strangetomato | Strangetown: Ripp's new hair. I did it myself!

Thank you to everyone who offered suggestions to my hair mesh problem, and particularly those who gave me a nudge to open up Bodyshop and give it a whirl myself.

music_simbol suggested this mesh, which was more or less the same basic shape as the Maxis ponytail, but about half as long. Then she insisted that switching up the textures would be super easy to do, and it really was! Recolouring isn't hard, especially when it is a basic cut and paste job like this one was (and changing the hue would be easy too, I imagine). I could do that again, no problem. Thanks, Music Simbol! You rock.

Want to see how it looks?

Ripp: Yessir! Looks about the same from the front, but how about the back?

Ripp: Yeah, that's more like it. Still slightly longer than it would be, but pretty darn close. (And it's longer than a fucking dork knob, thankyouverymuch!)

Ripp: Damn, I look good. Oh yeah... and the hair looks pretty fucking sweet too. If, you know, I actually wanted to tidy up for some reason. Pffft. Whatever.

As you can see, the mesh isn't perfect (some of the animation is a little wonky too - revealing other oddities), but I can easily work around that when taking the photos. I'm so pleased that this worked out.

But why would Ripp want or need to put his hair up? Hmmm... Is he trying to give off a good impression? But why?

The answer will be revealed in the next chapter.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

LOL! What a great expression! Hee. I can't wait to see what you have in store for him -- who, or what, he's cleaning up for.

Stubble on top of the shaving cream really adds to the texture. The bristles would poke out like that, wouldn't they? I knew beards on top of shaving cream would look dumb, but the stubble works.

I'll have to go back and look at Frances' mother again.

Hmm, recolors... there's a mesh or two I'd like to work on, myself... NO! I have no time! :p

I've always loved those whiny reactions. Ripp does it all of the time, since he's too lazy or sloppy to want to do most things (in this case, he was directed to "gussy up").

I really like how it looks with the stubble poking through like that too. I can see how it wouldn't work for beards, though.

I did a couple of clothing recolours after posting this, but I do need to figure out how to select certain areas of the colour separately, to be more precise. I'm not very knowledgeable about using photo editing software that way, but I'm sure I can learn how to do it.

In Photoshop you could use masks to select certain areas. Does Gimp have masks?

Oh, man. I just googled on "gimp mask" and discovered a strange aspect of BDSM that I *really* didn't want to know about... gaaaahhh.

But I found this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=KTMe7UKq_UE

So yeah, Gimp has layer mask capabilities. Cool. I know masks are one way to select areas. But I am not very skilled with masks, myself. I usually use one of the selection tools, usually the one that's called the Polygonal Lasso in Pshop. It lets you click from point to point to make a selection. I usually zoom in pretty close, too. It makes it easier.

Wow, yeah. I know what "gimp mask" probably brought up. Not exactly what you wanted to see. o_O

I'm not very skilled with masking or even selecting areas, but it's something to work on. I tried to work with selecting an area, and ended up freezing up the entire program (hopefully, that was just a random thing). Thanks for the link! I'll check it out.

There is a Polygonal Lasso tool in GIMP too (it has most of the same basic features, if not the more advanced ones), and I have used that before, so that might be a good option.

If I just had a couple of tubes of paint front of me, this would be so much easier. :P

I don't know how useful that particular link is, now that I've watched it to the end. S/he doesn't show what to do once you have the area masked off. (I also found myself saying to the screen, "Now that you've gotten the edges, dude, get a bigger brush to mask out the interior! It'll go faster!" LOL.) But there are lots of tutorials out there, I'm sure you can find useful ones. :)

Have you ever been to the Worth1000 site?
http://www.worth1000.com/tutorials.asp

If I just had a couple of tubes of paint front of me, this would be so much easier. :P

I envy that! I dabble with painting but I am NOT good at it. What media do you use?

No, I haven't been to Worth1000. As I said, I'm not too immersed in Photoshop and its ilk, though I did one digital art course, which focused on that and Illustrator (to say that I just skimmed the surface of those programs would be putting it lightly). It looks like there are a lot of good tutorials there, if a bit advanced for me.

I just found some GIMP specific tutorials for clothing recolours on MTS2, so that might be a good place for me to start.

I haven't done a whole lot of painting either (drawing, photography, and printmaking is where I focused most of my attention), but I do have a good grasp on how to mix colour. Even colour balance in photography would be better, but the way computers do it is different altogether. At least I understand hue, saturation, and lightness, and what they do, but I still have to figure out how to work all the dials a little better.

As for painting media, I have worked in oil, acrylic, and watercolour. Oil is my favourite, but since I no longer have studio space, I don't do it anymore. It's really not safe to do it in your house, though I know many people that do. (Even acrylic is dangerous. Just because you don't smell it as much, doesn't mean the chemicals aren't getting to you.)

That's one major benefit if working digitally. The fumes and chemicals with not get to you. (That's also one of the reasons that I don't do so much printmaking anymore either. I've had some severe reactions.)

Oh good, I'm glad you found some MTS2 tuts. That will be a big help.

I am not great with color mixing, though I'm sure with practice and experience I could get by. That, and just learning to paint better, have been on my back burner. I have oils and acrylics but like you, I don't have a place to work with them... no place but at home. I could stick a fan in the window when the weather gets warmer, I guess.

Working digitally, you don't get the fumes, but you have to be careful about eyestrain and stress to your wrists and stuff. I have to take really frequent breaks (when I remember to). Right now, with my new lens in my glasses, I'm also having a hard time getting the focus right to do anything on my computer. I'll adjust to it, but it's a pain at the moment. :p

You really should consider using a respirator, even with the window open. I have done it with and without, and you can feel very sick after painting without a respirator on. It's just not a good idea.

That's so true. There are potential dangers in working with a computer also, especially for your eyes and wrists. Anything can be dangerous if you aren't smart about it.

Strangetown: Ripp's new hair. I did it myself!

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