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Skinning tips and tuts

Started by the_ultimate_evil, March 31, 2007, 03:40:40 PM

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the_ultimate_evil

the old thread seems to have been lost in the reboot, so how about we start this again. anyone got the old tuts saved

any chance of a sticky mods


UnkoMan

I had a couple for logos and seams on a few places but... I think they might actually be long gone now. I can look for them on my harddrive if anybody is interested.

Alphanaut

Yeah, those tuts were really helpful, especially C6's one on how to do the extras for Vertex's speedster meshes.

Unko, I'm pretty shure your tuts are on the wiki?

UnkoMan

Oh, thanks Alpha. The logo one is there. I don't see the seams, but I'll add that soon.

Those are all here by the way:
http://frworld.wikispaces.com/Tutorials

Previsionary


Deaths Jester

I've got two pages of the old tut/tip thread....give me some time and I'll whack 'em down to just the tips/tuts without all the other loss comments.

Deaths Jester

Okay...'eres a few of what used to be posted on the old Skinning Tutorial topic.  I've got more, I juest need to find them.

Courtnall6's Chainlink Tutorial

Steps:

1) I make a new layer called \"O-Link\". I use the lasso tool to make a 1/4 of the chain link.

2) I fill the selection with a light grey.

3) Copy and flip the selection horizontally.

4) Copy and flip \"U\" link vertically.

5) I take a darker shade of grey and airbrush shade according to my light source. Directly above in this case. This could also be done using bevel and emboss to save time.

6) Now I airbrush white highlights and smooth them out with the smudge tool.

7) Now I create a new layer called \"I-Link\" and make a slim rectangle of equal height as the O-Link. Then fill with the dark grey shade used earlier.

8) I take the airbrush and spray a light grey line inside the I-Link.

9) I make another smaller white line inside the light grey one.

10) I move the I-Link to where I think it would fit over the O-Link.

11) Now I go back to the O-Link layer, copy and slide the O-Link to where it would fit along the chain.

12) I go back to the I-link layer and do the same.

13) I continue this process until I reach my desired chain length.

14) On the O-Link layer I select and inverse the O-Links.

15) Using the airbrush with a darker shade of grey than before, I make a line along the I-Link. Only where the I-Link covers the O-Link.

16) Finally I merge the two layers and I'm ready to go





Courtnall6's Hair I & Goatie Tutorial

Tutorial for skinning hair Part 1:

1) I start by outlining my hair design with the lasso tool. It's slicked back for this tutorial since it is the easiest  code  .

2) Now I fill the outline with a colour ( in this case brown ).

3) Using the airbrush tool I spray the lower part of the hair with a dark shade of the base colour ( I use black when doing brown hair ).

4) Using the airbrush tool again I spray a line just above the darker shade with a light highlight of the base colour.

5) Another spray with the same highlight colour along the top of the head.

6) Here's the fun part  code  . I select the smudge tool at 5 pixels and at 70% pressure. Then I start making strokes where I think the hair would flow. I made a few strokes to show you what I mean.

7) I continue to smudge strokes all over the hair again trying to keep with the direction the hair would flow.

8) Now I copy and flip the hair over to the other side and we're done  code  .


Let's add a goatie to our friend here. I'm sure Auridian will appreciate it   

9) Facial hair is done the exact same way as above. I start with an outline of the goat using the lasso tool.

10) Fill outline

11) Spray a dark shade of the base colour along the bottom of the goat and under the moustache.

12) Spray the highlight of the base colour along the top of the moustache and just above the dark shade along the bottom of the goat.

13) Select the smudge tool again but a 2 pixels and again at 70% pressure. Make some more smudge strokes along the flow of the beard.

14) Use smudge strokes all over the beard like the hair above.

15) I had some access pixels on the side of my beard so I just select and delete.

16) Copy and flip the goat over to the other side and he's done  code 

17) Here's a head shot of the final look in the CT.





Courtnall6's Hair II Tutorial

1) I use the lasso tool to outline the style I want.

2) Fill outline.

3) Airbrush darker shade of base colour.

4) Add highlight of base colour above dark shade and on top of head.

5) In the case of Blonde hair I often add a thin white line along the lower highlight.

6) Using the smudge tool at 5 pixels and 70% pressure I make a series of smudge strokes following the flow of the hair.

7) Now I select the back end of the hair.

8) I copy and flip the selected section of hair so that the hair meets up neatly along the back of the head.

9) Using the lasso tool again I fill the gap between the sections of hair.

10) Fill outline.

11) I airbrush the new section similar to what was done above.

12) I then select and inverse the hair piece.

13) Back to the smudge tool I continue to make smudge strokes and blend the 2 pieces together.

14) On an new layer below the hair I add shade to give it a 3 Dimensional look.

15) The hair completed in the CT.


GhostMachine

I can recreated my quick faux-denim tutorial if anyone is interested.


catwhowalksbyhimself

Just a reminder to everyone to put these things one the wiki.  The more, the better.

BatWing

this is great tutorials :D

what about faces?

the_ultimate_evil

cheers to ever did the sticky

Night Dragon

Quote from: the_ultimate_evil on April 10, 2007, 03:28:03 AM
cheers to ever did the sticky

Maybe now you'll stop trying to skin me for a pair of boots. ;)

the_ultimate_evil


ow_tiobe_sb

I know I have your face tutorial, ips ("blobs of light," etc. :)).  I'll check my home computer tonight.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and The Prat in the Hat

BatWing


Tomato


ow_tiobe_sb

Quote from: ips on August 08, 2007, 02:15:41 PM
Quote from: ow_tiobe_sb on April 26, 2007, 08:44:40 AM
I know I have your face tutorial, ips ("blobs of light," etc. :)).  I'll check my home computer tonight.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and The Prat in the Hat

tks ots =) - can't find it... just the pics
Hrm...only a few months late on this task. :oops:

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Tutorial Archivist

---------------------------------------------------------------------
ips's face tutorial

this is a cross post i put in the skinning tips thread...

good luck.

Quote from: House Quake
Faces and Expressions:

This is a general tip based on observations and definately not a obsolute rule.

It is very hard to give a short tutorial on how to make faces in an imaging program. This aspect just about as much as creating musculature and such (ie base skins) truly is an aspect determined on the artist's own actual level of training and skill. Some of us have actually gone through some level of formal instruction or have been self taught in honing our own talents.

The suggestion i have for those whom have not had prior experience with rendering faces is seek proffesional help  :o


in response to this... not that i'm a professional help type but hey...

a face tutorial: from the base up.

Introduction: to be a clone or stand on ur own, that is the question.

do you want your skin to look like everyone else's? maybe, but probably not. and this is for those probably not people. i approach my skinning very much from that perspective. anyone that is familiar with my work most likely will tell u i pay much attention to detail and i tend to be a perfectionist (or try to be) but once that all comes together i can usually come up with a passable final result. faces though are my specialty... i would like to say that is where i shine, so that's what i'll be covering here.

you will need adobe photoshop or something comparable. this tutorial should be non-specific enough to not matter though. but whatever u use... u must be able to use LAYERS. sorry no way around it. you will also need to have REFERENCE work to look back and forth to ... making it up on the fly is the worst way to go and the biggest time waster. don't sit down infront of the computer unless u know exactly what your game plan is. otherwise u'll waste ur time starting blankly at the screen not knowing what to do next. if u reach a point where u get lost and lose ur plan... that's when u know it's time to take a break (like i mention later in this document). fig. 0 is my inspiration piece and reference material.

in terms of skinning there are many ways to define your work as your own and show your uniqueness, but it so happens that customizing your character's faces is the absolute easiest way to seperate your skins from other's and begin to develop a distinctive style all of your own. moreso than any other way i can think of. faces are really artistic when it comes down to it so i can only impart my process... finding your own way will be up to each of you that attempt to do this. ;)

no more attack of the clones for you? -- no problem. read on.

fig 0 - the inspiration piece.


step1: starting with a clean slate!

ok we use a base skin to save time. no problem there. but base skins come fit with standard faces created in the base skin artist's unique style nomatter who did it. after that base has been used say 50billion times by that original artist (let alone all the followers and users of that base) it will tend to get tired fast. generic looking to say the least. it has happened to all the most popular base skins and will happen to any in the future. so since we're tackling faces here as a starting point for doing you own work we need to clean the slate of the base skin's face. we won't remove it entirely but all of the essential areas need to go.

fig. 1 depicts this.


i have removed almost all of the pre-existing base face for the nose (optional removal) and edge shadows of the face (chin and sides etc.). removing the nose is optional depending on how brave you are. i tend to edit noses here and there only to a minor degree generally speaking but it depends on the nature of the character. really unsually shaped faces with unique noses of characters will require new noses but most more aestheically pleasing character usually require little nose work. examples of characters that DID need nose work which i did are apocalypse and toad. the time spent there was essential and definately contributed to the overall look and feel of the characters. edge shadows like the chin were left as they are not essential and very basic at the level i've let them remain. they will be added onto anyhow so discard or keep them where u see fit.

once u are done cleaning the slate you can move onto step 2. ;)

step2: blobs of colour people, blobs of colour.

in a thread once i tried to explain my process... it's easier to show you in this here tutorial. once i have a clean slate i turn on my wireframe to judge where my areas will approximately fall. then i select my lasso tool (i don't use any fancy tablets or anything just plain mouse and keyboard). using the lasso tool i begin to select a region which will represent the shadows of my character's face.

the lasso tool can be difficult for some people but patience will pay off, stick with it. rather than select entire regions and get frustrated, select smaller regions. also try drawing your lines a bit at a time adding more to the line as you go. you can do this by alt+clicking and dragging ur mouse. doing this lays down an anchor if u will of ur selection line allowing u to commit to that section of the line and doing the next part. it can take a while this way but when u get fast it's like drawing with a pencil a bit at a time.

when defining my selection i am using my reference image as a guide. i am trying to reproduce the shape of the dark shadows on her face. i must keep in mind her head is tilted on an angle and i'm skinning as though the face was not tilstend and there was no angle. once u've defined ur area with the lasso tool and it is ur active selection i recommend creating a new layer overtop of ur face to work with. this way u never ruin the underlying face and can go back to the beginning if u screw it up enough and hate the progress u have made so far. i know i've been there b4. anyhow, fill your selection area on the new empty layer. it should look much like fig2. a giant selected region... of a blob of colour.



notice the colour i filled with. i chose to use my eyedropper tool to select the colour of the darkest shadow found in those left over chin edges and face shadows. this is done to ensure the colour will blend in pretty easily into the rest of the shadows seeing as they will overlap.

step3: blur baby blur.

fig3 is pretty self explanitory.


so u made ur area... now u blur it. guassian blur is my most frequently used photoshop filter. infact i ONLY use that filter and the sharpen filter occasionally when skinning. i recommend doing the blur somewhere between 3-4. find what works for you though.

once the area is blurred you can really already start to see the shadows take shape and it starts to really make sense. now you can see how well it will blend colour wise and where it is too soft edged or too hard edged. where u will need to soften or not.

step4: working with what you've got.

so you've come this far.. u've got a fuzzy blob of colour and u don't know what to do with it... it's not done is it? hell no.

now the artistic element comes in. you need to go back to your reference picture and start to recreate what you see. using the brush tool you can paint the shadows more or remove them if there is too much of it in a region. switching ur brush mode from normal to clear allows u to clear areas softly with soft pain brush edges instead selecting a hard region and deleting it leaving ugly edges. alternate from normal to clear, painting to removing, respectively to define ur shadows further.

fig4 shows my heavy process of this technique.


you will also notice very light regions. i use the same process here to do highlights on another layer above with my skintone highlight colour. incidentally i use this same process for all of my face parts and skin parts in general. creating a blob which becomes an eye or a costume or whatever.

step5: bringing it all together.

i've skinned in the community for about 3 years now so i've had the opportunity to create blobs which became eyes and lips and such. so i saved these elements which i can use on later skins like in this case. you may not have this luxury... if u do break out your eyes and lips and such if you don't... make some or download "face bits" where you can.

once i've become satisfied (mostly) with my shadows and highlights and how the face is coming together i put in my own face bits. now i get to see how the face will really come together and i begin the process of final edits.

once face bits are in place u can usually see areas u wanna clean up. like in fig 5.


go crazy but keep backups incase u don't like ur changes. this last tuning part is the worst part because u tend to 2nd guess yourself and get lost. just stay focused and take breaks. sometimes step back from the work for a couple days and then coming back will allow u to see what u didn't see b4 and u can move into the finish line of the piece.

sometimes it takes more than 2 days though Wink. find what works for you. i hope this is of some use to people and it's not all terribly obvious advice.

goodluck.

BatWing

yhx dude now i can make faces!!
kudos!

Lunarman

Just so people see it! Sadly, it's a rather unflashy link.


The Five Steps of Skinning, skinning tutorial!
DOWNLOAD

Outcast

Here's a skinning tip link from irrational games.

http://www.irrationalgames.com/modforce/ArtProc/

click on tutorials on the left menu, then choose 6. skinning tips. :)

Though, i think it lacks some details on how to go about each step.

Of course, it assumes you are already familiar with photoshop. :unsure:

Previsionary

Quote from: Outcast on November 30, 2007, 02:02:59 AM
Here's a skinning tip link from irrational games.

http://www.irrationalgames.com/modforce/ArtProc/

click on tutorials on the left menu, then choose 6. skinning tips. :)

Though, i think it lacks some details on how to go about each step.

Of course, it assumes you are already familiar with photoshop. :unsure:


I really don't think this link is necessary at all. It's only been on your game cd, online, and probably on your hard drive (if you were to actually...check) for years. But what do I know?

Outcast

Quote from: Previsionary on November 30, 2007, 10:10:24 AM
I really don't think this link is necessary at all. It's only been on your game cd, online, and probably on your hard drive (if you were to actually...check) for years. But what do I know?

You seem to know a lot IMHO. ^_^  Sorry for the link. :doh: :P

GGiant

Can anyone give tips on how to make "pants"?

Dr. Kraken

Anyone remember that free program you can use for skinning? Alot of my programs disappeared and I think I may wanna try a skin or two.

Carravaggio

Gimp, maybe?
I think there is a free legal version of Photoshop Pro available for download. Maybe this question would get better responses in the freeware thread in general discussion?

Outcast

Ok. This is an old link i know but hey it offers some skinning tips.

Its from Atomic Robot. http://www.geocities.com/robotatomic/skin.html

It's always interesting to see how other people skin. ^_^

What i would like to know is how to create wiremap guides for particular meshes that don't have one.

Also, i've always been curious with the idea of using real people's pictures (faces in particular) on skinning.

I've seen some pretty cool skins that used faces from real people. Was Atomic Robot the only one who used this in the past?

H0UR_MAN

Would there be a beginning art program that is free that I could download that I can learn to make my own skins on? Thank you.

AfghanAnt

Quote from: H0UR_MAN on May 03, 2008, 07:41:03 PM
Would there be a beginning art program that is free that I could download that I can learn to make my own skins on? Thank you.

I guess Gimp. I haven't ever used it but it support alphas and enables layers (I think).

laughing paradox

Are there any tutorials out there that tell you how to make a base skin have a metallic finish?

I have read Gryphon's tutorial about using Curves, but I am absolutely atrocious with that feature so I would be curious if anyone had an alternate method.