I get asked A LOT of questions in SL. Answering offline messages/notecards takes up significant time in my SL life… one of the questions I get asked most often, is the hardest to answer. “How do I make clothes?” I rarely answer this question well. It’s just such a broad question! So while the grid is down, here’s my fumbling attempt to answer it better. ☺
Programs:
Adobe Photoshop: This is the program I use to create anything and everything graphics. I began playing around with PS when I was in my young teens. I STILL learn things about Photoshop today…10+ years later. It’s not the easiest program to learn, but it is an industry standard. Get to know Photoshop well and you’ll have a marketable skill in RL too. Bonus! ☺ However, it’s not cheap. Not even a little.
GIMP: The FREE answer to graphics. I’ve only dabbled with this program but I do know a few people who use it, well. I’ve never heard them say anything like “I wish GIMP did enterSomethingHere”. I’d suggest using this if you’re unsure about spending such a wad of cash on Photoshop. Better to see if you even enjoy making clothes at all first!
Templates:
Ok now you’ve got the program(s), so now what? Grab some templates! These will show you where to draw your shirt, pants, etc. There are a few choices for templates out there:
Linden Lab provides your basic template. However, there are better ones out there. Chip Midnight makes great, higher resolution templates. I use the Chip templates. For greater template choices visit the official Second Life forums. TONS of excellent info there.
Creating the clothes:
Here the part I fail at. I suck hardcore at teaching, so, I’ll be providing links instead. If you know absolutely nothing about how to use your chosen graphics program I suggest Googling some basic use tutorials first or check out this link if you're using photoshop.
Natalia Zelmanov has a TON of tutorials on creating clothing and well, pretty much everything else you might want to make in SL. The tutorials are in depth and come with screenshots. I was just searching around for more links… but really this site covers EVERYTHING and has links that I’d recommend anyway.
So yea, there ya go…at least a starting point. Oh and just so you all know… I was constantly frustrated for the first few months of creating clothes until I got familiar with everything. SO many times I wanted to quit. All I can say in regards to this frustration about not just “getting it” and just “being able to do it”… is that it will pass if you practice. Every single time you go to create something new, it’ll get just a tiny bit easier and eventually it’ll be rarely frustrating and quite enjoyable! ☺
Oh yea, if any of you have found useful resources for starting out with clothes, please comment and share.
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6 comments:
Thank You Nyte, its always nice to see that succesful designer in world is open for helping upcoming ones, i personally appriciate it great deal /me bows and smiles
Thanks Nyte :D I agree with Mo. It's great you that you are giving others advice.
I have dabbled with making clothes in the past, but this year I have decided really go for it. I need all the advice I can get :))
I assume that the tough part about making clothes is to make great textures, to let a jeans look like a jeans or to create crinkles on a shirt etc.
I always have the impression that it's rather easy for example to create furniture. You can get free sculpties or even make wonderful things with regular prims, but what really makes items special is a perfect texture which puts emphasis on details, like shadows or edges etc.
Would you agree?
Nyte, thank you so much. I love your clothes and I'm thinking of trying to design some of my own. Your tips have pointed me in the right direction.
Best wishes for the new year.
@ Tina. Yep, you're right (in my opinion at least). The "realism" and details are a whole other ballgame though - this was just meant to be a starting point.
For a quick pointer on realism: Go to a mirror and look at the shirt you're wearing. Really look at it. Where the shadows are, where the highlights are, where is wrinkles, etc. Knowing where they go is the first step and looking at real things as an example is the best way.
As to the technical aspect of the wrinkles/shading... what I do in PS is make a new overlay layer (a layer filled with 50% grey, overlay option selected on the drop down). Then I find my trusty dodge and burn tools and start messing up things. I usually try to keep the overlay layers separate. I could have up to 15 separate overlays on any given outfit. The beauty about this is that if your "boob highlights", for example, are too bright or not bright enough it's an easy fix without mucking up the rest of your image.
As for the artsy fartsy part... not so good at explaining that. My best advice would be to just start "playing" around in PS (or Gimp or whatever). Get to know how/what the tools do and their options. In my case, more times then not, I have to remind myself to NOT be such a perfectionist and that its OK to make a big-ass mess. Oh and practice!! LOTS! :)
Good to know i'm not the only one frustrated :)
Just started with creating clothes in photoshop and a bit confused...Natalia's and some other tutorials were really helpfull...now i hope that part when i enjoy and stop with frustrations will come soon :)
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