Texture previewers

After getting no response from the general forum, thought I'd post it in the tips forum.
Is anyone using the full version of AVPainter (~$L2500) for clothing design? Can you tell me if it's significantly more convenient to edit textures in AVPainter than in Photoshop, and if it has other advantages? I'm trying to decide if I should get it, or just stick to the SL Clothing Previewer, which is completely free and also previews clothing, but only lacks the editing function. Thanks.

The editing tools in AVpainter are pretty clunky and I actually kind of regret buying the program... but I guess it all depends on your skill level in terms of if it would be useful to you.

Simply put, you're not going to get quality results from the program like you would in PhotoShop, GIMP or even PaintShop Pro. It's basically just a glorified previewer with no real value to the more advanced skilled person IMHO.

I don't know much about AVpainter, but Skuz's description doesn't surprise me. Most 3D paint programs are very underpowered.

Just in case you didn't know, the latest version of Photoshop Extended allows you to paint directly on the model, using all of Photoshop's tools. If it's in your budget to upgrade from whatever PS version you've got now, that's what I'd recommend.

I use AvPainter every day, and consider it to be one of the best tools I have. Understand that I do not attempt to paint on the image, or even use it to add logos (which is a feature that it has). I use it to make sure my seams match, to blend seams, and to match up textures on the shirt/pant layers. If I am trying to work out a process, I will upload something to it many times as I go, making sure things match up.

I have used SL Clothing previewer in the same way, but AvPainter gives me the ability to actually blend on the 3d image and then save from there. I personally swear by it. When I buy something or pick up a freebie, I jump on a posestand and examine it very carefully. I can't always tell if someone used it, but often I can tell when they didn't, and probably should.

Thanks for the replies.
I have Photoshop CS2, and I don't think I'm going to upgrade it to CS4 or other versions as they're going to cost hundreds and probably thousands of dollars more. I never really used Photoshop for SL clothing design purposes, and never knew if you could download plugins so that it mimics the AVPainter or other modeling programs. I usually just use it for texture/graphics designs, like the stuff that you would find on DeviantArt. I want to create some simple but elegant looking clothing, nothing too fancy, and I'm pretty much familiar with Photoshop's controls and interface by now. Would you suggest I just stick with Photoshop + SL Clothing Previewer? Does it allow me to create seamless clothing? Or buy the AVPainter?

Yes, you can make very nice clothing with CS2 or CS3. The lovely new 3D capabilities of CS4 are a great advantage, but if you are talented and patient you can certainly make seamless textures for SL clothing without them. After all, that's what everyone was doing until last fall, when CS4 was released. You can do trial fittings of your Photoshop TGA textures onto the mannequin in the free SLCP viewer and, with some iterations between CS2 and SLCP, you can clean up any messes along seams. It's not elegant or fast, but it's a whole lot cheaper than investing in CS4 or AVpainter.

The way AVpainter and SLCP present the avatar mesh and how they display uploaded textures are practically identical, so you're not really missing anything as it is. AVpainter has a little more control when it comes to moving the avatar around for viewing, but that's only a minor improvement over SCLP.

As Ralektra pointed out, the blending tool in AVpainter is interesting, but it's very primitive and I personally get much better results doing my blends in PhotoShop, thus I don't really get any use out of it.

To be blunt, if you're a fairly decent artist to begin with, then stick with SLCP, since you already have the basic tool needed to make sure all of the major seams match up. Also, once you've completed the garment, hop onto the Beta Grid and upload it to see how it looks on your avatar, because what you see in AVpainter/SCLP is only a crude representation of what it really looks like in world.

I'd recommend installing OpenSim and using it for testing clothing before sending up to the main grid.

It's free, takes like 5 minutes to install and get working in sandbox mode, and you can test much, much more than just how clothing will look.

http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page

That's how I do it, but I'm also the type who is easily annoyed by being nickeled and dimed by whiz bang tools made for a specific purpose and don't do it as well as free alternatives.

It's also pretty handy for sculpty viewing, terrain files, etc and there's no issue of "well, it's kind of like SL", since you use your normal SL viewer, it's identical.

I use the full version of AVPainter, and find it very useful for doing initial design work. I find it easier to draw the clothing outlines and to experiment with patterns directly on the Avatar in 3D, then use photoshop to tidy up the clothing lines with the pen tool, and to add finishing details.

Just a quick plug for staying current on Photoshop. I was a little slow getting around to upgrade a couple of years ago and the result that I was no longer eligible for the upgrade and ended up playing through the nose for it. Particularly these days, it's cheaper to upgrade along the way.

FYI, the upgrade price from PS CS2 to PS CS4 Extended is $349. Considering the amount of time it could save you over endlessly reloading images in a stand-alone previewer, it could pay for itself in a matter of days or weeks. Assuming your current version is legit and not too old to qualify, Adobe's upgrade pricing is always very reasonable.