Reccomendation On Programs for designing

I am tryin to find programs to use when designing clothing and skin. I am currently using photoshop CS2 to design the clothes and then checking them in SLCP. I would like to find programs that i can use to help get a more real life look to clothing.

I have seen the listing for AvPainter on SLX and have read posts regarding Maya, but i would like to know what everyone else is using. So if possible could you please list the programs you use to create your clothing and skins?

TY


(i did a search for this topic before starting a new thread, but since new programs come out frequently there is a chance old posts will not mention programs that just came out)

I use mainly Paint Shop Pro (a pretty old version). I use the Gimp for some things. I also have Photoshop Elements and I use some of those filters and tools occasionally. I have AVPainter and I've played around with it a little.
I always end up making a million versions of everything and checking how they look in world and adjusting and repeating. Here's good tip: use the beta grid for that because you can upload your trial textures for free.
Good luck and have fun!

A program doesn't make the clothes look realistic. It's how you use the program that will give a result. Using Photoshop CS2 is absolutely perfect for making clothes, so just train more and you will see big progress.

OOO Ty for this tip, that is one of my biggest issues. When you preview a texture before uploading it just doesn't look the same as it does on the avie (at least for me it doesn't). I waste tons of money re uploading stuff to check things and i am so picky.


Also I have been working in photoshop for over a year and i just can't seem to get the highlights and shading the way i want it. Found out from a IM after this post that some designers get the highlight/shading extremely realistic using Maya. So i have at least one program i guess i am gonna invest in. Also decided to download AvPainter and try that out.

That's true if you want highlight and shades you can use Maya or Carrara. You get that light/shade effect by applying light to the texture. That is called "Baking"/"Baked texture".

Lea, you're probably not going to like this answer, but as my good buddy Cassius might have put it, "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our software but in ourselves". As Antoni (another good Roman name) said in his post, there's absolutely no technical reason why you can't get exactly the look you want in Photoshop. Whether you've been trying for a year, or for ten years, or for ten minutes, I can promise you it's not the program that's holding you back; it's how you're using it (or more specifically, how you're not using it at this point). Many of the top texture artists in the world, both inside SL and out, use Photoshop exclusively for most of their work. If they can do it, so can you.

The first thing to realize is that while tools are of course very important, it's about artistry first, tools second, always. So rather than expect any new program to swoop in and save the day, you'd be much wiser to invest in yourself by developing a solid working understanding of what it is artistically you've been missing up until now as you've been painting your textures. Most of all, that means developing your critical eye. Once you've learned well how to "see" properly, your technique will inevitably fall right into place.

And while I'd certainly never seek to discourage anyone from buying Maya, since it's a truly fantastic platform, I would strongly suggest that the $2000 you'd be spending on it would be much better invested right now into art classes. I would urge you to take some traditional art courses, particularly ones that involve drapery studies. For artists of all walks and all skill levels, from texturers to cartoonists to Renaissance masters, drapery study has for centuries been the primary foundation for learning how to draw and paint realistic clothing. Regardless of medium, whether we're talking traditional or digital, it's absolutely crucial that anyone seeking to replicate clothing in artwork develop an understanding of how light and shadow behaves on fabrics as they wrinkle, flow, hang, curl, stretch, bend, and wrap in response to 3-dimensional shapes and forces.

I realize that if taken the wrong way, the suggestion that you need art lessons might seem somewhat insulting or diminutive, especially since I haven't seen your work. I would encourage you, please don't let yourself react like that. The fact is it's not necessary to see the work to know what's wrong when an artist self-describes their imagery as "not lifelike". The answer is always the same. It's all about developing the critical eye, and then using it to solve various problems of light and shadow. And that's something that can only come with the right kind of experience. Again, I know that's not the answer you wanted, but it's the only honest one I've got.

You'll find that just as there is no "make it lifelike" button in Photoshop, there's not one in Maya either. To bring any image to life takes good old fashioned artistry before anything else. SL clothing is no different.

Same here. For matching up seams especially I have to see it in world and make a lot of little adjustments.


It's superfluous for me to add anything to what Chosen said, but I can't stop myself. There are some things you can do with texture baking using 3d modeling programs. But even after you've done those things you will need the artistry skill to get clothes to look realistic in SL. And when you have those skills you don't need 3d modeling programs.
There's a certain amount of compromise involved. You have to adjust the shading to look as good as possible in in as many different lighting situations as possible and that is entirely up to your own eye, artistic skill, and mastery of photoshop technique.

TY Kahiro that is exactly what i am looking to do, so i guess maya it is.