tattoo settings at Gimp

[Jerilynn Lemon]

Thanks for all the help I've recieved here concerning creating a tat using Gimp.

So far so good. Now for a money question...

 

I created a black lined cat to be worn as a tattoo and after all is said and done, when I wear it, it appears pixelized. The shape is there but it shows across as being a cat, but more of a "shape" (darn pixels)

Are there any recommended brightness/contrast settings (maybe sharpness?) that I should consider and perhaps the size of the original image to be used before converting the image and then saving and sending to my file as a png?

 

Reminder, I'm using Gimp. I'm not fortunate enough to afford a Photoshop program.

UPDATE!!

 

you can clearly see the pixelization which what i'm trying to avoid. the lines need to be sharper and defined.

[Jerilynn Lemon]

Thanks for all the help I've recieved here concerning creating a tat using Gimp.

So far so good. Now for a money question...

 

I created a black lined cat to be worn as a tattoo and after all is said and done, when I wear it, it appears pixelized. The shape is there but it shows across as being a cat, but more of a "shape" (darn pixels)

Are there any recommended brightness/contrast settings (maybe sharpness?) that I should consider and perhaps the size of the original image to be used before converting the image and then saving and sending to my file as a png?

 

Reminder, I'm using Gimp. I'm not fortunate enough to afford a Photoshop program.

UPDATE!!

 

you can clearly see the pixelization which what i'm trying to avoid. the lines need to be sharper and defined.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Jerilynn, can you show us an image of your avatar wearing the tattoo, so we can better understand what you are describing? If the tattoo is in a sensitive area, make a shirt or pants using the same texture and wear it over some undies. Come back to your question here and Option->edit it to include the image.

ETA: Okay, based on what you've shown, I'd say you are witnessing the inherent limits of the 512x512 resolution of avatar textures. Here's an example of one of my skins, (which I do at 2048x2048 before scaling down to 512x512), covering about the same area as your tattoo shot. You can clearly see the pixelization, even though there's less contrast in my texture than in yours.

You could try a little blurring in your original file (duplicate the layer before blurring, so you have your original cat) to soften the edges, but that will come at the expense of less distinct lines.

And here's a snapshot of a store bought vest and a home built prim necktie that shows the avatar's pixelation compared to the very high resolution of a repeated texture. Unfortunately, the clothing layer stuff is stuck at 512x512. The dandelions on the tie are 256 pixels across. From nipple to nipple on the SL avatar (about the width of the snapshot) is just over 128 pixels.

[Rolig Loon]

You can try a few things....

1. Make your original drawing at 1024 x 1024 pixels and then shrink it to 512 x 512 just before you save the image for upload.  Lines always look sharper if you reduce scale. (And the highest rsolution that can be loaded onto your av is 512 x 512, BTW, so there's no point in uploading anything bigger anyway.)

2. Use anti-aliasing when you are doing your drawing.  That will make the lines less jaggy.

3. Save your texture as TGA instead of PNG.  If you're using TGA, you have more control over making a clean mask and creating an alpha channel from it.  When you've done that, fill the entire layer under your tattoo with black (assuming that your tattoo is a black line drawing).  That will eliminate the white halo problem.  The alpha channel will cut out your tattoo itself.  Its edges against the black background should look crisper.

4. Be sure that your image has dimensions that are perfect "power of two" values (64, 128, 256, 512, 1024) so that it doesn't get stretched when the servers automatically resize it on upload.  (If you are using one of the standard SL avatar templates, you shouldn't have to worry about this, but just in case.)

5. Don't apply the tattoo in one of the "forbidden" areas on your av -- sides of the breasts, bottom of the rib cage, between the shoulder blades...  No matter what you put there, it will get stretched and pixelated.

[Jerilynn Lemon]

i updated the post with a pic to show what the tat looks like now.

[Madelaine McMasters]

Got it Jerilynn, I updated my response.

[Bohny Spad]

Thank you Rolig!