New Subdivided UV Templates

Hi everyone!

I hesitated to post this, because I don't want to step on any toes. Chip Midnight's templates are very good, and I don't want to denigrate them in any way.

But I've found, after working with them for some months, that I needed a little more in some areas. (I'm sorry, Chip.)

So I took the models into LightWave, subdivided them, and made templates that have the features that I need. (And lack some things from Chips, like the shading, that I don't.)

Primarily, I made the UVs into Vector Smart Objects so I can resize them without any loss of crispness or clarity. This only works in Photoshop CS2, but that's what I'm using, so that's what I did.

I also did a bunch of other things to help me find my way around the template with a minimum of fuss.

When I mentioned in these forums that I'd done it, a few people seemed interested. And I need to use them for the clothing tutorial I'm working on, anyway, since I don't have permission from Chip to use his.

Anyhow, if anyone is interested, you can check it all out here.

This is a close-up of an avatar wearing a UV Suit made from these templates.



They are available in 512 or 1024 .jpg files, layered Photoshop files, and CS2 Vector Smart Object files from that page on my site.

You can also get the textures for the suit in-world from my Texture Tutorials, at Benten (17,105), which will save you the download fees. They are in the main notecard at the Avatar Texture station.

So... there you go. Hope someone finds them helpful.

Thanks Robin. You're awesome.

BY the way, who's your web host? Those were some mega fast downloads.

Thanks, Govindira and Chosen!

I use Interland for web hosting. We went there when they were new, and have been (on the whole) extremely pleased with their service. Because we are such long-standing customers, we're getting a really sweet deal from them that we couldn't touch anywhere else.

Very nice, Robin. More options for designers is always a good thing.

Whew! Thanks, Chip! I'm glad (and relieved) that you agree with me that more choices are better.

Awesome, awesome!!!!! I have been using Chip's since a long time now, and without them I wouldn't even own a shop where I sell clothes. But I think, just as you said, the more choice, the better! I will certainly find some stuff in yours that I was lacking in Chip's, and vice-versa, depengin on situation!!
Everybody wins! Again, AWESOME!
And thanks so much for sharing for free with the community!

These look like they'll be really useful. Thank you for posting them. I'm just starting to use the SL clothing templates to explore my own designs. It's great to have so many helpful people like you who help us novice designers out. Just working through the tutorials at your store at the mo, also really helpful. *Hugs*

I'm vector challenged so I'd never have thought to add that feature. Definitely a nifty idea. I always figured that people would mod mine or add features to them and it's surprised me that no one has. Nice to have another great tool in the toolbox!

Thanks this is great...nice work Robin!!

Thank you Robin!

I've been using Chip's as well and they are indispensable for me. These will help me a lot as well.

Thank you for sharing!

I use vectors a lot when I'm making stuff, since I can't get my French Curves into the computer. They are the best way I know to get nice, smooth, (repetable) curves every single time.

If I ever have time again, I'll be posting the way I do it as a series of tutorials. But maybe I should post one explaining how to use Bezier curves first. Seems that the various software programs haven't had that as the first tutorial bundled with the program in years! (I'm lucky; when I bought Illustrator 88, it was. So I learned how to use them before I started to use the program, and never got frustrated with 'em.)

Everyone else, thank you very much.

!! Awesome job on the templates! these should really be helpful (notices more precise indications for eyelids and lips ) *downloads*

Thank you so much for this Robin.

Kudos again and apologies for my earlier drastic suggestion to Jen.

Thanks, Lost and Dianne!

And, Dianne, no apologies needed. Sometimes the drastic solutions are the only ones that work!

I use splines all the time in 3ds. I just don't think to use them in PS at all aside from using paths to create selections or strokes. I've been working in raster formats for so long that I've become set in my ways. I started out raster way back in the day and never spent any time doing print work in corel or illustrator or the like. Anyway, I'll have to take these for a spin We need several other people to make templates then we can take the best features from all of them and make the SL uber-templates hehe.

I added a link to this thread in the first post of the other template thread.

Cool, Chip, thanks!

Yeah, I started with raster, too, way back in '84.

But around the late 90s I wound up doing all kinds of print work, and barely used raster at all for a year or so, because everything had to be done in Illustrator. I got really, really used to working with the vector tools (obviously, ) and when I started to work on websites, and went back to raster, I found that I was reaching for the vector tools as often as I was reaching for the paintbrush.

Now that the lines between the two are getting really blurred, with raster tools in Illustrator and better and better vector tools in PS, (and on the web,) I'm a Very Happy Camper.

LOL! Yeah! I'm all in favor of the Ultimate Uber Templates! Let's do it! Bwahahahah!

You're lucky to be equally comfortable with both. It's funny how designers tend to be in one camp or the other. A print designer I work with often, whose been working professionally for longer than I have, recently floored me when I discovered that he'd spent a week using vector tools to cut out what he needed from a ton of renders I sent him because he was completely clueless about alpha channels, which I had kindly supplied for him in each and every file. He just didn't know they were there or think to look. Doh! If I ever have to do anything in Illustrator I'm sure I'll do something equally boneheaded.

Me too, and all I can say is it's about damned time! I was trained on both Illustrator and Photoshop at the same time, and I can remember thinking at the time, "Why the heck do you need two programs to do this?" and I've never stopped thinking that. I love Illustrator, and outside of SL I probably use it more than I use Photoshop, but for years I've thought they should just do away with it and incorporate the whole thing right into Photoshop. It's seemed for a while now that Adobe knows this and they're moving (slowly) in that direction but that they're reluctant to let go, which is understandable (and unfortunate). Both programs are tremendous cash cows for them. I can't blame them for moving slowly and cautiously towards a merger, but I do wish they'd get it over with.

In the mean time, the thing I love the most about recent versions is that the interfaces are nearly identical now. Previous versions of Illustrator had things in really funny places if you're used to Photoshop, and vise versa. CS changed all that, and it's been great. Workflow between the two is much more seamless now.

Chip, we gotta get you vectorized, my friend. Funny story about your friend and the alpha thing, by the way. I had a similar but opposite experience not long ago. My GF manages a small retail chain of 5 stores, which means I get the honor of doing their graphics work (which sometimes they pay for and sometimes they don't they don't, ugh, but I digress). One of their major projects right now is to bring their website into the 21st century (it hasn't changed in 10 years) so she's been obtaining photo CD's from their various brands (guess who gets to sort through it all).

Anyway, one of the CD's, a PDF collection of one company's current catalogs, came with this weird little instruction sheet that said "To pull individual images from a PDF, open the document in Adobe Illustrator." I would have excpected it to say InDesign or Page Maker, but Illustrator? Illustrator's not a layout tool. WTF, right? Well, I did as instructed and I was amazed at what I found. Whoever made the catalogs actually did make them in Illustrator, and every single one of the hundreds of images in them had been cut out using about twenty or so layers of compund vector masks.

I can't think of any reason why they would have chosen to do it this way. Not only would this have been incredibly time consuming to do as opposed to having used just one alpha channel for each image, but also it was pretty sloppy work. Close inspection of the images shows visible borders and hard corners where the masks hadn't been fine tuned. I simply can't believe this was considered professional, finished, print-quality work. All appearences were that some employee of the company had gotten a copy of Illustrator for Christmas last year or something and said "Hey guys, we should have a catalog now."

Needless to say, exctracting these images was tedious to say the least. I did a few and then said "Screw it; it's screenshot time. This is only for the web, right? Let's see, 10 minutes deleting layer upon layer of masks for each one and then pasting to Photoshop and resizing to screen resolution OR ten seconds for each one taking a screenshot. Hmm, let's see."

I gotta give them points for trying I guess. At least the product they used did say Adobe on it. One of the other CD's from another company had all the images embedded in an MS Word document, if you can believe it. This is why manufacturing and graphic design are two seperate fields. If anyone who's a manufacturer is reading this, I'm sure you're excellent at what you do, but please, on behalf of those of us who will eventually have to sort through your wake of digital devestation, put the Adobe product back on the shelf, leave the software store, and go back to work at the job you're actually good at. I'll make you a really easy deal. I won't come onto your assembly floor and try to make product, and you don't come into my cyberspace and try to make catalogs. Got it? Okay.

So yes, it is interesting how designers, or more acurately in this case, those who have delusions of being designers, tend to settle into what they're comfortable with. I'm pretty sure comfort zone is the only reason why Illustrator and Photoshop still exist as seperate programs.

Robin,

Blessed be your mind for conjuring this approach
Blessed be your hands for creating these templates
and Blessed be your generous heart for sharing!

GIMMEE!!! LOL!

I am thankful for people like yourself and Chip who dont hog their genius!
*sniff*
*grabs hanky*
*dabs eyes*

I cant wait to play with these! But alas, its after 6 am and kaia needs sleep.

zzzzzzzzzzz *dreams of new templates*

Glad I checked the forums today! Between these and Chip's I should make some awesome clothes ) Thanks!

Yay! Thankyou so much Robin , these are terrific

hahaha, amen to that! I've also gotten things from clients embedded in Word documents before, and every other possible ineptitude. I'd guess it's common for anyone who does freelance work for corporations and non-profits. I think half my jobs begin as someone getting assigned a task that gets them in over their head and they have to hire someone to bat cleanup. Anyway, I completely agree with you both that seeing raster and vectors finding their way into single applications is a great thing. I do need to get into vector tools. I've had a copy of Combustion sitting here for two years waiting for me to learn to use it, and I want to, but not only are its paint tools vector, it also used a node based compositing interface instead of a timeline. Ow, my brain!

Thank-you, these are a great addition!

Hehe, I just looked at the demo info on Combustion. I'm with you. My head is spinning. Looks like a hell of a program though.