Noob questions.. YAY!

Hello all,

Ive been in SL for about 2 weeks and am constantly in awe of the creative and inspired designs and textures I see everywhere. I have a lot of respect for the builders and designers, and hope to join thier ranks. Theres just a few problems..

1. I use gimp, and Im horrable with it. I cant afford PSP or any of those sorts of programs, and I doubt Id be much better with them. So Im working off what I have.

2. Im not experienced in importing designs and textures into SL, I dont know of all the needed specs for file type and size, template pixel count, bit and color requirements, and while Ive been reading an aweful lot through the forums, the whole concept of the 'alpha channel' still illudes me.. I understand its a necessary part of the textures, but to what means?

I understand this is the sort of thing where practice is the best teacher, and while I havent had a lot of time to play with my Gimp program, or much linden to try and import textures with, I am working day by day to get a grasp on these things.

So, here comes my big question.. Where to begin? All you fabulous designers out there, how did you start? What path took you from a dream of that perfect dress or sexy set of boots into making them a reality?

What should I do practice and work on becoming proficient, and what are some of the better resources out there for people in my position.

Thanks to anyone who lends in thier support in this, and I hope to see you all in game.

Hi Gem. n.n

I can't answer all your questions, but I can offer some pointers on what worked for me.

The Alpha Channel is necessary ( I think ) to help bitmap the image over your avatar's frame. Without the alpha channel, you'll notice that in 99% of the cases when you upload your image you'll see nothing at all in the preview screen. The alpha channel tells the system what should be visible ( everything white) and what should remain unseen (everything black.) Without an alpha channel I think it's reasonable to say that the system sees grey and gets 'confused'..it doesn't know what to apply where. So..it does nothing.

The best way to ypload any file is to save it as a .tga file set at 32 bits, with a 512x512 image size. In the case of .jpg files, they can be saved as normal with the 512x512 size.

The best place to begin, after you've downloaded the templates, is with skirts. That's where I started, just to get a feel for how things work and look. The skirt template is very basic and straightforward. From there. I moved on to shirts, then pants, and lastly shoes.

Of course, there's a LOT to learn and mentors are hard to come by. The really famous designers such as Chip Midnight, Canimal, et al. are very reluctnant to reveal their exact how to's, but most of them can be persuaded to give tips if you ask.

Or you can just plot to kidnap them in game and hold them for ransom until they cough up all their secrets, as I have been doing. >

There's an excellent primer on alpha channels written by Chosen Few in this thread: /109/b9/69817/1.html
It's well worth the time to read

Hey Geminel,

It can definitely be overwhelming, even when you've been making clothes for a while. My advice is to take one of the Linden-created templates (look for a downloads page on the SL site) which have some basic pants, jackets, etc. and just upload it and apply it to clothing. Or as Athene said start with a skirt. It doesn't have to be fancy or award-winning, just make something so you can say you did it. Don't be in a big hurry to make money, just keep experimenting and trying things.

The tutorials are great, but it's also important to create something that's all yours, even if it's not something you would sell or show anyone.

Once you're past the basics, then you enter the "learning new techniques" stage, where I still am over a year later.

I tell this to everyone who knows little about the graphics program they are using and it does sound laughable. Bear with me lol.

Granted I don't know anything about GIMP but I'm guessing the same basics will apply. To better understand the program itself, before going into the business of sl textures, make a 3D web button. Its actually one of the 1st things you learn to do when in school for graphics and there is good reason for this. You'll get some basic knowledge and its a tutorial you should be able to find on the web that's relatively easy to follow. You won't have any use for this little button once you're done, but it should give you some confidence and knowledge.

Using the second life design tools are relatively easy once you know where you're headed. Its mastering your graphics program (GIMP) that will make you.

Start small, think big, be patient and determined. I promise you, anyone can do this, its just a matter of how bad you want it.

You're already off to a great start whether you realize it or not simply because you came here to forums and weren't afraid to ask questions.

Hi Geminel, and welcome!

Here's my take on your questions.

1. I'm sorry, I don't use the Gimp, so I really can't help much here.

2. For best results, upload your designs into SL as .tga (targa) files. The size should be divisible by 8. I recommend 64, 128, or 512 pixels square. Use the smallest of those that you can get away with. Most clothing (which is what it sounds like you are interested in) is 512 pixels square. I'd recommend working at 1024, and then reducing the size before uploading.

All the textures should be on squares, since everything in SL is UV Mapped, and all UV Maps are square. In other words, it's going to be stored internally as a square anyway, so if you make it square to start with there will be less distortion, and therefore fewer distortion artifacts.

If you are working on clothing, of course, you'll have no choice, since the "templates" you need to paint on are all square.

An Alpha channel simply tells SL how much transparency each pixel should have, from opaque (white on the Alpha channel) to clear (black on the Alpha) with partial transparency coded by shades of gray.

Alpha channels aren't necessary, and shouldn't be used, unless you want transparency. Not having one doesn't confuse the system at all; in fact, it makes the textures upload quite a bit faster, since the files are significantly smaller.

However, if you want to have a sharp neckline, or sleeves, or anything else, instead of determining these things from the sliders in Appearance (which fade out the edges, instead of cutting them sharply,) you will need transparency. Which means you'll need an alpha.

If you want more tutorials and things about that, let me know.

3. I would begin by learning about how textures work in Second Life. Once you understand why things work the way they do, you'll know what you need to do to get the results you want.

I have a set of in-game tutorials designed to teach this. You'll find them at Benten (17, 105), or contact me in-game if you want a landmark.

Also, don't use the Linden templates. They are nasty. Chip Midnight has made a much better set, and so have I. You can download mine here. The link to Chip's is in this thread.

Hope this helps!

Ok, Im working with my Gimp program and in time will get the hang of it, until then Id like to be able to see how my work will actually look once its imported into SL. Once more brousing these forums Im hearing about people useing other programs which simulate an AV and can be used to test clothing and textures outside of SL to determine where flaws might be and how it will look.

Is there such a program? How reliable is it? I really dont have the Linden income to be trying to import every test skirt or pair of pants I play with..

Most importantly, where could I find such a thing?

EDIT: BTW, Id like to thank everyone for thier helpfull input thus far, the fact that this sort of thing is so common in the SL community is one of the many things Ive come to appriciate about it.

usefull gimp info btw http://members.home.nl/m.weisbeek/gimp

man that is so awesome i have like three of those you guys are so cool

Yes, there is such a program.

Download Tattoo, which is a free (for personal use) 3d mesh painter (a program that lets you paint textures and skins directly onto a model instead of using 2d UV mapped textures).

Download the "Second Life Mannequin" (3d models in .obj format) from the SL download section.

Once you do that, you can load the SL_avatar_OBJ.obj file into Tattoo, save your texture in PNG format, then put it in the same directory as the .obj file. The texture should be named upperbody.png, lowerbody.png, or head.png, depending on where it is supposed to be on the avatar.

Then you go into Tattoo and "reload changed textures" or something like that ... voila, texture preview outside of SL. And you can even fix any problems right there in Tattoo.

If you want to do this for skirts, you load the skirt_mesh_OBJ.obj file instead. That's probably a bit trickier, since you can't really see how it lines up on the body, so the templates are probably useful for that.

The results of all of this aren't exactly like SL, but it's better than trying to use the preview window. There are also some annoyances, such as an inability to save textures with alpha channels, or the fact that Tattoo becomes VERRRRRY slow when working with textures greater than 512x512.


You can also use Tattoo to create your textures, rather than fiddling with templates (or just load the templates into tattoo and paint over them). It takes practice, but then so does doing it in 2d.