Skins: Can They be Too Real?

ohh those are nice chip!! i might try to contrast the face of the white gladiator myself (oh that's beowolf?? i didn't see the flick - maybe seems to look a little under-contrast a bit to me, but that would make it more 'cartoony' of course... the blackskins are lovely!!) there are not enough dark skins in sl... :\\

Oh god, don't even go There.

Chips skins have always been very cherished things in my inventory. I stopped wearing the first skin I ever bought from chip a few years back mostly because the hair and clothing and surroundings hadn't caught up to it yet...hmm..

/me gets out her skin and dusts it off...hmm its an antique /me hugs it like a baby blanket and smiles.

His ethnic skins rawk too!

~Lana Tomba

For the most part, trying to make things real in SL ends us up such as NASA going to the moon and us w/ cheap calculators.

I was in a park just hanging out and people watching recently when a gorgeous brown skinned Avi strolled by me. I zoomed in closer and was amazed at how life like she looked. Not creeped out mind, just amazed.

I thought to myself, "That's Chip Midnight, gotta be". I IM'd her and politely asked...she said, "oh of course hun, who else?"

Your skins are just fab Chip. I think the level of realism is wonderful and truly artistic.

To the OP...

My normal skin is from Naughty - I also have one from RAC that I just love. I collect skin demos like some girls collect shoes! I love trying all the different looks. Realism doesn't bother me, I'd have 2 or 3 of Chip's if I could have found one that went well with my shape. I recently found a very beautiful hand painted skin from an obscure little shop; makes my Avi look like a china doll.

I like them all. I only wish I could change my look in RL so easily.

I've recently drifted into wearing a handpainted skin virtually full-time from a Second Skin Labs photoskin that I tought I'd never replace...

OK true... I still dig it out and wear it, but with the red eyebrows, it does limit the hair colors I can get away with wearing...



Now don't get me wrong... both have their places, and there are some fantastic photoskins out there that 'fit in' to Sl without standing out or looking weird... personally I own a couple of Chip's skins, a Second Skin Labs number that I've worn for 9 of my 15 months in-world, and one from Adam and Eve, as well as handpainted ones from Nomine, Boingo and Cre@ctions...

the ones people seem to have trouble with are those that have not been "normalised" to blend with the usual range of hues used for skins in SL... hence they appear bright purple, or just plain wrong...

As it standsI feel a move towards "load up your own" photo skins is only going to lead to ore and more freaky looking avs..

I quite like not looking like myself, blemishes and all...

And speaking of "The Shining" - my partner and I attended a class the other night that was purported to teach how to make photorealistic skins using any type major photo editior. On the board were examples of different faces - one of them was that eerie face shot of Jack Nicholson when he was breaking through the bathroom door. *shudders*

~ ~ ~

Sidenote: Ended up not staying for the class because when the class materials were handed out, I didn't receive them. Upon asking why, the rather garbled answer boiled down to:

Czari declined the group offer (yah, I tend to do this when I just step foot in class, club, store, what-have-you and without a word of greeting am hit with "Join this group", and since she is your partner (now the dude decides I'm either non-existent or deaf so he's addressing my partner) I don't send materials to partnered women 'cuz (yes he said "cuz" I don't want them to think I'm hitting on them.

Also want to emphasize this was not one of the established schools/classes in SL, but apparently some dude who thought he could teach.

My response: TP away

I bet they don't want the skins to be too realistic on the teen grid - acne and all that!!!

I haven't has one single spot since I've been in SL.

Above is a photorealistic skin Demo "summer" with photorealistic hair from Chip Midnight,

below my usual skin Vogue from Celestial Studios.

If memory serves that's one of my earliest skins (my second or third) done before we had any offline previewing or downloadable avatar models. It was pretty realistic compared to what was available back then, but compared to more recent works, not so much. I don't think I'd call it photorealistic. The hair also dates back to the days before prim hair. Ah the good ol' days, when dinosaurs still roamed the grid.

I just bought the hair and skin demo at your shop today (?) ....do you have any more recent ones you recommend as more photorealistic for blonde ladies like me? Maybe I went to the wrong location? Or do you specialize in men's skin?

All my skins are available in both locations where I sell skins (except my fantasy skins which are only at my Freelon store). Almost all the ones I've ever done are still for sale and not all the ones I do are hardcore realism. I try to offer a range to suit different tastes. I still like that skin and the hair, so don't get me wrong. The only real difference between my newer skins and older skins is that I've learned to pack a lot more detail in. I used to have to limit the detail to keep seams manageable.

If I had to list mine that are the most photoreal it would be my black skins, Serendipity, SunKissed, Oiled, and Sweet Cream. Serendipity is nice for a blonde pale compection. The more pale skins, even really detailed ones, are subtle just because they're pale. They still have some very fine details but they don't show as much as they would on a darker skin.

Someone posted some lovely shots of SunKissed in the gallery the other day (/53/c7/229580/2.html#post1866625). That's one I'd definitely consider pretty photoreal.

I tend to only retire old stuff when I need to reclaim the wall space. I always figure if people still enjoy them it doesn't matter much if I made them yesterday or four years ago. At the end of the day all that matter is how much you like the skin you choose, not how real or unreal others might think it is or when it was made.

Thanks so much for the information. I am back in your store in world and on the hunt. I really appreciate your suggestions. I did see the gal with the Sunkissed skin in the gallery and was so jealous! I want to be beautiful too! And photo realistic! Thanks again.



Above I am trying on Sunkissed. I love it! And got rid of the dinosaur hair.

Aww, you know you can customize that skin with several different eyebrow colors, right? The Natural Red is simply a made over version of the PJ-1. The makeovers make the skins look entirely different, but they are the same base skin. Incidently, those skins are mostly hand painted. Not much in the way of photo sampling was done except for the ears, lips, and privates. My newer skins are much more heavily photo detailed.

Quite true. Simply because one posses the knowledge to upload a few textures onto an avatar, a skin/clothing artist that does not make. On the other hand, we judge our creations SO harshly because we have reality to compare SL to, and it never quite measures up (if realism is what we are expecting). Somewhere along the line, a great while back, I had to calibrate my expectations with the limitations of the SL avatar. That seamed to help quite a bit with my work.

Chip if memory serves me right...hehe you model most of these skins?..or are some of these girls new? I did recognise one avatar

~Lana Tomba

I've Never really been hung up on what people look like. I was always taught, and in life found it to be the one real truth, that it does not matter what someone looks like, It's what is in thier heart that matters.

Now, in SL we live in a world of Furries, Robots, tinies Goreans and dark elves. One of my friends is a 12 foot tall Bird. I've done Business with a blue skinned man who is more technology than organism. I've flown Unaided my Machinery, and I've gone swimming in Molten Magma.

In all of this Magnificent Fantasy world i think the thing that has concerned me LEAST is whether someones Skin Appears too real.

Angel.

hmm some people should look at photos sometimes, or the guy/girl next door.
i dont see anything "photorealistic" here

edit: dont wanna sound rude, just think the term "photorealistic" is used way too often these days...

I redid all the boxes a year and half to two years ago, but I did them myself and I have a definite knack for making fugly shapes, hehe. A friend of mine offered to do them (she did the excellent boxes for my black male skins) but she's been so busy with paid work that it just hasn't gotten done. Im really lazy about packaging.

Good luck on your hunt, Abby!

Namssor, you should post pics of some of yours. You have some mind blowingly photoreal ones.

There's only so much you can do in SL. Light doesn't interact with avatars the way real light does with human skin. All we can do is fake it, and it'll only look as good as the photos it was made from under certain lighting conditions (that lasts maybe ten minutes). So photoreal in SL doesn't really mean photoreal and never will. Maybe in 10 years when game engines are capable of real time subsurface scattering. Some engines are faking it fairly well with pixel shaders, but nothing really comes close yet, and certainly not SL.

please see my edit chip

Saw it after I posted. I agree with you. It is somewhat overused and I'm as guitly of it as anyone. I'll start putting a * after it, hehe.

To be honest, my inexperienced eye just says "one has too much makeup, one doesn't", if you'll excuse me.

OMG, me too. I guess I'm just not good with faces and such, I can't tell the difference between a lot of the avatars out there. I've been shopping forever for a human skin (finally got one I like) and the only difference I could see was the make-up - usually too much for me. I just don't have the eye...

Someone did send me Chip's Beowulf av though, and I thought Wow! Fantastic! I could finally see what details mean when it comes to avs. I'm not a guy, though...

Chip I really want you to see this guys skin I just bought..just to get your opinion..his stuff is really impressive but i know how you skin crafters like to network and he mighjt need a masters advice.

~Lana Tomba

Orfeu posted a nice version of my Vince skin in prim hair and costume .

Some stuff off my web site:




Lately I've been doing a lot of custom avatar portraits.