I am new to Paint Shop Pro. I want to create a fur body texture.

I am 100% new to Paint Shop Pro (or any graphics editing software outside of MS Paint) and I want to create a furry body texture for my avatar. He is a humanoid-wolf character and I want create my own.

I also want the texture to have the ability to change colors based on what the color of your AV's skintone is, so I will assume that the texture needs to be black and white, and transparent in the white areas.

Can someone please show me how to do this?

The software I am working with is Paint Shop Pro v8.1

Hiya Kwip, welcome to the world of skins and PSP. As a resident expert (or not, depends on who you ask) on making furry skins. I have several shops that sell animal patterned skins just look for Kathmandu's Furry Emporium if ya wanna see what I do.

The first thing to do is familierize yourself with the basics of painting with PSP. It is rather intuitive (far more so than Photoshop) but can take a while to get used to. Using a digitizer tablet like a Wacom will make creating the fur texture a lot easier but it isn't an absolute necessity.

There are lots of tutorials on the net to learn the basics of how to do things in PSP and would require volumes to explain step by step here. I can outline the skills you will need to aquire to be able to do what you want.

1. You will need to learn the different file formats that you will be using, specifically .tga and .jpg.

2. How to create new documents, determining the correct size and resolution that will work in SL and how to resize large pictures so they can be uploaded. I recommend working at 1024X1024 72 dpi then resizing to 512X512 for uploading.

3. Learning to work with layers, layers are your friend and make your life a lot better. You will need to learn how to use them just to use the templates SL provides.

4. Using selection tools and learning how to create masks is vital to making alpha channels.

5. Working with alpha channels to make transparancies and semi transparent textures and saving them to .tga files so they can be uploaded to SL.

6. Using the smudge and push function brushes to create fur-like textures.

There is probably more I have forgotten to mention but I have to log off. Look for some tutorials and if you run into trouble just ask.

I download the lastest version of PSP and it seems like it's unable to create 32bit tga files. Does anyone know of a program that could convert them from another format? (such as .tif or .png)

I was in the Forrest Store and did not see any furry skins that feature something leopard print. I only have 250L so I know that when I find one, I probably wont be able to afford it.
Are there any sites that will help me build my ears,tail, muzzle and create textures for my skin that will look somewhat "fuzzy/furry"?

What file format would the leopard texture have to be in anyway?

jay, this isn't a problem if you'rer goal is an alpha channel. Photoshop saves a tga with an alpha as a 32-bit file. PSP calls it a 24-bit file, but if there is an alpha in the file, it WILL be included. (make sure there is only one alpha channel when you save)

for advice on how to create alpha's in PSP, i highly advise using source-opacity masks, then saving those to alpha channel. Cristiano posted a great tutorial on www.sluniverse.com

You don't need another program to convert them, PSP will make 32 bit tga files.
As explained by Cristiano Midnight in the thread here:/109/f2/34963/1.html
"24 bit color image + 8 bit alpha channel = 32 bit TGA file."

If you need a "how to" tutorial this is a handy link http://www.sluniverse.com/kb/article.aspx?id=10190


-Sun

Kind of off topic, but PSP 7.04 (silly me, never remember to upgrade!) does have a problem saving 32-bit PNGs. I happened to have an old clunker on hand, MS Image Composer, which can convert 32-bit TGAs into them (which I need for another game).

On-topic, one thing I would try is looking for photos online of wolves, bears, etc. Take a snippet and use PSP's ability to turn a selection into a repeating pattern (found in the "Selections" menu). Make sure the texture of the fur is easily visble, otherwise it will come out looking less like fur and more like long underwear You can then take that tiled fur texture and piece it together in a new layer (Edit --> Paste --> As New Layer) of one of the body templates. (Once you have your working layer you can hit Ctrl+E to paste as a new "floating selection" which you can move around and manipulate at will.) Rotate the texture if needed so that the fur "runs the right way" on the arms, legs, or whatever.

Sorry for not providing a step-by-step on the above; not sure what's changed since PSP7, and it's good to mess around in a program like Kathmandu suggests, just to get an idea of what you're doing. A drawing tablet helps but is by no means necessary to start making good things.

For making your fur "tintable," what works best is to strip out the color information from your texture. I would do this in a copy of the layer, so if something goes wrong it's no big deal. Go to Colors --> Adjust HSL (Hue/Saturation/Lightness). Bring saturation all the way down. You may need to bump the lightness up a little -- use what you see in the preview as your guide. Colors --> Adjust Brightness/Contrast is also helpful as a next step. The goal would be to get the fur to a medium- to light-grey overall while still preserving the texture. Whiter areas will show through more "tint" and this is exactly what you want. It can usually be done without the HSL step, but if you try to "tint" a pre-colored texture the results can be unpredictable.

Lastly, use the game's preview option! The default, once you've selected your file to upload, is to "Display as Texture." That's in a pull-down menu; pull down to "Display as <insert body part here>". You'll see a little model of a head, torso, or whatever and you can click and drag to manipulate your view of it. If everything looks good, hit "Upload;" if not, "Cancel" and go back to PSP to tweak.

Hope this all helps. It is by no means the only way to create a fur texture but I think it would be easier than trying to draw one from scratch, at least for a first try. Good luck!