Textureing Help needed

Greetings all,

I am a bloody Beginner in tExturing and wish to create photorealistic Dresses from the Middle Ages who should be authentic. Since I tryed a lot in Texturing and still Fail I am at the "Point of no Return". So I am in great Need for someone who can help me with the tExturing or even do it for me ( I pay for it if it is not to expensive).

I got Pictures from which they can see how it should look like and I am using either GIMP 2.06 or Paintshop Pro Version 10.01 .I know that Photoshop is THE Tool for clothing Creation in SL but I dont have it and if I would have I could not manage it.

And yes I know it does not come over Night and I also know you have to practice. But please count on it that I tryed for nearly a Year now.

All the Best
Morgain McMillan

You need the upper, lower, and skirt textures, as well as a texture for a prim skirt I am assuming? And full perms as well I would think.

For as much as it might cost you to have someone do that for you, it might be worth it to buy photoshop, and take some time off to learn it. Or perhaps, go onto xstreetsl and find the templates that you need.

There might be people who would do all that for you, but its quite a lot of work and would probably be very expensive.

Paintshop Pro or Gimp are fine for making clothing textures. You don't need to feel pressure to buy Photoshop. What you DO need to do, though, is buy yourself a good manual. Go to your closest large bookstore and thumb through the dozens of books available, looking for one that best addresses things in a style that you can feel comfortable with. Learn how to fly Paintshop well, and study tutorials that you can find on line (check the Tutorials sticky at the top of this forum). If you need personal guidance, consider taking a course at a local technical college or community adult education program. And keep practicing. If this were easy, everyone would be doing it.

I don't know about Paintshop- but in world there are Gimp classes.

The two programs you have are both good. (I'd suggest you upgrade your GIMP to the latest version. There's no reason not to, since it's free.) You don't necessarily need Photoshop. PS just happens to be the best of the lot, but that doesn't mean the others are bad.

I'm wondering why you feel you "couldn't manage" PS if you had it, though. Functionally, it's not that different than what you're already using. It's just laid out a little differently, and it has some more powerful tools in its arsenal. But the basic principles behind all three are the same (despite GIMP's somewhat unorthodox interface). If you're capable of learning one, you're capable of learning them all.

In any case, what is your experience level with the software you've got? I know you said you've been trying for a year now, but what exactly has that entailed? Have you only been trying to make clothing for SL, or have you tried to make other things as well?

If the answer is the former, then the problem is in your approach. You're going at it bass ackwards. Learning to texture for 3D is an advanced topic, which can only come after you've already learned to create and manipulate imagery in 2D. If you've been putting the cart before the horse this whole time, then it's no wonder you haven't gotten anywhere. I would advise you to forget all about texturing for the moment, and spend the next few weeks diving into a good book on your software of choice. Pick one with a lot of tutorial projects in it, so you can experience using the full gamut of tools. After you've mastered the basics of your program of choice, only then should you return to texturing. At that point, you'll find that 99% of the stumbling blocks that were in your way before will have been removed. You'll be fully prepared to move to the next level.

If it's the other way around, meaning you're already fluent with 2D graphics editing, and you're just having trouble making the transition to texturing, that's a different story. Chances are there's just something simple you've been missing. Before we explore that, though, I want to wait until you've answered my question. If you're not there yet, and I try to explain too much about texturing itself, it will only set you back further. These things have to go in the right order, or they don't work.