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