Textures in Gimp

Hello I am looking to make a few shirts and skirts in Gimp. I have taken Robins woods tutorials and a few classes. Least to say None of them explained how to apply a texture to a clothing template in Gimp or how to actually paint on it as well.

I had someone who was going to give me a one on one lesson who dissaperd over the weekend. I now have 2 other people interested in taking a class . Please let us know how much you charge.

I have had people give me templates of things they made which is very sweet however completly Useless if you cant figure out how to change the dang texture on the template and no one wanted to be botherd also.

We are not looking for someone to make the template or texture for us we need to learn to do this ourselves!
Please find me in game
Aluviel Nakamura

I have been looking to learn that too! Please let me know if anyone is interested in teaching. I can provide classroom space too.

Dearly Darlings,

I'd be interested in the classes as well. If find most of the tutorials not very old lady friendly.

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

I am not sure I correctly understand the problem you're having, but to start making clothes, you would open a clothing template (like Chip Midnight's Upper Body - a diagram of the avatar) in the Gimp, and then do a 'save as ... myshirt.xcf' (gimp's format.) Go to Dialogs->Layers and bring up the layer dialog. Create a new layer (the single sheet of paper icon) -- make sure it is a transparent layer the size of the image. Make sure your new layer is selected. Now you paint on the new layer, and you can see the diagram through it, so just put your favorite color on the chest and back and arms, then a line of white around the neck and the ends of the sleeves (which can be as short or long as you want - anything you leave transparent simply won't show on the avatar; this is why you can't lengthen certain textured skirts or shirts - the part you're lengthening is just invisible) and presto, now you have a simple shirt in your favorite color with white piping on the edges.

File->Save so you keep your layered work, then File->Save as... 'myshirt.tga' for export to second life.
In secondlife, File->Upload Texture... and preview it as an upper body, and you should see a shirt-shape floating in the air. If anything is wrong, go back to the Gimp and touch it up. When the preview is good enough, Ok it and edit your appearance and change the texture of your avatar's shirt for your new texture.

Now if you meant something more like 'how do I make a really good looking shirt' that's more just a matter of art. All the same skills that apply to drawing/painting anything are what you need, and there are some tutorials out in the web making art with the gimp.

If that's -not- the problem you're having than I just don't understand what you're asking for.

D'oh. I forgot an important step! You need to go to the 'Layers' dialog when you're done painting, and click the 'eye' icon for the template layer to make it not visible. Only -then- do you save as Targa (.tga) for export to second life.

If the template is visible, you will have grid lines on your avatar everywhere you didn't paint over. If the texture is not visible, you'll have nothing where you didn't paint over, which means the underlying skin will show through for short sleeves, v collars, etc.

That pretty much covers it Jake. Though you did forget one other important step if you are using Chip Midnight's templates. His templates are 1024 x 1024 so any texture or clothing you make will be saved at that resolution. After you are all done, and have only the layers you want, you need to merge them into one layer, then resize to a more appropriate size.......512 x 512 is best for clothing. Also I found it works better if you resize the image instead of just the layer.

I wonder why you go to the extra step of saving the template in the .xcf format though? I work on the .psd template of Chips to make my textures.........I only save to .xcf if I haven't completed my work and have to quit and come back later (xcf format is GIMP's native format........if supports layers like psd). Just a question.........I could be doing something wrong. Thanks.

Edit to say.............I just realized why you do that To be able to come back later and edit. Do, oh. LOL. That means you save two copies......one for you and possible edits and one for uploads?

Oh, yes. Image scale to something reasonable, 256x256 or 512x512, and don't forget to undo the scaling after saving, if you might do more editing in the same session.

And yes, the save to xcf is exactly to have a copy to edit later - once I've made a shirt-shape, I can add another layer and spend some time drawing in a pocket, or changing the colors, or whatever. And usually I've already made a bunch of layers - even for a simple shirt, I'd have one for the shirt base, one for the shadows and folds (which I'd do in black with alpha-transparency), one for any contrast color edges, one for any images or logos printed on it. (I'm new to texturing, but I've used the gimp quite a bit longer than I've been on second life. Actually, I should say, I'm new to SL texturing, I've done textures for other things in the past.)
I don't think you lose anything by saving to psd, but unless I'm sending it to someone else I don't know why I wouldn't use gimp's own format. Even if it does have the most unmemorable 3-letter extension ever. It must've been a hundred times saving before I didn't have to pull down the menu to see which one was marked 'gimp native'. 'xcf' for 'gimp native format'... of course, how... obvious.

I will paste a link to a gimp clothing tutorial that has helped me tremendously. I cant say I am very talented at creating much of anything yet. Just have to keep trying. =)



http://slnatalia.blogspot.com/2007/03/day-181-creating-clothes-with-gimp.html

Good Luck!
~GoldieFawn Fielding

Dearly Darlings,

I did not find this to be lttle old lady friendly.

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

There's always the Stickied "Great Clothing Tutorials" link at the top of the Texturing Tips forum. I 'think' I saw a GIMP tutorial there?

Its a bit old, but should still be simple enough to follow. Just use your "templates" in place of the defaults.

http://www.angelfire.com/planet/gimptutorial/SL_GIMPTUT.html

Try this; go to,
http://www.slboutique.com/chipmidnight/
And click on the download link for 'Upper Body Template'. It will be a .zip file which you should be able to unpack easily just by double-clicking into it, and looking for the 'extract' button on the program that opens it.

That will create a file called CMFF-Upper-Body.psd (or something close to that). Start the GIMP and open that file. It will show you a fairly detailed layout of the body. The places where it shows body shapes are where second life reads the texture from. The places that are blank are ignored when texturing an avatar.

Go to the file menu and choose "Save as... " and enter a file name "my first shirt.xcf".

You should do this now, so that you can have the program in front of you when reading the rest of the instructions. It is very hard to imagine what the program will look like from a few words, it is much easier to understand when it is right there.

Go to the "Dialogs" menu and choose "Layers". There will be a bunch of layers already. Clicking the eye-shaped icon will hide them; clicking all the eye shaped icons will hide everything and leave you with just the background. Clicking in a blank space in that column will bring back the eye icon and make the layer visible again. Leave one of the bottom two layers (the ones that show the shape of the body) visible.

The icon marked with a single sheet of paper image is the one for creating a new layer. Click that, and create a new layer. It should automatically have all the right settings, and when created, nothing will appear to change on the image. It should automatically be selected, which means it will be marked with a darker color in the 'layers' dialog. Now when you use your paintbrush, you're drawing on the new layer. You can use the body image as a guide for where to draw.

Don't worry about drawing well, just choose a brush and a color and paint.

When you have something that looks like a shirt or the silhouette of a shirt in a color you like, then go back to the layers dialog, to the file menu and choose 'Save'.

After that, go to the 'Image' menu and choose 'Scale Image', and enter for the new X and Y values, '256' and '256' and press the 'Scale' button to complete the action. The image will shrink to a reasonable size for a texture.

Go to the 'File' menu and choose 'Save as...'. Enter a file name of 'my first shirt.tga' and save it.

Now go to 'File->Quit' and leave the gimp. You have created your texture, and only need to put it into secondlife. Launch the secondlife program and log in. Go to the 'File' menu and choose 'Upload texture', and select your 'my first shirt.tga' file.

('Upload', by the way, is a techie word for 'Send file', just like 'Download' is a techie word for 'Get file'.)

It will take some time thinking, and then show you an image that looks just like what you saw when you saved, and it will say on the dialog 'Preview as: Texture'. Click that pull-down menu and change it to 'Preview as: Upper Body'. If it looks like a shirt, then go ahead and 'Ok' the upload.

Once uploaded, it will appear in your inventory as the 'my first shirt' texture. Now it's just like any bought texture - you can go to Edit->Appearance and change the texture of your shirt, and you should see your new shirt on your avatar!

If you ignored me when I said you should go try this now, don't worry that you're confused. Go back to the first steps. It makes more sense with the program in front of you. If you get stuck, just tell use where you are stuck at, one question at a time will get you unstuck and on your way.

Once you can get through this procedure, you can do any of the other clothing tutorials and make nicer clothes - they are all about how to do the actual drawing and painting parts so you have something more than a blob of color for a shirt.

I was making the blithe assumption that you have the GIMP installed... if you do not, you should first get it from http://gimp.org !

Thanks so much Goldie! I have been wanting to start transitioning from PSP to Gimp but then it always seems like too much trouble to try to figure out something new. This tutorial made clear several things I was confused about.

Showdog Tiger you have my sympathy; starting at the beginning is very difficult. Perhaps if you start with some beginning Tutorials for Gimp and get familiar with it the SL clothing tutorials will make more sense

Dearly Darlings,

As soon as I finish stripping some windows I'll go to those two tutorials. It seems that everything I do now takes longer. You should have seem me with the all the extra help trying to put up wall paper! (Bifocals and a mag glass!)

You all have a lovely afternoon.

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

Omg Thank you Thank you Jake!!!!
I cannot believe I am sitting here and actually painint the white stripe on my kimono when all I had to do was add a layer and click on the paint brush (pick a styl e and color) and draw it on!

All my supposed friends who made excuses that they were horrid teachers and didnt have any time and grumbled about thier to do list (excpet when the newset issue of play fox magazine comes out) are in for a very sierious wake up call. simple add a layer paint on top..Im still WOWying and schocked and almost feel like crying for joy....and yet a little sad...that there is defiantly going to be some clean up on the old friend list tonight.

One question Jake.. Once I dary on the line im trying to clean it up a bit the eraser and not sure to get a crisp clean line I heard wierd things like doge n burn and if there is anyway to make that line more straight please let me know!

Jake also one more thing.. Im a novice builder and also the owner of Ling Ling desings..In Ayumi's waterfront shops.# 55
Anything in that store and I dont care if you want one of every single item I have, it is yours and really mean that. Not once did you get mad at us or impatient. you followed through with alot of kindness. If you want it as a gift so it can be transferd please dont be afriad to come.

Not sure what time zone you are in. I work for the Karyukai Tea House 6 to 9 and will be performing tonight. youll be my guest of honor.

Also don't forget that Ctl + Z is your friend, you're very best friend.
Try clicking the different tools buttons and see what they do, change some sliders or settings and try again, Control key plus Z key will undo many steps so you can go hard without worry.
This is how to find the tool and settings you want. Trial and error.
And another...Make certain that the Gimp help files ARE installed, if not, go do that now. I think they may be separate installs.
After that, every dialog will have a help button that gives you help on that particular aspect. (Context sensitive help)
This is VERY helpful.
Good luck.

You're welcome.

To make a crisp straight line, first make sure you are using a good brush for it. The first brushes are fuzzy-edged, and then there's a set that are hard-edged. You may get 'jaggies' - where you see the pixel staircases in a diagonal line with a hard edged brush, and you may be blurry with a soft-edged brush. I'd usually use the soft edge myself for most painting, but if that's not clean enough for you, use the brushes that are solid circles.

Once you've got your brush, to make a ruler-straight line, click and release where you want the line to start. Now move the mouse pointer to where you want the line to end. Hold down the shift key. A thin line appears showing the connection between where you were and where you are. Click and release the mouse button, and you get a perfectly straight line.

I'm sure this straight-line feature is in the tutorials I've read... somewhere... but I actually found it completely by accident within the interface.

Also, don't be too hard on your friends. Who knows what long hard way they were taking to get the job done. Paint programs are filled with -so- many features, there are a lot of ways to do the same task, some of them much more complicated than others.

Dodge and burn are for shading work (and they are 'modes' found in the settings for your brush), they won't make lines cleaner or sharper but can be used to make light and shadow. I'm not really expert in those tools since most of my past gimp work has been web-stuff that didn't need that sort of thing. I think there are tutorials specifically on shading that go into those. This kind of thing if you can do it well will add a lot more realism to your clothes. (My own shading work is unimpressive, but I'll work on it. And I've got to get to bed, I'll go visiting another night.)

Once you've got your brush, to make a ruler-straight line, click and release where you want the line to start. Now move the mouse pointer to where you want the line to end. Hold down the shift key. A thin line appears showing the connection between where you were and where you are. Click and release the mouse button, and you get a perfectly straight line.

Wow that is gold to me! thank you so much!
One thing I totally didnt think of in my excitment was.......I have some fabric samples or textures. I really wanted to put that on the shirt in Gimp. When you load the template into SL it is worn as a texture so you can put another of your photos or textures on it.

I also thought that i cut the neckline and "Cleared it" and when I uploaded the template my chest where the v-neck (im trying to make a kimono) was filled with graph lines.

Is there a way to put the fabric sample or texture on the template? then load the completed top to Sl? I even tried to color it and the lines from the template showed straight through it.

I dont know your time zone however if your free in game to do a class I have 2 other beautiful ladies The Oka-san and Head Geisha of our Japanese tea House Karyukai who want to learn to do this.

If ended up with a grid, then you left the template visible when you saved to '.tga' format.
After your a happy with your image, you need to go to the layers dialog and click down the 'eyes' to hide the layers that make up the template. You should see a checkered gray/white background if nothing is in the way, and then when you save, where you didn't paint will be transparent.

If you leave any of the template layers visible, you will get grid lines or colored seam matching marks or some such in your texture. So, when you save your work for using later (save as .xcf) it doesn't matter what's visible. When you save for second life textures (save as .tga) you want only the parts you painted to be visible.

Any image that can be opened in the GIMP can be used as a pattern. (From the menu, Scripts->Selection->To Pattern) and any pattern can be used to paint with instead of a color, that would be one way to paint a fabric texture.

Ohh Jake!
you are so fabulous!!!!Where have you been all my life????

Ohh you are so sweet and so good! Someone needs to Sticky this post!!
I will definalty try that and feel so hopefull!
I still cant get over how nice you are!
Okies that all makes perfect sense Im excited to try it.I may just copy paste everything you said into a word document and import it into Sl for my friends.

Ha ha your kindness will touch many lives!
Domo Arrigatto.
"luv"
Luvi

OOOOoooooops!
Ha ha jake i hit a stumbling block. I have a very pretty template all cleaned and cleared out ready to go.
I made a transparent layer and for some wierd reason when I goto paint with the paint brush, Instead of it looking like white paint around the the edges its erasing the cleared out neck line and putting the graph lines back in. (looks like it did before I cleared it.)

Yesterday I had no prooblems clicking on the brush selecting white as the color and away I went!
Also when I try to use the texture to fill in or patern with.. When I goto script-fu and selection... then next menu is all greyed out.. I even tried it with a saved version in tga and XFC gimp version.

So whether I try to use the texture as jpg gif targa or xfc I can't get that menu
-->selection to pattern to ungrey itself..

I did manage to do this once a long time back and it turned the pattern all white.. Now I did go back with another difffrent sample and tried the script-fu trick.. Nope no luck
I goto selection and that menu is completly all greyed out.

I sure hope I havent driven you crazy by this point.

'Script-Fu'? I wonder if you are using an old version of the GIMP, I could swear it's just 'scripts' nowadays. Maybe it's an appearance option.

Anyway, if your 'paintbrush' tool is erasing, probably you changed the mode from 'normal' to 'remove color' or some other odd mode. This is the pull down box that starts with 'normal' and includes 'dodge' and 'burn' ...
Possibly some other modes (I think there's a 'replace') could seem to erase if you also have the 'Opacity' (Alpha) setting all the way down on your brush. A really far fetched possibility is that you did make a pattern of the template layer by accident and are painting with that instead of a color... that's also in the brush tool settings.

While playing with the paintbrush settings is fun, when you go on to do normal stuff you need to be sure that you are painting in Normal mode, fully Opaque, and with Color. It's good to play with settings and learn new things, but it's also good to remember where they started.

To make a texture, you must have some part of an image selected. When you want to make a whole image a texture, open the image, then 'Select->All'. If nothing is selected you won't be able to make a texture.

This version of the Gimp is 2.13 it was the top one from download.com

Also A helpful note to others once they get to the "pattern stage"
Your images have to be in J-peg form then you can goto "Select" -> select all-> Script-fu or script -> then down to pattern fill.

I played around with all the Modes..

It seems to cover up the entire image plus its in super tiny squares. How do I make it so that it only fills in the shirt itself without covering up the white stripe I made?
Im almost there!!!

Also when I use the bucket fill mode it gives me this watch icon and does nothing alot of the times.. Why is that?

This is the official Gimp-for-Windows download page:

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/stable.html

They are on '2.2.15'. I don't know if your '2.13' is a '2.0' variation (2.0.13?) or a '2.1' variation (2.1.3?), but either way it means some of your buttons aren't where they are for me. The newer versions changed the layout in a way that I think is easier to use. But it is different, which may throw you off a little. (I'm almost certain you are not using '2.2.13'.)

I can't understand your checkerboard question. When you have nothing in your image, there is a checkerboard that you will see (there has to be some kind of background drawn, after all.) Where you see through to the checkerboard is transparent. I wonder if you are clicking one 'eye' icon too many and turning off the layer you were drawing on so there is nothing to see?

It is also possible that you drew on the template itself, and that your New Layer has nothing on it. You have to have your layer selected to draw on it - when I create a new layer, it is automatically selected, but I don't remember if that was true in the previous version.

The paint bucket tool takes forever because you're trying to do a 'fill' based on 'similar colors', so that if you click on a black section, it fills with a color all the black pixels that touch that pixel. If you were to click the bucket onto a black section of one of the grid templates, it would try to trace a very complicated pattern and take a very long time to do it. This is a worrying sign that suggests you might be painting on the template layers.

I think that the paint-bucket is much faster and smarter in the version I'm using, but, I almost never fill that way anymore - I have a 'select by color' option in the select menu, which is very quick and selects all similar colors across the whole image without worrying about what touches. This is usually what I want anyway. Select by color, then fill (or clear) selection is very handy.

Umm yeah Im confused too..

this is what I did

Opened the shirt template

cut out a neck line and cleared it

made a transparent layer and painted on a
a white neck line

imported a jpeg texture to use as a fill or pattern.

Trying to use the bucket fill to fill up the rest of the shirt
with a pattern or a texture without covering up my white neckline..

Instead all i get is either Nothing.

or it completly covers over everthing in a very small titled fashion and
completly covers the front and back of shirt thus filling the entire window with patterns.

I just want to fill my shirt with a pattern and also have it not so tiny or repetive.

Does this make better sense of what im trying to do? I just basically want to texture my shirt before I bring it in game. cause if you are wearing the texture you cant texture it in game.

I am clicking in little parts of the shirt and it is filling in the kimono with the pattern its just going bit by tiny bit as if it is coloring the template itself. I added a layer before doing this.. maybe I should have gotten in there and turned off some of the other layers.