Photorealistic Skins

I really want to make a photorealistic skin of myself for my avatar. I've been looking around for any info on this type of project and have found a few things to help. I have the templates, but I don't really understand the whole process of making the skin. If anyone has a tutorial or can make one, please let me know. Or if you make PR skins for cheap(free)LOL, also let me know. Thanks

Thanks alot! That is exactly what I was looking for. I'm assuming to make the upper and lower body is just about the same way?

So i started to follow these steps and it was working pretty well. But I'm using GIMP instead of photoshop and there are some minor differences. In step 2 it says to use the "liquify" filter, but there is no filter named liquify in GIMP. Does anyone know what the equivalent is in GIMP?

Best I could work out was to make copy of the area to 'liquify' > new layer,
Use perspective tool to shape and then alpha mask to blend in.
Might need a few selections and layers. Then merge them.
I haven't worked out how to see any other layers while transforming. Use guides instead.

Maybe someone else can point to a liquify type plugin?
Or how to see other layers while transforming?

I don't actually have Gimp installed, but I saw this http://docs.gimp.org/en/plug-in-iwarp.html
It looks very similar to the liquify filter but you'd have to look into it.

Assuming you do find a liquefy equivalent for GIMP, you're going to run into more trouble shortly thereafter. Step 11 utilizes a transformation warp, which I don't think GIMP has. I haven't used it in a while, so it might, but I don't think it does. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

In any case, I would suggest you not focus quite so closely on the exact procedures of the tutorial. Look instead at its concepts. In each step, what's different about the current picture than the last? If you don't have a tool that works the same way as the one the author used, that doesn't have to be a show stopper. What can you do creatively with the tools you do have in order to achieve a similar result?

For example, maybe instead of pushing and pulling parts of the image around with the Liquefy filter, you instead use a combination of smudging, cloning, and hand painting. Maybe instead of changing the shape of a selected area with the transformation warp, you instead cut & paste a few pie-slice-shaped pieces of the thing, rotate them into place, and then use the clone stamp to fill in the gaps. These are the kinds of things we all had to do before these tools were added to Photoshop, after all. It takes a lot longer, and it's much more of a pain to do, but it works.

Remember, tutorials are all well and fine for walking through procedures. But you should never assume that the procedures themselves are what you're supposed to be learning from them. Focus on the the concepts, and the procedures become elementary. While procedures are of course important, always keep in mind that any given one is merely an example of the 10,000 different ways in which any particular result can be achieved. And while specific procedures are subject to change as newer and better tools are developed, concepts always remain the same.




On a side note, you may want to consider that if you want the savings of time and effort that come with the most full featured tool set you can get, that's why Photoshop costs the amount of money it does. You do get what you pay for. GIMP, to its authors' great credit, usually does a pretty good job of incorporating equivalents to almost all of Photoshop's tools, eventually. But it's always a few versions behind. You might want to think about how quickly the time savings might pay for the monetary expenditure to get the more powerful program.

Thanks to all of you for your advice and tips. After toying around for a while I quickly discovered that not all of the tools in photoshop are in GIMP. Also, some of them just have different names, but perform similar actions. I am by no means a graphic artist, but I have found that is easier to learn from trial and error. My project is starting to look just like the tutorial and I am happy with my results as of now. One more question. Do any of you know if you can or how to make a pattern out of a portion of skin from the image? Similar to steps 7-9.

Making patterns is easy in GIMP.
After you have the area you want selected, select "copy" under the edit menu ( or use "ctrl+c".
After that, go back to the edit menu and select "Paste As" and "New Pattern".
Refresh the "Pattern" selection and you should be good to go.
You can edit the pattern just like a regular image ( there is an option in the pattern selector to open the pattern as an image).
One thing to remember:
GIMP does not make a pattern tilable automatically. You will probably need to run it through a couple of filters to get it to tile properly,