Just messing around with mp3 players...my brain feels as if it's about to explode but what better testing ground than one's very own blog..:-)



This is my version of 'When I Need You' originally recorded by Leo Sayer. It's always been one of my favourite songs. Nothing to do with Second Life fashion and design, but hey....:-)

*PP* Velvet Carnivale

I've really been getting stuck into Photoshop this week and I've come up with another brand new set of fabrics - *PP* Velvet Carnivale is quite an elaborate fabric in 7 different embellishment colours with the complimenting plain version also.






















*PP* Velvet Carnivale on Xstreet SL

It's also available at the Fashion Factory, for which you'll find the slurl for in the links section..

New Releases!

I've just released a whole bunch of fabric sets and a special set of button textures, perfect for the designer in you..

*PP* Floral Fabric






















*PP* Button Alpha Textures




















For my full range of fabrics and templates visit my Xstreet SL Marketplace where you'll find all sorts of fabrics and templates and everything for the clothing designer.. You may even find an outfit or two you may like...:-)

Earlier this morning, I came across yet ANOTHER merchant..and I use that term very loosely, selling a certain skin PSD package that is readily available for anyone to download absolutely free. These files were very generously given to the SL community by Eloh Eliot, a very talented and giving artist. If you'd like to download them for free, here where you can start:

Free Skin PSDs

There are a whole bunch of files for different skins that you can download so explore the blog and see what treasure you can find.

Time for a new template release...

The PSD file for the *PP* Lowrise Capris Template PSD contains 15 different colour layers along with the basic template, Shading layer, Wrinkles layer, and several different embellishment layers. You can add as many of your own touches as your imagination will allow.




This was created using Adobe Photoshop and is fully compatible with Adobe Photoshop...I cannot vouch for it's compatibility with other graphics programs. Some experience of Photoshop etc would be helpful, but with a little patience and willingness to learn, you'll be customizing your own clothing in no time.

This template package is available at the following locations:

Xstreet SL

The Fashion Factory

Pocket Pfeffer Clothing & Templates

'Verde'

I'm looking out of my window right now and I've never seen so much rain.. The skies a dull grey and it's freezing.. hardly an indication that Summer is almost upon us. So I decided to do something to cheer myself up and hopefully a few others as well.

I've released 'Verde' as a dollarbie.... a beautiful fresh ensemble that's sure to put you in a summer mood. It's available in-world at the following locations.

The Fashion Factory

Pocket Pfeffer Clothing & Templates

A Musical Freebie

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with SL fashion creation but I thought I'd post it anyway. This month of April, 2009 was the 250th anniversary of the death of George Frederick Handel, one of my favourite composers. To mark this occasion in my own little way, I recorded my own performance of one of his most beautiful arias - 'Laschia Ch'io Pianga'... I even attempted to make a little video in-world.



If you'd like a copy of the song to play in-world, you can pick it up for the princely sum of 1L$ from the following locations

The Fashion Factory

Pocket Pfeffer Clothing & Templates

Xstreet SL

Enjoy!

Back To Basics

Sometimes it's the most basic tasks that will give us the most trouble. For instance, a question I get asked at least 20 times a day in-world is: 'How do I get the templates onto my computer's hard-drive?' Well, the answer couldn't be simpler:

Working With Templates

From within SL, open up your inventory and locate the texture that you want to save, then double-click it to open it up on your screen.

Go to the top SL menu bar and click 'file' and 'save texture as'. From there you can save it to wherever you'd like on your computer.

It really is that simple!

Here's another little 'issue' that I come across on a regular basis..

With the basic black template tga's, unless you'd like plain black clothing with absolutely no shading or colour, there's no point in using these templates as-is inworld to create clothing using the 'appearance mode'. These templates have to be imported onto your hard-drive and worked on in whatever graphics program you use.

Okay then, let's say that you imported your template onto your computer, opened it up in your graphics program and worked your magic on it. Now you're ready to bring it back into SL to make into a wearable item of clothing. Firstly, re-size it to 512x512 which is a good size for working with in SL. Also, make sure that your 'alpha channel' (I'll get into this in another post :-)) is turned on. When you've checked all this, save your file as a 32-bit targa.

When you're logged back into SL, go to 'file' and 'upload texture', locate the file you've just saved and click 'ok'. Remember this costs 10L$ so if you don't have any Linden cash in your balance, you won't be able to upload any textures etc.

Let's say that you uploaded a shirt texture...so how do we make this into wearable clothing - easy! Right-click on your avatar and choose 'appearance mode'. Click on 'shirt' and 'create new shirt'. Within that dialog, click on the top white square and choose the texture you've just uploaded. You can then make all sorts of adjustments such as sleeve length, neckline and colour.

The most important thing is to experiment and have fun with clothing design. Only then will you find your own style and you'll never look back.

A Brief Introduction

My name is Pocket Pfeffer and I've been a resident of Second Life since May of 2007. What a journey it's been so far. I've had so much fun travelling this wonderful virtual world and have enjoyed my development through all the different learning curves...from rezzing a plywood cube to now making my own fashion templates, fabrics and what I like to think of as my own unique style of clothing.

The virtual world of fashion design is a tough one and very hard to get started in but once you do get a grip on things, it's one hell of a ride. It's a very very competitive business and when you first start out, you need all the help you can get.

My areas of expertise are fashion templates and textures/fabrics... I love to spend hours upon hours in Photoshop trying to come up with different and unique designs that Second Life clothing designers will find helpful to them.

My biggest piece of advice to anyone who is thinking of embarking on a career in the design business is to read absolutely every tutorial they can get their virtual hands on. Turn every design disaster into a learning experience. There are many classes on offer in-world and they can prove to be invaluable learning tools.

I will be posting links on various tutorials and of course writing my own to share with you so stay tuned..

Slainte!

Pocket