of similar you know and that's a problem that we actually have is that a lot of the

models do you have kind of similar looks sometimes it's just because it's just me and I don't think one person can create of us world of models and that's one of the reasons why I like to inspire others

to get involved in this that's really interesting because the diverse Beauty because they're all stunning mmm you know have you toyed around with making

someone that's not you know a 10 this is this is what I mean about inspiring others again like this is a fantasy well for me I wanted to get involved with fashion because it's filled with

beautiful people and I don't lie about that I don't I don't say anything you know about that typically beautiful people you know at all and all of that I don't like that I'm not fascinated by

that and I think it's important that we have people with diverse opinions of beauty creating digital models and digital characters people who do have a completely different view of me of what

their digital character should look like yeah if you know I mean and and I think that's really really important so yeah so for me yeah maybe one day I don't know who whatever characters I think

there's a people out there a lot better at creating very real-world kind of characters I mean there's some incredible 3d artists out there who can

create characters that have lots and lots of natural floors and and narrative in their appearance and you know very very strong features and characteristics that's amazing artists out loud that do

that already yeah but I like to kind of focus more on like what I want to do yeah where it's a thing of passion for you and I guess if you stay true to yourself

the main thing like yeah finally I just want to know if you're planning to do away with real life bottles completely no not at all no I will never know I mean in fact I have plans to immortalize

them and scan them and actually create doubles of them and things like that and actually I think it can be beneficial you know those are my kind of that's what I think of models I mean I love

models again that's why I got involved with fashion photography their muses they they provide the inspiration at the end of day to do was inspired by models

like Naomi Campbell and Alec work and Amon you know they were the muses that inspire to do she was a born of nothing so I wouldn't want to do if I did away models completely then who's gonna

inspire other generations of digital models and I think they go hand in hand I think they can exist co-exist together really really well but only time will

tell I think you you have to kind of you can speak all this and say oh they can coexist but you you have to show and I try to show through my work like how we can actually collaborate and how models

makeup eyes hair stylists all have something to give in the 3d world yeah well it's really really exciting thank you for speaking Justin no thank you for having me you know it's been really

exciting day for ya I would love to yeah if you enjoyed the event I've really really loved it it's so amazing to see so many people with similar passions in

one place like I again I live in a small town so coming here and seeing people who all really inspired by similar things is amazing Kevin James thank you so much you know thank you thank you

very much [Music]