T-Shirt Template Tutorial finished

Hey Robin, first, allow me to thank you for the amazing templates and guidance you have offered everyone here, you are definatly one in a million!

The actual reason I thought to post though was to ask if you had any plans on any GIMP tutorials in the future? For those of us on low to SEVERELY limited income Gimp is really our best option...only trouble is, for people new to it...like me, it's pretty overwhelming! LOL

Hi there!

I´ve download your T-Shirt template .psd to be able to make my own t-shirts
and upload them to SL.
But it seems I keep getting the same problem like other members about the alpha channel not being saved on the targa file, so the avatar keeps getting the arms and neck black!

I am using Photoshop CS3

Hi LiLu! I'm afraid not. I can't get the GIMP to run on my machine, so I'm not going to be writing any GIMP tutorials at all. But plenty of other people have.

Hi FILETE! As I told the other people, there are only three possible reasons for this, if you're using my file (which has a proper Alpha channel.)

1. You aren't saving as a 32 bit Targa. You need to do that. Each channel takes 8 bits. When you are using four channels (Red, Green, Blue and Alpha) you need 32 bits. (8*4=32)

2. You have saved an additional alpha channel. If you use Save Selection, then you have another alpha. There can be only one. Check the Channels palette. You should have 4 channels. (The RGB channel doesn't count; it's not a channel, it's showing the combination of Red, Green and Blue channels. Anything with an italic name doesn't coun either It's temporary, based on layer transparency or masks. You should have Red, Green, Blue and Alpha 2.)

3. You have done something to remove the Alpha channel I put there. Once again, check the Channels Palette.

If you haven't done one of these three things, and you have exactly 4 channels, (Red, Green, Blue and Alpha 2) and are uploading the file to SL as a 32 bit Targa (.tga) then you will have the transparency that I have built into the file. There is no way not to have it.

Hope this helps!

Hi, thanks for your reply!

I am avid photoshop user for many years, so I know what should be done
to have alpha channel on a targa file!
So everthing is correct here, but I´ve just preview a t-shirt on SL, and guess what?

The alpha is there!


So, the problem must be this program i´ve download from the net (SL Clothes Previewer),
it gives an avatar in 3D and you can test your clothes.
But what happens when you load a .tga file with alpha, the alpha does not work!
I am using Mac OSX10.4.9

Strange, because I found out about this program here, on SL forums...
Any idea why?

P.S. one last question, why does the upperbody does not appear on the preview
when you are loading a shirt on SL?? Just the shirt alone...

I have this same problem with the clothing previewer. Sometimes. Alpha doesn't work there but does in SL. I'm now using AvPainter as a clothing previewer.

Thanks Robin for all the hard work. I've used your templates for making freebie promo shirts for my friend's band. I did get the black sleeves/failing alpha channel problem too, but I found a workaround before I realised there was a patch for 7.0 - basically had to recreate the alpha channel from your black mask layer.

Hi, well AvPainter is for PC...

Do you know any SL Previewer that alpha works for Mac?

FILETE, didn't you say that you have PS CS3? If you have the Extended version, you can preview your clothing inside it. It won't show the Alpha, but otherwise, it works great!

You can also use DAZ Studio. Which also won't show the Alpha.

In fact, most things won't (although the Preview when you upload to SL shows it just fine, on any material, for Male or Female AVs.)

This, of course, is because the Alpha is used for many things besides transparency in one program or another. Most programs won't automatically assume that it's transparency. (In fact, the Lindens are considering using the Alpha of Sculptie textures to drive flexibility in SL, since it's not needed for transparency, and is currently unused.)

None of this is a real problem, because you can always just make a copy of your file, merge the layers, load the Alpha as a selection, and click the Mask button, to see it.

That will allow you to preview it on nearly anything.

Hope this helps!

Lir, thanks for your kind words. I'm glad that you enjoyed my work.

Yeah, PS 7.0 had real problems. If you'd posted with your problem, you would have heard about the patch. (Most of us have bookmarked the pages with them, so we can tell people.)

I'm sorry that you didn't realize.

(The "copy, merge, load selection, mask" would have worked for you, too, by the way. Not Flatten, you understand, because when you flatten, you make a Background layer, and those cannot be Masked. Merge.)

Well, first at all thank you very much for your tshirt template: it's just great! Also, it´s very nice of you share it.

I have one question. I started doing tshirts. What I did is a mix using your template and chip ones (I like some layers there.. All tshirts work fine, I export them perfectly with transparent background. Naturaly, I wish make different tshirts, diff models, with details, some "cuts" and so on.

I am doing somethign wrong and I cannot find what is. I wanted make a square neckline to start something diff. So, I make a square to use it as "template to show what I want cut off". I positioned it over my tshirt template and delete this square shape from the texture tshirt part (the first layer on template). So, I went to top layer (black to hide halos) and with buck I made it black too.

What happens when I upload to SL? I have this square portion black. All back is transparent, except this portion. What am I doing wrong, please?

Any light would be very apreciated.
regards,

Beth aka Aniela Szondi

Hi Aniela. Thanks for your kind words; I'm glad that you find my work helpful.

You didn't mention anything about changing the Alpha Channel. If you didn't change it, that's what the problem is.

You'll find it in the Channels Palette. If you need more information about Alpha channels, it's pretty well completely covered in the sticky at the top of this forum.

Basically, anything that's white in the Alpha will be opaque in SL, anything that's black will be transparent, and anything that's a shade of gray will be semi-transparent. (How much transparency will depend, of course, on the shade of gray.)

Hope this helps!

Robin

That's a good ole Dublin Slang term for 'well done'...

It's really very generous of you to share your talents with the rest of us..... How about a bustier/corset type template?

I stuck here... I have 4 channels but alpha2 channel shows diff "shape": the tshirt I made is squared neckline and have long arms. Alpha channel shows your original shape, all changes I made are not there.

I couldn´t find info about alpha channels at the top..

Again, could you please give me a light?

Thank you very much!
Beth aka Aniela Szondi

I went to your site, at http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLPages/WhiteHalo1.html and then I made a new alpha 2 channel with new selection and it worked.)

Thank you very much for your care

Robin, you said something about PS CS3 "Extended" Version-what exactly is that and what kind of special thingy do you use there to preview clothing? I might get CS3 for my birthday, so I'd love to know!

P.S:You ROCK!

Photoshop CS3 Extended has a built in 3d previewer so you can import the avatars and see your textures on the model without having to save targas and view them in an external program.

I have it, and unfortunately, it really doesn't really seem to work with the avatars for me. I've heard that it doesnt work well with OBJ files, so this may be the reason. In any case, even if it did work, it only previews the texture on the model; you still have to work on the flat texture and update the 3D model at intervals. IMO, the productivity gain over using standard PS and SLCP is not really enough to justify the extra cost. (CS3 Extended is $250 more than the standard edition)

First of all...... a great big thank you!!!!! Not only am i having a ball making wacky, fun t-shirts for my friends, just looking at the template has been a big help with other things as well.
Now comes the question .... have searched high and low for an answer to this one........ is there any way to use a fabric image instead of the colour and picture thing in the template?
I'm using PSP X btw and like to use funky fabrics for t-shirts, but not quite skilled enough yet to get things like the shading and the other details right. So while i can get the shape right in my own textures, even with nice clean lines, seams meeting up etc., the detail isn't there.
In short: obviously know how to change the colour and the picture, have made some tees with pics of partners and such for my friends, but would dearly love to know whether I can use a different fabric while maintaining the detail.
Any and all help greatly appreciated )

Robin Sojourner

Thank you for this t-shirt Template it is great.
I have a couple questions.

How would you do a Wet T-shirt look off your Template?

And next.

Should Make a Panty Template

Hugs and Thanks
Cathiee

Cathiee

Jennifer McLuhan's store at Waved 106.15.21 has freebie panties and bra (bikini) alphas... or I may send you copies if I remember - or IM me to remind me...

Wet TShirt would need parts of the alpha making grey (semi-transparent) in water blob/patch shapes - I might have a go myself )

Cat x

Cat

I got the Undie alpha from Jennifer McLuhan's store
I want to design this similar to Robin Sojourner t-shirt template
What would you suggest.
I took it out an put it into Photoshop cs3

Also let me know what you work out with the wet t-shirt look
I have been playing with Robins template and going to do a baby doll T
as well as a Tank top style.

Robin the template is great and easy to use.
So i can concentrate on the Art work of the t-shirts that i have been doing
thanks again

Hi Everyone! You are all most welcome, and thank you for your kind words.

Aniela, I'm glad that you found your answer. Sorry I've been gone so much; RL has been interfering with SL, I'm afraid.

Alyx, if you haven't found info about PS CS3 Extended in the last month, you can find it at http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshopextended/ Once again, I'm really sorry I've been gone.

Annyka, CS3 Extended works fine with the Avatars, IF they have been saved in some kind of format that saves Materials along with the models, and IF the material names have no spaces in them. (Yeah, it's kind of picky.) Sadly, not all programs export their .obj files with .mat files and images. So I made a set of Avatars that can be brought into CS3 without difficulty. You can find the links, and lots of other info, in this thread.
/109/27/178887/1.html

Sally, sure! To make a t-shirt with a fabric, place your fabric layer where the Color layer would ordinarily go. Then play with the Blending Mode (in a drop down menu at the top of the Layer Palette,) so you can see the Texture through it.

If the texture is too faint, no matter what you do, then hold down the option/alt key, click on the Texture layer, and drag a copy of it above the pattern layer. Change the blending mode to Multiply, and you should be able to see the texture quite well. (I just tried it, with the Pattern layer set to Linear Burn, and an extra Texture layer, above the pattern, set to multiply, and got what I was after.)

I strongly suggest that you play with all the blending modes to see which ones you like best for a particular fabric. To do that quickly, click on the Move tool, hold down the Shift key, and then tap the + and - keys on your keyboard to cycle up and down through the modes.

Also, don't be afraid to add more texture layers! You can hold down your option/alt key and use the Arrow keys (any of them) to add duplicate layers really quickly. Assuming they are set to Multiply, or some such Blending Mode, you can see a huge difference as they pile up!

Cathiee, I'm afraid you'll have to draw the wet-T-shirt. And yes, as Cat said, you'll have to play with the Alpha Channel as well, if you want to get the semi-transparent effect.

For everyone who wants me to do more templates, I'm just going to include a bit from the letter I send everyone who e-mails me with the same thing.

I'm afraid I have no plans to create any Templates other than the simple T-shirt that's already up.

That was a special case, and I made it because someone on the forum was asking for help putting a logo on a T-shirt for a promotion (if I recall correctly.) Someone told them that making T-shirts in SL wasn't as simple as doing one for Café Press, and I thought, well, why shouldn't it be?

So I made the T-shirt template and posted it, specifically so that people who have no interest in learning how to make clothing can make a T-shirt for an event, a promotion, or just to advertise their favorite artists or political positions.

The fact that many people who are interested in making clothing have found it helpful, as an example of one way to put a template together, is a bonus. But that was never my intent.

Besides, you are much better off making your own templates, so that your clothing is unique.

Hope this helps!

Thank you again! I figured it was something as stupidly simple as that but hadn't tried the extra layer on top of the pattern. Off to make some more t-shirts

Did i say thank you? THANK YOU!