If I wanted a white shirt, (with an add for this web site on the back,) I'd be done now. But let's say, for this example, that I want a burgundy shirt.

Begin by making the Put Color Here layer visible, which instantly changes the shirt color to a deep blue. That's because the layer is filled with that color, and set to Multiply for the Blending Mode.

Choose a new Foreground color, and fill the Color layer by either by clicking on it with the Paint Bucket tool, or simply holding down the Alt/Option key, and tapping Delete/backspace.

The shirt will take on whatever color you have chosen.

That looks good, but the highlights are a little dim, on the darker shirt. Let's brighten them up a bit.

If you click on the Highlight layer, you'll notice that the Blending mode is Screen. To get brighter highlights, just increase the opacity of this layer. (Click on the word Opacity, and drag to the right, or type in a slightly higher number.)

Be careful and subtle here. If you make them too bright, they can look like chalk in Second Life. You want just enough that the folds and wrinkles look natural. I'm going with 67% for this color.

If your color is very light, you might want to decrease the opacity of this layer.

You'll probably want to change the text on the back, too. (Or just hide that layer.) If you want to change it, get the Text tool (T) and click 5 times to select the whole thing. Then just start to type. If you want to change the color, font, etc. pick your choices from the Option bar at the top of the window in CS. (With earlier versions of Photoshop, these options might be in a different palette.)

You can also highlight text and change any other attribute, but that's beyond the scope of this tutorial. (Besides, you can probably figure it out for yourself. :D )

Okay! The design is done, and we're ready to prep the finished texture for uploading to Second Life.

The first thing we need to do is resize the image. Working at 1024x1024 is recommended, but it's best to upload clothing no larger than 512x512 . But we also want to keep a copy of the layered file, because it's much easier to tweak later on.

So I'm going to teach you a trick that works only in Photoshop. (If you're using a different graphics program, you can Save your layered file, and then Save As with a different name, instead.)

Look at the History Palette. At the bottom, there are three buttons. Click the left-most one, and you'll create a new document, from the current document state.

Do that now.

Make sure the new document is selected, (it will be named for the last thing you've done. In my case, that's Edit Type Layer,) and choose Flatten Image from the Layer Palette menu.

This step isn't necessary, since you can choose to Scale Styles when you resize, and it's not recommended unless you are working on a copy of your file (like we are here.) But it does make the resizing go more quickly, especially with large files.

Once you've done that, go to the Menu, to Image > Image Size. That will open the Image Size dialog.

Change the size in pixels in the Width and Height fields to 512. (You probably only have to change one of them, since they should be locked. If they aren't, enable Constrain Proportions at the bottom of the dialog.)

Someone has asked me about the resolution of this T-shirt, which is set to 150 pixels/inch. It's that way because I was doing some other things, and didn't reset it. (If I'd noticed it, I would have set it to 72dpi to prevent confusion, but I'm afraid that I didn't.)

Resolution is only important if you are going to be printing the image, which we aren't. For our purposes, uploading to Second Life, it doesn't matter one iota what that resolution is. (An image that's 512x512 pixels will be 3.412" x 3.412" at 150 pixels per inch, and 7.111" x 7.111" at 72 pixels per inch, but it's the same 512x512 pixels.)

The only important numbers in this dialog are in that top portion, where it lists the dimensions in Pixels. As long as that says 512, we're golden.

All that's left now to do is save and upload! So, Save As (File > Save As,) and choose Targa from the drop down list. Once you hit the Save button, another little dialog will open, that allows you to choose the bit depth.

Choose 32 bits/pixel from the menu. (8 each for the Red, Blue, and Green channels, and 8 for the Alpha channel, which we didn't discuss, but which is there.)

Open Second Life, and choose File > Upload Image (L$10) from the menu. Browse to the image, and choose it.

This will open a dialog that will allow you to Preview the image on a figure before you open it. Choose the Male or Female upper body, and take a look. The "skin" of the mannequin in this window is a peculiar mustard yellow color (probably chosen because it's obvious, and no one is likely to make a garment quite that color.) You'll see it poking out the neck and both arms; but that's all as it should be. It's not some weird color that's appeared on your shirt.

The normal SL Camera tools work in this window, too; so you can drag up or down to zoom in or out, hold down the Option/alt key and drag to move around the mannequin, hold down Control/Option or ctrl/alt and drag to look at the mannequin as if it were the center of a virtual trackball, or Control/ctrl Shift and drag to pan the image right, left, up or down.

If it doesn't look like you wanted it to, take careful note of what needs to be changed, and cancel out of this dialog.

If it does, then go ahead and click the Upload button, and pay your L$10.

You are ready to make your shirt. Open your Inventory, right click on the Clothing folder, and choose New Clothes > New Shirt from the Menu that opens when you do..

This will put an item called New Shirt in your Clothing folder. Double click on it, to wear it.

Right Click on your Avatar, and choose Appearance from the pie menu.

In the Appearance dialog, choose Shirt. (I'm assuming that you are familiar with all of this from your Orientation, if nothing else.)

In the Shirt section, click on the swatch on the top, that says Fabric. This will open the Pick Fabric dialog. Choose the texture you just uploaded from your Texture folder. (The contents of your folder will differ from the contents of mine, of course.)

Click to Select the Fabric, if you have disabled Apply Immediately (which I recommend, by the way,) and you'll see it on your Avatar in the Appearance window, and also in the World.

From there, just Save As, give it a name, close the Appearances, and enjoy your new shirt!

Now, of course, there's lots more you can do, if you feel so inclined. You can change the placement of the design, or shrink the front placement to a small picture over the left breast, and put a large picture on the back, or put type on both the front and the back, or anything else you like. (I've included a hidden UV layer, to aide in placement, if that's what you'd like to do. The lines on that map correspond to the polygons in the model. Think of it as a wireframe. There will be forthcoming tutorials explaining exactly how to use the UVs, if you find them confusing.)

You can also increase the darkness of the shadows, by duplicating the Texture layer (Select it, and tap Command/ctrl J, or drag it to the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette.) Change the Blending Mode to Multiply (you know how to do that,) and you'll effectively double the depth of the shadows. If that's too much, use the Opacity slider to make them a little lighter. If it's not enough, duplicate that layer to make them even darker.

If you want to make a Black shirt, by the way, I suggest that you use a dark gray, not black. That way, you will be able to see the shadows.

Experiment with it! Try filling the Color layer with a Pattern instead. (Edit > Fill: Use Pattern, and then pick one from the fly out menu.) Try using different blending modes with the pattern. Change the Opacity, and see if you like that better.

Add another layer, and use Color in one, and a Pattern in the other. Play with the Blending modes and opacity of both of them.

Have fun with it! And if you make a particularly nice shirt, let me know.