Getting Frustrated with making Dresses

Hi,

I have been teaching myself photoshop and reading alot from the forums and other Tutorials. I think Im doing pretty good, I have put in about 100 hrs in 3 weeks trying to make clothing. My Questions is how do you make your dress look as if there is no seam from the shirt part to the skirt, I have tired different things and still cant make it look like a seamless texture. I do have Chip Midnights templates by the way. Could someone please give me some advise.

Also.. after making wrinkles on a texture is there a way to remove the gray from that layer and still keep the wrinkles to use?

Thank You

Hi Vitality. I might suggest that in addition to Chip's templates, you also get ahold of Robin's. They've got a ton of very precise seam matching guides, including one for the skirt. You'll find both sets of templates to be very useful, depending on the task. You may even want to put all the layers from each into a group, and then put both groups into one master mega template for each body section. That way you can turn each group on and off for reference as you need.

As for the wrinkles, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "remove the gray". Are you dodging & burning on a gray layer to create your wrinkles or something?

Hi Chosen, thanks for replying. Yes I am dodging and burning on a 50% gray Layer,when I add it to what ever im making the gray covers my item and then I have to erase where I dont want to see the gray I know I have to be doing something wrong. I do also have Robins templates there are no inputs with the templates so which lines are you exactly to use for the skirts? I normally use the seam guide at the top of the template. I didnt even know you could group all the layers in photoshop and then place them on a template how do you do that? I feel like I need to take a class just to learn some simple things,I know Im do everything the hard way and still trying to figure out how to make several colors with the same garment. I have read the forums about it but for some reason mine dont change colors
Thank you again for your help!

If you're seeing the gray, it's because you've got the wrong blend mode on your gray layer. It should be set to Overlay. It sounds like you've got it set to Normal. Near the upper left corner Layers Palette, you'll find a dropdown menu. When you hover your mouse over it, it will say "Set the blending mode for the layer". Open the menu, and choose "Overlay".

The way an overlay layer works is it uses its own colors to lighten or shade whatever's below it. 50% gray is mathematically absolute neutral coloring, so that's where you want to start. Use the dodge & burn tools to lighten & darken areas of gray accordingly to create they highlights and shadows of your wrinkles, and the overlay will correspondingly appear to lighten and darken the actual colors of the layers below. The nice thing, is you can then take that overlay and apply it to multiple garments, or you can use multiple overlays within a single garment to have versions with varying degrees of wrinkle or other effects. Overlays are completely nondestructive.



Take a look at Robin's upper body template. You'll see a layer called "Skirt Line". Turn it on, and you'll see a red line appear across waist area on the front, and a purple line across the same area in the back. You'll also see a layer called "Skirt Match Points. Turn that on, and you'll see a series of colored vertical lines marking some key UV intersection points where they cross the skirt line.

Now look at Robin's skirt template. Make sure all layers are turned on, and you'll see a red line across the top of the front, a purple line across the top of the back, and that same series of colored lines marking the same key UV points.

Use those colored marker lines to make sure anything on your dress that is meant to straddle the line between the skirt and the shirt crosses both templates at the exact same UV points.



Depending on which version of PS you're using, the procedure is slightly different. If you're using CS2, then simply shift click all the layers (on the Layers Palette) to select them, and drag the whole selection onto the "Create a new group" button. It's third button from the right at the bottom of the palette, the one that looks like a little folder.

If you're using an older version then the terminology is a little different. Layer groups were called "layer sets" before CS2. To create one, go Layers -> New Layer Set. You'll see the new set appear in the stack. Drag all the template layers into it.

Now that you have all the layers in one group (or set), you can turn them on and off all at once, move them around, transform then, drag them to new documents, mask them, etc, just like you can with an individual layer. Very convenient.

You can also expand or collapse your view of a group in the Layers Palette, so you can see all the layers inside or just the group folder. With the view expanded, you can access each individual layer, just like you could before. With it collapsed, you can save some needed screen realestate in the palette, and you can easily manipulate the entire group. Grouping layers is a great way to keep your image documents organized.


Don't worry about it. Photoshop can do so many things, it takes time to learn it all. After a while, you'll kind of absorb the logic to it, and you'll develop an intuition for the how to's. That doesn't happen overnight though. Just keep at it.


Try using an adjustment layer to change the colors. Adjustment layers work by adding various properties to whatever is beneath them. For color, Go Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Hue/Saturation. A new adjustment layer will appear in the palette, and the hue/saturation dialog will pop up. Use the sliders to change the coloring of the adjustment layer, and you'll see the same coloring get applied to everything below. Easy magic. And just as with the overlay layer from before, adjustment layers are completely nondestructive. They can also be copied from image to image, so you can make sure your skirt color exactly matches your shirt color.

If you want multiple colors of the same garment, I'd suggest you make the original in grayscale, and then just create a few different adjustment layers with varying hues to assign color. To change the color of a garment on the fly, simply turn one of the adjustment layers on , and turn the others off. Give all garments the same set of adjustment layers, and you can make sure they all match eachother for outfits.

In the immortal words of Ted Turner, "Happy colorizing."

Thank you sooooo much Chosen for sharing this information, this will make things alot easier for me. * Hugs*

Hi Vitality
Another couple of hints :
- It's easier if the area at the top of the skirt isn't too detailed, or isn't supposed to link seamlessly. For example, you could add a belt to the design. If you can't or don't want to use this solution, Robin's templates are extremely useful, especially the vertical seam guides. That's what I use to match my folds and wrinkles.

- If you have a pattern : you will want to shrink the pattern on the skirt layer to, roughly, 75%, so that it appears to be of the same size as the top layer pattern. You'll also want to torture it in some nasty areas (mainly, the stretchy triangle at the front) - basically you'll want to compress it horizontally only.

- Upload a draft picture of your dress showing both the template and your design. Take snapshots, in-world, of you wearing the dress, with full shots of the difficult areas (seams).

- Blending modes are fun !