Help with photoshop and clothes making

Hi guys! Im new to SL and to clothes making here. I've only had brief experience with PSP7 back in my tag making days. Needless to say i've forgotten most of it. Im now using Photoshop CS.

Can someone look at my first photo and tell me what im doing wrong? I get white underneath the clothing layer, both on the skirt and on the top, unless i take the top way down to the top of the breast line to hide it. Also my skirts, my rear end always looks huge. My Avie does have a fairly large rear, but you can see in the second photo, it doesn't look blowed up like in my own fashions.

Also the second picture. It is not my skirt but it is a plaid skirt with a ruffle that attaches to it. How is this done?

And last question I think. Right now im just practicing using photo sourcing to practice with. But im also interested in drawing. Is there any tut's on how you draw on layers, what kind of layers you need..how to add textures etc. For example, the waist line on my skirt, i'd like to add something to it to make it look more finished, or lets say i'd like to had fur to the bottom of the skirt..how is this achieved?

Sorry so many questions..Im using Robins templates to practice with.

Oh another big question. The template opens at 1024 but if I open a photo in 1024 its to big.. I usually end up with the front at 580 and the back at 540 and I know this is all wrong but if I dont resize it the seams dont match up. Any help anyone can give would be great.

Thanks in advance!

That white is there because something went horribly wrong with your alpha channel, or you did not make an alpha. To make the alpha channel, simply select the area outside your skirt, then select inverse, then Select>Save selection. This will make the channel. Then you save the file as .tga 32 bit.

The second example is an example of a prim skirt with a clothing layer. (I don't make those, so I'm not sure what all goes into it, other than to wear the clothing layer, make the prim(s) the shape you want, and apply texture to match the clothing - I think).

As for the rear ends in skirts... I know there's not much I can do to make my butt look not so big in a skirt...

It's not your fault the skirts fit as they do. It's just the way they sit on avatars for some reason. What I did was make an extra shape which has a smaller butt, hips, etc... especially for wearing skirts so they appear to fit correctly.

As for the photo being too big at 1024: You may not need to resize your photo to be as large as the template so that it'll fit correctly. Scale it to whatever it needs to be to fit properly. Also, it is generally accepted that one should always resize the texture to 512 before uploading.

I hope that helps at least some of your problems. Making clothing really isn't my forte, though texture and wearing clothes sure are!

Welcome to Second Life too, by the way!

thanks guys.. ok that fixed my skirt with the white showing..but i still get it on the top following the same instructions. Making sure i have the front of the shirt picked for the layer im working on.. I get the marching ants around the top of the breasts.. pick invert the save selection..I resize to 512 save as tga 32 bit and im still getting the white over the top.

By the way, this is suppose to be a shirt not a dress *sighs* Im hopeless

Helen do you have the link to a template for a less poofy rear end? And almost sure its me and not the template..just can't figure out what im doing wrong *sighs* even doing skin tight my rear looks like it has a puff of air under it..driving me nuts hehe.

Actually, it's not a template. In the appearance editor window, go to the section called Legs which is under Shape. Here you would want to make the butt size, hip width, and possibly saddle bags smaller than they currently are now. I'd 'save as' the new shape though, so you can switch between your "normal" one and the skirt one.

I've had a few skirts and they all look enormous on my regular shape but once I made the special skirt shape it hasn't been too much of a bother to change between them.

People do make skirts by applying their texture to pants, and then they add a prim for between the legs that make it appear to be a skirt. With this, of course, the prim may move oddly depending on poses and such, but it is an alternative to using the somewhat imperfect skirt template.

Your shirt's alpha channel did not come through - you can tell this before you pay to upload. The background will be gray checkerboard if the alpha channel is there and white if it is not. Make sure you have the alpha channel, 32 bit tga etc. - and make sure there is only one alpha channel for that shirt.

Good luck

LOL Oh that did help alot.. Thanks Helen

The poofy rear end sounds to me like it's the 'Bustle" slider. Make sure that's set to zero.

If you are making these things to sell, you are probably working on a "New" piece of clothing so your name will be properly displayed as the Creator. (If you're not, you should be. ) For some reason, the default Bustle on a New skirt is set to 10%, which makes everyone look like an Aunt Fanny wanna-be.

Hope this helps! Your textures look good, by the way.