Alpha-Editting (I think?): Hair Pattern Edit Repeating [Solved]

[Kekia]

Hey guys~

My first question lies within the title: is the black-and-white region that is untextured and comes with every colored region called the alpha? I figure it would make sense, seeing as the word "alpha" is in the file names...

And now to my real (and more important) question! :D
I am currently working on a Toph Sim for my Gaang Family. I've downloaded this hair from Flora on XM Sims 2 (on bottom of page):
http://www.xmsims.com/sims2/ehtm/hair/hair48.htm

Now, I've been editting the headband part of the mesh in Photoshop to make it look more like Toph's headband:
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/8600000/Toph-toph-8671453-418-575.jpg

However, I am having trouble with editting the alpha part of the headband.

This is the picture of the headband so far:
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk115/TheFlamingDanish/TophHairQuestion.png
And here's a picture of the Photoshop project (alpha + colored):
http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk115/TheFlamingDanish/TophHairQuestion2.png

Using the alpha, I have shaped the headband to make it curved and come to a point at the Sim's ears. I have also been trying to get rid of the back of the headband, but have obviously been unsuccessful so far. ^^;; Whenever I try to edit the small strip of alpha headband, the edit I make ends up happening to another piece of the headband as well, making the whole thing just look awful. D:

My question is: how can I get rid of the back of the headband without effecting any other part of the it? Also, I've noticed that, when recoloring hair, the edit one makes will repeat itself throughout the hair. Is there a way to prevent this?

Thanks for your time, everyone!

(I would like to apologize if this thread has already been asked and/or answered somewhere else. I have looked through many threads and tutorials on recoloring and texturizing hair and clothes but have emerged empty-handed. I only posted this because I could not find any threads or posts that dealed with this specific problem. Again, I apologize if this thread is a repost and if I caused any annoyance. It was definitely not the intention.)

[CatOfEvilGenius]

Yes, the black/white image BodyShop makes is the alpha channel of the texture, while the colored part is the RGB channels (red, green, blue).

It sounds like the headband and hair are UV mapped in such a way that several parts of the mesh use the same piece of texture. This is not uncommon in hair meshes. If this is the case, you cannot do what you propose unless you change the UV mapping. That means changing the mesh itself, not just the texture.

If the front/back of the headband share UV mapping, your project can't be done just with texture.
However, if the left/right sides of the headband share UV mapping, your project can be done!
Just black out half the headband alpha.

I recommend reading the meshing and UV mapping tutorials.


No need to apologize for anything. You asked in the right place, and they were good questions. We used to have forum search, but that got disabled, so it would be really tough for you to look through pages and pages of old threads, so don't worry about it being asked before.

[Kekia]

Thank you so much for being so understanding and nice! This has really helped clear up alot of things! I will definitely go try that, and read up on the meshing and UV mapping tutorials. Thanks again for your kind help! C: