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.