flash, the fattest man alive

[bearded]

please rate, give it to me cold. i can't judge, cause i made it. on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best skin you've seen here, and 1 being a blank wiremap.
also, constructive critique and advice will be welcome. don't worry about offending me, not possible, as i'm not a skinner by hobby.

i created it totally by hand, freestyle. i used different things, like blur and burn.

[panoramac]

Hey Bearded,  I like your skin. Has a cartoony look. Needs minor cleanup and refinement, like around the lower part of the eyebrows, the nose, and the lower part of the chin.Some other possible improvements--You could add more some hi-lites to the lips, forehead, and eyes as well to make it more dynamic. Skinning is difficult, and I don't like to judge but I think right now between 6 and 7. It has potential, and again, I like the cartoon look

[daglob]

The edges of the skin tones could be blurred a little more. As Panoramac suggest, some highlights and shadows on the lips would help. Light spots in the eyes would help also (check out some Wally Wood art).

[John Jr.]

I agree with the guys about the highlights, they alway help t give a 3D look. Anyway I liked the eyes, eyelashes and eyebrows a lot.

[bearded]

i've tried impleminting your advices, wow, it's hard. think i'll go animate banner turning into the hulk and back instead. (meant to imply that would be easier compared to.)

[panoramac]

Skinning can be tricky and it takes patience and practice. You could always enlist the help of tutorials as well. Though, I only think I've used one tutorial on skinning, it helped a good deal. I started doing kitbashes which looked pretty crappy but over time I have gotten better. One thing that's helped me is to work in layers. I usually start with the base, duplicate the layer and wind up having separate layers for different aspects such the eyes or the lips etc. Layering is good too since you always have your original base to fall back on if you mess up. The more you skin, the more you'll learn techniques and make improvements. I also use the lighten and darken brushes quite a bit and blending modes.Then again, I consider myself a novice and still have a lot to learn. I still have problems with hair for example..

[UnkoMan]

The highlights are looking better already.

The layers is an excellent tip. I always keep lips, eyebrows, eyes, etc on their own layers. I'll also do extra shadows and highlights on separate layers and merge them down to my base skin layer afterwards. This also helps because then you can go swipe a face from an older skin later, change it a touch, add new eyes and BAM, totally different face.

Even if you are going for a cartoony look, I would still say use more blending as opposed to chunks, mostly. Under the eyes looks much better now. The forehead could be blended a lot more. The sides of the nose, only a small amount. Don't forget a highlight on the bridge.

Also, can I ask what resolution you are skinning this at? Seems low.

[daglob]

Layers are your friend. While I am a big believer in asymetry, you can also do one leg or arm then copy it to a new layer and move it into place for the other.

[bearded]

wow, you guys are good with the advice. i'm working with an online art editor, cause it's free. it does do layers, i'm simply not good at this. crazy thing is, i can pick up a paintbrush and totally do a decent portrait.
i'm going to take your advices, i do my skinning at work, when i can't access anything else.

[cryonic2099]

Dude, get Gimp...it's free, open source, and about as good as Photoshop for most things.

[laughing paradox]

I actually think it looks pretty good. The thing I would recommend, other than layers (truly important), is to soften up all the hard lines if you want to make a younger looking face.

[bearded]

ha. i discovered gradiant tool.

[daglob]

That looks great. Have you tried using a wireframe and drawn your own muscles yet?

I wonder if any of Burne Hogarth's books are online...

[bearded]

yes, it is a new mesh, and no, not a typo. it is thondor. i can see where i made some mistakes in my skinning, the neck needs to match the chest. any tips for how to blend it, from a flattened image?

[daglob]

I usually put most of the things that are the same color on the same layer, then use Dodge and Burn for the shadows and highlights. Unless I put the shadows on their own layer, and the highlights on yet another.  Then I either blur, smudge, or use the Blur filter. This will usually mean that everything will be the same color.

In Photoshop, Dodge and Burn have three secondary settings (Highlights, Midtones, and Shadows), and one major setting (Protect Tones). These will affect how the burn darkens the art and how the dodge lightens it. If you don't darken or lighten the color the same way every time, you could end up with slightly different colors.

A lot of stuff is either going to have to be trial and error, or situational (that is, what works for one skin may not work for another.)

And Thondor DOES look great. We can slap a Barry Allen Flash skin on him and get The Flash from issue 115.

Any chance of you doing Male Tubby Cape? I still need to finish The Fat Fury (Herbie).

[bearded]

i am proud of the thondor face. it is mostly gryphon, but the slight changes i made depict thondor i think.
the neck and shoulder is a lost cause. i have to remember to save layers.
i thought i finished herbie! i will have to start from beginning.
best way to inspire me is to find some herbie for me to read. i work better on characters i have read.
does anyone want a fat flash mesh? it is not mapped the way male rotund is mapped, it is mapped more like male_basic. so, that means you could plump up any male basic! (i'm tempted to put random fr avatars on it, post pics and laugh at you.)

[bearded]

here is firestorm's flash skin totally being abused. there has to be a story reason for this to go in the mod! which of the rogues could do this to the flash?

[grenadier]

Oh man, that's hilarious 

Great work.

[daglob]

In the story I mentioned it was Grodd using Gorilla City Super Science to make The Flash weigh 1000 pounds.

I have a big-headed Flash, also.

[bearded]

here's another thing i did last night: it is jessie as lady flash.

[Cyber Burn]

Very cool bearded, the lightning needs to be cleaned up a bit, but over all, good start. Just out of curiosity, what mesh did you decide to use for her?

[bearded]

that is the female straighthair by interceptor. the skin is simply female basic however. i would rather have curlier hair. know of a good one?
i adapted your atom smasher skin to professor fallout. not quite accurate, but it works for now.

[Cyber Burn]

i adapted your atom smasher skin to professor fallout. not quite accurate, but it works for now.

Post a pic so I know where I need to adjust.

As far as Jesse, what look did you have in mind? Ink has a really wide selection of female meshes that offer different types of hair. Is there a reference pic that you had in mind?

[bearded]

Oh man, that's hilarious 

Great work.

thank you. he's been hanging around your volstagg too much.