It feels kind of weird to switch between the catsuit and my female avatar. It shouldn't, I guess, because I can have as many avatars as I want. In an uber-geeky moment, I decided to make a few t-shirts that feature pictures of the cat avatar the I can wear while dressed as my female avatar. This was also a way for me to become more familiar with how clothing is created in Second Life. I'll include a brief tutorial, which you can just scroll past if you just want to see the pictures of the end result.

The first thing you need to do is download the templates from the Second Life website. They provide a PDF describing how to use the templates and the Design and Textures forum has a lot of helpful information as well. If you're more the live instruction type, New Citizens Incorporated (NCI) has weekly clothing creation classes.

Anyhow, if you want to make an embellished t-shirt, it will take about five minutes and cost 10L$ per item. You first create the texture using Photoshop and then you create the shirt in Second Life.

To create the texture:

1. Open the Upper Body Template in Photoshop


2. Take a look at all of the layers. The only layers that should be visible (the ones with the eye ball) should be Background, Working Layer, and Overlay. You should see this.
   
   


3. Select the Working Layer, and add your design. For example, if you want to create a black shirt with an image in the front and text on the back, your image should now look like this.
   
   
4. 
   
5. Deselect all layers except T-Shirt Alpha (If you want a long sleeve T-Shirt, use Victorian Alpha). Using the Magic Wand (with contiguuous un-checked, anti-alias checked, and tolerance set to 32), click in the white area and then choose Select --> Save Selection. What you name it doesn't matter, but it will be displayed on the Channels tab of the Layers palette. It should not be selected (no eye ball).


6. Hide the T-Shirt Alpha Layer (no eye ball) and Display (eye ball) the Working Layer and any other layers you added for your design. It will not look like much of a shirt at this point, but we're getting there.
   
   


7. Save the file as a TGA (Targa), 32 bits/pixel if prompted.


8. Open Second Life and select Upload Image which is under the File menu. Select the file that you just created. You will see a preview of the image and it should now look more like a t-shirt.
   
   For example, notice how this one is missing the inner sleeve - likely because the Contiguous checkbox was accidentally selected. If the image is a solid color instead of looking like a t-shirt, go back and re-do the alpha channel step. Assuming everything is ok, click the Upload button. A confirmation will display when the upload is complete.

To create a new the t-shirt:

1. Right click on the Clothing folder in your Inventory and select New Clothes --> New Shirt.


2. Locate the New Shirt in the Clothing folder, right click, and select Wear. You should now be wearing a white shirt.


3. Under the Edit menu, select Appearance.


4. On the left side, click the Shirt tab.


5. Click the Fabric thumbnail and then locate the file that you just uploaded. It should be under My Inventory --> Textures. Once you've located it, click Select.


6. Continue to modify the shirt using the sliders for sleeve length, shirt length, etc. When you are finished, click Save and the item will be saved to your Inventory. You should probably rename it (right click --> rename) so you can find it easily in the future.

Here's my first creation - a sleeveless tee with Virtual Bailey's head on the front. I put this blog url on the back in one line near the waist, and although it's a cute decoration it's really not readable.



This was my second creation.



And then I made a few variations using different colors and fixing the font issue.


As you can see in the image, I also customized a pair of jeans =^.^=