Utter noob, skinning.

I was interested in making my own custom skin, but this's going to be a bit difficult for me, since I've never used Photoshop (actually, I guess I'm terrible at using the gimp, since it's what I've got, but I have no editor xp), I'm terrible at using a mouse to draw, and in general, I've never tried doing this type of thing. I've glanced at some of the stuff here, got the fashion templates downloaded and piddled with them, checked the custom skins topic already, but it wasn't, sadly, baseline enough for me.

My first question would be, how hard is it going to be for me to learn all the stuff I need? I don't even know enough to know what I need to know, really, at this point.

My second question would be, how does one make a 'skin'? I figure you use the basic body templates, but modify the shape to suit?

Do I need access to poser, or some such, to 3D render my skin, or will a photo prog work?

Is the gimp a workable program, or should I grab a copy of Photoshop instead?

I think that's about it for now, if someone bothers to answer these, I might come up with some more later.

You don't need Poser to make a skin, but it's useful for previewing your textures before spending the L$ to upload them. Either Gimp or Photoshop is fine to work with, but (and you probably won't like this answer) it all comes down to skill and knowledge with whatever program you end up using. There aren't really any shortcuts. You're going to have to invest the time to learning Photoshop, GIMP or another paint program. That means knowing the tools in your program well enough to create a believable skin texture with good shading. The good news is that playing with paint programs is a lot of fun. Just don't expect to get the kind of results you want quickly. I recommend picking the proram you want to use (I'd go with Photoshop if you have access to it) and buying yourself a good tutorial book and searching the web for good tutorials. Then practice practice practice

Noob skinning? Doesn't this belong in the special events forum?

Thank you, thank you. I will be here all night.

Pretty much what I figured, thanks Chip.

And, to be an arse, the comma technically changes the meaning from 'noob skinning' to 'a noob who is skinning'. Hah. Don't know photo editors, but I can DO grammar.

So does that mean you're inexperienced at milking cows and you're chafing? They do make lotion for that.


Maybe I'll see if Panda needs an opening act.

Krooner, I've had my copy of Photoshop a couple of weeks. I have some experience in Paintshop Pro, Poser, TruSpace and Dreamweaver/Fireworks, so I'm not exactly at square one but more like Square Two And I can second what Chip said -- learning in a paint program is not drudgery for me. It's fun. Even some of my goofups look cool.

What I've found is this:

1) There are more tutorials on the net than you can possibly read. Google on the specific terms you want and you're likely to find them.

2) When you Google for textures and skin tutorials, don't forget that there are a lot of games out there which use skins, and the Poser community right now is absolutely huge. I found a good tutorial on using alpha channels on one of those car-racing game sites, of all places. And I have a few Poser tutorials on how to create realistic skins and hair. They are going to be valuable as I master this thing.

3) I've been told this a number of times so I'll repeat it here: be patient this is the hardest part for me. I have so many ideas I want to try, but I want to try them now. I get frustrated when they don't work the first time. It's a matter of self-discipline to calmly analyze my failures and try again.

Remember: The definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior and expecting different results. I keep telling myself that when I'm clicking on buttons in Photoshop

Give a graphic tablet a try. Basic models are available for around 50$, and I think it really improves the useability of Photoshop and the like.

Love my Wacom tablet. Use it all the time.

-Ghoti

Absolutely! It takes about a day to get used to a tablet, and then you'll never go back. Go with Wacom. There are other brands that are good, but none as good as Wacom.

I'll add my voice to those saying "Use a Wacom tablet." I tried a different brand, and was really frustrated by it.

Among other things, Wacom never needs batteries. It just works, all the time, every time. (The other brand I tried needed a battery in the pen, and when the power in the battery got low, the pen strokes on screen became increasingly random. It was horrible.)

Trying to use a mouse in graphics programs is like trying to draw with a bar of soap.

Besides, most programs translate the pressure you are using with the pen into the stroke size, or opacity, or color, or one of a host of other user-definable options.

The importance of this one tool for graphics cannot, I think, be overstated.

Hey Krooner,

While I may not have amazing skills at skinning I gained most of my Photoshop experience from trying to make skins for another game. The drive to make my own skins (which sucked at first) got me to actually learn how to use features like layers in Photoshop that really separate the women/men from the girls/boys.

The advantage I had with the other game is that people would post their skins online so you could start off by modifying other skins or combining them to get cool effects before you moved on to original work. This is one of the downsides to the market economy in SL.

The Photoshop skills I gained while making skins I have since used on commercial jobs. You could think about it as an investment in your skill set.

Enoch