What do you use to create your clothing?

So I am into business for some time now. And I use Photoshop CS for the creating of my clothing, the outstanding templates from Robin and it all looks quite good. But I still bake them myself, don't use any photosourcing and in world I haven't used any extra programs what so ever.

So now I am curious, what do you use, next to the creating or drawing programs like Paint or Gimp. cause that is already be spoken of in many threads.

I really would like some tips and tricks.

*AE*

Like you, I mainly just use Photoshop and paint nearly everything by hand. I use photos as reference material a lot, but generally not as actual source material. For other things, not clothing related, I use Maya a lot, but for clothing it's pretty much all Photoshop.

If you can afford it, the new 3D capabilities in Photoshop CS3 Extended are really, really useful for clothing.

Do you think you could expand a bit on that, Chosen? I was wondering if I should upgrade from CS2.

In PS CS3E, you can import the 3D model for texturing directly in Photoshop, so there's no need for a third application to view the mannequin. You can't paint directly on the model; you still use the 2D template for painting, but it still saves a ton of time over the way it was typically done before. Instead of having to save the file in PS and then reload/refresh it in a 3D program after each save, now you see the results on the model instantly the moment you save the image. It's very handy.

For a demonstration, go to http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/, select Photoshop CS3 Extended from the product list, and then play the video entitled Editing Textures For 3D Models.

Note that this feature is only available in PS CS3 Extended, not in the regular CS3 version. The cost of the extended version is US$999.

A lot of designers use other programs to 'bake' on wrinkles and shading, etc. However, personally, i do that by hand in photoshop--it's not all that hard.

The right amount of shading is certainly a personal preference, but I think it can be overdone, especially when using lighting programs like maya. It's easy to add lighting in those programs and have the clothing look awesome within it's own scene. But, the light system in Second Life has it's own shading abilities when light falls on the avie, so you are introducing a fully shaded clothing item to a redundant shading system in Second Life's light. If overdone, you'll see either too much shading or conflicts in shading since baked shading is from the same light direction whereas SL shading is dependent on the direction of the sun to the avie. But no shading at all produces a flat looking item. So for me, you need just enough shading to give it some dimension and realism and let SL do the rest. That can easily be done in Photoshop alone.

And like Chosen said, if you can get CS3 extended, it's awesome. The upgrade cost is $349, i think. Prior to CS3, I used to bring designs into SL a lot just to see how I was doing. Now I can have an outfit 90% done before I bring it into SL. And fine tuning the seams is so much easier.

Thank you so much for the reply's I just wanted to see if I didn't miss a point somewere. sometimes it seems so hard to find real good info about these things and I have spent so many hours to get where I am now. So I just will continue and when I get really succesfull I can even considder the upgrade

Thanks All!!!!!

*AE*

I've used Paint Shop Pro 7 for years, and it still it my tool of choice. Though lately I've used it in conjuntion with AVPainter (which is available on SLEX).

I've got an ancient copy of Deep Paint 3D that I use for the main cuts, bumps, and whatever. Then off to 3DS Max for a bunch of materials and renders. Final comp and tweaks in Photoshop.

Although, recently, I've been rediscovering the power of Painter. I could never get the hang of it, but I think I'm gonna stick to it this time around. Man, this thing can blend. Maybe in a few years I'll be proficient enough with Painter to hang with the big boys. By then I'll be 10 versions behind instead of 4.

Anyone who doesn't feel like paying to upgrade Photoshop, you could always just download SLCP from the sticky on this forum.

I DID JOHAN and I love IT!!!!!!!!

No need for an upgrade or for the expensive Avpainter

*AE*