Can One Use In-World Textures in Photoshop?

I apologize if this has been covered before, but there is just so much info in this topic that I am totally, happily, overwhelmed...

I am just starting out making my own clothes using GIMPShop (an open-source analog to PhotoShop) and am looking for fabric textures. Of course, I have already accumulated zillions of textures in my Inventory in SL, but I have painfully few in PS -- and the learning curve for making my own is steep!

Is there any way to import (download?) any of the many textures I have in-world to use in making texture-mapped clothing?

Other than that, is scanning fabrics the norm for creating intricate fabric patterns such as lace or knits?

Thanks in advance. You guys are amazingly knowledgeable -- and talented!

Easy .. open the texture in SL then do a screen capture. Paste the screen capture into GIMP and crop the image to be just the texture and get rid of all the rest.

If you have modify permission on the texture, simply double click it in inventory to open it, and then go File -> Save Texture As...

If you don't have permission, don't steal it by doing a screen capture. That's just all kinds of wrong. Sure, it's easy to do, but so is breaking into your neighbor's house and taking his TV. Just because it's easy doesn't mean you should do it. Please respect copyright.

Remember, when you purchase a texture in-world, what you're buying is a limited use right to it, not ownership of the texture itself. The rights you are limited to are defined by the permissions system. Circumventing that system, no matter how easy it might be to do, is wrong and illegal. The owner is the talented artist who spent all the hours it took to create the thing in the first place, a real person. Please abide by that person's wishes for his or her property, and do the honorable thing. Respect your fellow man. Don't steal.

Good point Chosen. That hadn't occured to me as all the textures in my inventory have modify on them so never thought about it.

Thanks so much, everyone! Wow, this software -- both SL and PhotoShop / GIMP -- has so many possibilities, it's almost impossible to get your head round them...

I foresee many happy hours, cutting and pasting! And, yes, I will respect copyright and ownership issues. Stealing is wrong (I own a business in RL, and I'm doing inventory right now -- need I say more on my feelings about theft? Grrrr...)

Thanks again.

If I'm not mistaken, "Modify" alone won't allow texture uploads. One needs full permissions to upload a texture to a hard drive.

You might be right. I'm not really sure. All my textures are my own, so I can't really experiment with it. I had thought modify was the clincher, but it could be all.

You must have all permissions to download an SL texture to your computer.

I am a texture artist. I make and sell textures as one of my main sources of income in SL. Most textures are set to full permissions, because if they were more restricted you can't use them to build anything you might later want to re-sell.

The textures that we sell at TRU are intended for builders to use to make stuff. If you wanted, for example, to buy a copy of the leather textures that I sell, and then wanted to upload those to your computer to use in Photoshop, so you could make the texture file for a great set of leather boots, that is a wonderfully acceptable use. Play with it, upload it back in-world, and sell all the boots you wish. Or buy a window texture and a texture with curtains on it, and combine them, using your computer, to make a single texture that has curtains on the window. That would be fine, for you to use as a building texture on your home, or on buildings you wanted to sell.

What would NOT be fine is selling a derivtive texture as a raw texture. That is competing directly with the artist with copies of their own work. In the example above, if you took one of my window textures, layered it with one of my curtains textures, and uploaded it, you would be violating the terms of service agreement at TRU to resell that texture as a "Curtain with windows" texture. Really, it's still almost entirely my work and effort there. The same would go for just changing the tint on a texture and reselling it.

Admittedly, there comes a point where, if you manipulate the texture enough, and do enough additional work on your own with it, that the resulting new texture becomes "yours". The clothing texture for the boots is a good example of that. It takes a lot of effort to cut, paste, rotate, streach, blend, and otherwise manipulate the raw leather into a pair of boots. Another example might be using 12 different textures for raw pieces of stained glass, and assembling that into your own unique stained glass window. The key is to look at the amount of effort you put in, compared to the original artist. If in doubt as to whether your altered texture is sufficently different to resell as-is, check with the original artist. For example, I have gotten permission before to take a texture of a stone wall and add a texture for a window, to make window wall textures that matched an existing stone wall set perfectly. Or to take an existing wall texture and add my own artwork as murals 'painted' on those walls.

Ceera, I'm so glad you took the time to explain that. I have some of your textures and have wanted to use them along with some of mine. I've made a siding texture that I'm really quite proud of.....but my windows stink. So from you are saying, I can use a window texture of yours and cut and modify it to fit my siding texture and be okay? I sure hope so..........man, I've got an idea.

Ceera, I think your reply answered a question I was considering, but I'd be interested in any other opinions on this. It's mainly theoretical, but I'm a curious one

In a build of my own I've textured the floor using the SL Library dirt texture. I exported it, tiled it, added extra elements, placed it in a building in 3ds max and exported it again with lighting effects to upload to SL and use. The idea was to be in-keeping with existing SL textures, but I'm not sure where the terms of use would apply in this case. I've 'spent a lot of time' on it, but it is the primary base of the final texure I created.

If I were to start selling buildings containing library textures manipulated in a similar way, would that be reasonable or not? I'd be *very* wary of doing something like that with a bought texture, whatever the perms, and I just wonder if it differs with library textures. To me for my personal use I had no qualms about the way I used that library texture. Thinking about selling that on, though, does make me stop and think. I'm pretty sure people sell builds that use library textures, but changing it so much seems like 'claiming' it and doesn't quite sit right.

What rights do we have with library textures? And wherever you get a texture, at what point of work on your part does it make it 'yours', or would you discuss it with the creator?

(Really hoping this doesn't create arguments, just looking for a bit of friendly discussion of opinion on the thang )

Yes, Peggy. If you wanted to take some of the windows that I sell, and download them to your system to make into a combined texture with your nice wall texture, that would be perfectly acceptable for you to upload back in-world, to use personally on your own building work. No problems from me with you selling prim products that have that combined art on them.

I'd like to see the texture when you have it done. It sounds nice. I wouldn't be able to grant permission to sell the combined texture effort as a texture by itself, without getting a look at it first, but I would at least consider it, if the work is good.

Thanks Ceera...........let me work on it over the weekend and see how good it works. I'm really new at this stuff so it's sort of hit and miss with me.........LOL

At any rate I doubt I will be selling my textures for a while.........I have way too much to learn yet to be comfortable with that. But I would be thrilled to hear your critique of it.

Take care,

Peggy.

Thanks for posting this. I had the same question. I am looking at the texture packs on SL Marketplace and most say you can transfer them into Photoshop because they have open rights but dont give any explanation of how.

Thanks to the original poster and to those who answered... its a huge help.