Clothing questions - edging, seams.. please help!

Hi, i'm using paint shop pro 7 at the moment - and have hit a bit of a problem.

No matter how carefully i draw the edges of my clothes they always looked pixelated when looking close up in world - how can i prevent this so that the edge looks tidy in world?

Also - crotch issues with knickers! I have tried again and again but cant seem to get a perfect knicker line particuarly around the crotch area. Any tips on how to get this better would be greatly appreciated.

I guess that matching up textures perfectly just takes practice - but am not sure how to go about creating nice tidy seams on my clothes. Please help me! Will be eternally grateful!

Hi Rhiannon!

I've never used PSP, but hopefully this info will give you a leeetle bit of assistance...

1. Pixelation: when using the line tool or any of the shapes to create your edges you will get a bit of pixelation. Use the pen tool, or I usually go over the edge with the blur tool with a very light setting (8%-15%). This also gives me a bit of shadow around the edges on the skin when I use a black background on the clothing item.

2. The dreaded crotch stretch: I avoid it like broccoli at dinner! There are 3 solutions that come to mind.....1. Don't put any details in this area, 2. I've seen some shorts where the area is actually carved out (as in the front and back are normal, but the inner thigh part isn't there), or 3. don't make pants.

3. Textures: on shirts, since the front template is offset a little lower than the back, I mark the texture with a small dot lining up on one of the grid lines outside of the area where it will show....then when I copy the texture to the back part of the template I line the dot up with the corresponding grid lines on the back. It isn't a perfect solution, but it does make matching up a big easier.
Experience is probably the best teacher.

Best

~Ari

You will never ever ever get the dreaded crotch area to line up right in some areas. You can stick to the pantie line or you can use the short short line on Chip Midnight's template. This causes a wee bit of funky lines in the inner thigh (but not the dreaded bleed down the thigh), but it's the best solution I've found.

My best advice for matching textures is 1) patience and 2) make your lines/borders/seams line up with the edges on the edge matching guide in Chip's templates whenever possible. It will save you time. I also find it useful on some shirts to color the edges in the same color so there isn't a color seam mis-match.

YAY another paint shop user.

First I say use the CMFF templates, and second, get used to being offset a bit. For whatever reason the pants do not set up the way they are in the template. I've still not gotten it down, though I also avoid making underwear most of the time.

The bleed on the inner thigh will not go away, I have no idea why it is there but the easiest way to avoid is to make the shorts or whatever go past the bleeding area, it does not mess up those for whatever reason, or to make a 1 pixel line going through to the rear area starting at the very bottom edge of the pinkish lips area.

If you have the CMFF templates you will know what I am talking about.

As for the pixelation, Ok this is something built into the brush, the smaller you take the brush the less pixelation you have. One or two pixel brushes will have no pixelation but will also take forever to draw in enough to go larger for behind it. I tend to go with 3-9 pixel brushes depending on how fine I want to make the line. Above 9 and you get alot of fuzzyness, 9 actually has fuzzy to it but not all that much and generally fades out when you shrink to get the design in game.

Jennifer McLuhan has free alphas for panties and/or bikinis in her store. Waved (106, 15, 21)

Guys - thanks so much for all your help. Will try everything u have all suggested. Thanks again x

Hi - i keep seeing fab dresses beautifully textured on the flexi skirt. Is there a special techinque to stop the texture stretching and warping on the flexi skirt and getting it to sort of line up with the texturing on the rest of the outfit? Thanks x

I'm not sure what you mean by stretching and warping....

You can always try to raise the horizontal repeats on the pleats and see if that helps (unless it shows a texture seam). Have you tried using smaller pleats to make your skirt?

Most of the time I make the top of the panel texture transparent, say 1/8th of the way down gradually becoming opaque. This allows the mesh skirt texture to show through then visually blend into the flexi portion.

If you are a bit more specific (or are willing to share a picture) with your exact issue I can try to give you a more detailed solution or recommendations.

Best,
~Ari

I will say this to everyone who is using an old version of PSP. It is really worth the money to go up to 8,9, 10 or even 11. It really is.

Hi there - i do use paint shop pro 9 - sorry! used to use 7 and got confused.
Anyway, am going to pull my hair out soon about these edges pixelating.

Have tried using a small pixel brush to outline - also a low setting on motion blur - and the setting brush.

Have uploaded a couple of pics to illustrate - the bra looks good from the front but looks a mess from the side (and yes - i know the back and front straps dont match up perfectly
)

Any further advice anyone could give would be greatly appreciated x

P.s Thanks to everyone who has helped already!

Does PSP have Gaussian blur? I'm not sure motion blur would help much. I prefer the blur tool because I'm a control freak

But for the side pixelation issue...that is a tough part to work with because it does stretch quite a bit on that area of the breast.

Do you still get the same issue if you bring the bottom of the bra up a bit?

~Ari