photoshop 7

i have looked and looked and can not find anything so now i asking for your help, dose anybody know where i can find a basic Photoshop 7 tutorial to making clothes and textures

What is it you're trying to do, Ian?
Search through these posts for my clothes tutorial. That gives some Photoshop how to's but without actually knowing what you're trying to accomplish I can't help much.

Well, before you do anything else, go to www.adobe.com and download the free Photoshop 7.0.1 upgrade. Photoshop 7.0 had a serious flaw in the way it handles transparency. The upgrade fixes that. Once you've installed the update, you'll be able to follow all the tutorials on this board.

The second thing you should do is go to the downloads page of this site, and download the Template Collection. Read the instructions that come with it, a PDF called "Fashion Desing: Using Templates". After you've done that, come back here with any specific questions on anything you don't understand.

The instructions, by the way, will assume basic knowledge of how to use Photoshop. If you're not that far yet, I'd highly recommend holding off on trying to make clothing until you've learned the program. Most people do not find Photoshop to be intuitive at first. It takes learning and practice to get comfortable with it.

Further, most people don't find texturing for 3D to be intuitive at first either, even those who have long since masterd Photoshop through years of experience. Learning to think in 3D while painting in 2D is skill most people's brains have never exercised before. Some people take to it instantly, but most don't. For most, it's a bit of a brain teaser for a while.

Don't get me wrong. It's not exactly hard. It just takes a certain amount of experience before you have your ureka moment when it all clicks and then you just get it. Until that happens, chances are it's gonna be a struggle for a little while.

If you're already good with Photoshop, great, but if you're not, I can promise you if you try to learn the program from scratch at the same time as you try to learn texturing for 3D from scratch, you'll be very frustrated and it will take you a LOT longer to reach that ureka moment than it otherwise would. So, learn one thing at a time. If you don't know Photoshop yet, follow the tutorials in its help files and get comfortable with making and manipulating images. Once you feel you've got a good handle on that, then and only then should you start moving on to more advanced things like making clothing for SL.

I am not really new to PSP but I am to Photoshop, but see a lot of similarities . . . I have a question . . . when I get to this part:

step 6
Once both of those are completed, click on your Template image. Go to the Select pulldown menu, and click All. Go back to your blank canvas, and click on the Layer 1 selection. Go up to Edit, and hit Paste. That will put your template onto the first layer.

Neither PSP nor Photoshop will let me paste the image from the Template to my canvas and I was wondering what I am doing wrong . . . because if it is happening in both programs, than I am doing something wrong, although I am following everything to a "T".

Here are the FULL set of directions that I was given (IM GIVING CREDIT TO THE ONE WHO SO GRACIOUSLY TOOK THE TIME OUT AND MADE THIS TUTORIAL):

PS - MY MSN, AIM and YAHOO is in my profile, you can IM me on here or in game, too

THANK YOU


11-14-2005, 04:11 AM #1
Athene Mason
Registered User


Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 9 Athene's step by step Clothesmaking tutorial

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Hi everyone. here's my little simple tutorial for the basics. Using Photoshop. Please leave feedback, I need all I can get.

Here's a step by step process for creating a shirt. The process is used pretty much the same way with any article of clothing.

Step One
Open Photoshop. Along the top of the screen there will be a series of pull down menu listings: File, Edit, Image, layer, Select, Filter, View, Window, and Help. The one we want to start with is File.

Step Two
In File, select New. That will open up a new blank canvas, but first it will give you a popup asking what you want the canvas to look like. The settings should be set as follows:
Width and Height: 512
Resolution: 72.009 pixels
Mode: RGB Color
Background: white
Once those are set, click Ok. That will open your new canvas.


Step Three
Now go up again to File, and select Open. Open up your Upper Body template and the fabric you want to work with. Both of these should also be set, on the popup, as above in Step Two.

Step 4
Make sure you have your Layers Workbox visible. To do this, if it doesn't open automatically, go to Window, and select Show Layers. Do the same with your Tools box.

Step 5
Click on your blank canvas, and go up to the Layer menu up top. Open that and select New Layer. That will create a new layer, called Layer 1. Do this a second time to create a second Layer, Layer 2.

step 6
Once both of those are completed, click on your Template image. Go to the Select pulldown menu, and click All. Go back to your blank canvas, and click on the Layer 1 selection. Go up to Edit, and hit Paste. That will put your template onto the first layer.

Step 7
Do the exact same thing with your fabric image, which will go on Layer 2. When you first create the layer, you'll get a popup asking for a set of options. The second layer should be set this way:
Group with previous Layer: Unchecked.
Color: None
Mode: Normal (Some people use Multiply for lighter colors, either works)
Opacity: 50%
Setting the Opacity to 50% will let you see the template under the fabric.

Step 8
Okay, now that you have your layers up, it's time to start designing. Click the Magic Wand tool. Once you have that clicked, look up at the top of the screen, toward the Menu bars. Just under Select you'll find a small box called Tolerance. Type 25 in there. Also, click the boxes for Anti-aliased and Contiguous. Both of these should be checked to avoid having the Magic Wand tool have an orgasm trying to grab the whole image on the template.

Step 9
Using the magic wand tool, select back on Layer 1 and click somethere outside of the minimum bleed through lines, on the white area. It will select a small portion of the image. Hold down the shift key, and click everywhere else outside of the template.

Step 10.
Click on the second layer again, go to Edit, and select Cut. This will get rid of everything outside of the template.

Step 11
Now you're ready to actually design. Using the paintbrush tool or the Eraser tool, scrub away at the fabric left on Layer 2 until you get the design you want. Use the lines provided on the template to get a general idea of where your seams are and note the minimum bleed areas: you don't want to erase over those if that's where a side seam will be because keeping those filled in will help eliminate "seam bleed", where your avatar's skin leaks through the fabric. I like to use a hard round brush for neater, even lines. You can also get good straight lines with the Marquee tools. These are found in the upper left hand corner of the Toolbvox, it looks like a square made of little dashes.

Step 12
When your design is finished, click on Layer 1 again. You'll see a little eye icon to the far left of this layer, that allows it to be turned on or off. Turn it off. That leaves only the second layer visible, our fabric.

Step 13.
On Layer 2, click outside the fabric color with the Magic Wand tool again. Using the same method as before, hold down the shift key and click everywhere in the white. You may get a few 'stray' spots, those are easily fixed by going to View, then Zoom in, and still holding the shift key clicking in these areas. Now is also a good time to clean up any floating fabric bits you don't want that you may have missed.

Step 14
Go back up to Layer, and create a new Layer. This is Layer 3, and will be your Alpha Channel Layer. Make sure the Mode is Normal and the Opacity is 100%. Click on this, and then select your Paintbucket tool. Fill the selected areas with black. Once that's done, click inside the fabric itself with the Magic Wand tool and hold down the shift key if you need to to get everything. Use the paint bucket tool again to fill this area with white.
The stuff that's white is what will be seen on Second Life. Black stuff is disgarded. Also, to make transparent garments use grey instead of white. The darker the grey you use, the more see through the fabric will be on your avatar. And don't worry, coloring the white areas grey will not affect the color of your fabric once you wear it.

Step 15
Go to the Select Menu and click All. Then open the Edit menu and select Copy.

Step 16
Looka t the top of your Layers box and you'll see a series ot overlapping tabs: Channels, Paths, History, and Options. Channel is the one we want, so open that one. This shows you all the colors that Photoshop currently sees: Red, Blue, Green, ect. If it doesn't already have a channel called Alpha, create one by looking down at the very bottom of the box. You'll see a pair of overlapping boxes. Click that to create the alpha channel, and then Paste the layer three copy here.

Step 17
Go back to your Layers drab, and delete the third layer by dragging it down to the little trashcan icon at the bottom. Go back up to Layer 2, and set the Opacity back up to 100%.

Step 18
Go up to the Layer pulldown menu, and look all the way down to the bottom to where it says Flatten Image. Photoshop will ask you if you want to discard the hidden layers. Click Yes.

And now you're ready to uploade your new clothes! The last thing to do is go to to File, Save as. Name the image and save it as a Targa file ( .tga). Photoshop will ask you what 'bits' you want to save this in. Select 32. Then it's just a matter of logging into SL, uploading the design as a texture, and putting it on.

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11-14-2005, 03:34 PM #2
Blaze Columbia
Registered User

I also am having the same problem with that step 6. I feel good that im not the only one, but would love to know how to procede.

There's a simple instruction missing. Try replacing Step 6 with:

Step 6
Once both of those are completed, click on your Template image. Go to the Select pulldown menu, and click All (command/control-A).
**
Choose Edit > Copy (command/control-C).
**
Go back to your blank canvas, and click on the Layer 1 selection. Go up to Edit, and hit Paste. That will put your template onto the first layer.

Photoshop's a big beast to learn. My recommendation to get your speed up is to use the keys and learn the shortcuts. Hover your mouse over any tool to find out the key you need to press to activate it, then press the key. Command and option (Mac) or control and alt (PC) click on everything and watch what happens to the pointer as you hold down the keys.

Good luck!

What Ali said. Photoshop is full of undocumented key stroke features. For instance, to make a new layer below the one you are working on, hold down the Command/ctrl key when you click on the new layer icon.

The default is to make a new layer above the one you are on, and most people just do that, and then drag the layer down, because they haven't stumbled on this shortcut. (Or learned it somewhere else. )

Or, to make a new Layer Mask that's already filled with black, hold down the option key while you click on the New Mask button. (Easier than making a default white one, and then filling it with black, when you want to mask most of the layer.)

Or my personal favorite, the hidden "step and repeat" feature. If you hold down the Option/alt key when you choose Free Transform (Command/ctrl+T) you'll make a copy and do the transformation on that. If you hold down the Shift key when you choose Free Transform, PS will repeat the last set of Transformations again. So, if you combine them, and use Shift/Option/Command+T on the mac or Shift/alt/ctrl+T you will repeat the last transformation on a copy of the object! Step and Repeat.

So, when you feel like exploring, hold down all the modifier keys, (Shift, Control, Option, Command on the Mac, or Shift, alt, ctrl on the PC) and click on all the buttons and icons. Add each of the letter keys and number keys, and try it again. And when you find something, write it down!

Hope this helps!

Today, 09:04 AM #6
Ali Maltz
Registered User


Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2 There's a simple instruction missing. Try replacing Step 6 with:

Step 6
Once both of those are completed, click on your Template image. Go to the Select pulldown menu, and click All (command/control-A).
**
Choose Edit > Copy (command/control-C).
**
Go back to your blank canvas, and click on the Layer 1 selection. Go up to Edit, and hit Paste. That will put your template onto the first layer.

Photoshop's a big beast to learn. My recommendation to get your speed up is to use the keys and learn the shortcuts. Hover your mouse over any tool to find out the key you need to press to activate it, then press the key. Command and option (Mac) or control and alt (PC) click on everything and watch what happens to the pointer as you hold down the keys.

Good luck!
Thank you so much for your help, however when I click the template then contol +c I get the annoying familier sound and the grey box that tells me, "could not complete the Copy command because the selected area is empty".When I click the image of the templates it shows as a working layer in my layers box.

Before you copy, make sure you're on the right layer. It sounds like you're trying to copy from a layer that is empty. On the Layers Palette, make sure that the layer you want to copy form is the one that's highlighted.


I must say I'm not a fan of that tutorial at all. I don't want the author to feel bad, so I'll try not to be too brutal when I say that I find it to be confusing to follow (as several people here have discovered), and that the reasoning behind some of the steps is completely baffling to me. For example, I can't imagine why the author wants you to copy from the template and paste into a new file, rather than simply work within the template file itself. Whether you're using the LL templates, Chip's, or Robin's, all come in layered PSD format with overlays that are extremely valuable to your workflow. The idea is to work above the background and below the overlays. I can't imagine any reason whatsoever why anyone would choose to work in a new file.

I also find the method described for creating the alpha channel to be a little odd. It'll work, but it's a really strange way to go about it. There's no need to create a new layer and then paste that layer into the channel. You can work directly on the channel itself.

Whatever you do, do NOT EVER follow Step 18. NEVER flatten your image. First, it's a completely unnecessary step, since your outputted TGA will inherently be flat. Second, it's destructive. It will prevent you from making changes later if you need to without doing all kinds of extra work. You want your layers to remain intact. You should always keep your layered work as a PSD in addition to outputting your TGA. I'm not sure how the idea that flattening is necessary or that it's a good practice got started on this forum, but trust me, it's not something you should be doing. That step is a peculiarity of this forum that you won't see anywhere else.

Also, I have somewhat of an allergy towards tutorials that do not use proper terminology. There's no such thing as a "Layers Workbox" for example. It's called the Layers Palette. This may sound like a small thing, but as someone who's been writing tutorials for years, and as someone who routinely reads them, I can atest that the ONLY way to ensure that a tutorial is not confusing is to make sure that every tool, every window, every command, etc. are named exactly as they are in the program. You'd be suprised how many new people would read a tutorial like this, encounter the step that says "workbox", attempt to look it up because they don't know what it means, and then give up in frustration because it's not there. Just as you wouldn't try to teach someone to drive by making up your own names for the steering wheel, the accelerator, and the break, you shouldn't try to teach someone Photoshop by making up your own names for its components.

Again thank you Chosen for your help. I downloaded Chips templates and they seem to work fine, I did manage to make my very 1st shirt.....Yay! However I would love to know of a better tutorial if you know of any please share. I am new to ps 7 , I recently bought the book "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Classroom in a book. Im on chapter 6 and im learning alot, I just really wanted to play and I saw the tutorial and it looked easy. Thanks again for your help!

Thank You SO MUCH for you help, I really appeciate it, but when I go up to Copy it . . . it says that Could Not Complete The Copy Command Because The Selected Area Is Empty??? Kinda weird, huh? I get the ants going around it and the whole bit, too . . .

Magic

Sounds to me like you are trying to copy from the wrong layer. Photoshop only does things to active layers; which means the ones that are highlighted.

Before you try to copy, click on the layer in the Layer Palette, to make it active. It will be highlighted. Now, when you copy, you'll take the stuff from that layer, not from a blank layer.

Hope this helps!

OK, I got that part with the copying figured out and TYSVM It made the images bigger inside the 512/512 . . . I think im going to try and go with using the original image, I think that would be easier, because I don't think they should be bigger, or should they?


Another question I have, is my fabric that I have does not come in the same size 512/512, and I was wondering how I can adjust it to 512/512 without getting the checkered background showing, because it dosen't come through filling the 512/512, it stays the same size as the thumbnail???

Thank You for you help, I really appreciate it

Magic

I'm not sure what you are seeing here. Copy/Paste doesn't change the size (resolution) at all.

It sounds as if you are looking at two documents; copying from one, and pasting to another? If so, the pasted image will still have exactly the same resolution (pixels per side) as the one you copied. But, if the two images are different resolutions, the copied part will appear larger (or smaller) than it does on the screen.

Try this, if you are looking at two different images. At the bottom of the window, there's a bar with information. The part on the extreme left has a percentage, and tells you the current magnification of the image. To the right of that, there's some more info (I'm not sure what it will say at the moment,) and then a flippy triangle.

Behind the flippy is a menu that allows you to choose what information is showing. Choose Show > Document Dimensions from that menu. (I think this part is the same in PS7. I don't have it anymore, but it should be in that area, and have something like that as a choice.)

That will allow you to see the actual pixel dimensions of your image. If one is larger than 512x512, you'll see it there. If it is, and you want to match the dimensions, all you need to do is go to Image > Image Size and type in the dimensions you want. Photoshop will scale your image for you, so the sizes will match.

If the fabric is still the size of the thumbnail, then that's all that you have. I strongly suggest that you find another fabric, since it will probably not look very good blown up to 512x512, especially if you got a jpg from the internet somewhere. Given copyright issues and so on, it's really not that difficult to make your own fabric from scratch, and that at least assures you that it will be the correct size!

Hope this helps!

I left a step out.

Well. I feel sheepish.

I do sincerely apologize for all the inconvineince this caused, and sure and I should add a note about my tutorial:

Find a better one.

Mine is very good for getting a basic feel of how clothesmaking can work, but above and beyond that it's fairly pointless for actually making quality stuff that will sell. Mine does not, and for the primary reason of visible seams. If you put something I've made on, there will be seam lines on the torso sides, skirt/hip connection, and sides of the skirt. Not the stuff you want, and the reason I gave up.

But I also want to say my tutorial was not written as an end all be all, by any means. I just wanted to share what I learned through trial and error and hope that in some way those of you whom DO have the capacity to make phenominal clothings got makybe a little boost there from my tutorial.