I need to start using templates, but I'm not sure where to begin. I use P4.03 & PSP7. Can anyone tell me what the steps are for using templates? Thanks 8-D Steve

Load the template into your paint package and create a new layer. Paint on this layer to add the colours/patterns/effects you want. It's a good idea to add more layers for each different part of the texture, so you can easily change it if something goes wrong or if you want to make several different versions. Something else I find useful is to make an additional layer from the template, with only the black mesh lines remaining. This can be used as a quick guide by making it the top layer and switching it on and off as required. Flatten it and save.

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What i often do is even use the polygons of the template, select them and fill them in a new layer, to shape them, but you have to be careful with the seams.

Thanks SamTherapy and Furyofaseraph! I'll give these tips a go. I'd thought that I'd need something additional like UV Mapper or something. These tips make sense. Steve

If I use fabric tiles to fill in the template, what is a good size for the tiles to be?

You're welcome, Stevie822. Fabric tiles? Well, it depends on how big your template is and how much detail you want your texture to have, versus how much available memory you want to use up. The bigger the texture, the more detail and the more RAM you consume. I don't make clothes textures so I can't help you there but for making a human skin texture, the usual size of the texture template is around 4000 x 4000 or so. I would suggest that clothing textures would usually be smaller than this unless you had lots of fine detail in there.

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if you use photoshop, id suggest keeping textures in a power of 2, 1024x1024 or 2048x2048 or even 4096x4096...i've found tiling things are so much easier at that dimension.

There's reeason to think that texturemaps use memory inefficiently if you go slightly larger than those sizes. I've used both methods -- layers and overpainting -- and sometimes do a bit of both. I use Paint Shop Pro myself, rather than Photoshop, and there are detail differences in the tools available and how they work. The GIMP would also work, I expect. The current version of UV Mapper is a very useful tool, even the Demo version. It lets you make templates, and can let you work around the multiple template awkwardnesses. It also lets you see the object textured. The Demo version is limited, but usable. Start with something simple. It can be a bit of a fiddle at the edges of the texture, where you have to match extreme left and extreme right. Start with something like a leotard, and try putting a horizontal coloured band on it. Snowsultan has "seam guides" in the freestuff. These are annotated taxturemap bases, the UVmapper output with extra info on how the edges line up. There's a close connection between texture and transparency maps. The P4 and P5 clothing can be modified, some items with more success than others, by using a transparency map. Once you have the transparency map, you can make masks or selections from that which may be used while making the texturemap. It may be something everyone does, it may even be a teenage male thing, but turning a leotard into a swimsuit is a good exercise.