creating 3d seam7contour

[telefen]

:heyhey: I'm still learning at a slow&steady pace. yesterday I created my first alpha swimsuit using another mesh with proper groups in simpe since i haven't learn that part yet. I created a mesh by duplicating all the faces from neck down to about two inches over the thighs with two alpha groups W/right comments& so on.. It was a challenge& with proper bump mapping it works like a seconed skin about 3millimeter from the body following all the vertices &their bone assignment corectly. wow. :gjob: However, I wish to go further & learn how to make my mesh follow the swimsuit cotour like.I would think that I must have an image to play with to beginn. Question 1: how do I get one of the files showing the swimsuit front&then the back into milkshake. The question 2: the difficult on. I wanna be able to cut the mesh for example to the thigh opening or neck &over the shoulder straps. How do I create a seam/contour around that opening &delete the remaining extra vertices/faces. I wanna eccentuate all the countour of this swimsuit to add more 3D realism. You follow me?. Please help,I'll be very gratfull.

[fakepeeps7]

1. You can import the texture files in MilkShape under the "Materials" tab. This is covered in one of the tutorials, I think.

2. Why would you want to cut up your alpha mesh? Then it will be less versatile. Whether you cut out the neck and leg holes on the mesh or not, if you adjust the alpha texture in Photoshop then your swimsuit will still appear to be floating just above the body. If you leave it as it is, then you have more options for making your edges fancy (scallops or lace or ragged edges... or whatever you like).

If you want to make the swimsuit actually 3D, then you don't need an alpha mesh. You just need a regular mesh that is slightly raised from the rest of the body... and that would be way more work than it's worth, really.

[telefen]

1. You can import the texture files in MilkShape under the "Materials" tab. This is covered in one of the tutorials, I think.

2. Why would you want to cut up your alpha mesh? Then it will be less versatile. Whether you cut out the neck and leg holes on the mesh or not, if you adjust the alpha texture in Photoshop then your swimsuit will still appear to be floating just above the body. If you leave it as it is, then you have more options for making your edges fancy (scallops or lace or ragged edges... or whatever you like).

If you want to make the swimsuit actually 3D, then you don't need an alpha mesh. You just need a regular mesh that is slightly raised from the rest of the body... and that would be way more work than it's worth, really. Thanks fakepeeps7. As the first issue I'm not really sure cause, I tried once to load an image from a BS recolor &the milkshake crashed that's why I wanted a little guidence. I wanted to cut the mesh for a number of reasons. 1st,I really wanna have an alpha mesh to work with. maxis doll like meshes with one piece mesh just doesn't do anything to game realism & i find very boring to look at. I don't have much clothes in my game but want to have a few quality alpha outfits that's why I'm keen in learning to do these contours where one can still see a body underneath it. It simply looks more realistic & that's my goal.2nd reason: I wanna make lot's of swimsuits recolor & keep that mesh minmal in poly size but the main reason still is the same which is that I wanna badly make those contours at the openings.

[fakepeeps7]

But you don't need to make the contours at the openings. That's the whole point of an alpha mesh. You can get the same effect without having to chop up your mesh. And if you want to keep your file size down, leaving things as-is is probably the best option. More contours on the mesh will mean more polys, especially if you want a nice, smooth curve.

Do you have a picture of what you're trying to do?

[telefen]

But you don't need to make the contours at the openings. That's the whole point of an alpha mesh. You can get the same effect without having to chop up your mesh. And if you want to keep your file size down, leaving things as-is is probably the best option. More contours on the mesh will mean more polys, especially if you want a nice, smooth curve.

Do you have a picture of what you're trying to do? I realize now that it I'm not getting the answer I want. But thanks anyway. It would probably be a lots of work & more polygons like you said which I don't really mind since, I have very few downloads. I'll just have to wait to see if someday sombody write a good tutorial on the subject. :)