Sources of inspiration

So no more about pantyhose today. Let's talk about inspiration. Where does it all come from. Well you can never have enough if you want to design cute clothes and stuff, so here are a few addresses that may come in handy where you can buy some real life clothes and where they are well illustrated so that the details can be shown. So in no special order:
Girl Props (bling galore)
Top Shop
So Feminine
Forever21
Shop Bop
Old Navy (thanks to KC)
ASOS
Angel Garments
Zappos (shoes and bags)

Bea's 10 denier Pantyhose box sees the light

Well that was a productive evening. It's available, Bea's 10 denier Pantyhose Box in 6 great colours. God, I sound like an advert.

It's quite a job making a product in Second Life you know. You have to do everything. Make the masks, upload images, assemble the clothes, package them up for re-sale, take some photos, edit photos, make advert etc. etc. It's a full time job, even for something as simple as these pantyhose.

Anyway, it's done and you can see my product as usual at SLExchange.

As for my product, well the pantyhose are rather sheer so I guess they correspond to around 10 denier (pure guess as I never have understood that measure of material weave). For these I made a reinforced gusset and waist-band (don't want the things to ladder after five minutes). I think I'll make a 20 denier set with more colours as a follow up.

By the way, that's me in the picture modeling my creation. It's hard work stepping in and out of pantyhose in SL and I had an audience whilst changing even though I asked nicely if they would move to the other side of the screen. Oh well, such is the life of a Second Life Supermodel.

Let's get organised

So. I've done my experiments and have some experience how it's done. Now my question is, how should I go on from here? My wish is to make a pantyhose pack with the following variations; sheer, support pantie and open-crotch (just for a start). This can be augmented by adding patterns and seems. All of these should be in modern colours and different thicknesses (denier). With all those combinations, I'll have to make a choice of where to start. Of course I can also make leggings. Wow the ideas just keep coming.

Tights pack - gotcha

So I waited until the next morning and did the same exercise again. Nip to Blaze, pay yet another 100L$ (she must be making a fortune) and then back home to my own private changing room (actually my front garden but then who cares). This time Linden Labs was up to the challenge. The rez worked fine and I am the proud owner of a folder full of pantyhose in various colours, all with a sweet pantie to hide your bits.
How are they made? Well I was right, just like my idea, they are formed from two parts, the pantie and the stocking. Anyway, a nice set. I'm happy with them. Another new thing I've learned.
What's my next task you ask? Well I'm toying with the idea of seeing how I can use Deep Paint 3D to paint textures directly to the SL Avatar. I'll keep you posted if you're interested.

I was done

Continuing my experiments in pantyhose technology, I TPed over to Blaze in the Glory Sim. Wow. Nice place with lots of reasonably priced things. Anyway, back to the plot. A nice assistant in a light blue evening gown showed me the way to Blaze's tights pack. I payed my 100L$ then nipped home to try them on. This is where I was done by Linden labs. My rez failed and what's worse I lost the object in the process. Blast....... Well there was no point in hanging around so I logged out like any sensible girl would.

A lot to learn

Oh dear. After all my efforts I spot a blog with some of the sweetest pantyhose in SL. Blaze has for a mere 100L$ some pantyhose with thong panty. Nice and very professional. I'll have to get my skates on a nip over there to get some. I'm determined I can do just as well. I'm just rather a slow learner. In fact Blaze appears to have loads of nice things. Better leave my SL credit card at home.

Easy wear pantyhose - just texture and go

Well as you can see from the picture. I had another go at my pantyhose... This time with success. I was right, you must not mask the stocking and pantie layers and then change the resolution. This is bound to cause problems.

One area still not solved is the foot. It appear that the SL mapping of feet is rather basic. There is an abrupt change in mesh density here with not continuation from the calf area. This causes obvious discontinuities between these two parts. Of course, this is no problem if the pantyhose pattern is very tight or non-existent (like traditional nylon material), but for the more spectacular pantyhose designs out there, there will remain a problem. I'll have to get my thinking cap on over this one.

Pantyhose and tights in SL

So what have I found out about SL that's worth telling you all? Good question guys.... Well one experiment I've tried is to use procedural textures from 3DSMax and bake them to a texture after lighting the model etc. What was the result you may ask? Well mixed I might reply. Let me explain......
It occurred to me that certain clothing items were rare in SL. For example, a simple pair of pantyhose (like the dozens I have in my RL drawer at home) do not appear on avatars normally shapely legs that often. Why you may ask, given the RL interest. Well I believe it's because Linen Labs made it difficult to do as there is no one pantyhose layer. These ladies essentials have to be made from a sock and undergarment layer. Then the question is, how do you match across the two textures accurately? This is where perhaps a baked texture from 3DSMax (or some other such software) could come in handy. So what did I try? The steps were....
1. Import OBJ into Max; 2. Convert lower body parts to mesh; 3. Attach meshes; 4. Apply procedural texture (check in my case); 5. Light model (this is where I'm rubbish); 6. Bake texture. 6. Import texture into Photoshop (PSP etc.); 7. Create sharp dividing mask for lower legs and pantie regions; 8. Upload both TGA textures and apply to respective sock and undergarment layers; 9. Wear and be admired
So what were the results? Well slightly mixed, but that was my own fault. First I noticed a one pixel gap between sock and pantie textures. How can this be I asked myself? Then whilst cleaning my RL teeth the penny dropped. I had made the textures at 1024x1024 (including the masks). I then reduced to 512x512. Everything looked OK but I guess the mask layer has to decide what to do with the sharp line. Is the last pixel row in the pantie layer or the sock layer? Well in either case one or the other will be missing one row of pantyhose material in-game. So next time, I'll mask at the correct texture resolution. OK. Pictures of my results to follow. Ciao

Bea Georgette and the grey silk dress

Hi there. This is my first ever blog for my Second Life avatar Bea Georgette. She's my favourite girl in SL. That's me in the picture above, modeling my own creation. Although not a complete newbie, I'm a slow learner and want to do everything there is to do in SL. I intend this blog to be a my chance to give back to the SL community some of the things I learn along the way so that other newbies can take advantage of my slow learning. Anyway, that's the aim. I'll probably just wax lyrical about the clothes I've bought in SL, but that's just me I'm afraid. I'll try to stay focused, but bare with me if I stray towards the girly things in life.

By the way, my grey silk dress above is available for a mere 10L$ via SLExchange.com (shameless plug ...) Or simply IM me in game and we can come to some arrangement.Love to hear from you.
http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=220985