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Paint Shop Pro Sculptie Guide

This guide is to help sculptie-creators using Paint Shop Pro to directly manipulate their sculpt maps. If you're using a different application, try one of the following guides:

Photoshop
Photoshop Elements
The GIMP

This guide is not meant to teach you how to make awesome textures for your sculpts. If you're looking for something like that, you will have to search elsewhere.

These methods were tested in the trial version of Paint Shop Pro X2, however, I remember enough about my old copy of PSP 5 that I'm pretty sure not much of this has changed inbetween.

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Go to Image > Split Channel > Split to RGB

Select one of the channel images (I usually use Blue). From the menu, select Image > Negative Image to invert the channel.

Go to Image > Combine Channel > Combine from RGB. Make sure the images used for the combining match the channel images for your sculpt map. Hit Okay.

Go to Image > Mirror

Save your mirrored sculpt map.

Mirroring

Paint Shop Pro's channel editing is a little convoluted, in my opinion. You can't edit the channels directly, but instead must seperate the channels into individual images, then edit, then recombine. But... at least you CAN edit channels, so it works for mirroring.

Open your sculpt map in Paint Shop Pro. Go to the top menu and select Image > Split Channel > Split to RGB (Colors > Channel Splitting >Split to RGB in earlier versions).

You should now have four seperate images. Your original sculpt map, and three greyscale representations of each color channel.

Select one of the color channel images. Remember that Red = X axis, Green = Y, and Blue = Z. I usually use blue, as that's the axis that my scripted mirror uses.

Now go to Image > Negative Image to invert the channel, making black into white, white into black, etc.

Blue channel after inverting.

Now go to Image > Combine Channel > Combine from RGB. PSP will present you with a dialog so you can choose which images to use for your channel information. Unless you have multiple channel images open, the dialog should have the correct images selected by default. Hit Okay.

The last thing you need to do is mirror the entire image, otherwise your sculpt will turn out inside-out. Go to Image > Mirror to do this.

You're done! Upload the new mirrored sculpt map into Second Life.

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PNG Format:
Change the opacity of the background layer to 2. Save in PNG format

TGA format:
Select a small portion of your image with one of PSP's selection tools.

Go to Selections > Load/Save Selections > Save Selection as Alpha Channel. Hit Save on the dialog that comes up.

Save in TGA format.

Alpha Protection

To add alpha protection to your sculpt map in Paint Shop Pro, you can use either PNG or TGA. How you do this is dependant on which file format you choose.

PNG Format

Unlike Photoshop, the PNG method is actually easier to do than the TGA. However, still keep in mind that completely transparent pixels in a PNG file typically aren't saved with their original color information.

Open your sculpt map, then find the Layers palette on the right. Near the top, there's an opacity slider for your background layer. slide the opacity down to 2 (NOT 0!). (When you do this, your background layer will be changed to "Raster 1" or something similar.)

Now all you have to do is resave your sculpt map in PNG format. Upload into Second Life.

TGA Format

Typically, in Photoshop, I like working with TGA alpha channels, just because you can retain all the color information in your image, even when pixels are completely transparent. The problem is that, in PSP, I have yet to find an easy way of viewing the alpha channel once one has been created, which makes things frustrating.

However, if you'd still like to use the TGA file format, here's how.

Open your sculpt map. In order for this method to work, you need to select at least one pixel in your image. Do this however you want. The area you select will be visible in SL, so don't select everything.

Next, go to the top menu and click on Selections > Load/Save Selection > Save Selection to Alpha Channel. PSP will give you a dialog, but the default settings should be fine. Hit Save.

Now go to File > Save As and save the sculpt map in TrueVision Targe (TGA) format. You may get a warning about only saving one alpha channel. Click Okay.

Now upload the sculpt map into Second Life. Part of the sculpt map will still be visible (the area you selected), but it won't be enough information for anyone to steal your sculpt by the screenshot method.

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Remember to play around with what you've learned. Experiment. Be adventurous. Make mistakes.
Nothing in Blender is precious.

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