Comparing the old to new

[laughing paradox]

So after being a part of this community and being inspired by so much of the work put into the meshes and skopes and skins and everything else, I decided to try my hand at some very simple skinning. I am a rank amateur to skinning, and not too knowledgeable in Photoshop, but I still gave it a good try.

After some time reading more tutorials, I decided to grapple Ten of the Royal Flush Gang, who has a very easy design, and maybe entice someone into making the rest of the members? ;)

My first attempt at Ten is here.
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This is my second attempt of Ten here, to show the progression:
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I would love know to learn specifically about skinning around areas where the mesh changes shape, like the waist, but the costume design remaining consistent all the way through.

If anyone wants to offer tips or advice or critiques, I'd really appreciate it. Hopefully I'll keep learning and you guys will have, eventually, another skinner in your midst.

Also, where can I find more skin bases? I've joined one group and it has a few, but I'm certain there are others.

[The Enigma]

A higher texture resolution is really a must. Those spades are waaay too blurry at the moment. Still, keep at it and who knows, one day you too might have the fanboys clamouring for your work.

[laughing paradox]

A higher texture resolution is really a must. Those spades are waaay too blurry at the moment. Still, keep at it and who knows, one day you too might have the fanboys clamouring for your work.

Thanks for the input. I realize how low-res the first one was after you mentioned it and decided to redo it. Practice makes perfect!

[laughing paradox]

Skinning gets kind of addictive!

So I made a skin for Black Widow and here's how it came out.

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I found a really cool brush tool in Photoshop that worked well for hair.

EDIT: This is my final take on the Black Widow

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Again, any feedback would be appreciated. I would love to progress further with this.

[Jakew]

Hey, I like it! Can you send it to me?

[laughing paradox]

So through some (okay, a lot!) trial and error, I've made an as-yet incomplete skin for Scrap of Dynamo 5, a great comic book by Jay Faerber.

This is the first attempt:
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I know I have to work on the proportions for the logo on her torso to make it more accurate, but I find it very difficult to do with the separation between the upper and lower half, especially when the legs are also split in the front.

Does anyone have any tips for that? I could really use some help in shading the colors as well. I'm using color burn on the layer, but I would love to learn what some other skinners do.

Also, where can I find more skin bases? I've joined one group and it has a few, but I'm certain there are many more.

[Cyber Burn]

I know I have to work on the proportions for the logo on her torso to make it more accurate, but I find it very difficult to do with the separation between the upper and lower half, especially when the legs are also split in the front.

Does anyone have any tips for that? I could really use some help in shading the colors as well. I'm using color burn on the layer, but I would love to learn what some other skinners do.

Also, where can I find more skin bases? I've joined one group and it has a few, but I'm certain there are many more.

   As far as proportions at the waist, I have found that the wire frame is my best asset. Also, the only group that has base skin in it is the one linked through NPI. I'm not really a "Skinner", but something you could try would be to adjust the base skin using contrast, hue/saturation, etc. Hope this helps at least a little.

[laughing paradox]

Hey, I like it! Can you send it to me?

Thanks! I'm just waiting on an updated text file and I'll send it your way.

As far as proportions at the waist, I have found that the wire frame is my best asset. Also, the only group that has base skin in it is the one linked through NPI. I'm not really a "Skinner", but something you could try would be to adjust the base skin using contrast, hue/saturation, etc. Hope this helps at least a little.

I certainly appreciate the idea, since I didn't use much contrast or anything. I was just too psyched about actually making a skin and breezed over the details, which I realize is a mistake. And yeah, wireframes are certainly a lifesaver.

It'll take time to be able to skin very well, so any general tips not found in the tutorials would, and have, been great.

[daglob]

I bet you're using the same tool I use on the hair. I use the same one to burn and dodge the hair, then use it on the smudge tool to blend the ends and edges a little.

For fun sometime take a base skin, add a layer above, and and fill it wiht a color (any color). Then set the layer's Blend Mode to any of the ones shown (some won't really do anything). The blend mode setting is on the layers palette, and usually says "Normal". It offers a lot of possiblities.

One thing you can do is make your shading (burn and dodge) on a layer of 50% gray, set the blend mode to Soft Light or Hard Light, and have areas below to contain the color. Since the shading are on a different layer from the color, you can fiddle with the color until you get it right.

Gryphon has some base skins at his site, and C6 has some at Freedom Fortress (and maybe at Renegade's Toybox). tomato has a base skin (I need to use it sometime), and maybe Unkoman, and there is a FF Base Skin Yahoo group:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/FFBaseSkins1/

[laughing paradox]

I bet you're using the same tool I use on the hair. I use the same one to burn and dodge the hair, then use it on the smudge tool to blend the ends and edges a little.

For fun sometime take a base skin, add a layer above, and and fill it wiht a color (any color). Then set the layer's Blend Mode to any of the ones shown (some won't really do anything). The blend mode setting is on the layers palette, and usually says "Normal". It offers a lot of possiblities.

One thing you can do is make your shading (burn and dodge) on a layer of 50% gray, set the blend mode to Soft Light or Hard Light, and have areas below to contain the color. Since the shading are on a different layer from the color, you can fiddle with the color until you get it right.

Gryphon has some base skins at his site, and C6 has some at Freedom Fortress (and maybe at Renegade's Toybox). tomato has a base skin (I need to use it sometime), and maybe Unkoman, and there is a FF Base Skin Yahoo group:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/FFBaseSkins1/

Thank you so much, daglob! Your input has really made me create much better skins already. I see the improvement already and I find experimenting with the different techniques in shading has made a drastic difference.

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[laughing paradox]

So I've moved on to highlighting and shading. This is what I've been able to come up with so far.

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I like the way this came out, costume-wise. As evidenced, I have yet to do a good job with the face, mask and hair sections, but I'll read the tutorials available and get that working, too.



This is already my favorite skin that I've made, even if it's only out of a handful.  ;) I made the costume itself, but the hair is the standard.
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Does anyone have critiques on the costumes themselves? I've tried placing the (white) highlights under a purple filter for Diamondback and play around with it, but I like the way that the black is pronounced. Either way, thanks for checking the thread out!

[daglob]

You can get different highlight effects by changing the dodge "target" between shadows, midtones, and highlights (same with shadows and the burn tool). Sometimes it lightens the color, other times it just adds white (actually, I thnk it always adds white). The difference is that one makes the color lighter, the other is that it looks like white paint was laid over the color. Some colors just get brighter, which may be what you want.

You know if you lay in a layer of color, set the blend mode to Dissolve, and lower the opacity of that layer, it breaks up into individual pixels with clear spots in between? If you copy the wireframe to the top layer, zoom in real close, use the Select by Color option, choose white (if the frame is low res, choose black with a tolerance of 2, and invert), then fill with bright red or (better) bright green, then set the wireframe layer blend mode to either difference or exclusion, you get a rather bizarre-looking wireframe that you can seee through.

[blobula]

Those are some pretty good looking skins. You are seriously improving fast.
Looking forward to seeing more.

[laughing paradox]

You can get different highlight effects by changing the dodge "target" between shadows, midtones, and highlights (same with shadows and the burn tool). Sometimes it lightens the color, other times it just adds white (actually, I thnk it always adds white). The difference is that one makes the color lighter, the other is that it looks like white paint was laid over the color. Some colors just get brighter, which may be what you want.

You know if you lay in a layer of color, set the blend mode to Dissolve, and lower the opacity of that layer, it breaks up into individual pixels with clear spots in between? If you copy the wireframe to the top layer, zoom in real close, use the Select by Color option, choose white (if the frame is low res, choose black with a tolerance of 2, and invert), then fill with bright red or (better) bright green, then set the wireframe layer blend mode to either difference or exclusion, you get a rather bizarre-looking wireframe that you can seee through.

Thanks for the reply! I'm going to try this out later and see what fun things I can create with it. I really appreciate your tips, they've been very helpful and really added to my progress.

Those are some pretty good looking skins. You are seriously improving fast.
Looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks, blobula! I really appreciate the support. I'm pretty stoked that something I once thought was nearly impossible to do (skinning) is something I could potentially be good at. I'm going to tackle the classic Serpent Squad so we'll see how much I've learned when they are done.

[laughing paradox]

I just wanted to preview some of the skins I've made for the Serpent Society. I'm not sure if I'm going to do all the members, but I've been cranking them out pretty quickly, so who knows?

Anyway, here's a teaser for some of them.

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Cottonmouth (vxmale), Black Racer(vxfemale_nomouth), Coachwhip (coachwhip_tvlite)

I've taken some slight creative license on some of the skins, like with Black Racer not looking exactly as the comics portray, but I think it's close enough that it shouldn't be a problem. Also, does anyone know how to draw add the speed effect behind a character running on a Vertex mesh and how to color it in? I would like to do one for Black Racer.

Anyway, yeah...you know the drill. Tell me I'm great and enjoy. ;)

[XPTO]

I like them very much! keep it up  :thumbup:.

[Jakew]

I really like your Darkstar and Black Widow (my favourite version of the costume), as well as your Serpent Society.  :thumbup:

Actually, can you send me Darkstar?

[laughing paradox]

Thanks guys!

Well, I'm not going to release any of them yet because I want to keep working on them (except for the Black Widow, since it's the default of that skope.) I've got some edges to sharpen and some better seams to make and a few other things. Once I think it's finally ready, I'll make sure to send Darkstar your way, Jake.

[BatWing]

oh em ji!
i like how when u scroll down and look at the skins, they're improving!

[blobula]

I love the SS, and these skins are good.

Please, keep them coming. :thumbup:

[laughing paradox]

The support it touching. Thanks a lot, sincerely. I really appreciate it and it motivates me to keep skinning better.

So here you go..these characters are practically done.

Serpent Society




I redid Black Racer from scratch because I knew I could do it better and I love the way it came out (except for that darn hair!). Diamondback finally has some hair that I can tolerate. Cottonmouth is mostly the same except for some minor details, like in the eyes. Same with Coachwhip, I only changed some minor details like seams and the snake-skin reflection. Puff Adder is one of my favorites simply because of the color palette and how it kind of resembles an actual snake skin.

[tommyboy]

Nice looking Society.
I like your colours for the costumes, very vibrant, and distinctive, but somehow with a kind of 'team' feel.

[UnkoMan]

You're getting better, I must say.

I see you're trying seam usage and shadows and that good stuff. There's some places they got overlooked, but I used to do that all the time now. Still do. Is that girl with green hair Black Racer? I liked her hair before better, but her blues are nicer now. For the white on Cottonmouth I'd suggest higher contrast with much darker darks. Lots of people like to use blue for shading whites. It usually works really well but isn't always necessary.

Anyhow, keep practing, and keep pumping out those skins. Especially when you do less popular characters.

[USAgent]

Those are some fine looking skins LP.  I can tell by each skin your learning skinning skills quickly.  I love the fact that we have a new skinner that is skinning lesser known characters and is great at it!

[The_Baroness]

from newbie to newbie...  :thumbup: :thumbup:  i can see you are improving and I really like what you are doing

[sweeten2213]

Looking pretty good.

[laughing paradox]

Thanks a lot, everyone!

Yeah, I see that a lot of better skinners are doing the bigger name characters, so I'm definitely going to be the guy who prefers to do the lesser-known heroes and villains. I could use some suggestions on some lesser-known characters that need skins.

Thanks for the tip about blue shadowing, by the way, Unkoman. I'll experiment with it and see where it goes. By the way, do you have any tips on seams? I make them using Bevel & Emboss, as per the tutorial by Murs. If you have another technique, I would love to a little about it.

[laughing paradox]

Rattler and Judomaster

[Jakew]

You nailed Judomaster! Very cool  :thumbup:

[The Enigma]

You've improved a lot in a short time. It'll be good to see more from you as you expand your range of techniques.