out-world shorts do not line up in world

Hi

I have a problem with 'edges' ; I have made shorts and a top with Robin Wood and also CMFF templates in photoshop and also gimp. I have checked the alignment and edges in Avpainter and all is fine.

However when I choose to wear in SL and I come to 'shorten' the new pants legs or new shirt sleeves and neck in 'edit appearance', the edges not only look untidy they acutally dont match front to back.
For example - for the front of my shorts to be the right length they become too short at the back - as though on a slant, along with the pattern stretching in the crotch area.

Any help with this would be great, I dont want to waste unecessary time with edge details if it is not possible to match up.

If I understand correctly, you are talking about the way that the "cut off" edge of a pants leg or a sleeve looks when you trim it with Appearance in world, not the way it looks on the texture you created, right? That's pretty normal. When you use the sliders in Appearance to shorten sleeves or pants legs or to create a neckline, you are using a fairly crude tool. The edges you draw in Photoshop or Gimp have a much higher resolution, so they look much crisper.

The crotch area on an avatar is one of those problem spots where almost nothing looks right. There simply aren't enough pixels loaded there, and stretching during normal movement distorts the heck out of them. Bikinis, thong underwear, and short shorts tend to "bleed" down the leg even on a good day. If their edges were created with Appearance sliders, they're even worse.

The best solution is to avoid using Appearance sliders to make short sleeves or pant legs out of long ones.

.....thanks for that : ) yes it is the appearance slider that I have the problem with..so I will do whatever works best with that. Just a thought ...is there any way I can import my clothes without using the appearance editor?

but thanks for putting me straight on that ..I will not feel so frustrated now : )

Well, you import your clothes with the File >> Upload Image (L$10) menu. What I think you're asking is whether you can use an uploaded texture to create a garment in SL without using the Appearance menu. The answer for normal "paint-on-the-avatar" clothes is no. In order to make a shirt or pair of pants or whatever, you always need to use Appearance to create it and then apply a texture and color. What you are really doing is creating a custom template that modifies your avatar's appearance. As you have discovered, there's really no reason to use the sliders on a texture that you have imported. In fact, the sliders can make your beautiful texture look lousy.

If you are making prim clothing, of course, you don't use the Appearance menu at all, because you are not texturing the avatar body. You are texturing a separate object that will be attached to the avatar. For that, you use your Edit menu.

When making shorts use an alpha channel to cut off the unwanted portion of the trousers - don't use the sliders.

thanks both of you.....and will use the alpha chanel...I think I am getting the idea with avatar clothing texture now...still getting my head around prim clothing ...but will practice : ) thanks and best, wendy x