Any shirt templates that make sleeves easier?

[NdaCloud]

 Are there any shirt templates out there that were designed to make the sleeves easier to create? I'm still having trouble doing the sleeves. I just spent over an hour going back and forth from gimp to the SL clothes previewer and I can not get the sleeve right to save my life. This is very frustrating. I don't understand why they created these templates like this with chaotic lines in them that don't make any sense. I am talking about the black grid like lines that are suppose to be a guide, some of them run straight and some of them are all whack. Seriously what were they thinking?  I don't get it.  Anyway, are there any other shirt templates that make the sleeves easier to do?

Thanks

 

[Princess Verwood]

I'm unsure which template you have but there are at least 2 that I know of; Chip Midnigh'ts and Robin Woods. I beleive it is Chip Midnights that has multiple layers that you can turn on and off to make it a little easier with lines.

But honestly, it is just practice. Making clothing and learning how to takes time and definitley patience. Don't expect to be able to jump right in to it and have the lines match up the first time. I've been making clothing going on 3 years now and it takes me still a few tries. But I do notice the more you do it, the better you get at it and the better you get at knowing where the lines will match up.

What I suggest if you don't feel like making the same style shirt each time you would like to make one, is use one that you already have done that is has all the lines and sleeves matched. Will that help you practice? Probably not, but it will save you time for those times that you become frustrated.

[Rolig Loon]

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NdaCloud wrote:

 [ ...] Anyway, are there any other shirt templates that make the sleeves easier to do?

Thanks

 

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No, and there probably can't be.  You are "painting" your clothing on a 2D UV map that has to be wrapped around the 3D mesh that is your avatar.  For as long as SL has been around, designers have complained about the way that the avatar mesh was created ( too little detail in critical areas, one arm instead of two, fat ankles ...), but the mesh is what it is. The mesh determines how the template is going to have to look, just the same way that a hilly landscape determines what its contour map is going to look like. 

If you'd like, you can create a template for yourself, but I guarantee that your template won't be any easier to follow than the ones everyone else uses.  Here's how to do it ...

1. Open one of the standard templates (Chip Midnight's, Robin Sojourner's.... ) in GIMP and make only the one layer that has the mesh grid visible.  In Robin's, that's the layer marked "SubD Vector Smart Object".

2. Save that as a new TGA or PNG image 512 x 512 pixels and upload it to SL.

3. Go into Appearance mode and make yourself a new shirt.  Apply the uploaded texture to it.  You'll look like a dressmaker's dummy with a grid shirt.

4. Now, go back to GIMP and create a new layer to draw on.  Put it under the "SubD Vector Smart Object" layer so that you are seeing exactly the same image (in 2D) in GIMP that you are seeing on yourself in SL.

5. Go ahead and draw your own template on the new layer.  You'll have to study what you look like in world very carefully to see where to draw the right lines on your template, but you can do it.  That's the way Chip and Robin did it.  It just takes time.   A lot of time.  You'll have to upload trial copies of your template to wear in world every once in a while to be sure that you got it right.

By the time you are done, you will understand the avatar mesh better than 99% of the other designers in SL.  You will also have worked through a lot of frustrations and will know exactly how to make sleeves that line up where you want them.  As I said at the beginning, though, I can pretty much guarantee that your templates won't be better than Chip's or Robin's.

Incidentally, you can make templates more easily these days if you use Photoshop CS5, which lets you draw directly on a "3D" model instead of doing the 5-step process I just outlined.  You can do it even better if you use a program like Mudbox that is designed for that sort of task.  Those are all expensive programs, though, and GIMP is free. 

[NdaCloud]

Yeah, I have Chip Midnight's and Robin Woods templates.  Actually, they both have the exact same layout as far as the grid like lines that I was talking about.  On Chip's this layer is called "the shaded grid" and the lines are black, and on Robin's this layer is called "UVs" and the lines are colored.   But, otherwise the lines are the same. 

I think I figured out how to match the front edge of the shirt to the back edge.  I guess the lines do match up.   I mean, I know where to start my line and where to end it, but getting it right in between is difficult because the grid lines don't really help with that (or it don't with the size sleeves that I'm making anyway).  

I really don't enjoy this process.  I just want to be able to make my own shirts and put my own pictures or words onto them.  So, I was hoping to make one shirt the way I like it, and save it as a starting point for all my future shirts.  Then when i want to make a shirt, I can open that first one, copy it, change the color, slap a different picture on it and be done. 

[Rolig Loon]

Ah, well.... If all you want to do is drop a logo or a bit of text on a T-shirt, that part is easy.  Use Robin (Sojourner) Woods's T-shirt as a starter >>>> http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/RSW-TShirt.html .  While you;re on her web site, wander through all the rest of her tutorials and other goodies.  She is one of the masters of the craft, from whom many of us learned.

[NdaCloud]

Thanks for that Rolig.  I've been messing around with that t-shirt example of Robin's.  I think I might be able to use that.  I'm not crazy about the wrinkles though.  I'm not sure how you would get wrinkles on a shirt like that unless you had your shirt tucked into your pants perhaps.  But, if I remove the layer that the wrinkles are on (the texture layer), I lose the hems also.    So, that's unfortunate.  Anybody know if it's possible to remove the wrinkles from the texture layer but keep the hems?  Is that possible?

[Rolig Loon]

It's just a simple shadowed texture.  All you have to do is remove or disable it and make one of your own in the same spot.  Or erase the wrinkles and leave the hem.    Whatever.