Modify Rights on a Skin??

Hello everyone!

I have a freebie skin that I like, but it has some flaws I thought I might touch up. I spent quite a bit of time exploring SL until a found a place where I could get the skin with full perms. When I opened it, I discovered that the skin is a tattoo and I don't seem to have any access to the tattoo texture. Am I missing something? What does it mean to have modify rights on a skin if you can't change it?

Thanks,

Sandi

did u go into edit apperance to try it?

Usually a mod skin will only allow changes to things like skin tone tint and lip or brow color. If you want to make more significant changes, you do need the texture files; this can be problematic, as such textures are often illegal rips. The full perms version of the skin you found may also be a rip.

Two skin creators who do offer legitimate texture files are Eloh Eliot and Sezmra Svarog.

http://eloheliot.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-psds-let-me-show-u-them.html

http://sezmra.com/?page_id=7

Hi! I did try edit, but you can only change the noob skin. All you can do with the "tattoo" textures is delete them! Not very helpful.

I did look at Eloh and Sezmra's skins. They are beautiful but--and I know this will sound silly--they don't look like "me". Frustrating!

Thanks,

Sandi

I think there's a strong likelihood that the full perms skin you found was ripped and stolen from the original creator. As I said, skins marked as mod will generally allow you to make small adjustments by leaving parts of the skin texture slightly transparent, and therefore letting changes made to the Appearance sliders show through. You won't be able to, for example, touch up seams, if you don't have the actual textures and very few creators will be willing give you those.

The great thing about the Eloh and Sezmra files is that you can change anything you want. You say they don't look like you, but maybe they could, given a little time and effort spent in a graphics program. Or maybe start trying on skin demos until you find something similar to the one you like, but done with better execution.

I've been working with Eloh's skin PSDs for a few months and have made my undoubted "me" skins with three different "ages" in the shading, 2 additional makeups for my tall shape, a freckled little undead cutie, and most recently a super smooth covering for my cyborg digiloli avatar. (^_^)

"Skins", as most people call them, are really just tattoo layer texture like what you've noticed so far. The original "skin" that comes with slider adjusting was a disappointing mess of poor shading and low resolution details. On slider work alone, you will NOT look "good". (>_<

Because of this, the good skins aren't easily edited since textures can't be edited inworld. If you really want to find your "you", it's gonna take a lot of shopping to find something nice. If you want to create your "you", expect it to require a lot of Photoshop/Paint Shop Pro/GIMP work and a L$30 upload fee. (^_^)y

I have done a good deal of shopping, and now actually change skins where outfits reveal the flaws in my original. I do have some really nice skins, but I keep coming back to my freebie!

I will try some more work with Elohs and Sezmra's skins, but as Imnotgoing said, it's time consuming work. It's tough to take the time that I need to make it work.

Thanks everybody!

Sandi

I don't know I hear people talk about modifying skins but from
personal experiences when it comes skin textures there certain
limited things you can do with actual changes in the textures
even if it was modifiable.
Maybe I am missing something but only modifications that
have every worked 100 percent with skins is actually within
texture outside of SL or having different version of same
skin that you buy.
Or have I missed something?
One thing cool about Eloh Eliot's skins, not sure about Sezmra, the other
person's files looked never found them is you can change the make up layers, add certain
details for yourself in tiny increments you don't to redo
the entire skin if you are not able or don't have the time.
What is cool about Eloh Eliot's files is you have numerous choices and
see how the layers actually work, but hard part is learning how to do
each section.
I find it is easier if I work with tiny sections of the skin and learn,
explore that way, because if I recreated every thing by layer as detailed
as Eloh did it would overwhelming task for beginner.
Eliot Eliot also has few restrictions in use of her textures or psd files
but Sezmra does not that it matters to me because I the skins are
just for myself and learning.

From what I understand Sezmra's skins are not layered like Eloh's are and, while excellent, are a bit harder for a skin noob like me to work with.

In both cases my concern is makup (the face looks different), the position of features, and skin detail. Many skins look as though the avatar is painted or wearing full body makeup. I prefer something that shows the avatar, uhm... warts and all? I did look at the Extreme Reality skins and they are good, but the shape of lips and the makeup again changes the avatar.

Maybe I could add a noise layer to Eloh's skins for freckles and the like and then work feature by feature...

Thanks,

Sandi

Might try SecondSkin (I think that's the name, I'm not inworld) for ultra-realism. There are a few others out there that specialize in ultra-realism; Chip Midnight has some spectacular ones, and I bet the Forumites can fill in the gaps here.

Thanks Oryx, I do have one skin from Second Skin Labs, and it is very good. I don't believe I have seen Chip's work (tho I have his layout template--thanks Chip!). I'll take a look. Thanks.