Second Life Fashion Design Tips - Where To Get Started

Designing fashion for Second Life can be a daunting prospects. Lots of residents spend lots of lindens on Second Life clothes, and a sure way to make money is to do the same. The great thing about designing SL fashion is that you can sell the same item multiple times. In fact, you can sell it as many times as you want.

The only tough part is getting started. If you are not a programmer, designer or familiar with photo-editing, you aren't going to feel comfortable, and you won't know where to get started. But don't worry, we've come up with three easy steps you can take to start you on your way to becoming a true fashionista.

STEP 1: MASTER THE IN-GAME FASHION DESIGNER: The first step in becoming a fashion designer in SL is to get used to the in-game fashion designer. Open the appearance tool (either through the top-menu or by right-clicking on your avatar) and you can edit a multitude of different factors of your avatar's appearance. To change clothing, or design new ones, you'll need to get familiar with the texture and color menu's. Once you get comfortable with the in-game designer, you can move on to the next step.

STEP 2: GET PHOTO-EDITING: To move past the simple designs you can make through the appearance editor, you'll need to get some photo-editing software. Though many of these programs can run $300 or more, we've found an alternative that is just as good. If you want to start designing fashion seriously, you'll need The GIMP. (http://www.gimp.org/). This freeware is just as good as the commercial software out there, and there is a very active and helpful community of Gimp users that can help you. Download Gimp and learn how to use some of the features. After you do this, you are ready to move on

STEP 3: GET TEMPLATES: To use Gimp (or other photo-editing software) to design clothes for SL, you'll need some templates. A template is simply a 3-D rendering that can be laid over an avatar. With a template, you can design skins, tattoo's and clothes. To start off with, you should download Robin Wood's t-shirt template. (http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLTutSet.html) This will allow you to create your very first template design: a t-shirt. The template itself is very well done, and by using layers and masks, Robin Wood has created one of the best SL Fashion aides around. Use it.

Of course, there is a lot more to fashion design than what we've told you about. (We've created an excellent fashion design guide which you can find on our website. Just click on the link below.) You can spend a lot of time learning how to create fashions, but in the end, what you want is up to you. Designing clothes for SL residents is not difficult, but it does take knowledge and practice. If you can get as far as step three, you will be ahead of 90% of everyone else in the game.