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.