HELP!!!!(New at making Clothing)

I've become very interested in making clothing and eventually opening a store. Many people have been nice enough to help and i know i need photoshop to make the clothes. However i dont really understand the people that are nice enoguh to help me, and i've looked and many other forums and responses and don't understand those either. I was wondering if anyone out there would be kind enough to slowly go through it with me. Thanks!

I think you just need to try it Kerrin.

I have used Photoshop for 10 years or more and I am learning just how little of that experience applies to making clothes in Second Life. It's also impossible for someone to teach you photoshop beyond the very basic level in an afternoon.

I am struggling learning to make clothes myself right now, and it's HARD! (to make anything good that is).

I suggest just doing it, and then getting help with the problems that come up as they come up.

It's easier for someone to help you out with a specific problem than it is for them to sit down with you and explain 'how to make clothes," because there is not just one way to do anything in photoshop.

If you see my on, love, send me an IM. I can bring you to my store and show you my designs for sale and I'll be happy to explain how I did them step by step.

I'd love to make clothes, too. I was all ready to jumping with lacy, embroidered, slinky, strappy, sheer... well you get the idea...

I did make one t-shirt -- figured out how to align a logo on the back and chest (no ribbed collar, pfttt) but, I put my training wheels back on and and am going basic for now.

A pal of mine is building a Japanese temple and wanted some textures made. This has been a great project for me to start learning with (I use GIMP, but have some experience with Photoshop). I'm playing with layers, design, very simple shapes -- and have learned something with each texture I've created. Last night (when the grid was down ) I made a tiled roof texture: played with repeats, gradiants... and started seeing how verious techniques could be applied to clothes (or shoes, or furniture, or whatever).

Don't know if I'll ever be able to play with the big girls and boys, but I'm taking it slowly, having fun. Hope you do, too!

HI Kerrin. Thanks for posting. Sorry I didn't have time when you IM'ed me today (at least, I think it was you ). I'm happy to help in any way I can here on the forums. Here's what I'd recommend to start. First downloafd the Template Collection from the Downloads Section of this site. Read through the Fashion Design Help Guide that comes with it. Then come back with any specific questions you may have about anything in the guide you don't understand. A great starting point, by the way is to upload the templates to SL and wear them as clothing so you can see how they wrap around the avatar in 3D space.

The guide is going to assume some basic knowledge of Photoshop. If you already know the program (or GIMP, or Pantshop Pro) you'll probably be able to follow the guide pretty easily. If you're just starting from scratch, I'd strongly recommend you take a step back temporarily, and not approach making clothing until you've got a handle on using the software itself.

Learning digital art is also usually pretty challenging for most people at first. It's analogous to learning a new language. Converting from pencil and paper to mouse and menus can be a bit counter intuitive in the beginning. It takes a little while to get the hang of it.

On top of that, learning to think in 3D while painting on a 2D template is a bit of a brain teaser for most people at first, even those with years of experience in Photoshop. There are very, very few who are able to just pick it up instinctively. Trying to lean both things at the same time is usually little more than an exercise in frustration. Get comfortable with making 2D pictures in Photoshop first. Once you've done that and you've got a decent mastery of the tools, move on to more complex things like texturng for 3D.

(this is for mac users only)All u need to do is get the upper and lower body templates then open it up with apple works and make it a paint and make it so all files are available and hilight the part if the shirt u want and copy and paste it in idraw and make it however big or small u want and open a new idraw document with the same dimensions as when u stretched it then export the image.

-Joey Fizz

Graphics were totally lost on me when I started too. It took a little over a year for me to learn enough about Bryce and PSP to start making trees that I felt comfortable setting for sale.

Clothing has never worked for me. It somehow always ends up looking like rubber tubing.