RGB Theta- Photoshop plug-in for SL “Fake Bake”

In February of 2010 the official Second Life Forums flicked a switch and moved over to a new fomat. I have edited the links to point to the archives, hopefully you can still follow along. 🙂

Somewhere deep down in the official forum archives you can find this absolute GEM of a filter for Photoshop. BUT- to save you the effort of finding that post (it’s not the easiest thing to find), I’m just going to post the jist of it here. The original thread for this dates back to December of 2006 O.o … WHY this wasn’t stickied I have no idea!

So… what the heck is “RGB Theta”, and what can you do with it? Short answer is- you can FAKE the BAKING process which you would normally need a 3D application for. It allows you to render a lighting effect based around the 3 dimensional avatar figure (or any normal map) WITHIN Photoshop.

All you need is Abu Nasu’s nifty lil plugin, and Chip’s Normal Maps and you are ready to start “baking”.

Sexy advert for where you can find the before and after bodysuits (male and female) if you want to run around looking like a spaceman. Image links to SLurl.

Read on after the cut for more information, as well as links to where you can find these goodies.

This is the thread where it all began… READ THIS. Basically Chip Midnight put up a stack of topography guides of both male and female for us to use. Fantastic by itself, but it starts to get VERY interest by post number 13, and just snowballs from there 😉 . (This is now an archived thread. The information is still available, but without the attachments it may be a bit difficult to follow.)

What evolved from the original post is this super nifty PS plug-in. Credits go to Abu for making the plug-in available for us to use, as well as Chip for his Normal Maps of both the male and female avatars.

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You will need:

RGB Theta Filter for PS:  As far as I know it’s for PC only. Sorry to Mac and Linux users.

Chip’s Normal Maps: Sadly, these didn’t survive the migration to the archives so “Claire’s Normal Maps” from the link below. Single post from the SL forums. Male and female normal maps as a single image (you’ll have to chop them up once you’re done “baking”). Having them as a single image means the “baking” is exactly the same on all pieces of the template- YAY!!!

Claire’s Normal Maps: This link will take you to mediafire where you can download a PSD with both male and female normal maps. The resolution is 1024×3072 and will still need to be split when you’re done. 3D modeling and rendering isn’t one of my greatest strengths but it gets the job done. These were added on April 7th 2010 because the original forum attachments didn’t survive the migration to the archive.

Install the plug-in (duh!), then open one of Chips Normal Maps in Photoshop. For the bulk of my screen-shots I’m using the female map… cuz she has boobs *giggles*. The boobies are GREAT for showing off how cool this plug-in works. Well… that’s my excuse and I am sticking to it!

Go to Filters >>> TechSlop >>> RGB Theta… and mess around with the settings!

Something to note: The filter only has a single light source, so… you might want to make a front, and a back. These are the settings I have saved so I can load them again and again.

Duplicate the layer to a new document, undo the changes, and then “bake” the normal map again for the opposite light direction.

Duplicate this “bake” into the document we created previously.

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You should have a new working document containing both the layers you just made. Next step is making a “master” template you can use of your creations.

First- change the layer mode! I found that by switching the upper layer to something like “screen” you get to see both the front and back effects in all their glory. You can use lighten, screen, colour dodge, linear dodge and lighter colour- they all produce similar effects. When you’ve found a layer mode you like- simply merge it down to a single layer.

(I’m not sure why my “full screen capture” isn’t capturing the full screen… Sorry if the shots are missing any important info!).

I have two “master” images saved somewhere safe in my “SL work” folder. I have one for male, and one for female. They have been saved *as is* for backup reasons (I tend to work destructively… and yes, I get lectured on my methods constantly lol). ANYWHO- save what you have done as a master file, and duplicate the merged layer once again in to a new document. We’re going to slice it up now so we can make use of it all.

From the original layer, go to: Image >>> Canvas Size >>> 512 x 512 (for the newer normal maps, the canvas size should be 1024×1024) and change the anchor point. This will crop your canvas to head, then torso, then legs. You will have to undo your changes to get the “master file” back, but it’s better than doing it by hand (crop tool and cursor).

Yayyyyy!!!! Now you just need to put these layers in to your OWN master files (Chips. Robins LL standard- whatever your weapon of choice).

To use them:

Change the blend mode to something like “multiply” or “overlay”, drop the opacity to suit your style and BAM. FULL BODY HIGHLIGHTS AND SHADING!!! Play with a layer blend mode to suit your particular design.

Ok, ok, ok… I do need to point out one “bummer”… but it has NOTHING to do with Chip’s jpegs or Abu’s filter… it’s got to do with the PAIN-IN-THE-ARSE template we use for SL.

We only have access to ONE arm, and ONE foot. *grumbles about stupid av mesh some more under her breath*… To be exact (after i looked again at the template lol) we have a right arm, and a left foot- WTF is up with that??!

So… you will have to tweak your outcomes for it to be SEAMLESS. The right hand side of the shoulder (where the arm joins on to the torso) will have to be duplicated/copied over to the left hand side and blended in.

If you’re making socks or stockings or even skins, you will need to duplicate or copy the lower half of the left leg over to the right leg, if you want it to be seamless at the ankle.

STUPID STUPID AV MESH! ROFLOL! They certainly don’t make it easy for us! 😉

Okie dokie- that’s my very general guide on how to use the TechSlop “RGB Theta” filter with Chips Normal Maps. No more talking from now- but I am jamming a bunch images up for NON Photoshop users to play with. I’m posting the original 512×1536 unedited master files first. Then the head, torso and legs for both male and female- all cut up, with the shoulder and foot seams already fixed. 🙂 ENJOY!!!

** CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO GET THE FULL SIZE!!! **

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Female 512’s

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Male 512’s

Repeated from above for those of you who might have missed it.

Claire’s Normal Maps: This link will take you to mediafire where you can download a PSD with both male and female normal maps. The resolution is 1024×3072 and will still need to be split when you’re done. 3D modeling and rendering isn’t one of my greatest strengths but it gets the job done. These were added on April 7th 2010 because the original forum attachments didn’t survive the migration to the archive.

Woot! That’s me finished for the day! CIAO FOR NOW!!! 🙂