Tattoo's on legs

Hi I've been dabbling with tattoos for a while now on sl, and someone approached me with wanting a tattoo that goes down the back and twists around the leg, only problem is im stumped how to do this, and was wondering if anyone can advise me on the best way if it is at all possible to do this though, thankyou for any help guys

Debbi

Hi debbi

I suggest chips templates to accomplish this as he is the seams master after all lol. then all you need do is work on the front legs with the tattoo design and then match where it would be on the back. Have a play around im sure youll do fine.

all i've known to do is be patient and line it with the seams on the legs.
start with maybe a rough draft, or a line showing where it goes, upload it to the beta test grid, then adjust ill you get the line in the position you want it, then go from there.

yeah i've been working on one that goes on the thigh, it's frustrating lol
then again i'm not very good at making textures.

thanks rezz and mackenzie....im just a little confused now lol...but thankyou all the same all the help is greatly apreciated rezz are you saying lay it out on the leg and then chop and past where you need it am i right there?

Yes that is exactly what im saying i found it easier this way however im sure loads of other ppl have found an easier way lol. So just play around with it and use the free tool to view ur tattoo before uploading it. Saves money hooooo.

I made a Cheongsam dress once that does something similar. It has a dragon with the head on the girl's right shoulder, and the serpentine body trails back over the shoulder, crosses the back, and then wraps around the left hip, ending up with its tail on the front lf the left side of the skirt!

That meant crossing the shoulder seam (upper body template, front to back), the waist seam (upper body template back to skirt template back), and the side seam on the skirt (skirt template back to skirt template front).

The only difference in your case is you'll be using the lower body template instead of the skirt template.

Start with Chip Midnight's templates, and pay particular attention to the grid as it crosses seams. The width of textures on each side of a seam is NOT identical! For example, in going from the back, on the upper body template, and crossing the waistline to the left cheek of the rump on the lower body template, the width of the texture at the waistline on one side will be wider than on the other. Use Chip's template to determine how much wider or narrower at that spot.

Do the same as you cross the sides of the leg seams. If you had a serpent entwined around the leg several times, you need to tweak the width of the serpent's body at each seam break.

I'll strongly advise logging on to the beta grid to upload and test these textures. You can do it free there, and it will take several test-fits to get it just right.

or just use the SLCP it works wonders and saves a bucketload of time uploading etc.

Bodypaint is a good program too for applying tattoos, but I'm still working out how to use it properly to wrap the image, otherwise it just crops off what can't be seen, and also stretches strangely sometimes.

How do you access the beta grid? I must have spent hundreds of $L already in making a skin. As nifty as SLCP is, you really can't tell how a texture's going to truly look until you get it in world, and i'd love to be able to do it without going broke.

The beta client is here: http://secondlife.com/community/preview.php . Download that Beta client and install it in a seperate directory from your normal SL client.

Using Beta client takes you to a smaller version of the grid where they test the more rough release versions of the server and cleint side changes. You get L$5000 in "funny money" more than whatever your current real in-world L$ balance is when you log on to the beta grid. (Don't get excited, you can't cash out money from the beta grid.)

Once you are there, uploading and previewing textures is the same as in the main grid. So you can try again and again and spend no real L$. When you have what you want, log off from Beta and log on to the main grid with the normal client, and upload the final texture version to the main grid.

I use Chips too and it worked for me. I have made a barbedwire tat that runs around the leg smoothly. With photoshop you can zoom in and than you can work very precise. When you go over the outerlines just don't let the lines go downward but make them go straight over the boarder. Also I now use Johan's previewer wich is so easy to use and saves you loads of L. And you can easy adjust and refresh your work.

Have Fun
*AE*

Thanks Ceera! I'm gonna try that out tonight!