Realism To Clothing!!

How exactly do designers get that realistic look to there clothing?I know somewhat but I wanna know exactly what to do.If they photosource then how do you do that???

I handpaint in Adobe Photoshop and use filters and effects on certain layers. It takes a long time, but worth it.

I do some photo sourcing, mainly for reference, and a lot of hand painting
I am learning more and more as I do things, and reading all the info that the generous ppl have placed in the forums helps a LOT.
I also check for online tutorials all the time learning new things new effects etc

Photosourcing is very realistic, but you can also get very real looks with simple 'hand drawing' (It's not really hand drawing--you're using photoshop to digitally create the image, etc.)

Most designers who photosource simply slap on an image, tweak it's size a little and draw in cuts. But, when done right, it takes a lot of work to make it fit the template correctly and still requires that you finish edges, deal with the seams, etc. It can take a long time if you are looking for quality. If done right, it will not look photosourced in SL.

One problem with photosourcing is the source of the image and copyright laws that may come into play. If you are copying an image from a website, then you are violating a copyright of the original creator.

If you do have rights to use the images (i.e. you took the photos) you are still copying (legally or not, it's sometimes a gray area) by using the design, unless you alter the look of the final product enough that it's your creation.

So, many designers chose to simply hand draw, or create everything in graphics programs and there is no question of copyright violations, etc. (besides, this way you are actually 'designing' and not simply copying something to SL) To do it right you have to add wrinkles, folds, realistic textures, etc. There is no magic wand to make it look good, you simply play with different looks, you study how clothing drapes in RL and you try and recreate it. There are several threads about creating wrinkles and such -- one is linked to in the clothing tutorial sticky.

Have Fun!

actually i would advise again photo sourcing, you usually get the worst results when starting from a photo. I would suggest that you limit yourself to photo sourcing small details and try to work as much as possible by hand, you will learn much more and quicker this way.

It really does not matter what type of techniques or tools one uses to simulate realistic textures (as long as copyrights are not violated) on an avatar, be they clothing, skins, or tattoos. They all ultimately end up as 512x512 grids of pixels once inside SL. If the result is good, use it. I've used hand painting (with acrylic paints), digital painting in Photoshop, Painter, Deep Paint 3D, etc., photosourcing with a digital camera and flat bed scanner with live models (you need a hefty flatbed for this, JK ) and found objects, rendering with 3DS Max, ZBrush, Maya, etc., fractal generators, texture generators (Genesis). My list will continue to grow as I discover and learn new and cool stuff to use.

In short, there is no cookie cutter method to doing any of this. If there were we'd all be bored out of our minds.

In my expereince, nothing beats photosourcing for realisim. http://3d.sk/ is an affordable subscription service for royalty free photos that may be used for commercial purposes. They have nudes, people in ordinary clothes, costumes etc. Thousands of pictures for about $80 for a six month subscription. I am presently using nude photos from this service to make photorealisitic skins, but I plan to use their clothes pictures at some point.