I Just Don't Get Skins!

I really would love to have someone explain the whole skin thing to me. Here's where I'm stuck:

When I was a baby newbie I bought a skin I really like on the advice of a blogger. Then I messed around with my face and found a look I loved. I figured skin was something you had one of and used all the time.

Now I see that most people have many different skins they wear. But every skin I've demo-ed changes my face so much that I look totally different. Is this true of all skins? I'm sure I've seen blogs where the avatar is wearing different skins and while there's some difference it's not as pronounced. Why does a skin change your entire eye, mouth and nose shape? If I note my values for my default face, can I just restore those values when I have the new skin and look more like "me"?

I also don't really understand the eyebrows. I'm a redhead in world (kind of married to that choice) and I haven't found a way to tell if a particular skin comes with a red eyebrow option. My current skin has great orange brows and whenever I try a demo skin the brows are usually black or brown. How can I figure out what all the brow color options are and then whether the particular shade of red works for me? I know I sound terribly picky but skins are expensive! I can risk a few lindens on a new hair when I don't know the exact shade but not at the cost of good skins.

So can anyone just give me a good overview on skins so I can begin to incorporate them into my looks? Thanks!!

Lessa

Skins and shapes are completely separate. Changing skins doesn't change your shape. However, because of how a skin is painted or highlighted, it *can* make you look quite different. I suspect this is what you are seeing. As for eyebrows, those are painted on the skin, so you get whatever you get from the skin. Not much you can do.

Well I'm not an expert on skins, Lessa, but I understand your frustrations. When I try on skins, my lips sometimes look like they change shape. In reality, I think it's just the 'shape' of the lipstick, even when it seems like it's a nude colour. Your shape stays the same but the painted on lips' shape changes. Does that make any sense?
As for the eyebrows, I keep a copy of the baldy cap with the eyebrows that I like. Not sure though if that's only possible with a Mod skin.
Hopefully, someone more knowledgeable will come along and explain it better...

*edit: See, someone beat me to it

Darien pretty much hit the nail on the head - your shape should remain exactly the same when you change only the skin, but different skins look completely different on different shapes, if that makes sense. It's how the skin is painted, and the highlights and shading are in different places and are more pronounced on some skins, so it can make your shape look different. That's why demos are particularly important for skins. It might look great in the picture, but the moel in the picture has a different shape than you, so when you try it on, it looks all wrong.

As for eyebrows, a lot of skins come in many different versions with different skin tones, body hair color, etc. It's just a matter of picking through them until you find the one you like. The demo will typically only be of one version of the skin.

I wish I could have a bit more detailed skin, but not end up with a whole new face.
I've gotten used to this face and I think I'd feel like I was someone else if I switched it now.

I wish people would just make skins modifiable. In my current one, I can't even add lip gloss or add a bit more tan and I know that's possible with some skins.

If I buy a house or a car, I can paint it any color I like. I've paid for this skin - why does the designer care if I change it? Or is it just an option for more expensive ones?

Maybe you should check out the creator of your current skin and see if he/she has anything else in a similar style, but more detailed. I've found that often each skin creator has a very unique style.

Some of the hair bases/bald caps have tintable eye brows. Sin Skins I know offers one with their skins. So, it should be just a matter of tracking one of those down.

The avatar shape is really not very detailed and the lighting system in SL is not very pleasing to the eye. Skilled skin makers compensate for these conditions by "painting" shading and highlights on their skins to give the illusion of more detailed shape. This make the avatar look better, prettier, more realistic and so on.

This all makes shopping for skins and shapes complicated. For myself I find that adjusting my shape for a newly purchased skin to show off the skin the best is a good approach. Some skin makers package shapes with their skins, another option.

Your basic naked avatar consists of a set of shapes (legs, arms, torso, head) and a set of three pictures (head, upper body, and lower body). The second life program pastes the pictures onto the surface of the shapes to produce the avatar you see. We normally call the set of three pictures a "skin". If the pictures are "no modify" then they are what they are, with the nose details, cheekbones, nipple location, eyebrows, etc. in a given place on each picture.

When you change the body shape "underneath" the pictures, then where the various parts appear can shift, making it look different. If you have a wide nose on the shape, and the skin picture was drawn with a narrow nose, they wont line up properly. Also the angle parts have (like a slope on the chin) can change how they are lighted, also making it look different.

Now, skins that are "modify", allow you to fiddle with items the program can generate IN ADDITION to the base pictures that make up a skin. Those are things like freckles, a skin color tint, etc.

When you buy a skin with multiple makeups, that just means it comes in several copies with a different head picture for each one (the upper body and lower body pictures being the same). The different head pictures are just drawn with different shades of makeup.

When you buy a skin thats shaved/unshaved below, or has different pubic hair colors, then you are getting different pictures for the lower body.

The Vogue line from Celestial Studios features lips and eyebrows that can be tinted over a limited range. Their Charmed line adds the ability to change the skin tone, again over a limited range.

This is done by making the skin semi-transparent, either in a specific area or overall. Changes to the underlying default skin can then show through the overlay.

The downside is that the skin may appear a little less detailed, since the shading that's painted onto it by the skin maker isn't as defined as it would be on an opaque skin layer. This may not be a bad thing, if you're using the Windlight viewer, which has harsher lighting than the standard one.

As far as changing skins without totally changing your appearance...you can do that, if you find a line of skins you like and then swap skins within that line, either a different skin tone or a different makeup option.

The skin I have is from Celestial Studios...it gives me the option of changing the color of my eyebrows (most will say if you can do this or not on their vender or you will be able to see if you try the demo) and you can actually change the shade of the skin slightly lighter or darker.

From looking at the free skin file from Another Shop I saw that to get the tintable eyebrows they would have to have their eyebrows set at a transparency on the image. So instead of drawing on the eyebrows, they erase out a specific area for the eyebrows of your hair layer to show through. I THINK that is how its done to let you change the color, someone please correct me if I am wrong?

I purchased a couple of skins from CS and the rest of the skins I have are freebies or group gifts etc. I just cant see spending so much on more skins, I could buy 3-4 outfits for that amount typically lol

I think that investing money in skins now may be a little foolish. As Sylvia said there have been lots of things done to skins to make them look "pleasing" with the current SL lighting system. The problem, as I understand it, is that Windlight is going to change all that. Initially it was a huge problem, and they have made it better, but until the "final" version of Windlight comes out I'd advise everyone to hold off and see what their demos look like under Windlight, especially if you are spending a few thousand bucks for one.

Don't worry - I don't get the whole skin thing either. I still wear the first one I ever bought back in 2005. I just don't look like me without it....

Here is a little more about how it all works. If you have made a shirt or anything (like the one you make on orientation island) then you can think of "skin" as being very similar. First there is the basic colors and all that you get from the sliders. Any skin you buy no matter how expensive or artistic has this as a base. You usually don't have the ability to change anything here so they are all greyed out, but they are there. What really makes the difference is applying textures to the skin. Just like on the chain shirt you made on newbie isle, there are places for textures on your skin. 3 of them. They are called tattoo's in the UI but they are textures that cover the whole area of the body.

If you would like to play with it to help understand, but on a newbie skin, change a slider or two, then "Save as" and name it something you will remember. Then, click one of the little white tattoo areas and put on a texture. Evan a snapshot will work. Or floor tile from the library folder. If you pick ome very light colored texture, you can still paly with some of the slider options to make aditional changes. Lipstick, for example, may still show through although it will be changed because it is now a blend of the base color plus the texture color.

In short, yes. There are exceptions to every rule but 99.9% of the time, buying a new skin is synomonous with getting a new face.

This is reallya bit bit odd. Eyebrows are actually shaped and colored with your hair. That is why prim hair comes with a bald cap you can wear; it is usually colored so the brows match the hair. This can be overridden, however, if the skin designer put on dark and heavy eyebrows. It can often be hard to get a good match because you are mixing color from all these layers (base skin, the tattoo texture, and the hair color) and the more colors you mix, the darker it gets.

In any event, you will burn through a lot of demos until you find just the skin that is you. Good luck, and don't accept close enough. Get what you want or nothing at all.

Lessa, I think what you are seeing is individuals who have bought variations of the same skin, EI same shadows and highlights, but with variations of skin tone and/or makeup. My SL wife has several skins from the same vendor like this, for her changing her skin is like changing her makeup. She looks very much the same, but may have different eye shadow for example.

So generally if you are happy with your skin and simply want different skin tone or makeup you should return to the vendor you bought your first skin from and see if they have variations of that skin, or contact the vendor and see if they will create a custom variation.

Thank you to EVERYONE for all the great replies. I definitely have a better understanding of the whole subject. I am very happy with my skin but I totally just stumbled on it and I really didn't have a handle on the basic idea of skins at all. You guys are terrific!

I have a newbie question; what is a "demo skin"? Do they disappear after you use it once?
What if I want to see the skin in a variety of costuming? Does a demo allow that?

Edit: And ,why does demo skin not show up in inventory?

Lessa...

If you're a redhead, some skin makers have lines just for you, with pale skin, a dusting of freckles, and reddish brows. Again, take a look at the Celestial Studios Charmed and Vogue lines. The redhead skins are off by themselves on their own wall.

Maximum: A demo skin doesn't disappear. But it has the word "DEMO" or the maker's logo tattooed all over it. You can take the demo home, try it out with different clothes, shapes, and under various lighting conditions.

@Maximum: Demos are full skins that you can get for usually L$1 or free. You wear them just like skins and can try on clothing with them, etc. They don't expire or anything. You buy them and they should appear in your inventory, usually in a top-level folder with the name of the skin, the demo and a landmark to the place where you bought it.

The only difference is that that usually have "Demo" or something similar tatooed over them, so it's obvious to everyone that you are using a demo skin.

It does let you see how it looks on your shape, with your hair and with your clothes, though, and gives you a good idea about the quality.

DEFINITELY get demos before you buy something as expensive as a skin.

I wish they would too because it would be cool if someone else would do the extreme amount of work it takes to make a good skin and let me change some of the details a little bit so that I could have several lipstick options etc without having to buy more skins.

Why do the skin creators care whether or not I can do that? Because they are in the business of selling skins; they need people who want more options to buy more options from them. That is how they make their money. Who can blame them? When they do sell you a "several skins in one" kind of modifiable package like the ones that are semi-transparent they are limiting their own future business in a way. If they make the skins really modifiable ie give you the textures so you can play with them yourself in your own image editor they are really cutting their own future sales and even making it possible for you to make and sell skins that use their hard work and rare expertise without giving them credit or money.

So those of us who don't have that rare expertise must buy the skins that those who do have for sale.

Thank you , Kalderi and Lendal.

if the skin textures are a solid color with no transparency in them, then the sliders for tint and such are useless and will not change the skin. That could be one reason why some skin makers make them no mod, because it will not make a difference anyway

I have made some skins, and some have a transparency to them, and even though they have that, modifying them in the game using sliders made the skins look horrid, so therefor I sold them no mod.

I figure if someone likes the skin as they see it, why would they want to change it (especially if changing it makes it look horrid) hehe

Find a skin that compliments your face, not a skin that requires you adjust your face to fit its shading/lighting/effects.

Lessa,

Skin Within also has a lovely skin that works well for redheads which I wore when I was one. If you have a chance, check them out.

Jeni

Two options: A modifiable skin, like CS Charmed or Vogue. These have semitransparent layers that give you a limited ability to change the lipstick color, eyebrow color, or (with Charmed) the skin tone.

The second option is Second Skin Labs. Namssor sells the basic skin with no makeup, then offers an endless variety of add-on makeup options, including creating a custom makeup to your specifications.