Store avatar images

I'm new at SL and learning the ropes about designing clothes. I'm Photoshop literate, but have two basic questions as to how Photoshop applies to SL. First, many of the products in the SL stores are wonderfully demonstrated on perfectly formed and posed avatars. Each model has beautiful hair and skin, a pleasant smile, and many other unique features that make the product demonstrated on the model look even better (good advertisement). How are these 2D images used for advertisements in the shops produced and uploaded into SL? I use the snapshot option with my avatar modeling a shirt, but usually I get an odd pose and smile.

Second, can one use Poser or similar software to design products and bring them into SL. Seems like it could save much time, but I don't want to invest to much time in Poser if my options are limited by SL.

Any thoughts, wisdom, advice, or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

these are done using a posestand, poseball or whatever it might be called they are all different but the main point is that its an object that uses a script to put your av in a certian pose so you can snap a picture

its not neccacery but i like to use a "green screen" so it makes it ezier to remove the background later in photoshop, course you can use any color you want but i find it best to use an object with a top bottom and 2 sides (like a photo booth) all set to full bright

poses are all over SL you can buy them or some are free ... you can also make them, this is where poser comes in (along with making animations like dancing runing ect), thats about the only thing poser does for SL, and there are other options out there

yes modelling poses i go to a place they are like 35 Linden each i stick them in this posestand with a freebie script and put myself in a white box (others buy a studio set up by the way those are around as well but i find them pricey since you can always stick backgrounds in from stock photos etc much cheaper then the modellling studios you get) and stand on the stand then cut out the white and stick in another colour or possibly an object or backround and upload it back into sl

thats basically all it is the avatars you go and buy yourself one or two and change them as needed male or female doesn't matter they wont see the names only the photos you shoot

save them to your hard drive doctor them up in photoshop and there you have a nifty little ad

Since others have pretty much covered your initial questions I'll answer the one about Poser.

Poser can be used to create poses and animations for Second Life. For instance, if you can't seem to find the modeling pose you like you could use Poser to create your own. There are other, freeware, applications that can be used for this as well. QAvimator and DAZ|Studio are two I can think of off the top of my head. If you are already familiar with Poser you might find DAZ|Studio the most familiar to work with. I found QAvimator a bit clunky for my tastes but lots of folks use it successfully. You can get more info about SL animation and how to use these products for such in the Animation forum as well. ^_^

I gave up on pose stands and photography studios a while ago, the problem I had was everytime I changed any of my clothes it would kick me off the stand. You can avoid this problem by just playing the poses (animation files) in world, that way you can stick with the exact same pose and frame for your pictures regardless of what you take off or put on.

The advantage of doing it that way is that you can get pictures of all your outfits to look the same, which gives you a much more professional look (see pics below to demonstrate).

I used the green screen method too, I just set three walls, ceiling and floor to the same colour and full bright so there's no lighting on them, just block colour, then I save the snapshops I take to my HD and open them in PSP.

I created a template file in PSP. On the background layer I have my logo and some fancy lighting effects to make a nice backdrop for my pics. Over that I have a whole load of text layers with various prices and information about the clothes, such as flexi etc. I can turn those layers off and on depending on the product, so if I want to price somthing for $100 I can just turn the $100 layer on. That way whatever the price it will always be lined up neatly where I want it, if I added it each time I made a new pic they would be all over the place.

When I make a new product I normaly make a handful of different colours. I start out with the first, find a nice pose and frame it the way I want it.

I take a snapshot and save it to my HD. I then change my outfit to the next colour, leaving the pose and the view unchanged, and take another snapshot. The two pics I have taken will be exactly the same, the only difference is the colour of the outfit.

I keep going through all the different colours, then change to another pose. I like to have a few different angles on the finished picture, so I just repeat the steps above two or three times.

Then, in PSP I open my template file and the snapshots I've just taken. I use the magic wand to cut myself out from the green screen background on the snap and paste it onto the template. Then, I use the drop shadow effect to give the cutout a nice, white halo.

I just keep going like that until I have eventualy cut, pasted and positioned all of the snapshots I've taken, each to it's own layer. Look at the pics I've attached, for the black dress I just turned off all the layers except for the black ones, then did the same for the other colours. I like to save a handful of different versions of each style with different prices on them, so I can very quickly and easily change the prices in world when I need to (notice the red one has a different price).

I'm going to stop rambling now, I hope this makes sense and is useful.

Vale

Another trick that works for taking product pics is to use an alt as a camera. I have the alt logged in and either sitting on something or using a pose ball to lock them in position, and have them look at the scene in mouselook. Then I pose the model(s) with pose balls, against a floor and wall that I can change the textures on for different backdrop effects. This allows me to swap outfits or have different models take their places, while retaining the same picture cropping and view angle. It doesn't matter of the model moves, or morphs to a different avatar, as long as my "photographer" alt doesn't move.

I then export the pic to my HD, and use layers to add text and other things to the pics for use in my vendors. Personally, I never put a price on the graphic. The vendor always shows the price, and this allows me to change the price as needed, for sales or to adjust a price to sell better, without having to re-work the graphic.

Import the pic back to SL as 24-bit TGA, and maybe also save a jpeg version at that time, for use in web-based ads for the same item (SL Boutique).

I would not use Poser or DAZ|Studio to make product pics, for the simple reason that it won't look like the actual in-world result. People want to see what they will get, not something impossible to achieve in-world.

I appreciate the time all of you have taken to reply. Such help gives us newbies of SL hope that we can get up to speed in a reasonable period of time. There is simply a lot to learn, and we all want to have the skills immediately.
Thanks.