CMFF TEMPLATE QUESTION FOR THOSE THAT HAVE BEEN AROUND AWHILE

[Morgaine Christensen]

Does anyone know if Chip Midnight's Clothing Templates ever came with the black background as a separate layer you could turn off?   If so, are those files still in existence and where they can be accessed and downloaded?

Thanks!

[Chosen Few]

I just took a quick look through my files.  I have them with white backgrounds, if you want them.  The upper body is a layered PSD.  The others are JPG's, unfortunately.

[Morgaine Christensen]

Thanks, Chosen!

What I am trying to do, on the layered .psd I have, is take out the black background on either the shaded layer or the unshaded layer (i.e. appears transparent).    I have tried "get the black out" a few different ways, but think my photoshop skills are simply lacking too much.  I thought I remembered (when I first started ages ago) the template set you could turn off the background and just have the colored & seamed layer.  But I have been through about 4 computers and moved a couple of times since then so any old files I had are gone.

[Osprey Therian]

A quick Googling turned up Ann O'toole's hosting of Chip's files HERE.

[Morgaine Christensen]

Thanks! 

I downloaded that earlier this morning to check it, but it still has the shaded/unshaded layers with the black ground merged into it.

My guess is I am simply remembering the template incorrectly.  They say memory is the first thing to go as you age!  LOL.

 

Thanks again!

 

[Osprey Therian]

Go to the Edge Matching Layer. With the selection wand set to contiguous select outside the body. Switch to the Shaded Grid layer and delete the background.

[Morgaine Christensen]

Yay!  Remind me to kiss you...or at least give you a hug sometime!  This worked perfectly! 

I had only vaguely thought of it but didn't think it would work bececause there were no pixels to select on the edging layer  outside the edges, so didn't try it. I was working on the background layer trying to get that black out but CS4 was also selecting pixels in the layer even at a low tolerance level. 

Thank you for your advice!  *adds another piece to the photoshop puzzle*

[Chosen Few]

Osprey's procedure is good, obviously, but I'd suggest making one alteraton.  Instead of deleting the background, hide it with a layer mask.  That way, if you ever want to bring it back for any reason, it's there.

I'm always a fan of non-destructive editing, wherever and whenever possible.

[Morgaine Christensen]

I hadn't thought about adding a layer mask, but I have not worked with them very much at this point so would not have thought of it.   While I know more than I did a couple years ago, still lots to learn. I am sure any graphic artist would hate how my CS files look.  I tend to be Miss Overkill and anyone else looking at them would go OMG...what a mess...why in the heck did she ever do that!

 At the start of any project, I make a group for anything original that I use on that project.  THEN...I make a copy  of  the original group and rename the copy to "working group" and perform all my work on this copy.  This way, I can insure the origianls are preseved in case I make an error or, need them later for that project or a future one. If I add a new item, it goes first into the "Base group" then copied to the work group.  Even in the Working group I will make multple copies of an item.  When satisfied, I will name my working layers

I have tried numerous times in the past to make clothing layers...and gave up.  I know more now about CS so trying once more.  I don't know how other desginers do it, but to improve my chances of learning, I have set up my own starter templates for Upper and Lowers (had done this for uppers some time ago when I started making a shirt or two). I have used CMFF Template as a basis for my own Starter Template that makes sense to me.  I have them resized, some presets and guides set up, some shading layers, various pre made wrinkles and folds all housed in their own folder within the file  I also have a black & white layers to assist with some visuals, separated each clothing part to their own layers (shirt front, shirt back, pants front, etc) and even cut those parts into halves.

While this might seem like overkill to anyone else, this premade work flow file saves me time and keeps me from making excuses not to try something.  As I improve, I will probably add pre-cut layers guides for things like sleeves, gloves, pants, etc.  Crazy, huh?

Anyway, thank you Chosen and Osprey for the assistance.

 

[Min Barzane]

http://www.annotoole.com/CMFF/

link for download for Chip Midnights templates,PSDs

 

or

http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/AVUVTemplates.html

 

link for download for Robins templates,PSDs