Prims in Clothing Creation

[Phersai]

Hello everyone! I've read a lot from the forums and have taken a lot of time inspecting many of the clothing items I've purchased from the marketplace. I am very interested in beginning to create clothing, and have already begun to do so with shirts and whatnot in Photoshop. I am aware that additional features (Like ruffles, skirts, large sleeves, and more) are created using the prims.

I've fooled around a lot with those as well, but it starts getting a bit complicated when shapes seem to deviate (like ones that I've seen in corset ruffles and belt links). I'm curious - can these strange shapes be created in Second Life itself, or must they be done using programs such as Blender, Maya, or others similar to these?

If so, my question to those of you who are familiar with this hobby would be - what program do you usually use, or find yourself going into a lot to make sculpties? Are there tutorials for specifics like this, such as the linked prims to make the shirt ruffles, belts, or even bows that are on the back of some dresses?

I would also like to find something (maybe I'm blind, but I've looked around and I'm having a hard time) which explains options in the build feature for SL, such as the physical and phantom check boxes I see, and what common features are checked or used for clothing items.

Sorry if this topic has been thrown into the wrong spot - I'm relatively new to the forums here. And sorry for the text walls!

[Coyote Weezles]

all those prims that desviand and conventional forms, often sculpts, there are manyprograms to make sculpts, you mentioned 2 of them the blender and the Maya, there is also one called Sculpty paint which is free and other payment programs, I personally Kanae use the project, are very well made ​​and tailored to the needs of second life, aresome freeware and other charges. more information you are looking for: "Kanae project"

[Phersai]

I understand that those programs enable you to sculpt, but I was curious as to whether people that create clothing use them a lot. I've seen a lot of videos on Youtube about clothing creation, but most of them are for skirts, using the in-game building tool to create prims.

But as far as ruffles and belts and bows, I was curious as to whether they do those in the building tool in Second Life as well, or if they are "forced" (or even find it more comfortable) to try other programs such as Maya, SculptyPaint, etc in order to get those weird shapes.

Sorry if I don't make much sense.

[Peewee Musytari]

Skirts are not usually sculpties because they are flexi, they use regular cut hollow prims & there are actual skirt making tools that some people use which save a LOT of time placing the prims. Belts, buckles, boots, hats, weird & wonderful attachments all make use of sculpties (for the most part) because you can make certain shapes with a sculpty in 1 prim that would take a combo of 10 regular fiddly little prims to create & you get a much smoother result instead of all the seams between prims.

We also have meshes coming, which are better and easier to create than sculptys, so you may want to check those out and maybe put time into learning that rather than sculptys. For now you can only practice with them on the Beta grid as they have not been released yet.

EDIT: Checkout the Mesh forum on http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/bd-p/Mesh for some good reading.

[Luc Starsider]

Basically it is like Peewee said. Things that need to be flexi are not made with sculpties, but things that does not need to be flexible *can* be made from sculpties. It really boils down to what SHAPE you want the item to have. Cut and hollowed prims can be made into very nice looking shapes, but you have a higher degree of freedom when using sculpts because you can manipulate the individual vertices that make up the shape. I frequently find myself in awe of what people manage to make out of regular prims. The possibilities are endless. Often, though, you need more prims to achieve what you can get with one sculptie.

And, yes, mesh is coming. When it is coming is another question...

Blender is very powerful, and also free. Maya is very powerful, but not free. Both, and other 3d programs, have a steep learning curve, and will take some time to master. For Blender, there are tons of tutorials around. Machinimatrix is probably the best known site for SL.

- Luc -

[Phersai]

Thank you both SO much. Those answers were wonderful, and helped me a great deal. They were exactly what I was looking for! And I'm extremely grateful for the resources, especially the Machinimatrix one. That was just what I needed but couldn't find, myself.  

[Luc Starsider]

Good to hear!

If you ever want to start looking into mesh, then I got loads of links to Blender sites that provides tutorials and other resources, too. (I don't know any of the other 3d programs, so I can't provide any links for those. Others can, though, should you need them)

- Luc -

[Peewee Musytari]

 

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Phersai wrote:

Thank you both SO much. Those answers were wonderful, and helped me a great deal. They were exactly what I was looking for! And I'm extremely grateful for the resources, especially the Machinimatrix one. That was just what I needed but couldn't find, myself.

 

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You`re very welcome & good luck...I hope to be able to buy your creations soon

 

[Penny Patton]

I personally use 3D Studio Max to make all my sculpts, but that's because I do design work outside of SL and it's always good to have broader skills using pro tools. Blender, I believe, has the most SL tutorials and other resources so it may be easier to jump into.

 One bit of advice I would add, tho, is something that even most of SL's best content creators overlook. Do not use your own shape to build around.

Create a shape specifically for building. Perferably a shape with adult proportions that is as small as you can possibly make it. I use a shape that is 4'11" (actual height, not Agent Height), tho I'm pretty sure I could make it smaller still. 

The reason for this is that it's absurdly easy to scale up an attachment to make it larger for larger avatars. Making a large attachment smaller, on the other hand, can be almost impossible without practically rebuilding the item from it's base prims.

 When most people build attachments, they often use prims with the smallest possible dimensions to add detail like belt holes, spikes, piping, etcetera. An attachment with so much as a single prim at the smallest size cannot be shrunk any smaller unless the owner finds that one prim and resizes it. This is rarely easy, especially if the attachment has many such prims.

 So work small, your future customers will thank you for it. You also broaden your potential customer base, especially these days as more and more avatars are shrinking down to realistic sizes.

[Vivienne Schell]

Google up the free 3D object  databases on the web. Download these free objects and convert them into Collada format. You MIGHT face the usual Linden bugs and their very own Collada format interpretation during the process, but these are everywhere in this crappy piece of software, so either eat it or not.

But honestly, don´t waste any time on learning some sophisticated pro applications. It´s not required with a million free and sufficient enough 3D objects on your fingertips. It´s enough to learn about the Collada converting and upload process (in Blender it´s "Save as Collada").

But i think the nice Mesh import evangelists on this forum will help you with a  few lines of advice on how to convert and import any kind of free object into Second Life.

[Phersai]

That makes sense, Penny. I didn't even think of that. Thanks so much for the advice!

[Topo Nightfire]

Hi penny, what measuremenst do you use and how do you work them out for a real life size of 4' 11".