Olila’s Second Life - Tutorials & Diary Diary & Tutorials

This tutorial will show you how to create a tattoo for your Second Life avatar in several colours. I’m going to create the tattoo from a picture. To make it semi-transparent I’m going to use a Layer Mask. I will also assume that you read my earlier tattoo-tutorial: Create a Tattoo: Part 1 !

I’ve been using Layer Masks for a long time but I didn’t think of using it for SL tattoos until I read Robin Woods tutorial: Getting the White Out of Line Art. Thanks Robin!

For this tutorial I’m using Photoshop CS. I’m sure you can make this work with newer versions or similar with the GIMP or other programs that support Layer Masks.

1. Get your picture

Be sure to read the copyright notes if you use a picture that is someone elses work. The best is to create the picture yourself or use stuff that are totally free with copyright notes that states that you can do whatever you want with it!

For this tutorial I’m using an image that - as far as I could understand - is totally free to use.

This one:

2. Make the picture semi-transparent

Open the picture in Photoshop.

Duplicate the Background-layer by rightclicking the layer (not the thumbnail) and choose ‘Duplicate Layer’. I named this layer ‘Angel Tattoo’.

Delete the background-layer or make sure the new one is selected!

Select the whole layer using Select/All from the top menu bar (or Ctrl+A). Then select: Edit/Copy from the top menu bar ( or hit Ctrl+C ) to copy the whole layer into your “clipboard”.

Mask your layer

Create a new Layer Mask on the ‘Angel Tattoo-layer’ by clicking ‘New Mask’ at the bottom of the Layers palette when that layer is selected.

HOLD DOWN ‘Alt’ (don’t forget this!) and THEN click the Layer-Mask-Thumbnail.
At this point the mask will be totally white. It should look like this:

Now when the Mask is selected: Paste the pic into the mask from the “clipboard” by selecting Edit/Paste from the top menu bar ( or Ctrl+V ). It will be ‘Black & White’.

To make the transparency right: Select Image/Adjustments/Invert from the top menu bar ( or Ctrl+I ) to invert the colours.

Click the Layer-Thumbnail. As you can see the background is now transparent.

Ctrl+D makes the selection go away!

Get rid of ‘Ugly White Halo’

Since the original picture had black borders on a white background - the picture now has grey edges because the black was ‘Anti-Aliased’ (smoothed out) against the white background.

That would give the tattoo an ugly greyish finish around it - known as the ‘Ugly White Halo‘ - and that would look REALLY awful on the final tattoo.

To avoid that I used the ‘Paint Bucket Tool’ and filled the layer with a ‘Totally Black Colour’ ( you might prefer another colour depending on the edges on your picture ).

The greyish borders will now be ’semi-black’ - and adjust to any background colour.

Apply the Mask

Now: Apply the Mask! Right-click the Mask thumbnail and click ‘Apply Layer Mask’ from the drop-down menu.

Now it looks like this:

3. Put your tattoo in the right place

Open Robin Wood’s texture-template-file for the UPPER-BODY. If you don’t get what I’m talking about, read the tutorial: Making Clothes & Skins - Preparations Part 3.

My file looks like this:

Select: File/Save As from the top menu bar and save the file with a new name - still in psd-format (remember where you saved it). I renamed mine to: tattoo2_upper.psd.

Now open your Tattoo-pic and put it on a new layer in your psd-file simply by dragging it there ( or copy and paste if you prefer that ).

At this point you can resize the tattoo - if you need to - by using Edit/Transform/Scale. Drag the corner-handles to resize the layer.

Use the Move Tool to put the tattoo-layer where you want it on the upper body.

Deselect the layers you don’t need any more!

4. Save your tattoo

At this point you may choose from two options (formats) when saving your file. You can save your tattoo as a PNG-file or a TGA-file with an ‘Alpha Channel’. Both options will create a semi-transparent texture that will work great as a tattoo-texture in Second Life.

Save as PNG

Choose File/Save for Web from the top menu bar.

Save the file as a PNG-24 with ‘Transparency’ checked.

Save as TGA with Alpha Channel

Right-click the thumbnail of the tattoo-layer and select ‘Select Layer Transparency’ from the drop-down menu.

Select the Channels palette (next to the Layers palette). Click the ‘Save selection as channel’ button at the bottom. This will create a new channel called ‘Alpha 1′.

Before you leave this palette it should look like this!

Go back to the Layers palette. Ctrl+D makes the selection go away.

When you’re saving with an Alpha Channel you should save the texture together with a background-layer with similar colours (to avoid ugly white edges).

So I made a copy of the layer Angel Tattoo.

Make sure the background layer is visible and the copyed layer on top is selected.

Select: File/Save As from the top menu bar. I named my texture: ‘upper_tattoo2‘.
Choose to save it as a Targa-file (*.TGA;*.VDA;*.ICT;*.VST). Click ‘Save’.

When the ‘Targa Options’ popup appears, select: ‘32 bits/pixel’ (’Compress RLE’ unchecked). Click ‘OK’ to create the Targa-file with an Alpha Channel.

5. Upload the Texture & Create the Tattoo in Second Life

The tattoo-texture is now saved on your hard-drive.

To upload the texture to Second Life: Select File/Upload in the SL Client (for 10L$). You will find your new tattoo-texture in your ‘Texture-folder‘.

In Second Life: Rightclick on your avatar and choose ‘Appearance‘.

Click the tab ‘Undershirt’ and the button ‘Create New’ to save the tattoo on an undershirt layer.

Other options could be ‘Shirt’ or ‘Jacket’ for an upper body tattoo.

Actually! It could be a smart ting to save your tattoo on different kind of clothing items while you’re at it. Then you have a lot more options wearing your tattoo with different kind of tops.

Click ‘Fabric’. Then find and select the tattoo-texture you created and uploaded.

Make sure the value of the clothing sliders are high enough to show all of the tattoo.

Click ‘Save as’ and give your “tattoo-top” a name - and remember it.

The “tattoo-clothing” will be located in the ‘Clothing-folder’. Right-click to wear it - and that’s it!

Tjingeling!

Tutorials by Subject

Updated: October 2008