Need help with Details, Shadings and Wrinkles

Hi,

I"m trying to design my own line of clothing (as if sl needs another designer l0l). My only problem is making the clothes look more real with shadows ect. I have looked at some of the top designer lines of clothing and I must say i'm really impressed with how real thier clothing look with the shadows and wrinkles.

For example, the breast line, I could see on some clothing a shadow or shadding difference under the breasts and or tummy area, but have no idea how it is done to look so real. The sad part about sl is the competition and so the few I have asked for help in understanding shading didnt really want to help. I was only referred to go to the fourm, which is cool.

Now i'm here and asking how do you do that? Also, how when making bra's and low cut tops, the lines are so clean without the jagget ends. How is that done? I have tried to make a V-low cut shirt and trying to make the lines look sharp and clean with the earaser is impossible. So, the results are sloppy and unprofessional looking.

In addition, I have also been trying to make a pair of jeans. I'm so lost on how to make them with details like real jeans. Like the shading on the butt, the zipper area, the main jean detail, like down the sides of the legs. I really need help understanding how to do that.

If there anyone who can tell me how to make clothes look better, wheather its some time of tutorial or website or even personal help, I will be truely greatful. Thank you

Tasiya

Hello! I'm afraid I don't have answers for you (I'll leave that up to the clever people who know what they're talking about) but I just wanted to say that it's so rare to find unhelpful people in SL. Though you might have picked the wrong ones through bad luck, it's more likely that they weren't hiding 'trade secrets' from you - designers in SL are often really busy. Your question requires a LOT of information in an answer, which would be a real pain to IM or chat - and the thing is, the forum is already full to the brim with the information you're asking for and more. You can find more here than any designer could tell you in one sitting - so I wouldn't assume they don't want to help because they point you here. Quite the opposite.

Do a search for what you're asking, or just have a read through a bunch of threads in the forum - this sort of question comes up so, so often, and it's been answered just as often. You can save the lovely helpful designers a whole lot of time and effort by finding what they've already said on the subject before asking them to say it all again.

'The Competition' really only comes into play between personal style and talent - knowing how to do something doesn't put you on a par with the greatest designers, you need to do that yourself. I think you'll see most people understand this and are happy to explain techniques. If you start outselling them through your own genius then so be it

(Oops, that was longer than intended..!)

I am not as good in PS Cs2 as PSp but I think I can help.
This will be quick and dirty as they say, so I will apologize ahead if I screw something up and yours doesn't look right.
Wrinkles:
First, grab either Chip's or Robins templets
work in 512 x 512 (not that really important but larger is easier to see)
Create layer that will be bottom layer of grament and fill with solid color (no pure white, black, RGB red, blue or yellow. These will bork the upper texture layer color. If you want White or Black, go with a close shade of grey to the color)
Create a new layer above color layer. Fill with 50% grey. Set blending mode to Overlay. Grey layer should be nearly transparent.
To create a nice ab wrinkle:
burn range in midtones 100% strength small brush size (5-15)
Hold shift while moving in straight line with make line straight. (I know that was a duh! but I couldn't think how to phrase it.)This creates shadows.
Above shadows, use the dodge tool allow the shadow line to create highlights.
To bend them so the flow when on 3d av use smudge at 30% at brush size 20. Sweep across the first half of it. Soften at 20% the rest. Depending how you sweep you can alter direction too. Outwards and upwards are best.
Save layer for later use in other garments if you wish.
You remove the sawtooth appearance (pixelation) with soften at 50% or more on the edges. Also you can go to about 500% and use eraser on 1 pixel. This works too.
Under breast and collar shadows are shadows without highlights .
Soften, Burn and Dodge are your friends. So are the layers, you can never have too may layers (well you can, but that is more computer related)
And finally even the best have clothes that look they were pulled off a 3 month old corpse, soaked gas and ignited before being extingushed with halon. That is learning.

Tasiya, like Erin said most designers are just busy--I point people here all the time. When you ask a question here and everyone sees the answer then you've helped a lot more people than just one.

There are so many ways to accomplish things in photoshop and other programs, I would think that each designer's workflow is different than the next. So there are many answers. Clothing design really becomes an art form as each of us works out our styles and methods. Some of it is art, some of it is common sense. But you'll figure out how you like to do it with a little playing around. Don't feel like anyone's way of doing things is a 'magic formula' -- you may figure out something better than the rest of us, who knows!!

But to answer your question from my perspective...

Shadows and Highlights. Check out the sticky in this forum that i did with the links--there is a link to Starley Thereian's great tutorial in Second Style Magazine on that very thing. And it's pretty much what Thunderclap describes and is very similar to how i do shadows.

Jaggies. When you make your outlines be sure you have anti-aliasing on. In addition, when you make your alpha channel, be sure the you are using a selection that is anti-aliased. With anti-aliasing on, your lines should look smooth. Manually erasing edges or manually blurring a section will not look uniform unless you have a REALLY steady hand.

I hope that helps!
Cheers!

Most of the questions you are asking have been answered in other threads. My advice to you is to read through this forum thoroughly (which I did before attempting to make clothes) and most of your questions will be answered.

Also if you look at the top of the main design and texture page, there are some great tips on shading, wrinkles, creases in the stickied threads.