Clothing Designing Software

Hey all I was wondering if there is a software program besides photoshop/GIMP (etc.) that can help design clothing...or software program where you can design clothing and then save it so you can upload it in SL.

Just curious...

You got the big ones. PaintShop Pro works too. Designing is an art, of course, so no program is going to do it for you -- if it did, we'd all be out of business! -- but you need a program like PS, Gimp, or PSP that can handle layers and can output files in TGA or PNG to help translate the ideas from your head into pixels on the screen. Take a good look at the free modelling program that's available in the sticky at the top of this forum, too. It can help you get a 3D preview of your work before you go to the trouble of uploading to SL.

Yeah I got PS and AVpainter...i was just wondering if there was a software that can help design clothing....like get patterns like the shapes....i guess somewhat like templates.

Ah, yes..... You will need the avatar templates, to be sure. Get Chip Midnight's from his sticky at the top of the forum. You can also get avatar templates from the SL web site as well. Templates for clothing, however, are harder to come by. Most designers are understandably reluctant to have their creative work thrown out there to be copied by anybody who happens to have PS. You can get a nice T-shirt template from Robin Wood's web site (http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLTutSet.html) and you can find others by mining the Tutorials sticky at the top of this forum. Personally, I sometimes use my own previous work as a starting point for a new design, but don't have much use for templates otherwise.

can some one please tell me if i have to color in the templates or what to do i got photoshop downloaded and need a little help understanding if anyone out there maybe can send me a notecard telling me what to do Nightfirebaby Nightfire thats my name on sl

Photoshop does it all, but hidden within it are powerful secrets on how to make fabrics and alot more........for example tips check out these tutorials below

- http://www.tutorials-photoshop.com/abstracts/fabric-folds/index.php

- http://www.brushes.obsidiandawn.com/sets/plain-fabrics.htm

- http://www.brushes.obsidiandawn.com/patterns.htm

- http://www.design.iastate.edu/LABS/tutorials/photoshop/ps0005.html

- http://photoshop.pluginsworld.com/plugins/adobe/252/geomantics/fabric-weaver.html


Note that these links are just a few of hundreds of tutorials and plugins for Photoshop, just do a google search for more.

Nightfire, I think the smartest thing you can do is to take a few classes in world to get a general sense of direction. Open the "Events" tab in Search and look under the "Education" category. There are classes somewhere every day, and they're free. It's a good way to get a feel for what's involved in making clothing. Then get yourself a good Photoshop manual at the bookstore. There are some great ones out there. There are also some good tutorials online, too. You can find quite a few on Google by typing in "Photoshop tutorial" and then refining your search. Finally, there are many tutorials specifically aimed at making textures for SL. Gusher pointed to a few in his reply. Take a look, too, at each of the stickies at the top of this forum -- in particular, the Photoshop Tips and Tricks and the Tutorials ones. Personally, I think Natalia Zelmanov's are probably the easiest ones to start with. Try http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/2006/11/day-50-tan-leather-and-creating-cloths.html and go from there.

You won't be able to learn overnight. This is a fun way to spend a lot of time, but it WILL take time.

So you've pirated a copy of photoshop and now you want people to do your research for you, and send it to you so you don't have to come back here to read it? How esle may we be of service?

What about Nightfire's post screams piracy, Anya? All he/she said was that he/she had downloaded it. It can be downloaded legitimately, straight from Adobe, if paid for via their website. And the free 30-day trial is also a download.

We don't know that Nightfire's download is legit, but we also don't know that it's not. I'd rather err on the side of innocence until guilt has at least been implied, even if not proven. Unless you know something the rest of us don't, no such implication was made here.

I do appreciate (and share) your anti-piracy sentiment, though, so don't get me wrong on that. I'm just not sure it was warranted here.


In any case, Nightfire, there is something else that bothers me about your post. That is the fact that you asked for notecard to be sent to you. Asking for private answers in a public forum is really not a good thing to do. You might not have thought it through, but really, it's a selfish abuse of the forum.

When a question is answered publicly, it helps lots of people at once. But when it's answered privately, it helps you and only you. If you can come here to ask the question, you can come back to read the answer. That's only fair.

Two people have already provided good answers to your question. I'll echo what they said. I'll agree with you that it's not always easy for everyone to figure out where to begin with Photoshop, particularly if you've never used a graphic program before, but the good news is that Photoshop is perhaps the best documented program on the planet. There are literally hundreds of thousands of tutorials for it all over the Web, there are dozens of books on it, and it's taught at practically every educational institution in the civilized world.

I'd recommend you get started by investing in a good book. If you head over to you local Barnes & Noble's, Walden Books, or whatever decent book store is in your area, chances are they'll have an entire section devoted to Photoshop books. If not a section, then at the very least a shelf. They'll all have basically the same information. Just look through them, and see which author seems to speak your language the best.

Also, since you are brand new, I'd strongly recommend you forget all about making textures for the time being. Learning to work with digital imagery for the first time, and learning to texture for 3D are two different subjects. The latter builds upon the former. As I find myself saying almost every day in this forum, don't put the cart before the horse, or all you'll experience will be a lesson in frustration. Learn the basics first. Then, only after you've mastered the foundations, should you move on to the next step.

It will take time to learn what you need to know in order to do what you're looking to do. It's not necessarily hard, so don't be discouraged, but there's no way around the fact that it's not going to happen over night. Be prepared to be in it for the long haul. It'll be a while yet before you're equipped to make textures.