The hell of vertical stripes.

[Mila Edelman]

I enjoy texturing. I really do. It's pretty much what I do for a living now.

HOWEVER...

Vertical stripes, ladies and gentlemen, I despise. Call it loathing if you wish.

If someone has already done an avatar clothing template with vertical stripes, there's no need for me to suffer this much. In my first career of 14 years (now work in SL), I was a programmer. And one of the things good programmers learn early on is that, if we find someone's already done a tool that meets our exact specifications, it's a waste of time and money to reinvent the wheel. Naturally, many situations will arise wherein we never find something that perfect, and it's better to write it ourselves. But if perfection exists, don't redo it. It's a silly, ego-driven waste of time.

Is there a full-perm template in all of SL universe (whether on the marketplace, buyable in-world, or offered on someone's website) that does STRAIGHT vertical stripes in a beautiful way? It has nothing to do with matching up the torso layer and the pant layer. I can do that in my sleep. It has everything to do with each stripe being angled perfectly going outward so that they continue to be vertical (or mostly so) as they reach the sides of the body, both on torso and pant layers. Naturally, with this much hard work, I want the torso and pant layers to match up. But the main goal is definitely proper, non-mangled vertical stripes. Thinner ones. 3-5 pixels in width, at the most (I realize the actual width in Photoshop will change depending on the location of the stripe, but you know what I mean). More like pinstripes (not what I'm planning to do with it right now, but it's a basis I can work with).

Anyone know of anything?

[Void Singer]

there's one by chip midnight...... some where.... finding a still existing copy might be a quest though =(

I'd try Robin Sojourners site first, but honestly I don't see it at a glance.... perhaps someone has a copy or a better link

[Rolig Loon]

Unless I misremember, Void, that one of Chip's was for horizontal stripes, which are a LOT easier.  I don't recall seeing one for vertical stripes. I wish I had.  :smileyindifferent:

[Laetizia Coronet]

In Photoshop, I use the Liquify mode. I set up a block of stripes halfway over the torso template on the left (or right - but so that half the torso is covered), then gently push those lines falling outside of the template inwards until they are all, or almost all, inside. I take care not to foul up the stripes which lie over the middle of the template. Copy, flip horizontally, match, make one layer. It takes a bit of time to get it really good both front and back (and yes, then there's pants and sleeves) but then you keep the whole thing as a template for further use. btw, loved your shop, I dropped in not too long ago.

[Void Singer]

could be, I only have copies of the high rez basic clothing templates, and not the other specialty templates like the stripe guide, the normal maps, or the fake-n-bake templates.... I really wish I'd kept those as copies and not as links now =(

[Mila Edelman]

 

---

Laetizia Coronet wrote:

In Photoshop, I use the Liquify mode. I set up a block of stripes halfway over the torso template on the left (or right - but so that half the torso is covered), then gently push those lines falling outside of the template inwards until they are all, or almost all, inside. I take care not to foul up the stripes which lie over the middle of the template. Copy, flip horizontally, match, make one layer. It takes a bit of time to get it really good both front and back (and yes, then there's pants and sleeves) but then you keep the whole thing as a template for further use. btw, loved your shop, I dropped in not too long ago.

---

 

Going to try this, I think. I don't mind doing a lot of work once, for a good template I can use over. Just, right now, I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall for no good reason. I've also started looking into some slightly more expensive solutions.

All posters are correct in that horizontal stripes are very easy. I don't think twice about 'em.

And, thank you for the compliment on my shop.

[Josh Susanto]

One of my wish-list Items for Mr. Devitry at Lunapic is a smart-stretch function that will strech to the frame, vertically or horizontally, arbitrary line segments such as would be cause by a circular punchout or such.

The next step after that would naturally be a function that stretches a rectangular image vertically or horizontally to fit an arbitrary frame. If that happens, we should be able to make a frame for each part of the avatar template, and for clothing templates. That should solve the basic problem with vertical stripes.

Devitry has to set his own priorities, though, so this may be a way off yet. If he manages to make the first thing work, at least, I'll let you know.

So far, he has put a 2-directional skew tool on the site at my request and it's been working great for me.

The next thing I suggested is a tool that pushes the color in every pixel to perfectly match colors on Wikipedia's list of traditional Japanese colors, basically turning any image into a Japanese painting.

I have considered starting a thread just for possible tool ideas for Lunapic, so that Devitry can just check the thread instead of having to answer a bunch of emails.

What say you all?

 

[robin Meridoc]

Could someone post some screen shots of examples?  Sort of a before and after thing?  I'm a GIMP user and I dont think that GIMP has a Liquify option - but need a better idea of what it is.  Perhaps it does.  *smiles and shrugs*

robin

[Josh Susanto]

Liquify is a kludge.

What you need is a smart stretch function.

[Clarissa Lowell]

Liquefy lets you sort of push things around a little. It softens lines. Think of a slight ripple in the water that you barely notice, but which makes the reflection of the trees prettier.

[Josh Susanto]

I wouldn't tell people not to use it while there's nothing better.

I'm just saying that when the new function comes out on Lunapic, it'll take a fraction of the time for a cleaner result.

The admin recently added a function that swaps RGB layers, allowing me to turn brown wood into very believable patinated brass and vice-versa (for example).