Photoskins?

[Outcast]

UE mentioned it in another thread. I also saw a section in FX Force. What are photoskins? How do you make/do these photoskins? :huh:

[XPTO]

Its just copy paste of photos not real skinning, then in photoshop or other art program you fix it to your liking.

[House Quake]

Its just copy paste of photos not real skinning, then in photoshop or other art program you fix it to your liking.

Good photo skins are actually a lot more than that.  And it is very much real skinning.  To do a 'good' photo skin takes as much effort, if not more, as it would to make any other skin.  Think of it as a lot more than just using a standard 'stock' face of a base skin.... but not quite as much as painting your own face entirely from scratch.  Some just use parts of a face or in others the whole face.  But there are few skins which used much more than that.

Its easier to go for a 'realistic' look with photo skins... a lot harder to make a photo skin (talking mostly face here) to be able to stand next to a painted skin.... and not tell the difference.



Each of these skins have to one degree or another ... elements of a real photo... in combination with painting and other graphic manipulation.

There are many different methods to go about doing it... trial and error is the best teacher.  But in all cases you need the base photo to be as straight on of a shot as posible.  Mirroring one side to the other tends to work better than trying to match the entire face to a wire map.  Trying to be conciouse of light source reflections on the eyes and other face parts is a subtle way of making a 'good' vs. average photo skin.

[Outcast]

Thanks for explaining it more clearly House Quake. Some of these photoskinned faces are really good!  :cool:

[daglob]

I've got several skins with photographic faces. I used Linda Carter's face for the two classic Wonder Woman TV skins, and used Kathy Lee Crosby for the "other" one. I've used George Reeves for Superman and Super-Green Beret, Kirk Allyn for Superman, Oliver Hardy for Fatman, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Sol Brodsky for the Fantastic Four (Couldn't get a good Flo Steinberg, ended up painting over a bad pic of her), Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi for Double Header, Lon Chaney Sr. for The Hunchback, and a few others. The least satisfying one was Annette O'Toole as Insect Queen, but them's the breaks.