How to Use Our Mesh Mannequins 2.0

There are several textures included in the package. These are sample mannequin skin and human skin as well as an eye texture. You are free to create your own, of course, but these will get you started.

Find these textures in your inventory and right click each one to save it to your computer. You do not have to save the eye texture to your computer as it will simply be used as is.

Please note where you are saving them to so you'll be able to find them again!

You may use any graphic software that you wish as long as it allows you to use layers. GIMP is free so I will use it to demonstrate.

Open one of the textures in GIMP. Then under the File menu, choose Open as layers to import the rest of the textures on their own layers in your file. Save this file as either a PSD or as an XCF format (keeps your layer information). This is your master file.

The textures are sized 512 X 512 pixels as that is the optimal size you should be importing your textures at in SL. In the next step, you want to import your textures into this file at the same size.

Now choose Open as layers again (under the File menu) and find the texture files that you created to upload to Second Life. I'm using clothing textures as an example but you can use skins, tattoos, make-up, etc. In fact, you can also use all of these together so bring them all in.

Once they all appear in their own layers (they need to be 512 X 512), you are ready to create your head, upper, and lower body textures.

In this step, you will need to only show the layers that you want to see on the mannequin. Let's begin with the upper body. You want to make sure that your base texture (skin or mannequin skin) is the lowest layer showing and then move each layer above the base in the order that you want it to appear. For example, you would place a bra layer above the skin, then the open sweater above that. A tattoo would go below the bra layer.

Once you are happy with what you see, save this image as a jpg. Note: Textures with an alpha layer do not look right when applied to the mannequin.

You will then hide all of those layers and follow the same steps to create your head and lower textures.

Upload the three textures you created into Second Life. Follow the same steps you normally follow to upload any textures.

Right click the mannequin to enter Edit mode. Select the Texture tab. Choose the Select a Face option and then touch the leg (lower part) on the mannequin. Drag the texture you created for the lower part into the texture window and release it. Once the texture loads you will be able to see it on the mannequin. Alternately, you can click the texture window to search your inventory for the texture if you didn't already have it ready to drag from your inventory window.

Repeat this step for the upper body, the head, and the eyes.