Frankensteining Mesh to Add Shoes w/Alpha Layer

[mocha0030]

I'm trying to add different shoes to a dress mesh. The catch is the shoes have an alpha layer. The bottom portion of the shoes are normal, but the top of the shoe is alpha editable. When I imported the dress, and shoes into MilkShape I had three groups: body (dress), body (shoes) and body_alpha (shoes). After editing the meshes, I combined the dress and shoes groups and left the body_alpha group (for the shoes) separate. At this point, I'm stuck because I don't know how to create the texture for the body_alpha group. The UV maps were present in MilkShape, so I'm assuming there was something additional I was supposed to do in SimPE? The outfit looks like this in bodyshop:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/tt82/mocha_0030/tutorials/shoehelp.jpg

I'm only able to recolor the dress and bottom of the shoes, because I don't have the textures files for the alpha editable top part of the shoe. What steps am I missing? I know I should have gone with simpler shoes and my mesh would be working :rolleyes: , but now that I've gotten this far, I want to finish. Please help. :help:

[StarboardParoxysm]

Why not just combine the body_alpha layer with the body layer? You may have to alter the mapping for the top of the shoes a little bit to find it a place to fit (I don't know how they mapped it originally) and of course double-check your comments as it might mess 'em up with combining.

Then you can just make the top of the shoes solid. Your mesh won't be as versatile as the original with the alpha-editing, but I'm sure with the right textures and detailing, you can make it look great. :)

[mocha0030]

i'm ok with combining everything and making the top solid. i'll work the mapping out. there are enough tutorials here to get that part. what would i have to do with the comments? copy them from the body layer and replace them if it gets screwed up after combining everything?

thanks so much for the help and quick response. :D

[StarboardParoxysm]

Just copy the comments from the "body" group before combining. After you combine, it might just stick the "body_alpha" comments on the end, so you can just select all the comments and paste back just the "body" ones.

[mocha0030]

ok. thank you for the help and the GREAT tutorials. this is my first time working with a clothing mesh, but everything was explained so thoroughly that i have a pretty good understanding of it. i just happened to bite off a little more than i could chew this time around. LOL

[mocha0030]

just wanted to report back that i got it to work. thank you!

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/tt82/mocha_0030/tutorials/rioshoes.jpg