Jump to content

making alpha's


Imarny
 Share

You are about to reply to a thread that has been inactive for 2869 days.

Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.

Recommended Posts

Download  avatar templates - http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/AVUVTemplates.html , 

open it up in your editing software you use. Add a new layer on top of all layers you have and using white brush at 100 opacity paint over all parts that you want to stay exposed. Leave blank parts that your alpha will make invisible. Hide all layers except the one you drew on, save it as png with 512x512 size and upload to SL. In your viewer, create new alpha and apply your new uploaded texture. 

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

hi ,

can you tell more about what kind of meshes clothes it is ?

did you already tried one of those alpha layers for clothes you can get on the mp for free ?

basically, you need to get the usual SL template grid for clothes provided by LL for free ( http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials) and draw the part you want to hide on your shape on it, and make it transparent , then u fill the whole remaining in black. Then you upload it in SL, create a new alphalayer, wear it, right click on it in your inventory and choose modify. then in the new tab that will be open, you drag the pic uploaded in the right part (bottom, if its a bottom part, top if is a top part etc.)

If you need help inworld, send me an im if im online or a nc if im offline, ill be glad to help you or to do it for you. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Imarny,

First get the Second Life Avatar UV maps downloaded to your computer. They can be found here: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials (The Chip Midnight ones are excellent), or, from Robin Wood here: http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/AVUVTemplates.html

Then (this is what I do), I upload them to SL (if your viewer supports temp uploads, that's a convenient way to do it.). I make a "body suit" out of them (Shirt, pants, head - as you need).

Wear/Add the Mesh clothing piece and take some photos (upload to your hard drive so you can see where the Mesh and the UV templates intersects).

Open the templates in a graphics editing program (such as Gimp or Photoshop, and many more). Clip out/erase the areas that you want to be invisible.

Save as a .tga or .png file

Upload to Second Life (again using temp uploads, or, working on the Beta Grid is very good to avoid spending $L on your trials).

Create a clothing layer with the alpha you just uploaded (in the appearance editing panel there is an "alpha" selection at the bottom-click that- then select the area you want to alpha and apply the texture-Name and Save.

Close the appearance editor.

Try on the Mesh clothing and walk around, run, jump, crouch, sit and see if the new alpha is doing the work to mask out pieces of the body that might poke through.

Often it is a very iterative process with a few trials to get it right. Have patience and you'll get the hang of it and it will go faster as you learn.

Once you are happy with the alpha, upload it "for real" (i.e., pay the $10L to upload) and make the final alpha for your Mesh.

I hope that helps!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Yes the beta files seems like a good idea, i tried aditi, but it never loaded with the free lindens and i dont really want to put rl money into a testing grid, oh well, thanks for the help, To you and everyone else seems simple enough, silly i never got it first.:matte-motes-grin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

if you use firestorm viewer you will be able to upload temporary files for free, just checking the lil box for it in the uploading tab. 

i will try to catch you a lil later ( in less than 30 mn) when i will come online. dont panic lol, its not something really hard, but indeed, its not smth that u can know without some lil infos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

So far everything has been about coloring over the technical skin, but there has been no mention about how to construct a single alpha for a mid length dress or something like a mesh body alpha - those are single files not obviously derived from a technical skin of upper or lower body.  Anyone have a suggestion on how to approach that?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I´m not sure I understand your question right, but for a dress alpha I think your options are just what has been covered above, maybe you can get around using upper-body-alpha + lower-body-alpha by using the jacket template, depending on the length of your dress?

As for a mesh body alpha hud, there are tutorials on creating huds, even on the second life wiki iirc, but the biggest obstacle there would be that you´d need your mesh body with mod permissions, I remember a thread on the forum of someone asking a question on a full perm mesh body or head he bought (it seemed to be no perm from what he said, even if the MP description said it was full perm), don´t think there are many of them sold full perm though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think  what you mean about the 'single file' is you not realising that the body alpha layer (for the system avatar) contains 'slots' for upper, lower, head, hair and eyes all in one file. If an alpha layer is just covering part of the upper body, made from whatever template, then it is only using the upper body slot.

For a mid length dress you would use the upper and lower slots - it would still be one alpha layer file although you might have to upload two textures (upper and lower) to make that alpha layer.

Is that what you meant?

When you say mesh body alpha - you mean an alpha layer to hde the entire system body? (rather than making an alpha to hide parts of the mesh body)

If so, same as above, with all the 'slots' ticked and no textures used. So, it just goes full alpha on everything.

Wear one, right-click it in inventory or outifts and edit it. You'll see what I mean.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are about to reply to a thread that has been inactive for 2869 days.

Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...