A question to the experienced clothing designers about dress making.

Hello, i am a newbie in clothing. I want to design clothes and different things but i need some help. I have 2 questions, i will be glad if you guys give me some info.

1. Can every clothing that i see in SL made in the create clothes section with adding textures and alpha channels on them or do you use extra prims to make clothings? I sometimes see different clothes in SL, i try to make them in the create clothes section but i cant, do they make them in photoshop or another program, or they use extra prims and add those prims to the clothes that they made in editing appearence/clothing section?


2. I tried to make glasses. When i try making the prim at minimum size which is X .010 it was still thick, not like a glass. But i see people can make narrow glasses which look like the size of a paper thickness. How can this be done?


Sorry for my english, i tried to write my question as clear as possible. I will be waiting your help. Thanks.

Hi Cat,

The majority of clothes in SL are just textures applied to the base clothing parts in the 'Create Clothes' section of the appearance controls. But the more complicated ones do also have prim parts that add to that, and which are worn on attachment points. For example, I own a Kimono that uses prim parts for the waist sash (Obi) and the lower parts of the shoes (Geta). I own a suit coat that has a prim collar and necktie.

"Paper thin" prim items are, in all cases that I am aware of, a minimum-thickness prim that is made so it is alpha-textured on the edges, and possibly is textured only on one side. For example, on your glasses, there is no reason to texture the inside of the lenses. So you could apply a 100% alpha texture to the lens, then select the outside surface and texture that with something mostly transparent, to make them look more like glass.

I have a set of wings that are textured on only two sides. They appear to be paper thin, because as you move around and view them edge on, you cease seeing one side and then see the other. In actuality, they are still at least 0.01 thick.

Hi Cat!

Ceera has answered 1, so I'll answer 2.

There are tricks to make prims that are far, far smaller than the "minimum" size of 1 cm. I use them all the time, and so do a lot of other builders. (It's how the bitsy prims in jewelry are made.) I'm guessing that the glasses you've see use them, too.

You can find them all explained in this thread. (Ceera, check it out! You're gonna love this!)

Hope this helps!

Hehe you beat me to it.
Basically Ceera, it involves hollows and cuts ... but the thread (which I haven't read yet) probably goes into a lot more detail.

Thank you for the replies.. I am cruious how you attach a prim to a shirt you make in appearce editing.. I tried nearly everything but could not find how to.. Can you tell me how?

Hi Robin, Siobhan,

Yes, I know about some of those tricks with using cut, dimpled, twisted or otherwise tortured prims, though the article Robin referenced offered some new ones to have fun with! But I was trying to keep to a simple and direct answer for Cat.

Cat, attaching a prim part is seperate from the appearance settings part of clothing making.

Think of a prim part like you would a hat. It may be part of a larger outfit, but isn't attached actually to the jacket, shirt, etc. that it goes with. You make it out of a few oddly shaped pieces (brim, crown, hat band, feather...), by building various shapes of prims, texturing them, and linking them together. Then you take that object into inventory and 'wear' it, specifying an attachment point. You stand on a posing stand and adjust the position of the prim object. When you detach it and take it back into inventory, it remembers where it was in relation to that attachment point.

So let's say you wanted to make a shirt with epaulettes - those buttoned-down cloth strips on the top edges of the shoulders, like on a Safari shirt.

- You make the shirt itself, and texture it, but ignore the part of the epaulettes that will stick up above the shoulders.

- You build an epaulette flap and button out of prims, and texture it to match the shirt.

- Wear the shirt, and stand on a pose stand.

- Position an epaulette strap on top of each shoulder. Select the strap, and attach it to a suitable attachment point, like 'left shoulder'. Adjust the position.

- Repeat for the other strap, attaching it to the right shoulder, and adjusting it.

- Take both straps into inventory, and store them in the same folder with the shirt.

When you wear the shirt, you wear all three parts.

That''s a high-level view, but pretty much covers it.

I did all fine, but when i tried to wear the shirt, i had to wear the straps one by one, they did not come on at the same time.. what did i do wrong dunno, still trying. let me know if you know the reason. ty.

Cat - if your strpas are prims, you will need to put each one on, one at a time.

I have a prim dress that consists of a top, shorts alone with prim sleeves and skirt. I wear the top and shorts then, attach each sleeve and the skirt by selecting wear, one at a time.

It is like prim shoes. You put on the foot, then the left and right shoe.

Hope this helps,

Jen

Straps don't need to be separate. You can link them together as a pair and attach it to your avatar's torso and spine.

Ouuuu, nice tip Cotton.

Thanks!

Jen