About Your Technique

[Tomato]

UE's little topic about who uses tablets and who doesn't got me thinking... How do you guys skin? I don't mean like which programs or every step you take, but generally what do you focus on?

Me, I tend to do most of my skinning with highlights. I tend to take whichever base, whether it's one I prepared beforehand, someone else's base, or something I did while skinning (usually faces, extras, etc), darken it 2-3 shades darker then my base color, uncontrast it, sometimes even blur it if I feel it's still too restricting. I'll then do a majority of the detail and contrasting on the layers dedicated to highlight.

Just to emphasize what I mean, here's a real quick shot of my current project, an Afghan Ant redesign, with...

And Without the highlight layers for the Black and Yellow segments.


I never use a base face for anything anymore (which is common practice for several of you if I'm not mistaken). I will use the ears neck, and forehead from the C6 base (though I've recently redone the neck area a tad on my copy) mainly as sort of a placeholder, but I like to give each character's face definition. On my own base, which I've included a shot of just so you guys can see it, I don't even bother adding a face, I just leave it a gray blob.



So what about the rest of you? What dark secrets do you use on yours skins?

[Lunarman]

Seeing as Carravagio taught me I guess I skin like him when he was just starting, lol. I don't have much of the individuality (faces and details) mainly becuase I find it very hard to do with a mouse. If I ever did invest in a tablet then It's something I would definatly pick up on and improve. But anyway.

I skin by taking a base and using multiplied (or another blending mode) layers over it to get the colours I want.

/\ the multiplied colour blocks over the base

Once I've got all the block colours in place I open up the FX panel and add 1 px of outer glow (sometimes more if I'm on a really big res) of a lighter colour and 1px of inner glow of a darker colour. They look great as seams, although with very little effort.

/\ A close up of those seams


Next I add details; pixel by pixel normally, like pixel art or as altered images from the web. For example on my Solar Flare skin , all those tattoos are real life tattoos that had their plan's on the web. Same thing with Lunarman's moon.

Highlight wise I tend to just add blobs/streaks of white with a paint brush to the places I feel need them (abs, triceps...) and smudge them into a more realistic shape (to fit more closely with the muscles). Then I blur it all and adjust the layer opicity 'til it looks right. I then make another layer and do the same sort of thing but with a much smaller sized brush, this is just for the finer/stronger highlights.

And that's it, for me.

Lunarman

[Podmark]

lol trust me you don't what to know....

[murs47]

The thing I go for most is depth. My technique is having multiple files open with multiple layers. Layer, layers, layers. Also, layer styles. I use a lot of custom brushes as well. When I do my custom faces, I try to stick to the basic principals of rendering, slowly build starting from shadows. One thing I do leave out for some reason is reflected light when I render :doh: I gotta work on that.

Hey Lunar, what base skin is that?

[Lunarman]

Hey Lunar, what base skin is that?

Now I'm going to have to remember dammit!
I have a lot of base skins that I use, I tend to switch between them for a bit of variency depending on the char. For example really muscly chars get a googlepex base skin.

That one I think is a Figurefan base skin or a gryphon one, I think. But don't quote me on it ;)
I did the helmet bit myself though.

[JKCarrier]

My method is pretty similar to Lunarman's. I don't do much actual "painting", it's mostly just manipulating various base skins and photographs to get the look I want. I definitely admire you guys who take the effort to paint the whole thing from scratch!

[Arlecchino]

Thank you Tomato for starting this and thank you to the skinners for sharing tips. This is one of the most helpfull threads Ive seen in a long time. This should be a sticky.

[Revenant]

I haven't tried making or using a base skin yet... it would probably make things too easy!

I start with the base color, a shaded version of what will be the eventual color, and build depth using layers of highlights.  Instead of a tablet, I use a mouse- by selecting areas that I want to highlight using the lasso tool, and then smoothing that selection or feathering it.

Feathering blurs the lines around the region, so it saves time blurring them later, and gives a smoother appearance to the muscle mass.

To that selected area, I'll pick a highlight color and use the gradient tool, set to 'screen'... it takes experimentation to get the right hue and shade... yes, lots of time.... lots...

Final highlights -- I sometimes use the dodge tool, set on very low strength.  That's if I am in a crunch for time though.  It tends to redden or yellow those areas, something you don't always want.

These of course are techniques I use on the body.. For materials such as cloth and metal, I have other techniques but they involve the gradient screening and selection areas.

[daglob]

I've been doing skins from scratch using the base skins as a guide, but I wanted to do a "quickie" awhile back. So I just put a block of color on a layer and set the blend mode to color burn, and loved he effect. I've used it several other times, and, depending on the colors, it often results in rich, vibrant colors. Of course, sometimes you have to take the skin below and change the areas below to grayscale, and sometimes you have to play with the brightness/contrast.

I've tried using base skins and setting the layers above to color mode, them putting another layer of the same color above that and adjusting the opacity. Sometimes it works really well, other times it doesn't look quite right.

Again, depending on the color, I will lay in a layer of 50% gray above, set the blend mode to hard light, and use burn and dodge to lighten and darken the colors below. After I'm done, I change the mode to soft light, or change the opacity back and forth. I have done this on separate layers of gray-one for darken, one for lighten, but not often.

I discoverd something about metallics: I was doing a Mr. A on a Hunter mesh, and when I created the reflection layer from the existing "mask", for fun I solarized it, then ran the plastic wrap filter. It made some really metallic looking reflections. I tried it again with one of my own characters who wears a golden death's head mask, and discovered that the solarizing didn't work (Mr. A's mask is silver, for those who don't know), but running the plastic wrap filter on a darker image of the mask did produce a similar set of metallic reflection on the gold. I can't tell you what the settings where; I just played with them until I liked what I saw. I was just lucky when the finished product was to my liking.

Oh, and I use a tablet. Using a mouse is like drawing with a bar of soap (which I have done).

[Revenant]

I discoverd something about metallics: I was doing a Mr. A on a Hunter mesh, and when I created the reflection layer from the existing "mask", for fun I solarized it, then ran the plastic wrap filter. It made some really metallic looking reflections. I tried it again with one of my own characters who wears a golden death's head mask, and discovered that the solarizing didn't work (Mr. A's mask is silver, for those who don't know), but running the plastic wrap filter on a darker image of the mask did produce a similar set of metallic reflection on the gold. I can't tell you what the settings where; I just played with them until I liked what I saw. I was just lucky when the finished product was to my liking.

Thats a really cool idea, I never thought of doing a solarize effect for a refl.. I'll have to try it out

[murs47]

Thank you Tomato for starting this and thank you to the skinners for sharing tips. This is one of the most helpfull threads Ive seen in a long time. This should be a sticky.

I agree, great thread to start. It's good to hear about other people's techniques.

Has anyone considered creating some more in-depth tutorials on skinning. I'm strongly considering doing a few for the community. I'm just not sure if anyone would really be interested in them, and if anyone was.....where the heck would I start?

just a thought^

[Tomato]

Thank you Tomato for starting this and thank you to the skinners for sharing tips. This is one of the most helpfull threads Ive seen in a long time. This should be a sticky.

I agree, great thread to start. It's good to hear about other people's techniques.

Has anyone considered creating some more in-depth tutorials on skinning. I'm strongly considering doing a few for the community. I'm just not sure if anyone would really be interested in them, and if anyone was.....where the heck would I start?

just a thought^

I tried to start one awhile back for some of my non-skinning cohorts, but I found it incrdibly tedious because I tend to go through three different "steps"  and forget to do previews throughout. It didn't help that I was doing a basic Superman, so I ended up losing interest completely.

I might go through and do some mini-tutorials with the next couple of skins... Spandex+Extras tutorial with the Syn, and Face+Clothing with the Heroes ones.

[murs47]

Yes, a lot of planning would have to go into a tutorial before even before starting it, they aren't at all an easy thing to do.

I have some ideas for some, but I think I want to start with some basics. I'm kind of burnt a little on skinning right now but I wouldn't mind at all creating some tutorials until the fire came back.

It would be cool too if a bunch of the skinners on the forum come together and dish a few out....again, just some more thoughts.

[Peerless1]

I for 1 would love to see a skinning tutorial.  I am not much of an artist, but it would allow me to attempt some skins of my own.  Btw, didn't Gryphon do 1 a long time ago?  I do not have a tablet, nor Photoshop of anykind, but my freeware copy of PhotoFiltre seems to have many of the features you all mention.  Maybe I'll just try 1 (from a base), and see how crappy it turns out.  Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.  Well, indirectly asked for 2 cents and drop 1969.  :P

The main point is -- I for 1 would love to see a skinning tutorial.  [Did I say that already?]  :wacko:   

[murs47]

ok....so I think I'll create some tutorials. I just don't know where to start; so I guess if anyone wants to make any specific suggestions just feel free to drop me a PM.

[Lunarman]

When I make another skin I might try making a completely basic tut. As in, how to make a skin in it's most simplest form. To help the new people

[UnfluffyBunny]

posted these before, but it pretty much shows exactly how i work:
http://pro52.msshost.com/~unfluffy/images/ravenous.gif
http://pro52.msshost.com/~unfluffy/images/guyverhead.gif
http://pro52.msshost.com/~unfluffy/images/fathead.gif