creating skins

I would greatly appreciate any and all information (links) from start to finish on creating SL skins. Thanks much.

Wow that is kind of a really really broad question. But I'll try to give you a high level view.

#1) Get the avatar templates from somewhere. You'll need them to understand what you're doing.

#2) Upsize the templates to at least 2048x2048.

#3) Make yourself a layer group and call it something like "base skin"

#4) Add a raster layer into that group called "skin tone" and paint it solid with some pinkish color.

#5) Add a new raster layer and draw your veins in. You might want to use a repeating pattern for this.

#6) Add a new raster layer, paint it 50% gray. Use the "add noise" function to add some noise into it. Set it's blending mode to "soft light"

At this point, you have a base skin that you can use. Go ahead and resize it to 512x512 and upload it into the game (you might want to use the beta grid for this). Take a look at how it fits on the avatar and how the color, veins, and noise all look. This is just to give you a feel for what you're doing.

7) Now, back in your photoshop file, make 3 layer groups (upper body, lower body, head).

In the "lower body" group, add a raster layer called "lower body shading" and fill it with 50% grey. Set it's blending mode to hard light.

9) Now, start using the dodge and burn tools to paint your shading onto this layer. This will be where your major muscle shadows and highlights go. At this point, you are going to need photographic references to look at (I used my husband's girly magazines *laughs*).

**** EDIT Since someone actually thought this was useful ****
For 2500 linden you can get a tool called AVPainter. This allows you to paint (in really crude ways) directly onto the 3d avatar. You can use AVPainter to rough in those muscle lines, export the graphics out of AVPainter, and pull them into photoshop as guide layers. You're not going to be able to actually use anything you did in AVPainter... it's just too crude for quality work. But, it is a great way to mark out areas on the mesh that you want to highlight/shadow. By the way, this same tool can be useful for blurring along seam lines to get that perfect match.

From here on it, it's just more of the same. I'm assuming since you are even trying this that you are a fairly decent artist who will be able to get the shading you want. Once you have the major body features defined, you can start adding yet more layers for the "bits", fingernails and toenails, eyes, etc.

Heck, I didn't even know any of that...nice read, I've learned quite a bit. Makes me want to try a bit of skinning.

Ahhh yes... join me in the dark side... *laughs*

That's what I said also. I think I'll just try a bit of skinning. 200 hours and 140mb of photoshop file later, I have a skin that I almost think is good enough to sell *laughs*. Ahh, the perennial curse of being a perfectionist.

Bless your sweet giving heart, brandi. I certainly never expected such a detailed response. That's awesome! The questions now is ... do I really want to do this? That's a LOT of work! No wonder those damned things are so expensive. But anyway, thank you so much. I appreciate your kindness.

I think like a lot of things, it's as much work as you make it. If you look at most of the skins out there, they do not have anywhere near the level of work in them that I put into mine. A lot of them, it's just rough in some shading, focus on the makeup, and that's about all there is to them. Very few get down to detailed skin textures.

My general feel is that to produce top quality anything is a lot of work. Skins are hard, but on the up side, once you have one, it's actually a lot of different products all from one base style.

0. Be an artist...

although certainly this is hugely helpful (and I did mention it at the very end *laughs*), I should point out that my skin is looking quite nice and I don't class myself as an artist. At least not any sort of art even remotely like this. What I didn't have enough skill for, I just subsituted in hours and hours of swearing and cursing.

Over my years of creating skins for SL I found that my skill at swearing and cursing progressed much faster than my skill at skin making.

We are all artists. We all have a well of creativity. It is a human birthright.

In making skins it is helpful to know photoshop and it is helpful to know color and how to create volume with shading and highlighting. OR you just might develop these very skills in the process of making skins with enough patience. "Being an artist" is not being in an exclusive club. Most every person who considers themselves an artist, no matter how skilled or successful is continuing to hone their skills and develop. Anyone reading this can do the same.

Hello

I´m new in SL and I need to know how to put my new skin, that I have just made in PS, in my avatar.

thanks.

Alix, right click on a folder in your inventory and select new/body part/skin. Then double click the newly created skin object to wear it on your avatar. Right click your avatar and select appearance from the pie menu. In the appearance editor, go to the skin tab. Along the left margin of the editor you'll see three square texture slots for head, upper body, and lower body. Drag and drop your skin textures into the appropriate slots and save your skin.

Oh gosh, I meant no disrespect nor did I mean to belittle anybody.

All I meant is that it helps a lot to have an artistic eye. Lots of people, ME ESPECIALLY, don't have an artistic eye.