Simple Photoshop tutorial for tattoo creation
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Carmilla Mirabeau
~Pixel Hoe~
Join date: 21 Aug 2005
Posts: 121
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10-29-2006 04:58
From: Dartavia Vesperia Actually I did a voice chat yesterday on showing how to make alphas in PSP8/9. Very easy, can be done in 2 steps. This is pending you know how to use your program. Open/create your image you are going to be working on - edit it accoriding to your design. When you are done with the image, have it on a single rasta layer - name it [b]image[/b]. Create a new rasta layer - name it [b]alpha[/b], accept defaults (trans background) and then drag it UNDER your alpha rasta later. In the layers panel, click on the image layer to select it. This is the part that makes the actual alpha from the image: Using your selection tool > rectangle, drag across the entire image - the 'dancing ants' will appear as a box around the entire image. Left click onto the actual image you made, the dancing ants will 'snap' to the edges of it. With your image selected, go to the [b]SELECTIONS[/b] menu, then to [b]LOAD/SAVE SELECTION[/b] > [b]SAVE SELECTION TO ALPHA CHANNEL[/b]. Accept defaults, click OK Then name it/save it as a [b].tga[/b] and you're all done! The key to PSP8/9 alphas is to have a transparent background and only TWO layers, the alpha always being on bottom. When you are selecting the image that you've made, that is telling PSP's alpha tools that's the only part you want visible. Now, there is an issue with a 'halo' being around the image, which is the faint white line that appears when you upload the alpha to SL. I'll try to explain this best as I can, but never really able to make it crystal clear to everyoneTo fix this, flood fill the alpha raster layer with the dominate color of your image. (so if you are making a black tattoo, then flood fill the alpha raster layer with black, etc etc) Or for better quality, you can paint the alpha layer picking up the colors from the image layer with a nice big paint brush setting (like 20). This is great when you have an image that has many colors that go to the edge of it. Just paint the colors that are on the edge of the image, no need to work on the inner part of the image that won't be 'touching' the edge of the alpha. Once you have this done, flood fill the rest if you like. Start at step 4 and work down. ZOOM IN!! ZOOM is your friend!! This takes some practice, but when done right you will have a nice clear, crisp edge to your PSP made alpha! Play around with it, practice makes perfect. HAVE FUN! WOW! I used the first option! And it works! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Thanks so much! Now I can make my OWN tattoos and save some lindens! Again Many Thanks! |
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Thunderclap Morgridge
The sound heard by all
Join date: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 517
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11-02-2006 18:47
Ander, you didn't do the tut wrong, CS2 commonly does that if you don't merge to background before you save. Quick way around this, save in the default psd format until you are completely done. Then once your alphas are in and your template is gone, etc, Merge visible.
It should let you save to targa without a hassle.
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VooDoo Bamboo
www.voodoodesignsllc.com
Join date: 4 Oct 2006
Posts: 911
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11-28-2006 16:17
Ok I been trying this all day long.. I really want to learn this. Everytime I try it I get white all around the design on the body. The part I don't understand is this...... Next I created a new layer below the working layer and filled it in with the color of the tattoo, black in this case. This step should prevent that pesky white aura from appearing around your tattoo. Very helpful for people (and rats) with darker skintones. I don't think I am doing this part right at all.  Any help would be great please..... Is there any classes on this in SL? I would love to take a step by step class on it. I am a tattoo artist in RL and really want to learn how to do this. This is the only part I am stuck on. |
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Rhyssa Prather
Registered User
Join date: 15 Oct 2006
Posts: 3
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Adobe Elements
01-10-2007 14:38
Hi, I've been trying to do a lot of this in Adobe Elements, and I was just fine until I came across an issue in making tats.
Adobe Elements does not have an alpha channel that I can find. Is their a work around, or another way to make a tatoo that does NOT involve an alpha channel? I'd really really appreciate the help
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Robin Sojourner
Registered User
Join date: 16 Sep 2004
Posts: 1,080
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01-10-2007 14:56
PSE makes Alpha Channels just fine. It simply won't let you look at them.
However, every time that you make a Selection, and then use Selection > Save Selection, it's making another Alpha channel.
For this reason, the most common pitfall in PSE is having more than one Alpha. Make sure that you have deleted all the Selections except the one you intend to use before you make the .tga. (Select > Delete Selections.)
Remember: There can be only one!
(There's lots more about PSE and Alpha channels in the Alpha Channel Sticky at the top of this forum.)
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Rhyssa Prather
Registered User
Join date: 15 Oct 2006
Posts: 3
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01-10-2007 15:21
Thank you! I've been lost working on this. I swear I'm going to make an idiots guide to tatoo's without all the technical mumbo jumbo. LOL
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Nazz Niven
Registered User
Join date: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 9
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01-11-2007 23:32
Hi I must say that yours is the only tutorial I could actually understand and was able to make my own tatoos. Thanks sooooooooo much  Anyway, I got another question. It may sound dumb...but since the tutorial showed us to make the tattoos in black....what if I wanted to make a tattoo that had several colors in it? Could you help me out on this? Thanks Nazz Niven |
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Oryx Tempel
Registered User
Join date: 8 Nov 2006
Posts: 7,663
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05-03-2007 16:23
Another question: has SL been changed at all in the last few months so that tattoos can be added to a face (on an avatar w/custom skin)? I'm new to tattoos and I get the whole 'make it as underwear' thing but am just wondering about the face area...
thanks!
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Raindrop Drinkwater
Globally Creative
Join date: 28 Jun 2006
Posts: 240
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05-05-2007 05:52
Oryx: unfortunately, no. So you either have to make a skin, or use attachments (with all the fitting problems).
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Maddy Stein
Registered User
Join date: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 10
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05-22-2007 01:13
Okay I have a slightly different question.
I can upload my tat texture alright and all, but when i wear it as an undershirt it is either too big or in the wrong place.
How can I position it to where I want it?
Cheers,
Mads x
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Christopher Molinaro
some guy from mars
Join date: 21 Jan 2007
Posts: 9
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09-13-2007 10:17
From: Maddy Stein Okay I have a slightly different question.
I can upload my tat texture alright and all, but when i wear it as an undershirt it is either too big or in the wrong place.
How can I position it to where I want it?
Cheers,
Mads x the problem here is the tattoo is stretching on a SL body shape. remember seeing something about fixing this just gotta find it lol |
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Stefani Joubert
Registered User
Join date: 19 Oct 2007
Posts: 1
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White "fringe" fix
11-21-2007 06:12
Hi -
I just found that if you change the color option to black in SL when creating the garment, it gets rid of alot of the white "halo" on tatoos.
Stefani
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Ori0N Serevi
Registered User
Join date: 27 Nov 2007
Posts: 1
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12-08-2007 14:58
Note: At this time there doesn't exist a similar layer for the face, so head/facial tattoos and makeup have to be done as a skin.
Yeah, I am trying to put a tat on my face and when i replace the texture that is already there for my skin, the skin details,,bump, and eye shadow etc. it disappears and my tat is on my face but i lost all the detail from the previous image. I cant find where that image is, if i could I would just edit that image and keep everything> Any ideas?thanks
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Namssor Daguerre
Imitates life
Join date: 18 Feb 2004
Posts: 1,423
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12-08-2007 18:47
From: Ori0N Serevi Yeah, I am trying to put a tat on my face and when i replace the texture that is already there for my skin, the skin details,,bump, and eye shadow etc. it disappears and my tat is on my face but i lost all the detail from the previous image. I cant find where that image is, if i could I would just edit that image and keep everything> Any ideas?thanks Best practices for skin files that are Mod, Copy, No Trans are... 1. Emmediately make a backup copy and save it some place safe. 2. Don't mess with the embedded textures unless you own legal copies on your hard drive. 3. If you choose to modify your skin and replace the textures, then be aware that the only way to recover the original textures is to obtain them from your backup skin file or get a replacement from the original skin designer. Once you replace those skin textures with somthing else, they are lost unless you own the individual textures. Most skins these days are No Mod, Copy, No Transfer. This is to protect the consumer from messing up the embedded textures, and to allow easy replacement if lost. If you have a tattoo you want put on the head of a skin, contact the skin designer. They usually do that type of custom work for a small fee. |
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Carley Noonan
Registered User
Join date: 8 Apr 2006
Posts: 4
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Stomach and lower back tattoos
09-23-2008 21:07
I think I have the basics of this stuff figured out. Robin's templates are most helpful in combination with her UV Map suits. I do have one question. When I position a tat around the bellybutton area or on the lower back, the bottom edge of the tat fades out. I have seen tats out there that go around the bellybutton and go very low on the back (or high on the underwear layer - but I apparently cant get it to go high enough).
Any help? Maybe I am just doing something stupid.
Carley
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Namssor Daguerre
Imitates life
Join date: 18 Feb 2004
Posts: 1,423
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09-24-2008 06:32
From: Carley Noonan When I position a tat around the bellybutton area or on the lower back, the bottom edge of the tat fades out. I have seen tats out there that go around the bellybutton and go very low on the back (or high on the underwear layer - but I apparently cant get it to go high enough).
Any help? Maybe I am just doing something stupid. The lower body texture is slightly lower resolution per polygon than the upper body texture (more so on the front side). Fade may be due to blurring of details. Any abrupt cut-off would indicate you have crossed a seam without applying the tattoo to the other body texture. It is sometimes best to avoid the seams in situations that only compromise the tattoo position by a few pixels, otherwise you need to create seam spanning artwork which makes for more difficult work. |
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Carley Noonan
Registered User
Join date: 8 Apr 2006
Posts: 4
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midriff tattoos continued
09-24-2008 08:35
Thanks about the lower resolution on the lower half. I guess I failed to describe what is happening precisely. I am using the underwear and undershirt layers. The fade I am experiecing is not "fade" but a fade to nothing with a pretty definate line -- its just not a hard line its a abrupt fade.
Someone suggested that the undershirt layer doesn't go all the way to the belly button and that do do a bellybutton tat I would have to either use the shirt layer or the jacket layer. Is this my problem? Does the thick line on the templates represent where the undershirt layer stops? Sorry if the answer to these questions is obvious.
Carley
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Namssor Daguerre
Imitates life
Join date: 18 Feb 2004
Posts: 1,423
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09-24-2008 10:36
I would first test the textures outside SL using an application like SLCP (stickied here). If the texture looks fine there, then I would proceed to the appearance settings for the clothing asset and check to see that the sliders that control alpha masking on those texture layers are not cutting anything off. An abrupt fade, like what you describe, can easily be attibuted to the way the 8 bit textures in the client character folder mask the clothing textures. I personally think it's a very sloppy artifact ridden approach, and try to avoid those appearance sliders whenever possible.
If you're still getting a problem, then the only other thing I can think of might be the known bug for clothing waist seams (other than the jacket) that causes some artifacting as a result of slight mesh misalignment on the avatar.
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Rudee Voom
i log on, therefore i am
Join date: 5 Jun 2007
Posts: 26
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09-24-2008 13:30
Just a wild guess, but could it be the "Bottom" slider for the clothing layer (undershirt?) when you're in "Appearance?" It happens to all of us. You move a slider by accident, or forget.
Make sure its at 100% long.
The undershirt layer definitely goes lower than the bellybutton and will meet with the underpants layer, a bit lower than the belly button. (note: the placement of belly buttons on various skins can be substantially different.)
A good idea to get a feel for where the seams etc. are is to use the base template, defaults or Chip Midnights for more detail, save it as texture file and upload it plain and unaltered then actually drop the template onto each clothing layer, making sure the layer sliders are all at 100%. Wear each individual layer, shirt, underpants etc alone and note where the lines and seam indications all fall.
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Carley Noonan
Registered User
Join date: 8 Apr 2006
Posts: 4
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Ahhh the Sliders!
09-25-2008 08:18
Never thought of that! Solved the problem. Why is the defalut like 85% of length. Any way thanks!
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Rudee Voom
i log on, therefore i am
Join date: 5 Jun 2007
Posts: 26
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09-25-2008 12:01
From: Carley Noonan Why is the defalut like 85% of length. I've wondered that myself, but just assumed that it must be a clothing issue that hasn't come up for me. Or maybe it's just to illustrate that it's possible, like the jacket being open in the front by default. What I've done is make a set of clothing "blanks" for each layer, with no texture but set up with all the sliders the way I like, saved then keep them handy in a folder so I can start with them and rename as needed. This also keeps down the number of useless "new" items created and left unused in the clothing folder when you hit the new button in appearance. Glad it worked though! |
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Sonyaleah Footman
Registered User
Join date: 21 Jul 2008
Posts: 1
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right upper arm
11-07-2008 06:42
Hi community! First of all and most important: thanks for all the good advices and helpful tips. But there is still one question left. Maybe I just didn't see it or it's still unanswerd. I am planning on making a tattoo for only one upper arm, preferrably the right upper arm. Is it possible to do this or are there any ways to work around somehow? Please help me Thanks in advance, Sonya |
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Amaranthim Talon
Voyager, Seeker, Curious
Join date: 14 Nov 2006
Posts: 12,032
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11-07-2008 10:06
Sonya- look up AvPainter in SLexchange- xtreetsl - you can always use that to fine tune your PSP and Gimp work. YOu could import what u do in one and then delete the irrelevant parts.
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Robin Sojourner
Registered User
Join date: 16 Sep 2004
Posts: 1,080
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11-07-2008 11:43
Hi Sonyaleah! The only possible way to have a tattoo on just one arm is to use prims. Whoever made the UV Map for the Avatar chose to take the polys from both arms, flip the left one, and put them together so they occupy exactly the same spot on the map. Because of this, whatever you put on the arm polys shows up on both arms, and is flipped (mirrored) on the left one. There is no workaround, no combination of undershirt/shirt/jacket layers, nothing that can be done about this. Because no matter what you do, any pixels that are on one arm are also on the other. They did the same thing for the foot, and for the eye. Essentially, for texturing purposes, we have only one arm, one foot, and one eye in SL. So if you want a tattoo on only one arm (or one foot) you can put it on a prim, and wear it like a piece of jewelry. And that's all you can do. Hope this helps!
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