Question about Templates

I use Chip's templates, I love them!!! but sometimes I think I complicate myself a bit. I have to zoom a lot to see exactly how to match the seams on the shoulder and sides if I have to and still when I upload them in SL they are very off... I have to try several times, but I am not saying several as 3 times or 5 times, but 10-15 times and I keep erasing and erasing and still I am off...

Now, is there a better trick to this that I dont know about or do I just have to have so much luck?

Same as the arms... I am trying to make these gloves but I dont want to know how much stress would be trying to match the seams...

So if there a better way, can someone tell me? Thanks..

Nobody has replied for hours and hours... I will find out one way or another... *smile*

Hi Palomma! I use Chips Templates too and I find that if I just go by the color guide along the edge they match up pretty perfect almost everytime. I'm sure you probably are but have you been using the color guides?

I use Chip's for my avs too, and they've helped me so much (considering I make animal avatars, and lining up the spots and stripes are such a pain). I'd definitely make sure you have the seam labels and color guides up when you're working on them, but also take note of the UV mapping that goes with them.

If that doesn't help, try DLing this program, it's called "Tattoo" and it lets you see your skins on a 3d model *and* lets you paint on them. I think it's invaluable (Though if you use it to sell stuff you really should consider buying it).

http://www.terabit.nildram.co.uk/tattoo/

In order you use tattoo, you'll have to get the object files, they're located somewhere in the downloads section of SL's site.

What Jolie said is pretty much how I do it too If I have a wrinkle or stripe or whatever that I want to cross over a seam then I try to make sure it hits right on a spot that has a defined match point... specifically one of the small grid lines. Then I can just count lines on the other side of the seam to make sure it hits the same spot. It still can take a couple of tries because of differences in scale and stretch on opposite sides of some of the seams.

Ahhhhh ok thanks, then I am doing it right, I just take a bit longer thinking and checking and being certain this color goes with this one, ect... sometimes the seam is really thin which is more difficult..

And I will download that tatoo programs, thanks everyone

Palomma, you may also want to download Robin's templates in addition to Chip's. I find myself switching between Chip's and Robin's all the time now, depending on the task. Each have advanatages for different situations. Robin's templates have some great tools for shoulders in particular.

Palomma, I've found that all templates I've tried and the 3d model LL have made available for us is unprecise. For instance in the upper thigh/crotch area. I've done a lot of editing to the 3d model's uv map to make it match our avatars better, but I had to give up. I too use Chip's templates and find them extremely helpful Downloaded Robin's templates as well, but haven't had a chance to look at them yet.

Have made LL aware of the unpreciseness and have asked for something more correct, but I haven't even got a reply.

So far I have outlined edges of cloth with paths and checked them by mapping on the 3d model - then adjusting until perfectness. After that uploaded to check how much my outline is off against my avatar. And adjusted again. Then have done the clothing in Photoshop. What I will experiment with is to do much of the basic stuff in a 3d paint program instead of the Photoshop/LightWave preview method I've used so far.


Lis

Hi Lisbeth! If you are familiar with UV Mapping, then you know that if the Lindens gave us "something more precise," it would break all the clothing that is currently in-world.

This was done once before, when the population was much, much smaller than it currently is (before my time,) and it's my understanding that the outcry was horrible. I can only imagine what would happen if they broke everyone's stuff now.

My advice, if you are used to ordering UVs; go ahead and do that, use yours, and bake the textures onto the Linden maps in LW.

That's what I do for the base fabric textures for my clothing, to eliminate the seams on the sleeves and between the jacket top/bottom, around the collar, and so on.

But I've found that it's not practical for the detail work, because the differences in AVs in world are so extreme. The Linden maps are fairly "neutral." So I use the maps provided for all the buttons, pockets, and other stuff.

Just my experience.

Yep, they did some tweaking to the UV mapping in the crotch area. Believe it or not it used to be worse than it is now. The end result was that every existing pair of underwear and a lot of pants suddenly became crotchless. Everyone had to redo them or pull them off the market. I think I had about twenty items that had to be fixed and replaced for everyone who requested a repaired version. The outcry wasn't that bad but it was definitely a massive pain in the ass. Now that a lot of designers have hundreds of items instead of dozens something like that would be devastating. The only way they could do it would be to make the av mesh hold more than one set of UV's and add a checkbox for which UV any given clothing texture should use. That's complicated by the fact that there's actually already more than one set of UV's. Many of the avatar morph targets have tweaked UV's to help minimize stretch in some of the more extreme morphs. They would all have to be redone by LL which you can probably imagine would be a pretty huge job.

Robin and Chip - you misunderstand me I think. I'm sorry I didn't made it crystal clear that I want more accurate offline tools than we have today - templates and 3d objects.

I don't want LL to change the UV maps on the avatars - I'm very aware what a disaster that will be. What I meant is that they give us an offline 3d model with geometry and UV maps that is correct to the geometry and UV maps default avatars actually have in SL (before adjusting a single slider in apperance).

For instance, the back. If I follow the templates precisely, a horizontal straight line across upper back may after adjustment look perfect on the offline 3d model. But not when I map the texture on an avatar with default settings. Which is what I expect.

Robin: I have adjusted UV map of the model in LW, and got it much better. But it was too time consuming, confusing, and began to cost a lot of money I didn't have to upload all the tests, so I had to give it up. In my opinion doing such a thing is still LL's responsibility - not something I should be forced to do because they never got it right.


Lis

Hmmm, that's strange. As far as I've ever been able to tell there's no difference at all between the UV mapping on the downloadable OBJ files and the in world avatar. Not saying you're wrong, just that I've never noticed

I have another question....

Why do people use poser to see the clothing on the avatar when I can just go to SL and upload it and see it on that first part preview place before I pay the 10L for the texture?

Is it better to use the poser and more precise? I dont see a difference.. I have poser too and was taught to use it (which I think I forgot) but didn't see as much difference..

Maybe I can see the seams better?

btw I go by the colors but sometimes the colors are not in the place where I want the seams to be

I've never found a need to use Poser for previewing, so I often ask myself the same question. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. There's a lot I don't know about Poser, and someone else may have valid reasons why they use it for a preview. I just have other methods that work better for me at the moment.

I think it's is a good thing that there are multiple ways of doing the same thing. We can all pool our knowledge and choose what works best for us. I'm always trying new things and experimenting with what others find useful. Different projects require different approaches for me because no single method solves all issues. For example, I used Deep Paint 3D (which I rarely use) to do some of the texturing and previewing on my Iron Man skin, then did a lot of adjusting in Photoshop using my own preview method.

I guess I'm somewhat of a maverick in the preview department. I rarely use UV maps or any external previewer. Instead, I rely on an extremely fast preview method using the client textures in the character folder. If something is out of alignment I can usually visually translate what I see on my avatar to what I need to adjust on the texture map. Multiple iterations are not a problem since I don't pay to upload and the update happens in about 4-5 seconds on a full size avatar of any shape.