Skin Highlights/Shadows

Hi there everyone. Was wondering if I could get a lil help with the process involved in making skin highlights and shadows... I've made my skin as it is right now, but the main thing missing from it is the lil added shadows and highlights on it. I've tried everything I can think of, apart from manufacturing an entire skin suit by hand. Which i'm hoping isnt the neccessary method.. but, each attempt fails.

I've tried making slightly transparent highlights, but those dont much work cause the alpha layer strips all the white, which most highlights are heavily comprised of. If anyone out there can help me out a lil please by pointing me in which direction I need to start from for this, i'd be most appreciative. Thank you.

There are doubtless many ways of doing this. I like to use a three layer setup as follows:

[Hue/Saturation Adjustment]
[100% tranparent Hard Light]
[50% base grey]

Then I paint the hightlights/shadows into the middle layer; lighter than 50% for highlights, darker for shadows.

I'm working on a different system now that should provide much better results and more flexability, butI'm going to keep that secret for now.

Hope this helps, the techniques i use are.
layer:
1.base color (100% Opacity)
2.Noise Base color(75% Opacity)
3.Noise copy shadows (using burn & smudge tools)(75% Opacity)
4 Noise Copy Highlights(using dodge & smudge tools)(75% Opacity)
5.several detail layers (make up, nipple, genitals, nails, bellybutton, etc etc)(90-100% Opacity)

(Opacity may varey, just eyeball it)

end results for hand painted skins below

hehe, thankya alot for the response ^.^ but... I hate to be painful, but, photoshop is really foriegn to me ^.^. can anyone give a real quick runover about where these layers are an stuff, anything vital to know about it. The rest I can work out from there.

Usually i'm used to using Macromedia Fireworks for all my graphics designing, even though its based for internet design, it really does great for what I need mostly. However, it cant save to tga's.. so, I have trouble in the highlighting process.

I'll add an attachment of one of my latest designs. Made it all in Macromedia Fireworks. All from a plain brown fill ^.^ ((hehe, i'm a lil proud of that =D)) purely from scratch =). But yeah, I can make that kinda stuff... but for the life of me, cant make a single highlight on my skin. -PS, that top is on sale at my shop ^.^ one of the few things I have there at the moment. But, slowly filling it =).

layers have to be made of course. If photoshop isnt foriegn to you, just make sure the windows layers is visible, then you can work off selected layer you chose from, select layers add new then add what highlights you want to it.
The tecnique I use, I just duplicate my noise layer and use a dodge brush for a more natural highlight.
you can change the opacity in the layers window.

Hope that helps.

When you say hand painted, Do you mean that the entire skin texture is made and uploaded? Or, are jus' the highlights uploaded? Cause, if its making the entire skin, I can do that with my eyes closed..

ok sorry for trying to help since you can do it with your eyes closed.

That isnt what I meant... =/ All I was asking, is are you making the entire skin, or jus' the highlights... When I said I can do it with my eyes closed, i was refering to making an entire skin. As for that, I have what i'm working with and can apply the highlights directly... but, i'm still lost to if this is the process used. Cause making an entire skin would be alot more work then simply making the highlights as a transparent layer to complement the base skin.

By no means did I wish to upset you, i'm simply trying to get an answer to a question that no one really wants to answer directly =(. So, sorry... and I do appreciate the help.

In my opinion, and probably other peoples as well, highligths and shadows are part of the "entire skin". You make a 2D image that will be streatched around a 3D object; if you darken or lighted the 2D image it will darken or lighten the corresponding bit of the #d model to make it look better. Until that shading is added you don't have an entire skin; just a base colour.

I think your insult was accidental based on a different understanding of "entire skin".

Thankya =) hehe, yeah, I decided to do some experimenting by manufacturing a full skin ^.^ with some good results =). I dont know why I didnt jus' do it in the first place.

By entire skin by the way, I meant using a skin colored fill on the entire template, and applying the highlights to the fill color.

The other alternative, being the highlights and shadows alone without skin. Like transparent light and dark tones that'll increase the features of the natural skin color. Which, would possibly be easier to do, if it wasnt such a pain in the butt to make an alpha layer that doesnt stip out the white from your texture ^.^. Once again, sorry you misunderstood my meaning katanablade, I at no point meant to upset you.

the difference is 6/20/2004 and 12/16/2005 in second life.

I just won't bother to give her any more advice.

And i'm not going to try apolagise anymore for something I didnt do wrong.. =/ If other people can see I wasnt trying to insult you, then its your problem if you refuse to see it too.

there is no need to apologize to me again, I am the one who tried to help and failed.
Apparently you are more than capable...
I don't have a problem, I can read. I wish you well with your search and I hope someone can give you the answer you are looking for.

(Added note:All previous advice, tips, and secrets posted by me to this thread has been removed)

Asyrina, I have seen the kind of thing you're talking about. I don't remember where or who unfortuanately, but that at least shows that it's possible.

I haven't played around with it myself yet - but here's my guess if it helps.

Definitely use Photoshop or GIMP - I don't recommend Fireworks for SL.
Load up a skin without highlights or shadows and with a fairly neutral skin tone.
On a new layer paint in your highlights and shadows. Use only white, black and solid colours (like some blue on the chin etc) - no shades of grey or pale colours. Use a brush with very low opacity to keep it subtle and partially transparent, making multiple strokes if neccessary (think of a RL airbrush with low ink flow)

When you're done switch off all the layers but the highlight/shadow one. Make sure you switch off the skin as well.
Duplicate the highlight/shadow layer a few times. This is where you'll have to play around, but I'm guessing about 8 duplicates should do the trick. What we're doing here is strengthening the highlights and shadows to solidify them and prevent halos. You can merge these duplicates together to clean up, but leave the original layer seperate.
Ctrl-Click on the original highlight/shadow layer thumbnail to load its alpha mask as a selection.
Go to the channels palette and hit the button at the bottom to "save selection as channel" - this creates the alpha channel which not only masks off the shadows and highlights from the rest of the skin, but also stores the subtlety from the painting.

Save as 32bit TGA and upload. Apply on top of your base skin. And please let me know how it works