FilterCam Tutorial: Using Photoshop to Make Your Own Filters

If you don’t already know, FilterCam is a revolutionary in-world photography HUD created by my dear, dear friend CodeBastard Redgrave. With this HUD, you are able to apply various effects to your snapshots with just a few clicks of a menu button. And not only that… you can also create your OWN effects by making your own filters for the FilterCam! That’s what this blog is about today. How do you make your own filters? I’m glad you asked. ;)

The first thing you need to ask yourself is are you making a standard screen or a widescreen filter? The difference is not huge, but it can be significant to those of you with a touch of OCD (like me). For example… this picture was taken using a widescreen monitor resolution, while this one was taken in a standard resolution. Notice the difference? One is slightly wider horizontally while the other appears unstretched.

To put it simply… creating FilterCam filters is easy! But start with your basic building block first. For best results, if you are designing filters for a standard monitor screen (1024×768 for example) start with a canvas that is 1024×768 px. For a widescreen filter, begin with 1024×640. Because Second Life has a texture size limit of 1024×1024, the filters will automatically resize once you upload them, however have no fear! The filtercam will display them properly regardless.

Click here to download blank, pre-sized PSD templates (Photoshop files) for the FilterCam: Standard / Widescreen

Now that you have your canvas all sized up and ready to go, let’s get down to the fun stuff! Allow me to walk you through making your very first FilterCam filter. I will be using Photoshop CS3 Extended to show you the ropes, but if you are using an earlier version, I wouldn’t worry… I am fairly certain that many of these steps will remain the same.

1. Either create your own or open one of the pre-sized PSD FilterCam templates (linked above). For the purposes of this tutorial, I will be using the Widescreen template.

2. You should have a blank canvas with no background at all. If there is a background layer (usually plain white), delete it. This is very important. Because the FilterCam displays on a HUD and is meant to add effects to your in-world photography, it is very important to understand that the ONLY thing that should be showing on the filter when you upload it is your intended effect. For example, if you want to create a filter to add blood droplets to your screen, when you upload your filter, the only thing that should be showing is the blood droplets and a transparent (see-through) background – no white or black backgrounds, nothing else but the blood droplets. This will allow you to still see your avatar and in-world surroundings while still applying the FilterCam effects to your screen. Example here: Notice the three effects displaying on this image. The blood, the scanlines (horizontal lines across the screen) and the cinema screen (the large black bars on the top and bottom of the image). All three of these effects are individual FilterCam filters which you can apply to your HUD to create snapshots such as these.

3. Let’s make a bubble screen! Download and load these brushes into your Photoshop brush palette. Once you have them loaded, choose any brush and begin painting on your canvas. It can look however you want it too… it is your filter, after all!

4. Once you are done painting, make sure you have the layer you’ve painted on selected in the layers list. In your Photoshop client menu, press Select > Load Selection. This will select all of the bubbles you’ve painted onto this layer at once.

5. Select the Channels tab next to the Layers tab. There is a button at the bottom of this that looks a bit like a post-it note which says “Save Selection As Channel”. Making sure that your bubbles are still selected, click this button. This will add an alpha mask called Alpha 1 to your list (an alpha mask will let the file you save when we’re done know what you DO want to show in the image you save and what you don’t — in this case, the alpha mask is saying “Show the bubbles, but nothing else”).

6. Once you have done this, pat yourself on the back! You have created your first FilterCam filter. Now to save it properly.

7. To save your filter in a format that Second Life will be able to render properly, select File > Save As. From the Format dropdown menu at the bottom, select the TGA file extension option and hit Save. A window (”Targa Options”) will pop up, asking what resolution you would like to save your file in. Select 32 bits/pixel (you MUST select 32 bits/pixel in order for the Alpha mask to properly save).

8. Once you have saved the file, upload it to Second Life and add it to your FilterCam!

Once you have the basics down, you are free to create all sorts of FilterCam filters for yourself and to share with others via the FilterCam group on Flickr. Check it out for all sorts of neat things you can do with the FilterCam, post your own FilterCam filters, and check out the FilterCam contest!