i need help

[LilmsShadow]

can anyone teach me how to make clothes i dunno how to use gimp... or send a link of something good that explains it. :3 Thanks!

[Rolig Loon]

Before you spend any time on making clothes, focus on learning how GIMP works.  Make simple textures that have nothing to do with clothing first. 

Google is your best friend for this one.  There are hundreds of GIMP tutorials out there, and then there are loads of tutorials that deal with making clothing textures for Second Life.  Also, take a look at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials for our own specific list of supportive sites. 

You will discover quickly that texturing is only part of what it takes to make clothing, unless you want to be restricted to making textures for "system" clothes that are painted directly on the avatar body.  Clothing designers need to be fairly skilled at building with prims and (even more important now) doing 3D modeling to make mesh items.  Compared to learning GIMP, that is a much harder hill to climb.

[Nalates Urriah]

Learning to make clothes for 3D virtual worlds is no simple task. Linden Lab made it about as easy as it gets. Plus, SL users have made a huge number of tutorials.

Rolig made a good suggestion, learn GIMP. I think you need to learn just a little of each, GIMP and how SL hands clothes. Then you’ll know what to focus on as you study.

What most of the tutorials are not addressing is the change in how clothes work and the change in avatars that we have available now. Without knowledge of those issues you can easily get lost in how to make clothes.

There are different types of avatars in SL. There are new the starter avatars, which have what we call mesh bodies or just call them mesh avatars. There are also the older avatars which we call classic avatars. The classic avatar skeleton and skin are the base avatar for both. To use a new mesh body the skin of the classic avatar is hidden using alpha layers.

Clothes and skin made for the classic avatar apply a texture/image to the mesh surface that makes up the skin of the classic avatar, which we usually just refer to as the system (original) skin. We call these clothes and skins system clothes or skin. You can think of them as being like decals. These are the clothes we make with GIMP or Photoshop.

If you use GIMP or Photoshop you are familiar with layers. In the classic avatar the skin is the bottom layer. On top of that we composite the tattoo, undershirt, shirt, and jacket layers. We can also wear ‘attachments’ on top of all those layers.

Over those ‘system’ layers the new style mesh avatar places a new mesh surface. The two surfaces are so close to the same position we generally hide the classic surface used for the classic avatar with Alpha Layers, so the classic skin won't show when it pokes through the surface of the new style mesh avatar surface - which it will as the avatar moves. It’s a basic limitation of modeling and animating in all 3D worlds that surfaces conflict. It is just the state of the technology we have. Note, this hiding also hides the system clothes applied to the classic skin.

The viewer always applies system skin, tats, shirt, etc. to the system or classic avatar’s surface. This is why when you wear a new style mesh avatar and make changes to system clothes you see no change. The change happened on the classic avatar skin/surface, which is HIDDEN UNDER the new style mesh skin/surface.

Special skins and clothes are needed for use with the newer style mesh avatars. With mesh clothes another mesh surface is placed over both the classic and new style mesh skins. A rigged mesh top should fit over both skins. A rigged mesh jacket will be another surface that fits over all the surfaces below/inside it.

We use 'Appliers' (a HUD that usually comes with a skin or other attachment) to place textures/images on the new surface that makes up the mesh avatar skin or clothing. We must composite the skin and clothes we want to put on the new style avatar skin ourselves. But, it is intended that we use new style mesh clothes with the new style mesh avatar body. So, in general we only place skin on the new mesh skin.

Unfortunately, skins made for the classic avatar generally won't work with the new mesh avatar skin. The skin makers are modifying classic skins they made to work with Appliers they build, which put the skins on the new mesh avatars.

Mesh clothes can be used with the new mesh avatars and classic avatars. System clothes can only be used with the system/classic avatar.

If all this seem unnecessarily complicated... you're sort of right and the thinking is understandable. But, the necessity for it comes from the Lab's habit of making all new things as backward compatible as possible. Classic avatars came first. We are now in a transition to newer things. We expect these complications to be removed in the coming SL2.

 Rolig's link into the SL Wiki is a great first stop resource.