Tattoo Howto - Or - How not to annoy me with white edges.

I started making tattoos for myself a while ago, mostly because I got sick of buying a tattoo only to find out it has this hidious white glow. I see it all the time now, and it annoys the bejesus out of me. Thus I have decided to tell you how I do things.


First, bring out The Gimp. Why? Well because it has 2 features I really like.. I will explain below.

Next I find a source image.. It could be something I drew by hand, or stolen from the web somewhere.

In your favorite graphics program (you can use Gimp if you want, but I find it to be a big pain in the ass to do any work in it). Copy your source art and paste it into a new file, the new file should have a dpi of 250 or better. (Photoshop defaults to 72 dpi.)

Resise the image to be the size you need it, then copy and paste it in a new layer on the template file. I really suggest grabbing Chip Midnight's Templates for this. Rinse and repeat for more images, keeping them on separate layers helps a lot for placement.

Once your image is placed where you want it, save the file as a psd and bring out The Gimp. Open the PSD you've saved in The Gimp, and hide all the layers except the layers that your tats reside on.

Go to Filters -> Colors -> Color to alpha. This will bring up a box which will allow you to pick the color that you want to turn into an alpha layer. The default is white so just click ok.

BAM! You've got an instant alpha layer. Pretty cool eh?

Now I usually save the tattoo in gimp because it saves the alpha layer and makes everything 32 bit without having to select options. So just go to file -> save as and type in mytat.tga then click save.

It will tell you that TGA does not support layers. Click Export and ok on the next box that pops up.

Import your tattoo into Second Life and you are done. Note the lack of white.

There is only one drawback to this method I know of. Colored tattoos tend to have a bit of white in them for highlights. That white will also be made transparent. The best workaround I've found is to apply another layer with just the colored portion of the tat over top of the filtered layer.

Or you could do all the work in your favorite graphics program, but, before you export it, make a background layer that has the same basic color as your tattoos, so the transparency from the Alpha layer won't be seen against white in the first place.

It only takes a couple of mouse clicks to make a new layer, drag it to the bottom, and fill it with the desired color. (I use the predominant color from the image for this, unless there are many colors at the edges.)

Then it takes a maximum of 3 clicks to make an Alpha layer (Merge Layers, Command/Ctrl + Click on the thumbnail in the Layers palette to select the non-transparent pixels, Save Selection,)

Personally, I find using those 5 or 6 extra clicks a lot simpler than booting a different program just to save out of. But that's me.

(I guess it would be an additional extra click or two to OK the 32 bit Targa, so perhaps a maximum of 8 clicks?)

Maybe it's just photochop CS but I've not been able to get the alpha to look right. I find the color to alpha filter really handy in The Gimp. This doesn't just make an alpha layer. It removes the color that you picked to be the alpha color and makes it transparent. (ie white in my example). It leaves a cut out version of the image. Granted this only seems to work well with lineart.

I've just resigned myself to doing it this way because Gimp handles tga files, and I usually have PS open on one monitor and Gimp open on the other. It's easiest this way for me. I just thought I'd share it with all.

This has always been a hot topic, and I'm sure there's about 300 ways of doing it, so I'd love to see this as a comprehensive thread listing them all.

I've just discovered something quite handy. It's called White-out. Basicly it's a photoshop filter that removes white from an image such as a drawing.. This does essentially the same thing as what the color-to-alpha filter does in The Gimp.

So now we can combine the use of this filter, and the help above. First we take our source image and remove the white with the filter listed below.

Then follow these instructions so helpfully provided to us by Robin:


Make a new layer, drag it to the bottom, and fill it with the desired color. (I use the predominant color from the image for this, unless there are many colors at the edges.)

Then make an Alpha layer (Merge Layers, Command/Ctrl + Click on the thumbnail in the Layers palette to select the non-transparent pixels, Save Selection,)

And don't forget to save as 32bit Targa.

Thanks again Robin, and here are the links for the filters:

Check it out here for the PC

Or here for the Mac

I'm not following something below, but then I'm new to graphics programs. Putting a color layer underneath, still leaves me with a white background on the current layer. Unless I can get rid of that background, I still have white issues don't I?

Denrael

In that quote, I'm assuming that you are working on a transparent layer, which makes everything much easier.

I highly recommend that you do all your work on transparent layers, and never touch the opaque "Background" layer at all. Better yet, when you create a new document, create it with a transparent background, and then you won't accidentally start to work on an opaque surface.

If you have already done your work on an opaque layer, though, all is not lost (even though it will never be as crisp as it could have been.) Follow the video tutorial here to see how to eliminate the opaque white background.

Hope this clears it all up!

Is it the opaque background layer that makes it impossible to work with white fabrics and gives me such problems with 'seam bleed' when working with blacks, Robin? If I may ask?

Hi Athene!

I can't say for sure, since I'm not looking over your shoulder while you work, but it could very easily be.

Basically, if you're going to be doing any work with an alpha channel, it's better to be working on transparent layers. At the very least, if you're using Photoshop, it lets you make the alpha channel by just command/ctrl clicking on the thumbnail in the Layer Palette to select all the non-transparent pixels on the layer, with their various levels of opacity intact.

You can even select all the non-transparent pixels on a whole bunch of layers by holding down the Shift key and clicking on all the thumbnails.

And, of course, once you have them selected, all it takes is "Select > Save Selection" to make a perfect Alpha Channel.

So yeah, avoid that opaque background layer, by all means. It's nasty.

I tried working with transparent backgrounds. Got white clothes without a hitch, but I still have massive seam bleed. Hmm.
Thanks very much for the tips, Robin. To be sure!

Yep! If your stuff is on transparent layers, using the Magic Wand will just introduce errors. Avoid it! All you need is a couple of keys, the thumbnail, and the Save Selection.. choice from the menu.

I'm not sure that I know what you mean when you say, "Seam Bleed."

Do you mean that you can see the avatar under where the seams where the UV areas join, even when the garment is fully rezzed? (It always happens, no matter what, when stuff is rezzing.)

If so, it might be a simple matter of increasing the area that has texture on it, all around the filled areas on the map (or "templates," as they are called here. )

Or do you mean that you're getting a white halo on the edges of the transparency? If that's the case, all you need to do is make a new Layer at the top of the stack, Select > Load Selection, choose the Alpha channel you made, enable Invert, and fill it with black.

That will give you thin black shadow lines, instead, which are much more realistic.

If it's neither of these things, could you please post an image, showing what you mean? It would make it easier to diagnose the problem.