Obvious Way to Make Creating Alpha Masks (and Clothing and Tattoos) Easier

[Jennifer Boyle]

I am posting this here because I think that the people who follow the creation forums all know it already.  I never made clothes because I think there's no hope that I could ever make nice ones.  However, recently I have become interested in making alpha masks to use with mesh clothing and invisiprim shoes.  I became acquainted with clothing/skin templates for the first time, and they were an enormous help.  What did not occur to me until after I had spent may hours is that it would be much easier still if I wore the templates as clothing or tattoo while designing and trying on the alpha masks.  

I am somewhat embarrassed to post this and tell everyone how stupid I am.  However, I think there may be someone else who would not realize that wearing the templates is so helpful at first, and I may save her several hours.

The templates are here:  http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

When I first started making clothing for SL I took the advice of one of the original creators in SL and uploaded the templates as clothing so that I could see where the UV's match up.  It helped a lot for making system clothing to be able to see how critical some portions of the templates are for areas where the front meets the back and the upper meets the lower templates.  Then when I started trying to make skins I uploades the complete templates again (this time including the head template) as a skin.  I was really wanting to know how the UV's met around the neck and along the seam for the head (which is in the back instead of on the sides of the avatar).  Again, that helped a lot to get my perspective correct.  But I found the "template skin" much more useful for making prim clothing......which, for me, is much more fun.  I don't do mesh (just too much trouble for an hobby) but I can see where a skin with all the UV's would be very useful for mesh.  And it would also be useful for alpha layers since you are wearing the mesh as a skin instead of a clothing layer that you might want to use with your creation.

Yeah, it's ugly but you don't wear it all the time.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

---

Jennifer Boyle wrote:

I am posting this here because I think that the people who follow the creation forums all know it already.  I never made clothes because I think there's no hope that I could ever make nice ones.  However, recently I have become interested in making alpha masks to use with mesh clothing and invisiprim shoes.  I became acquainted with clothing/skin templates for the first time, and they were an enormous help.  What did not occur to me until after I had spent may hours is that it would be much easier still if I wore the templates as clothing or tattoo while designing and trying on the alpha masks.  

I am somewhat embarrassed to post this and tell everyone how stupid I am.  However, I think there may be someone else who would not realize that

wearing

 the templates is so helpful at first, and I may save her several hours.

The templates are here:  

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials

 

---

You certainly shouldn't feel stupid, Jennifer. SL has a long and steep learning curve. I'm still just scratching the surface after four years here. Some of us came to SL with previous experience and so ideas like wearing the templates might occur quickly. But, these ideas are not obvious to everyone. I'm glad you brought it up!

[Perrie Juran]

---

Madelaine McMasters wrote:

---

Jennifer Boyle wrote:

I am posting this here because I think that the people who follow the creation forums all know it already.  I never made clothes because I think there's no hope that I could ever make nice ones.  However, recently I have become interested in making alpha masks to use with mesh clothing and invisiprim shoes.  I became acquainted with clothing/skin templates for the first time, and they were an enormous help.  What did not occur to me until after I had spent may hours is that it would be much easier still if I wore the templates as clothing or tattoo while designing and trying on the alpha masks.  

I am somewhat embarrassed to post this and tell everyone how stupid I am.  However, I think there may be someone else who would not realize that

wearing

 the templates is so helpful at first, and I may save her several hours.

The templates are here:  

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials

 

---

You certainly shouldn't feel stupid, Jennifer. SL has a long and steep learning curve. I'm still just scratching the surface after four years here. Some of us came to SL with previous experience and so ideas like wearing the templates might occur quickly. But, these ideas are not obvious to everyone. I'm glad you brought it up!

---

I've been here five years and I promise you that you do NOT want to see my one attempt at making clothes.

[Ry0ta Exonar]

Oh yeah, I encountered this method when I took a clothing class at NCI 4 years ago. Time flies. *_*

[waynelw]

Thanks for the sharing:manhappy:

I can resist everything except Abercrombie and Fitch Outlet

[Jesica Dragovar]

I gotta get around to expirimenting with alpha layers, i  wanna make an avatar that wears a sculpy mask and when I take the mask off my face is missing hehehe

[Irene Muni]

---

Jennifer Boyle wrote:

I am somewhat embarrassed to post this and tell everyone how stupid I am.  

---

If you are stupid posting this, I'm also stupid. Thank you very much for the post!

[Ceka Cianci]

this is a great site for things like this..

robin wood has some great tutorials..

i would type one up but as much as i drift i may end up being more confusing than helpful..

see what i mean..

oh i did it again..

stop ot CEKA!!!

here is the link before i can't stop!!

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

 

and here is getting rid of white halo that happens with some transparent textures if you are making clothes..

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

oh before i forget..

you can also make your alphas and test them out in this old program thing for sl that lets you preview and also update your touchups as you do them from photoshop..

i just have to remember the name and where it is on my hard drive lol..brb 1 sec lol

ok found the link!! lol the links still work for the download ..

http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/109/47/141938/1.html

 

and there is this one that cost a bit that is on the marketplace..read the add before getting if you do just to make sure..it's a little bit of casholine hehehe

but i guess it lets you draw right onto the preview avatar..i'm looking into it now to see if you can make your alphas in this or not..if anything we can preview them i believe and be more precise right then and there and then when you are happy..get ready to splurge that 10L for your new texture or alpha or whatever  you upload hehehe..

here is a little blogging about it..

http://avpainter.osbyte.net/

and here is the MP link to get it =)

AvPainter

 

 

[Veronica Larkspur]

I'm relatively new here and hadn't thought of wearing the UV template to see how it fits a body. I'm not certain how long it would have taken me to figure that gem out. Thank you for posting it,

 

The Robin Wood site has a lot of wonderful things in it, and she really helped me understand the alpha layer. In addition to the material discussed above, she also has modified UV templates for download. They can be found here:

 

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

 

-Roni