Creating Skins From Real Photos

Hello all,

I'm sure this was probably mentioned quite a number of times here, but have not found a thread with a plethora of methods and/or tips and tricks. I was wondering if any of you skin designers that have had excellent results have created a skin based on real world photos. Obviously a good bit of touching up and modifications would need to be made, but I feel this might be a good way to enter the realm of custom skinning.

For those that have, and most here I imagine are using PS, and PSP, what sort of recommendations do you have for specific parts -- I believe there is such a thing as "too" detailed, so how do you tone it down to an accetpable and realisitc skin without being too overdone? In regards to digital photography, is it suggested to take a number of images of specific regions, or is one good photo with excellent lighting good enough? Links to specific tutorials offering approuches to this sort of thing are also welcome, and pictures of finished results in SL based on this sort of method would be greatly appreciated.

Also, those that oppose this method for skin creation, I'd like to hear your reasons why this may be an inefficient method.

Thanks everyone!

I don't think any method is bad unless you are violating copyrights. The best thing to do is dive into the application of choice, PS, PSP, or GIMP, and **LEARN** what you can do with the templates and textures you choose to use. Along the way I guarantee most of the questions you ask will be answered. Patience will pay off.

Most of my skins start with RL photographs as a base. Then I use a lot of cloning and overpainting. They end up about 50% photo, 50% hand painted. If you want to use this method, here's a few pointers (for Photoshop since that's what I use).

Get to know the Liquify filter. It's the best tool for warping images to fit the templates.

Get to know layers and layer masking. It's the best method for blending parts of multiple images into a cohesive whole.

You'll have a hard time finding photos with even lighting from enough angles, so get to know the dodge and burn tools, and use adjustment layers with masks to alter the brightness & contrast, and hue & saturation in areas where your layers mismatch badly.

The downside of starting with photographs is that you'll spend more time trying to find source material than you will working on the actual skin. Right now I'm working on my first series of skins that don't use any photographic source at all.

As Nam said, practice, practice, practice, and then practice some more.

Hi Kris,

I use Photoshop to create skins, but i don't make them from rl pictures. Mostly because i don't like the 'real' skins on avatars (lots of people look like they just stood up from the grave) with often out of the blue shadowing, freckles etc.

When i did artschool i spend two years on human anatomy, wich helps when making a skin as i have an idea what is 'supposed' to be under the skin as bones and muscles. If you start with a blank template it's fairly easy to build up a skin, if you use a rl picture it's kinda hard to match what is on the picture with the template and later on to your avatar.

For example, the rl pictures will show dept on the skin in 2d because of the light (no matter wich light you use), you gonna use this on a 2d template wich will show result on a 3d avatar. You could easily see what i mean if you would see a template for a poser figure.

If you're good with Photoshop (that is really first requirement ) buy a good book about human anatomy and study what is that breast and belly and butt. Then start from nothing, color your template in a skin color, add a layer and do the shadowing, tone it up or down (use layer transperacy) till you think it's right.
Then work on the details like nipples, pubic area, belly button and nails. Take a picture and look at it, reproduce it on another layer of your template.
To give it the warmth of a real skin, add a layer with noise and texture, make transperant too, this will make your skin fluent and complete.

For make ups same, use layers and let your creativity do the job!
Hope this helps you out some!

Sorry if my grammar isnt good, English isnt my native.

Thanks for the feedback. I am no stranger to Photoshop, have been using it off and on for about 7 years now. I must say though, working with this stuff is unlike anything I have ever done, which is what intrigues me about it. Most of my experience derives from web development, digital photography and image manipulation. I have yet to dive into anything 3d, until now. Much of what I used to enjoy doing was photo restoration (removing scratches, speckles, lighting, new scenery with transparancies, etc.) so I have the 2d mindset for now. Considering I am comfortable in this area, this is why I decided to start working with something that is familiar ground, photography.

That being said, I never really had to "draw" anything before, it was mostly image manipulation. I read a lot of good feedback here, and decided to order a Wacom Intuos tablet (I've never used or even seen a tablet before) and hopefully this will aid in the actual creation of drawn content.

Fortunatley, I think the experience I do have should carry over to some degree, but it looks like I'm going to have to learn a whole new line of tricks. I will experiement with some of the tools and methods mentioned here, and hopefully some people will have some more insight to offer. I'm also going to be getting a copy of Poser 6 for testing before uploading to SL. Hopefully that won't be much of a headache, haven't played with that software in ages.

Thanks again!

Good luck Kris You'll LOVE the Wacom tablet. It might take you a while to get results you're happy with but I find the whole process to be a lot of fun. Your previous experience with PS will definitely serve you well.

Nice to see you around Sl again Cuz ... Hugzz

My Wacom Intuous tablet cuts my drawing time in HALF when I'm doing skins. It's great! The pressure sensitivity is a real help for realistic shading (dodging and burning) or smoothing out your alphas.

They're expensive, but worth it.

Personally, I prefer to draw skins/clothing/hair completely myself, but then I start with sketches in my sketchbook so a photo wouldn't be much help anyway. Using photos is a good way to start.

I am soooooo jealous of those of you who have Wacom tablets.

*glares*

I love my Wacom tablet! Never want to do without it! You can get the basic model fairly cheaply, like here from CompUSA.

-Ghoti