Playing with Eloh's skin-PSDs -- need some advice. :)

I've decided to play around a bit with Eloh's skin PSDs (specifically the new male one she just put out), and I find myself running into a few issues right off:

1) If opened in Paint Shop Pro, the Photoshop layer structure is pretty much all lost. Does anyone know if there's any way around this? Any plugins that can import it in a better way, for example?

2) The main thing I want to try to do is change the skintone. However, while its easy enough to adjust the base layer to another tone, does anyone have any good suggestions for a workflow when it comes to adjusting the shading so it matches? If left unedited, it looks too strong for the new base tone. Is matching it up a matter of trial and error, or is there some way to calculate for how much the shading should be adjusted?

3) Related to 2), I see that base layer and the shading layers are labelled with numbers (like -8, 0, 0 and -8, -20, 20). I am guessing ... red, green, blue values, but in comparison to what base? If anyone has played with these PSDs and knows what they refer to, I'd love to know.

I only use Photoshop so I can't helpyou with PSP.

"If left unedited, it looks too strong for the new base tone."
-Trust your own eye. If it looks too stong try reducing contrast or increasing light.

"Is matching it up a matter of trial and error."
-Yes, and also personal taste and how the skin looks on your particular monitor. There are so many factors.

Make a cup of tea, relax and have fun experimenting. The time you spend messing around will be of tremendous value. You will learn more PSP and develop your artisitic skills. Your brain knows two important things: it knows how real skin looks and it knows what is pleasing to look at. If you think something looks too strong, your brain is telling you what to change. This is good. For some people they look at the skin they are making and can only say, it doesn't look right, or it doesn't look goodl without being able to identify what needs to be changed. But you identified something looks too strong. Go with that. Too strong, too weak, too pink, too yellow, too bland, too busy, too whatever. If you hang in there and keep fixing things that bother you, suddenly you will look at it and say to yourself, hey thats not bad.

With time and experience you will be able to make something that is pleasing more efficiently.

"3) Related to 2), I see that base layer and the shading layers are labelled with numbers (like -8, 0, 0 and -8, -20, 20). I am guessing ... red, green, blue values, but in comparison to what base? If anyone has played with these PSDs and knows what they refer to, I'd love to know."

These don't look like rgb values. Most likely they meant something to the creator of the layers. I do recommend that you give your layers more sensible labels like, base, highlight, nose, saturation +10 and the like.

What version of PSP do you have? I'm using version 7 and it opens up the .psd's fine

Sylvia,

Thank you for your suggestions. I'll definitely be experimenting, though its hard to get started when its new territory.

Beezle,

The files open fine, but the layer structure is lost.

Odd, unless you're on a horribly outdated version it should open then just fine.

I'm actually on version 9, so I am not sure what could be happening then.

Corel happened

That's why I'm still using 7 in 2008.

I use Paint Shop Pro 9.01, and the Eloh files work fine for me.

P2

Did you get the PSD downloads, or did you download from a skin inside SL. I have no problems getting layers in the GIMP. You will end up with 20 or more layers.

.

Trial and error. The test grid is your friend. It took me about 8 hours to change from her base pale skin to a violet-toned fae skin. The shading layers also need to be toned, and that's guesswork.

Start by making a base color you like, remembering that it will looka bit different inside SL.

I took notes to remember which changes I made in the color correction dialogs, and kept making changes to the back shading because it was simpler, making a TGA and uploading to the test grid, looking at the avatar, cussing, making more changes. When I had shading that didn't look dirty or bruised, I deleted the layers that I knew I didn't want, and changed the others.

Made another TGA, uploaded to test grid, realized the breast shading was way too dark ... cussed some more, lightened some of the layers a bit.

It's not an easy process, even with the help of the skin guides.

I believe the numbers on the layers are the transparency% that it's set at (prolly just for ease of use at a glance)...

I've had similar things happen which I've cured by opening the file in The Gimp and re-saving it as a .psd. Then I was able to open it in PSP and everything was good. I don't know if that would work in this case...