Help me get started?

Is there anyone out there that would take the time to walk a newbie through getting starting at making clothes?

I'm very interested in learning and even though this message board contains a ton of useful information, I'm still not sure where to start?

I have and I'm familar with Macromedia Fireworks MX2004. Can this be used to make textures for clothes?

Point me in the right direction I'm ready to get started!

Start out by getting GIMP--a free paint/illustration program. Get familiar with it. If you can get your hands on Photoshop...that's the best paint program available...if you're serious about designing clothing or textures, find a way to get PS.

As far as how you get started? Read tutorials. Unless you can seriously find a citizen that will "walk you through it", the best way is to read and do, read and do.

Basically, you have to understand that clothing (the 2d portion) is based (usually) on a template. The template is 'painted' over in your paint application with the clothing texture, and then the texture is brought into SL, and placed on the appropriate 'appearance' texture slot (at least, that's one way)--it gets trickier when adding attachments for 3D parts of the outfit.

Tutorials work best. Good luck.

Not sure if that made sense...it might have read like stereo equipment instructions.

Check out the free classes in-world, they are great! Search > Events >Education

Absolutely not. Don't go anywhere near GIMP. GIMP while free, is seriously inferior to Both the current iteration of Paint shop pro and Photoshop. Gimp requires a plug in to make it look like photoshop., which IS the industry standard.
gimp
n : disability of walking due to crippling of the legs or feet
(it is An open source paint and image editing program for Unix, X Window and Mac OS X that originated as an undergraduate project by Peter Mattis and Spencer Kimball at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999. While it was good for its time, it is woefully behind now.)

If you are serious, get a demo copy of each and try for yourself. And with notable expections, all clothes designers use either of the two with the bulk using Photoshop. I can give you my old copy of PSP 8 if it is a monetary problem. I am willing to answer questions about templates and such and can put you in contact with other more well know designers as well. Just IM me. I can give you the ropes.
As for your question, I don't think flash will help. But your skills couldnt hurt either.
You will need templates as well.
Let me know I will help.

Pay no attention to the previous post unless you like throwing money away.

GIMP is fine for everything you do in SL. What you learn is what you will be comfortable with.

Not everyone can justify 400 to 600 USD for a program to try something out for fun.

And GIMP (really The GIMP) is a fine program to get started with for making textures to upload to SL. PS may be the "industry standard".......but then so are you so called "industry standard" Luxus', Cadillacs, BMW's. You don't need those to get from one place to another......in fact that Toyota Sentra just may be the better deal. And who needs a plugin to make the GIMP look like Photoshop? It's not Photoshop......why pretend?

Your definition is wrong.........the GIMP is an acronym...........G (GNU) I (image) M (manipulation) P (program). Joke not appreciated, thank you

Try to get photoshop if you can; it will do you good in the future.

I have not used GIMP so can not comment, but I do real world design work and all of my contacts are running photoshop as well. It`s just easier to be working with the same application as most people.

Not sure how far you want to go with it, I guess that will decide which you use and what you want to invest. Perhaps start with GIMP now since it`s free, and then move on to photoshop if you feel your profits justify purchasing the program.

As another noob to the world of texturing and clothing "manufacture," I am another one of those who cannot justify putting out all those big bucks for PS. I suspect that each of the posters above has experience with the program he or she is posting about. My opinion (like as***les, everyone has one) is that whatever you've become comfortable with is the best. The GIMP has worked for me, but the downside is that there are fewer tutorials for it. If you can get comfortable using it, i suspect the GIMP will work.

Hope this is helpful

Use the GIMP. It does layers, it does Alpha textures, and it can open the PSD files that the avatar templates come in. It can save as TGA for uploading to SL.

It looks different from Photoshop ...
It calls things different names than Photoshop ...
Neither of those factors are compelling reasons to pay $600-700 USD to make TGA files.

Both Corel and Adobe offer versions of their software for free.
Photoshop is the industry standard.
The Gimp was created by a project by college students. It is worth its cost.
I will buy her a copy of either if she wants it.
No one that uses gimp exclusively will be able to get an job but anyone in the graphic design industy will laugh their @ss off if that was one your resume.
So none of your arguement hold water. You want to make clothes and you haven't done it before, get a demo of PS or psp.
You want to piddle around here, be my guest, get gimp. You will learn how to use it, and only it.
As I said, there are some notable people who have made awesome clothes with it. I know someone who made awesome clothes with paint. The point is she said she needed help and gimp is not the way to go.
My offers stand.

To muddy the waters further, I do not use Paint Shop, full Photoshop, The Gimp, or Paint for my textures. I *do* use an outdated version of Photoshop Elements that happened to come with my computer.

I'd probably use The Gimp if, at the time of my starting to play with textures, it was able to be run on a hyperthreading computer without disabling the HT (geeks bang away at my less than perfect verbage on it). I've been told that it's available now for HT but I'm comfortable and able to work within the confines of PSE. This option (PSE) is available to you as well, for anywhere from $3-99 USD, Ebay (older versions) or direct from Adobe (newest version).

Ask your friends if they have PSE. Some people do and some don't use it. If they don't, ask them if you can have it (programs are transferable, but not copyable, so no violation of EULA's or anything, if it's not installed on their machine(s)).

The best advise: Find your budget, figure out how much money you have available for a program you may or may not decide to keep using. If you can afford full PS, are willing to take the risk that you may not stick with it or may not make your money back, go for it. The resources for PS are 20-1 vs. The Gimp. If, on the other hand, you just want to play with textures, don't have the money, or want to save up in the mean time, the Gimp *is* free.

Next step, read everything by Chip and Robin. OMG read it all. Even though they work in PS (from everything I've read) if you use the Gimp, you'll probably locate the right tools and stuff to do the things they describe.

Download and use Chip's and Robin's templates (THANKS GUYS, you're my heroes!) and play around with them. IM me in world, I've already uploaded the templates inworld to see how they apply to the Av's mesh, I'll send them your way. That is the *best* way to figure out what all the contour lines on the templates refer to.

And finally, if you do skirts using the skirt template, remember (I banged my head a million times on this one) it will look fabulous, as long as your av doesn't stand/lay/walk/swim/fly with her legs more than an av's foot's width apart. Work with that.

Welcome to the wide world of "dang, why did I flatten that!"

A

Lemme tell ya, in all the years I've been working with computers and doing digital art, one thing I never get tired of is arguments about which software is better. Windows vs. Mac, IE vs. Firefox, Photoshop vs. GIMP, 3ds Max vs. Maya... nothing gets me going like rehashing the same pointless debate over and over and over again!