Denim Jeans Tutorial using The GIMP
This is an adaptation of from DeviantArt. I’ve changed it so it is relevant to texture creation in Second Life. But I encourage you to read or bookmark the original tutorial as well.
This is a pretty advanced tutorial… It’s not recommended for anyone new to The GIMP, or to clothing creation. However, if you understand the basics of GIMP and the templates, this could be *just* the thing you are searching for to really bring your creations to life. The principles can be applied to ALL you future creations and you will probably benefit greatly from learning some of this stuff.
This is the poster to look out for.
Are you ready to get cracking? The tutorial starts immediately after the cut…
Clean Blue Jeans Tutorial
Using The Gimp version 2.4.6
All images are smaller previews for faster website load times. To see the full resolutions, with readable details, please click on any of the pictures and the full size will load.
Step One
Open up you basic templates. For this one I’ve chosen to work with the templates by Chip Midnight at 1024 resolution. Create a new layer on top of all the avatar mesh guides. Name it something simple like “Solid Blue”. With the colour picker open, find a blue colour you like, any blue is fine. For mine, I chose to use 393a6e. Fill the new “Solid Blue” layer with your foreground colour.
Step Two
Now we’re going to make some noise (makes a silly joke about the crowd going wild ;) ). Go to Filters > Noise > RBG Noise…
The default values are 0.20 for red, blue and green with 0.00 for alpha, we leave them alone. Make sure “Independent RBG” is unchecked, that way its a uniform colour of noise, not a rainbow one- hehe.
Step Three
Add a new transparent layer above, and fill the new layer with a scan line pattern (click *here* to download from DA). The screen shot won’t show much, so I am not including one. The pattern is just a tiny repeating black diagonal line.
*** So far, all of this had been pretty basic… Now on to the more challenging stuff! ***
Step Four
We’re going to use the Bump Map tool within The GIMP. (Honest opinion, bump mapping is a lot easier/smarter in GIMP than in Photoshop- so there!! XD ). Moving right along…
Make sure you have your “Solid Blue” base layer selected (the one with noise added). Go to Filters > Map > Bump Map…
Select the Scan Line layer as your Bump map from the drop down menu. Then, using the next screen shot as a guide, use the following settings. Feel free to experiment, but this is just to make things easier the first time around.
Step Five
You can either hide or delete the scan line layer now, we’re finished with that part.
Step Six
You can go back to your “Solid Blue” layer and add more noise if you want. Its not a compulsary step. I only added 0.10 worth of RBG noise again, just to rough it up a bit more.
*** So far, you should have something resembling a square of denim. We’re now moving on to adding details like the seam highlights and shadowing. ***
