Mesh Texturing

[Martizza]

I started a new thread because I am having difficulty finding tuts and the answers I need.  I have purchased full perm items, and wish to create my own textures. In the files I usually have the UV and the AO map, and I have not purchased anything yet with the dae files. I am still learning blender, which is a totally different thread.

Anywho, I am not sure where to start.  I am assuming I upload the UV map into Photoshop, gimp or PaintShopPro. I have all 3. Then thats it.....

What do I do?  I have read make layers.  I know how to make layers but I am still slightly confused. In photoshop I take the pen tool and and select the pattern and make it a new layer? add layers to add my textures?

In photoshop do I pretty much do the same, select the entire pattern make a new layer add my texture?

Anyone have a step by step guide to help me, please.

Forgive me for forum etiquette, I rarely post for help in forums.

Marti

[Rolig Loon]

If you have a UV map, treat it as if you had just laid out pattern pieces for a dress.  Each of the pattern pieces will need to be "cut" out of fabric so they can be stitched together to make the dress.  That's the exercise you are about to do in Photoshop (or PS Pro or GIMP).  So, create a new layer below your UV map and then set the opacity of the UV map itself to something like 50% to you can see your new layer through it.  Apply a texture to the new layer.  If you did absolutely nothing else, the texture would appear exactly the way it looks now under each of the pattern pieces. 

The whole idea of layers is that you can treat each one as if it is drawn on tracing paper, with as much detail added as you like.  You can create more layers (one for each pattern piece, if you like), put different textures on each one and manipulate them separately.  If you need to realign, stretch, or do anything to make the texture look right on individual layers, you can select individual areas and mess with them. Cut holes in the ones farther up in the stack of layers so that you can expose textures on layers below.   In the end, anything you can see as you look down through the stack of layer will appear on your final layout.  The outlines of each island on your UV map will "cut" the individual parts of your final layout in the right places so that when you apply that final layout to your model, all pattern pieces will end up in the proper places on it.

That's a very quick, bird-eye view of the process.  I suggest spending a long afternoon at Robin Wood's Texture Tutorials area at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Livingtree/127/100/25 in world to study the details.

[Charles Hera]

Here is a simple tutorial I made for my customers. Hopefully it is what you are looking for.

 

http://nakedmesh.blogspot.com/p/mesh-faqs.html

 

Sorry replying to the original post. Hit the wrong button. Don't come here often.

[Sassy Romano]

I provide a tutorial and sample layered psd for one of my products here if that's any help?

 

Obviously without the actual product you won't have anything to apply the texture to but you can experiment how the layers work and think about how you will arrange them for your items.

 

http://www.baddayonline.info/shirt.html

 

[Martizza]

Thank you all for responding, They are all helpful.  I do have the product and can't wait to get started creating nw textures. I really appreciate you responding!