FASHIONCAD.INFO

INTRO SECOND LIFE FASHION SERIES

Open CourseWare by
Elaine Polvinen Professor,
Buffalo State College
Fashion Textile Technology

Now that you have had some experience with experimenting how TEXTURES work differently in APPEARANCE and on FLEXI-SKIRT PRIMS by practicing with the open permission TEXTURES, UV MAPPED items and FLEXI-SKIRTS I prepared for you - it's time you started created your own custom TEXTURES to upload.

Here are a short series of video tutorials that will get you started with creating your own custom TEXTURES that you can use on garments you create in the APPEARANCE menu.

You can also make copies of any of the FLEXI-SKIRTS you already received from the PRACTICE display and apply your custom TEXTURES to them.

[NOTE: in these videos I make the textures 256px by 256px - you can make them more detailed by creating them 512 X 512 px or even 256px by 512px , or 1024 or 1024 px but keep in mind larger texture files will need more processing time to come in clear. To get fine detail into your textures you can create them at a very high resolution and creating them in Illustrator will give you even more control. Once you have completed them you can resample [rescale] them down in Image Size before you upload them. I would not go over 512px unless there is very fine detail that is very important to keep in.

Three types of files can be uploaded to Second Life: TGA, JPG and BMP.I strongly recommend uploading only TGA files formats.

It's the only format of the three that supports transparency, so for items like clothing, windows, etc, you have no choice but to use it, and it's the industry standard for texturing.

RGB color images without transparency have 24 bits per pixel, and those with transparency have 32 bits per pixel so if you are saving your TGA files without an alpha channel [for your transparency effect], you only need to select 24 bit before you save your file. If you are setting up a transparency effect by using one alpha channel you need to save it as a 32 bit for the alpha channel to be included. You can test if you are saving it correctly by using the preview before you upload to SL.

Half Drop Single and in-repeat Pattern Texture 

How to Make a Section of Your Texture Pattern Translucent 

Rescale Premade Repeat Patterns for Second Life

This video demonstrates how to take a variety of previously made repeat patterns and rescale them for uploading as a texture file in Second Life for use in Appearance. It also illustrates how to make a channel on a partial section of one texture to make it with transparent or translucent in SL.

Multi Print Texture for Second Life

This is the tenth in a series titled, Getting Started with Fashion in Second Life. This tutorial demonstrates how to quickly develop some simple patterns in Illustrator to create a multi-print texture to upload to Second LIfe and use in Appearance. This multi print texture technique will show the user how to quickly create a nice looking custom printed outfit for use in SL. It would be helpful to complete the Level I Basic Function series for Illustrator first. http://fashioncad.info/

ASSIGNMENTS

1. Upload all the original textures [ 5-6 texture files ] you create following the video tutorials above that will be included in your collection. Make sure you use a unified Fashion color palette for the texture collection you develop. You can do this by creating a custom swatch palette to work from first. Using the videos above create and upload at least one multi texture and one texture including a partial translucency.
   
2. Develop 2 Fashion Outfits in Appearance using your own uploaded textures.
   
3. Using the PRACTICE videos from the last learning module [four] as a guide - apply some of your custom texture designs on the flexi-outfits and select SAVE AS in APPEARANCE to save a copy of a new outfit using your custom textures. You cannot change the TEXTURE of the FLEXI-SKIRT in APPEARANCE because the FLEXI-SKIRT is made of PRIMS - you will have to change the TEXTURE by right mouse clicking on the FLEXI-SKIRT , select EDIT and go to the TEXTURE tab. This procedure is demonstrated for you in the PRACTICE APPLYING TEXTURES IN APPEARENCE & ON FLEXI-SKIRTS videos in module four.

Module Six: How Clothes are Made in Second Life: PRIMS