Hi everyone: Just purchased ALC 2nd Skin Resource package from Renderosity store and I don't really know how to apply textures (materials) to these templates. I thought it would be something straight forward, but it looks like I was wrong. What do I need? Some special program or just a graphic editor? How's this done? Any tutorials around that I could use, maybe? Thanks, Peter

Probably Photoshop, PSP, or the like. Did you read the readme file?

Yes, I read the readme file. I am merging these second skins with body texture files with no problem. But these are only templates. I don't know how to apply material to these templates.

Could you provide a link to the product?

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=40689&Form.sess_id=52803909&Form.sess

Here's the link

Being templates, it appears that you'd have to overlay it with your own texture (using layers). However, the product page makes mention of a "fabrics and lace" bonus that you could use.

It looks like you choose a skin map first and bring it into photoshop, and then put one of the templates in a second layer above it. It doesn't look like something you'd be able to take into Poser and apply materials to. Think of the templates as a stencil, and just fill it in with textures or colors. There are lots of fabric packages around most of the Poser stores that you can buy, or you can make or scan in your own. It's basically just like painting right on the skin map itself, except you have a brightly colored guide to work with.

It's really easy espcially if you think of it as a 3 stage process. Peter - you can skip stage 1 as you have templates. Stage 1: Seams. Either download a "seam guide" (a coloured version of a UVmap) for the figure you want to clothe. Or create a seam using UV mapping software like lithunwrap or UVmapper. Some figures use more than one seam, for example Daz's V3 figure has seperate head and body maps. Stage 2: Template Think of a naked human. Plain bare skin, no clothes, lipstick, spots, freckles etc. This is want this stage is all about. As you've bought a template, you don't need to create the "skin". Stage 3: Clothes. Now the fun (and the longest part) using a graphics programme like photoshop or paintshop pro you literally draw and paint on the clothes and makeup. So do a save as on one of your templates, saving it to a folder where you can find it. Save as a bmp or TIFF until the final stage, as .jpgs loss deatil each time you save. Now Load up poser and apply the template to the figure. REMEMBER. this map won't have any MAT poses (files that apply textures to models) so you'll need to add the textures mannually using the materals editor. Save the scene, file ->save. Keeping poser running, load your template into your paint programme. Now make a a start by drawing very simple flat shapes first onto the template, using nice bold primary colours. That way it's easier to check that things line up on the sides. Then keep tabbing back to poser and rendering to see how it looks. Note: Some people use layers in photoshop, personally I draw straight onto the skin/template. Now you simply add detail to each shape by drawing/painting, copying/pasting things like the lace texture. You can use anything to create clothes, on my last map I used scanned images of a star trek dolls trousers! You'll also find it's easier to get the large areas done first before adding any details. Example do the all denim on a pair of jeans before doing the pockets and rips. Remember all the time keep saving and taking regular backups of the template. In case things go wrong. After many hours (you'll be amazed how long it takes!) you'll eventually have a final 2nd skin. Stage X: OK, when you've finished, do a save on the template as a .jpg in your paint app. Save the .jpg to a folder of your choice in the textures folder which is found in the Poser runtime folder. Then using something like the MAT Pose Creator [http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=5174] you can create MAT poses. Final points: if you plan to sell, or even give away, your creations always use your own material or resource kits, to avoid any hassles with copyrights.

mrsparky has covered just about everything but there is another thing you can do to make accurate texturing a little easier using a layered painting program. If you make the background of the template layer transparent and then add that layer in-front-of your work-in-progress texture layer, then you will be able to see how the edges and features of your texture match up with the seam and grid guide-lines of the template. If you get this correct then it will look like the mesh grid has been drawn on top of your texture. Keep your texture layer selected when you do your drawing/painting and the template mesh will guide you. Then turn off the visibility of this top template layer (or delete it) before you do your final texture save. You will also notice that many textures overlap the edge of the templates, with a band of skin colour. This is sometimes necessary to prevent the appearance of ugly seams (white/background colour blended with skin tones at the edges of the textured areas) in the rendered texture.

Wonderful little tut mrsparky, I am sure many will thank you. :-) Sharen

Great explanation, very easy to understand. Thanks.

Thank you all, guys. Special thanks to mrsparky

Thanks everyone. It's easy to forget after a while how the basics are done.