How to Reduce Ragged Edges in Clothing?

[Malestorm1488303118]

HI Guys...

I am looking for practical tips on reducing the amount of ragged edges  on clothing -- mostly introduced when I save my photoshop files in png format.

As example I made a great pair of athletic socks I made at 512 x 512 resolution.   At the very top you can see some raggedness that seems to have been introduced when I saved the file to png-24  format.   The white edges are not in the photoshop file; it has a slightly gray border next to transparent.       When I look at the saved png file I see a generated gradient from the gray to white then transparent... And it is the white that is showing up as a ragged edge.

 

My question:  Are there photoshop options in the Save to Web, that will help reduce or eliminate the introduction of the gray to white smoothing gradient?   Any other suggestions on how to eliminate it?

Many thanks.

 

[Shelby Silverspar]

Hi Malestorm, welcome to the wonderful world of content creation. This particular question you have has been covered pretty thoroughly here:   http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Texturing/Remove-Rough-Edges/td-p/835567

[Snickers Snook]

Are you creating a true alpha channel (mask) for the socks? If you're just trying to work off a transparent background, that won't cut it for SL. I also see that your seam isn't lining up quite right. You usually need to adjust that using something like AvPainter.

Here's a tutorial that will help:

Remove White Halo

The first part of the tutorial deals with making an alpha channel. You would do a similar thing for your white socks.

The second part deals with blending the colors into the background. It doesn't really apply in your case since the white halo isn't going to affect your socks much if at all.

I would create the alpha channel to mask everything except your socks. Then put a solid white background as the background layer. Now save to PNG with alpha or TGA 32 with alpha.

Hope this helps.

[Rolig Loon]

Take an hour or so to read through all of the comments in THIS THREAD on the same topic earlier this month in the Texturing forum. There's some silliness in it, but also a lot of very good suggestions and careful reasoning.

[Malestorm1488303118]

First of all, let me apologize for not finding the sources that were referred to by the kind responders.   Part of my problem is not knowing the correct vocabulary for things yet.

I should have probably mentioned that I was trying to work with the 3D model and draw free hand on the model, after I had pasted in a cotton fabric layer.   I we trying to get a more natural looking sock top, with a little slouch to it.      When I had previously tried to create a sock using a path drawn directly on the standard lower body template, the resulting sock top looked rigid and more like a boot top.     I thought freehand drawing might yield a more natural look, but as it was, it yielded a jagged sock top.

So now, I am actually trying a combination of the two, with a base layer that is drawn on the bottom template, but I used the path handles on the sock top to create a more rounded look, combined with my fabric and freehand shading.   I also drew at a higher resolution.   This has yielded a nice result.

Many thanks to all for your feedback.

[Snickers Snook]

The alpha channel is your friend. Learn to use it. It can soften, sharpen or make things transparent depending on what you do.