Color in 2nd life

I uploaded some skin, and the result was a lot chalkier in SL than on PS7, I looked like the living dead. Anybody have the same problem? If so how to get a healthier color?

Did accidentally flatten a template overlay layer over the skin by the way?

Don't think so

I've been doing a few tattoo experiments and I need to bring up the pink a bit in the skin.

Colors in SL will always look a bit different than in Photoshop. First, SL's color gamut is a little weird. Type the same RGB or hexidecimal color value into the color pickers in PS and SL, and you'll get 2 slightly different colors. Second, and more noticeably, SL has one thing affecting colors that Photoshop never will, 3D lighting. Depending on conditions throughout the day, your skin (or anything else) can change "color" considerably, especially if you've got local lighting turned on.

All that having been said, the best skins are usually the most subtle ones. It's usually best to make them semi-transparent, which can be a little tuff to do in PS7. I'd highly recommend upgrading to 7.0.1 (free patch on adobe.com) if you haven't done so already, so that you can use proper alpha channels. It will take you a little getting used to if all you've ever known is version 7 since 7.0 was horribly flawed, but it's well worth doing. See the transparency guide at the top of this forum for more details on that.

For best results, think of skins as enhancements, not replacements for the existing avatar skin. You want to be able to see the avatar's base color through the skin. Not only is this more realistic since real skin is similarly layered (the surface of your skin is transparent; the color comes from below), but it's much easier to control as well. If you upload a texture and find that it's too light, all you'd need to do is darken the base color underneath.

where to start ...

well im not 100% official on this but PS supports 16bits per color channel and with my experiances with PS7 it LOVES to automaticly assume that your working with that fidelity. Based on that no, you will never get the exact RGB value displayed in PS.

I can take a 24 bit image made in the gimp open it up in PS7 and white turns a slightly pale green (ect) I can also take a color value from the gimp dump it into SL and it is spot on, same with Pain Shop Pro, both software packages do not go over 8 bits per channel, which is also what open GL wants.

Just for giggles i loaded up PS5 (the next oldest version i have) and it infact does not display the same troubles. and im gonna go get the PS7 patch to see if it is any better

16bits per channel is great if your working with film, or print. In video game/computer gfx its mostly dirt, while the image tends to have abit more ommph to it, it also allows for any image grain to show up, and of course in realtime your color gets screwey.. it works in "analog" mediums becuase theres not many (if at all) printers that can do 1,310,720+ pixels 100% accurate like todays LCD monitors

I generally dont use photoshop, i started learning modern gfx with painshop pro 6 (which i still use to this day) I got more serious with gfx when i started SL, between PSP and PS7 alpha channels and color differences gave me a right bastard of a headache and very quickly fell into the gimp spell, due to its ease of transparency and it does better final renders than PSP6 (psp 6 for layout gimp for the purdy)

Im also got this old school mentality, since ive been pixelmaping since the ][e and progressed over the years, I like that pixelmaped (blocksexy) look, theres a reason its called PHOTOshop, When im asked why i dont use PS i usually respond with "I dont deal with photos".

Course those last 2 paragraphs are a matter of my opinion, i would like to hear some thoughts about whats above it

What's the closest match in Photoshop? I just assumed that SL would take a gamut similar to the web, so sRGB would be most appropriate. But when I saw Chosen's comment, it made me wonder, so I thought I'd better ask.

That's the problem, I want a light skinned avi, but it turned out chalky. Most of the lighter skins I've sampled seem to be a little too yellowish for my taste. And I'm not sampling Goth skins either. I'm wanting a delicate pale pink skin.

I understand Chosen's recommendation for sheer skins -- and in fact they can be very nice -- but I also have to say that, if done correctly, fully opaque skins can be great.

Everyone has a different palette that looks good to them -- there are so many skins available in SL and one person's "tan" may not be another's. With that in mind, I suggest darkening and pinkening the skin up a bit and seeing how it looks under the SL sun.

Chosen's suggestions are good ones -- you want the skin to work with the SL light, not conflict with it, which is why subtlety is a good thing. You kind of have to find the perfect balance between detail and accessibility when making a skin.

I am in total agreement: I have, and use, CS2 for SL but not for creating skin or clothing. For that I'm GIMPing it all the way! You just can't beat how easy GIMP is to use and how well the images render in SL. It's very predictable. *sigh* Could've saved myself $900 if I had treid GIMP sooner

Interesting take on it, Osgeld. PS7 definitely had its issues, but I've never personally seen or heard of the ones you're describing. That's not to say it's not happening, of course, but have you explored the potential causes? Some of this sounds a little more like user settings issues than actual software flaws. Photoshop has a lot more options than either PSP or GIMP, which means there's a lot more margin for error. I won't dismiss the possibility that any piece of software might behave differently on different systems (they all do to an extent), but I'd be curious to have a look at how you've got PS7 configured, especially since you say PS5 is behaving properly.

For example, to address the 16-bits/channel issue, in PS7, like in other versions of PS, there's a bits per channel selector in the Image->Mode menu. Just select 8 and leave it there. It will stay that way for each new image you open, regardless of color mode. If it doesn't, I'd guess it's a bad installation. There's no reason it shouldn't.


Hmm, I've never experienced the pale green thing either. It sounds a bit like a mode issue. Are you sure you were in the same mode in both programs when you tried this experiement? Switching from RGB to CMYK or LAB can often give images the appearace of a tint.

Another strong possibility is that you've got conflicting color management policies in play. Try going to Edit -> Color Settings, and check out the optios. Make sure Advanced Mode is checked so you can see everythig. Color management is a fairly indepth subject, so I won't really get into it here. The Photoshop Help has a fairly decent explanation of it if you're curious. For now, I'd suggest making sure bothotions in Advanced Controls are unchecked. If you've got a desaturation or blending going on, that could certainly explain why things look greener in PS7 than in other apps. Also, scroll through the different RGB working space profiles. They all look slightly different. If the one you're using doesn't look right, one of the others might.


That's a very good question. I'm sure it's possible to whip up an RGB Working Space that would precisely match SL's, but you'd have to be much better at color management than I am to do it. Perhaps one of the graphics-minded Lindens could shed some light on this.


It's possible there are different artistic sensabilities in play here (your "yellow" might be someone else's fleshy pink), but since I get the feeling you're seeing this fairly often, I'd be more inclined to believe maybe it's your display. If it were one or two artists making things too yellowish, sure, but if you're seeing it more often than not, well, everybody can't be doing it. Have you got any custom display profiles in play for SL or for OpenGL apps? If you've got an nVidia card, it's possible to make different apps display very differetly from eachother (not sure about ATI). How old is your monitor? When's the last time you calibrated it? How's your gamma setting in SL?

You might want to try this. First, force daylight so you've got a consistent "noon" lighting condition in SL. Then fill the screen with a neutral gray background (a large hollowed half cylinder, colored gray, and set to full bright should do nicely for a backdrop), and then place a few objects with textures that you know should look a certain way, and play around with SL graphics settings and maybe your video settings as well until they look right. Note that I've never actually tried this experiment myself, so I can't really advise you specifically what to do for what affect, but even if I had, my system's not yours, so my experience would be different anyway.

Sorry I don't have a simpler answer. As I said earlier, color management is a big subject. All I can tell you definitively is that having viewed SL on many different computers, I know it looks a little different on every single one of them. In that sense, it's kind of like the Web. Whenever you make anything for it, you have to try your best to think about what it might look like on different systems, and create the best happy medium you can.


Very true. There are some great looking opaque skins out there. Personally, however, I just find it a lot easier to kill a skin when it's fully opaque than when it's not. When overdone, skins can look quite monstrous. I've seen plenty of people walking around with pock-marked Night of the Living Dead faces after trying to turn a photo of themselves into a skin. The scariest thing is people with those kinds of skins usually don't tend to notice how ill their av actually looks; they're so pre-conditioned to believe a photo must look like the real deal.

I find that less is more with skins. Just my preference.



Well said. Finding that balance is what it's all about.


As I said to Osgeld, don't count Photoshop out quite yet. GIMP's a great program, and I'm a big fan of it for providing so much power for free, but frankly, there's absloutely nothing it can do that Photoshop can't. The same can't be said the other way around. Photoshop has a lot more options, so again, it's got a lot more that it's possible to screw up. Check out your color management settings. There's no reason you can't make Photoshop's colors the same as what you're seeing in GIMP.

My hubby did mention that our monitor was pretty old. However, my original avi skin is a delicate pale pinky beige. I'm trying to match it, but smoother.

My money's on that in most cases.