fishnet and mesh

I have a question about fishnet or mesh materials. I use PS7 and I find a nice image off mesh material and obviously it has a colored background in the image. I guess what I am asking how do you make your mesh clothes without the underlying material from the original image.

Normally I use the magic wand tool select everything and paing it black including the open spots between the mesh.

Go back in with the magic want and click the mesh fabric pain it white (make the alphachannel etc etc.)

load the shirt in and it works but looks much to messy.

Is there an easier way?

thanks

Draw the texture from scratch? That's what I've been doing, at least...

use the gimp
filters - colors - color to alpha

From scratch is the way to go. This is what I do as well, especially since it is a simple pattern.

thanks all

one other question. how does one do that from scratch on PS7 I assume I draw it out on the second layer...?
If anyone can post a quick step by step would be much appreciated

Leave the RGB channels as a flat colour throughout so that the mesh doesn't have those unsightly halos around the holes.
Work mostly in the alpha channel. If you have a decent mesh picture, desaturate it and try and adjust the contrast to something quite harsh so that the mesh lines show. Then paste it into the alpha channel.

hrmm thanks I'll have to play with it some. If I desaturate it so only the lines of the mesh show when I past to the alpha layer, flatten image and save then it woill show corecttly without the under lying materisl from the original pic.


Or if someone knows of how to draw one out or can give a few pointers as a few of you stated. would be greatly appreciated.

Here's what i did -- if you wanna try out a thousand different techniques

In a new, small canvas, draw out a tileable pattern of the net in line art style. No fading, feathering, anti-aliasing ... etc.

If you want, you can throw in some effects to give it a thready or 3d appearance, but make sure the negative space is crisp and clear.

Save it as a pattern. Paint that pattern onto a new layer in the template.

On a seperate layer, draw out any folds or "billowing" in gray scale. When you're finished, Invert the color.

Save the folds layer as a seperate psd file, then use that file as a bump map when applying the displacement filter on the pattern layer.

Copy the result into the alpha channel. Messing around with Brightness & Contrast may be required.

I have a video tutorial showing how to do exactly this on my site here. (I made it to answer this very question when it was asked once months ago. )

hehe thankies. Im sure it gets asked a ton. just cant seem to find it. ill try both ways out see what works

I think I like Robin's answer best.

Thanks, Enoch!

Aliyanna, don't worry about it. They all get asked a ton! But the answers do vary, depending on who is answering, and sometimes there's something new in the mix! So don't worry about it.

We all do wish there were stickies in this forum, but there aren't, no matter how often we've asked for them; so my philosophy is to enjoy the diversity of the answers.