Advice to those thinking of making a skin

Don't.. Just Don't!

*laughs*

OK, seriously. After at least 250 hours, probably more, I have finally gotten it done. So let's see, that would mean all I need to do is sell around 30k units and it will have been worth my time.

Good thing it was a labor of love because *I* wanted a skin for myself and I couldn't find anything that I liked completely.

I don't want to put advertising photos up on this forum, but if anyone wants to see some high-rez photos of the finished product, they can be found here.

http://brandi-lane.blogspot.com/

quite honestly, unless you are looking for a VERY specific skin, or a skin of a specific person/creature that is hard to find, I see no reason to make one. I use two skins (Depending on my mood), both are freebies, one is something like Vampire Lexy, and I don't recall the other, but I've made my own shape out of another freebie (I'm like..freebie queen lol...) and the results are perfect for me.
I have about 200 total freebie skins, ranging from human to alien to furry, and shapes to match most of them. If I can find that many (Almost all are good too btw) for FREE, then ones for sale are even better quality, and more available. (I'm just cheap and found perfect ones for what I wanted by sheer luck)

So basically, its usually not going to be worth the work to make your own, unless you find it fun and are, as I said, making a very specific skin. But thats just my opinion, various people have businesses doing it, and they are good at what they do, and various prices and qualities are out there. But for the average joe, it probably won't be worth it

Don´t don´t . Yep. Unless you are already a graphics professional you will never ever actually make L that pay for your real time.

Although you may now have a nice skin, I bet you don´t make another. Good luck to you.

I put in nearly 100 hours per week for a year and I now average 4200L pew week. Its great.

I won´t be wasting any more time. Y´all should do the same.

Ok I am going to disagree but for a different reason. Why does Making money here matter? YOu did an awesome job. It is truly a high quality skin. And with the appropiate marketing it will sell well. (I just did that for you)
I believe that you shouldn't give on skinning unless you truly don't want to make another. And the first always takes forever. But think about what you learned.

So I say go for it. Don't worry about sales. Have fun. Enjoy SL and be creative.
Second Life doesn't have to mean second job. It can be fun!

OK, as is always the risk with type-written text, my original post was meant to be tongue in cheek, but that clealry did not translate. So being more specific...

I made the skin because there was nothing out there that I was satisfied with. Your mileage may vary of course. That, in and of itself is sufficient "compensation for my time". Whether I choose to make another (undoubtedly a male skin) will largely depend on whether I feel like it or not and have nothing whatsoever to do with whether I think I can make money at it. The bottom line is that I get paid WAY too well in RL to ever think of SL as a money making proposition.

Responding to specific individuals:
Okiphia Rayna: Obviously, we have different standards for our skins. In addition, I wanted a photorealistic skin but not too photorealistic. Honestly, the only maker I know that was close was namssur and he didn't offer a pale version. If he had, I probably never would've made mine. Of the rest of the skins out there, I'd say about 80% of them are rehashes on some public domain texture out there given how identical the shading lines are on them. Of the remaining 19.999%, they are all good in different ways although the word photorealistic is highly abused. I loved my pixel deep skin that I wore for the longest time. It was certainly beautiful but I wanted something a little less like a porcelein china doll. In fact, the very first version of Eve was almost a direct ripoff of pixel's. By the time it went production, of course, it has become radically different. But still, I liked that skin enough that it was the starting sketch for me.

Kornscope Komachi: Obviously, i responded to you in the opening paragraph. By definition I didn't waste my time because I am wearing the skin I want to wear. Selling has nothing to do with a desire to make money. If anything, it's just pride in my accomplishment. Especially because I am NOT a trained graphics artist. *pats self on back*

Thunderclap Morgridge: Bingo and thanks for the compliment. I have serious doubts about whether it will sell well due to the glut of garbage in SL. But, as you said, the last thing I need in the entire world is "SecondJob". How to get that marketting done so people at least know there is a new high quality alternative is the big question. I refuse to setup a bot farm to drive traffic numbers. We'll see how that goes. I've submitted to one fashion blog already. I'll try a few more over the coming days/weeks.

If there is a way to make money at this at all, I suspect it lies in developing a repuation as a quality graphics artist, builder, scripter, then obtaining a job with the likes of LL, Electric Sheep, or MillionsOfUs.

Applause! That is a great way to look at it and also exactly how I feel about it. I don´t sell anything but if I ever did it would be for that reason. I still can´t get over what I´ve learned and accomplished thus far. I never thought I´d be able to do the things I´ve learned to do and the feeling of accomplishment alone is worth it
Good luck with your lovely skin!

The easiest way to sell with low hassle is on SLX. For a skin, I'd also list a free version with demo markings (as I would selling inworld too).

The second easiest way is to wholesale it to a retailer. That involves having them setting up a vendor that gives you a cut (and there are other ways). No hassle to you.

In either case, you will get some IMs from people with questions, as the creator. (I sold some SCRIPTS that are embedded in objects and still I get questions from folks who think I made the object itself -- I don't get that!) But it's rare enough to not be a hassle, and you can meet some interesting people that way too.

And hey -- post us a pic!

If you can't wait until Brandi posts back ......... thread in the Gallery forum

This isn't an advertising forum so i'm trying not to post pics here. I'd like to keep this commentary on the trials and tribulations of texturing in SL *laughs*.

That being said, my blog is in the original post and there you will several very high rez pics.

Dragging this back to a discussion on texturing, there is an interesting design decision that I found myself waffling over roughly 3 billion times. If you look at the most recent high-rez picture, you will see it clearly. When viewed that closely, the dark tan skin looks "mottled". One person referred to it as "like you got a bad spray tan". That picture is posted at 4096x4096 resolution. In game, of course, this would amount to moving the camera about 3 inches from the skin. Here's what I've observed....

Given the ultra-low resolutions of the in-game textures, details need to be exaggerated in order to show. So, as a designer, I had to make a decision... at what range do I want the skin to look optimal. The dark tan version looks eerily like a photograph at any reasonable viewing range. But if you zoom in way close, it does in fact have a "mottled" look to it. This problem is avoided with most of the skins out there since they have little to no texture on them at all. This also means that they have little to no photorealism. So all skin designers, in one way or another are faced with this. Note that I'm not knocking the other skins... print media airbrushes out much of the texture on RL skin also. My pixeldeep skin looked beautiful and i loved it. But I wanted something that looked more... well... real.

In the end, I'll probably produce as more blurred version of the dark tan for those that want a different balance point. But for me, I've worn the dark tan skin fairly regularly when I'm at beaches for the last month. And every time I think to myself that maybe I should tone it down, I end up looking at how great it looks from a more reasonable viewing range and leaving it alone.

Always balances and tradeoffs.

Speaking of balances and tradeoffs, you can see another one. There is HUGE pixel stretch in the neck region. In the end, I blurred the pixels there and I just noticed that when you look at that photo, that leaves a visible neck seam. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do about that. I don't think i can live with a seam that visible, even given how closeup that picture is. So that means I either need to restore some of the fine skin texture at the bottom of the head texture or blur some of the texture at the top of the upper texture.

*sighs heavily and returns to photoshop*

I am starting to explore more how to texture map my tiny dolls to look more realistic.
I do this for fun but sometime I have thought about doing some skins for personal use and just to explore how to draw them. I did one when I was newer and got quite intimidated.
I don't mind spending days on a texture but I don't exactly understand how to use skins or templates no matter how many times I have practiced.
I figure I need more skills working with 2d to 3d prim related things first and understanding how to use tools first before I attempt skins or clothing templates..
Or am I wrong?

:argh:

(just kidding, though it's a funny read because i made my skin for very much similar reason -- around that time photosourced skins were all the rage, and i wanted something for myself that was less 'sharp' in appearance. To read now the end result made someone else create something more photoreal for their own use... in a way it's like some kind of circle came to close ^^

re: the amount of detail vs texture resolution vs viewing distance, this is a problem yup. I'd guess it's most sensible to design for the viewing distance of ~1-15 m for couple simple reasons.... this is either the distance the person you speak to is going to see your AV from, or the distance they will zoom onto your AV if they take interest. Farther out SL viewer is likely to begin reduction of both AV mesh details, and resolution of applied textures, so it doesn't show full details you have put in the skin anyway. Ultimately though go with whatever you're personally happy with, after all it's why you made the skin in the first place isn't it -.^

I would love to learn how to do a skin
went and found the brushes ppl said to use, even found tutorials on skin texturing, but still lost as to how to do it in SL

maybe someday I will try again

but for now, I keep skin creators in business hehe (well not really but I have purchased a few)

I can never make up my mind as to what I want to look like from one moment to the next.