Male Briefs

I've been trying to make male underwear briefs and it's driving me NUTS! I've been working on this for hours and can't get the crotch polygon area right. At this point I'm staring at the file blankly wondering why I even started! LOL

If anyone would share a template or point me in the direction of one, I'd be forever thankful.

You'll never get it right. That has to be the worst area of the av to design for. There's a VERY narrow zone, about 2 pixels wide, running from front to back through the crotch area, where you can paint without having the color bleed down the legs. You can either put up with it the bleeding, or design speedos, or design boxers instead of briefs. Sorry...

Your choices are long-leg boxers, or bikini briefs with a one-pixel wide crotch band. There is NO middle ground between those two that does not smear and make a mess of the crotch area.

I've tried making classic speedo style swimming trunks with some success but they never look absolutely right and the same goes for any other examples I've seen. I'll pass you an example in-world so you can see what I mean.

As Rolig and Ceera suggest, it's no coincidence that the better examples of male underwear and swimwear in SL are cut along the lines of trunks or boxer shorts.

For a start, there are two 'wheels' of polygons either side of the groin area that make a very obvious jagged line in high-cut garments, whether it be on a male or female, but it can look much more exaggerated on the male version of the mesh. You need to avoid this altogether - in which case you get a funny looking, arrow-shaped cut-out where the top of each leg joins the hips but that is at least better than a runny blur down the inside leg. You can go over it and smooth out a reasonably good line by trial and error but the chances are high that it will look wrong as soon as the garment is worn by a differently shaped av.

Otherwise there is no way around the issue unless you go to either extreme of a thong/jock or full length boxers as suggested.

Basically the mesh is crap and it really shows on garments like briefs and speedos as well as dresses or vests that have narrow shoulder straps where the polygons are also very thinly spread. Another alternative is to torture a torus or sculpt an attachment to fill out the crotch area and hide the deficient polygons. I've noticed some creators are selling this type of combination but that solution strikes me as being a bit fussy for underwear or swimwear - even when it is technically well executed.

Wear crotchless panties...

You're right, they're a bitch to make... I've been trying to get them right for 3 years.

As silly as this may sound - make sure the avatar shape, that you're testing your designs on, has a small crotch bulge (I think it's called "purse", in appearance). The larger it is, the more texture distortion you'll get.

Thanks for the answers, you guys are awesome.