Ok so there are many tutorials out there on how to make clothes
and stuff, primarily for Second Life® but as I
was just in the process of trying to make some I thought I would
document the process for the un-initiated.
The Objective...
When we eventually get around to building Maxping Plaza (our
welcome area for folks wanting to check out the alternative grids)
we want to have a few freebies there so people can get started
easily ie. not look like Ruth. (If you want to read more about our
plaza, check out the Maxping Plaza Background Story )
The official Maxping outfit we have "adopted" is the following,
and note - this is for both guys & girls we have a strictly one
size fits all, unisex approach.
- A maxping tee-shirt
- A white monogrammed dressing gown ( or bathrobe ) - like the
ones you get in hotels
- A pair of crusty old underpants (y-fronted retro style)
I think you will agree that in this getup we will be champions
of style - just not only does Maxping bring you all you need to
know about open source virtual worlds, but we also bring our
readers glamour and style..! Anyway the point is that we actually
need to make this stuff before we can give it to our guests so I
thought I would start with the underpants as in general people are
shy of their particulars - even if they are virtual
particulars.
Getting prepared...
Ok before you get started, make sure you have all the necessary
equipment. First, you need some sort of image editor - photoshop if
you are lucky but most editors should be ok for this. Ideally you
should be able to export .TGA files or Targa files which is a
format that works well and supports transparency...
TRANSPARENT underpants? What the hell is the point of
that???... well just bare with on this one, all will be revealed
(groans)
Now you need a good clear straight on photograph of a pair of
underpants - I just grabbed one from the web for the purposes of
this tutorial, but obviously due to legal issues I will use a
different shot for the final underpant. ( This means I will have to
go out and buy a pair of suitable underpants and then photograph
them - it is quite possible that my wife will think I'm having some
sort of bizarre mid-life crisis - but hey, it's all in the name of
"art" right? ) Readers may wish to select their own favourite
underpants for this, but I had a very specific requirement or
"look" i was trying to achieve.
Finally you need Chip Midnight's very famous and very useful clothing
templates, you can get these from the community section of the
Second Life website. There is also an excellent "Learn how to use
these templates" document there if my instructions seem a bit vague
and wooly.
Let's get those underpants!
Ooops no, hold on STOP THE SHOW! After some
experimentation I realized that simply dropping a photo onto the
template would not deliver the results I was looking
for. It's all about matching the seams up so that when you
eventually put on the item it looks like it should. Without
spending hours messing around with photoshop to get the seams to
match up. So I disgarded my initial failed underpant and started
again - this time by drawing the whole underpant from scratch as
vectors. (But feel free to photograph your own underpants as
suggested above, you may be able to use them for textures later, if
nothing else they will be of great interest in the family photo
album) .
I have always struggled with vectors in Photoshop so I switched
to Fireworks where it is much easier (for me anyway) to draw
shapes. I will then import the file back into photoshop for the
final touches.
This time I approached the problem slightly more systematically
- in a way that computer programmers would be familiar with -
I decided my crusty underpants needed a degree of testing and
debugging before i could get the desired effect. In doing so I
discovered my first and second hot tips for novice underpant
designers.
HOT TIP #1
Basically using a pen tool you first trace the outline of
the garment that you wish to create onto a new layer over the
clothing template, this means that you will have vectors that you
can easily maniuplate later as you debug the underpants. This can
be fairly rough to begin with as you are really only creating the
outlines.
If you use photos it's nigh on impossible to line up the seams -
the trick is to get the seams right first using vector based shapes
& then texture the shapes later in the process when you are
happy with the "blueprint".
HOT TIP #2
As you can see from the picture, I left the clothing template
visible when uploading texture for my alpha pants - this meant that
I could immediately see where the seams should be, which lines on
the template to align them with and how the texture would
eventually wrap itself around the shape. When I went back to my
vectors for tweaks, it was much easier to get the lines in the
right place. Hurrah!
Back to the drawing
board...
Now i knew more about how the seams matched up I was able to
"tweak" until I found the right fitting for the underpant. I guess
one of the nice thing about these y-fronted retro underpants is
that they have nice thick white edges - I'm sure this process would
be alot harder if you were making frilly knickers.
In the picture here I'm showing how the line wraps around the
bum - it looks a bit odd in 2d, but when it gets transformed into
3d then it starts to look much better - still not quite right yet,
but at least it's more or less in the right place! So a bit more
tweaking is needed to get the final shape of the pant. One of the
things that soon became apparent was that the "creases" for example
where the leg and hip bend could be problematic as you effectively
have areas of the texture that are being "bent" in two different
directions. This is probably all old news for clothing makers and
3d artists, but quite challenging for a complete novice like
myself.
Several hours later...
Well after extensive tweaking, and then more tweaking I think
I've pretty much got "the shape" of the underpant right - I wanted
them to look like they do in real life in terms of how they "hang"
on the body so it was all about getting the edges to smoothly
stretch around the thighs and buttocks. [Am I really writing this?
My wife already thinks i'm a freak!]
So now i'm happy I switch over to photoshop to add the finishing
touches - a bit of texturing some shadows - just to give them a
little bit of "life". I even tried making them crusty - but I
couldn't find a crusty filter so i just added a bit of drop shadow
( If anybody knows how to make a crusted underpant filter for
photoshop then drop us a line )
Now the final piece of the puzzle is to export them into a
format Opensimulators like - the trusty old .TGA file. An now back
to the transparency - obviously for the final underpant we dont
want any of the rest of the template showing - These areas need to
be transparent so that when you wear the pants you can see the
legs.
With the TGA format you can use an Alpha Channel to make areas
of the image transparent. You can also use alpha channels for
partial transparency if you want to get really fancy, but for these
pants you only need to make the area that is non-pant related
transparent.
Steps to create a transparent TGA:
1. Flatten the layers
2. Switch to the channels tab and press the button marked
(You may need to invert the channel with ctrl + i )
3. File > Save As > TGA (32 bit )
So here they are:
One pair of crusty retro underpants for your immediate
consumption and enjoyment.
Download the .TGA file of my underpants here, or if you
really want to make your own you could cheat a bit by downloading
the .PSD file here - then all
you need to do is add your own underpant texture.
If you decide to make your own then why not send in a photgraph?
We may even feature some of the best and most original designs in
our "Underpant Gallery" :)
Conclusion
Well i don't think I'll be rushing out to become a virtual
fashion designer, but it was a nice bit of fun :)
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