The Be Izzall, End Rizzall of Skinning Tutorials

[BabyEater]

I've had a few emails requesting that I make a skinning tutorial.

Well, I consider myself to still be a newb, but at the same time, I'm always whining to myself about how there are few tutorials that relevantly translate as they pass through the annals of the left side of my brain, which incidently is the only side I use.

It seems most tutorials, or 'tuts' as those in the industry call them, are written as if the reader is expected to be some sort of habitual codemonkey who does these kinds of things all the time. In fact, many are left on the first step, oggling their monitors, drooling while their brains flatline because they've been caught in an endless loop after trying to figure out exactly what "tut" means. It's a different kind of thought process. The cut-corner, bad spelling that is typically equated with hacker (or hax0r) communiation just doesn't make a lot of sense with most.

So can a tutorial be made that can actually be understood by anybody? Can said tutorial be so in-depth that it can actually offer some artistic instruction?

This may be a challenge worth under-taking, but there are a lot of things I haven't figured out myself. I wonder if you all might think it a good idea, and if anyone would be willing to rally information if needed.

I'm giving it some thought and making a list of important topics to cover. What I'd really like is everyone's opinions and suggestions of topics to cover.
Good idea?

BabyEater.

PS: I totally thought I put this in the General section. Consarnit.

 

[SaD]

Great Idea BabyEater

We can get them up at SkinCity in an own section called "tutorials" , if you guys want it.
Don´t know how fast we can add them (For sure , it will take some weeks) , but at the end we can have a great collection of tutorials (with the endless amount from Identity Crisis).

Anyways , it´s a great idea to start from "I have the game and wants to skin..." .

 

[_MAGGOT_]

Well... how bout the thing i need help on.. keeping the proper shading on the skin, but getting rid of existing markings and things, to get a skin that looks like it was actually designed to work with the model. If the skin was all one colour with no distinctive markings like stripes and text, I could easily convert it to a blank white skin with all neccessary highlighting and shading, but I can't do this with the existing skins. Whats the best way to go about removing the details and getting it all to a common colour on which to base the new skin, while maintaining texture?

Man, I really need to work on my communication skills, I confused myself with this post... lol

MAGGOT

 

[BabyEater]

I'll let you in on a secret for me. It has to do with Photoshop though (I haven't used PaintShop in years). The stamp tool. The stamp tool is my best friend in the entire world... that and the burn tool. The stamp tool clones a certain area and paints it over top another. Whenever I want to get rid of a tattoo or something, if I'm not going to repaint the skin from scratch (ugh), I stamp tool the tattoo away. As for painting in your own contours, the burn tool (the little hand with thumb and index finger together) and the dodge tool (little black circle on a stick) rock. One makes things darker and one lighter, variable to whether you're attacking shadows, highlights, or midranges.

T.

 

[J2a]

Yep. Stamp tool is also very useful if you want to make alpha channels for shaders. Another thing I love is making parts of the skin invisible. This can give the old model a whole new look. I'm not very familiar with Photoshop yet but here's how I do it: Make a new transparent image size of 1024x1024 (or whatever the size of your skin is). Then paste your skin over the transparent layer. Now you can use eraser tool to make the parts that you want invisible by simply removing them. Selecting and deleting parts is even better way to do this. Save the skin as png. If you do this, you should mask the skin in unrealed.

 

[_MAGGOT_]

I'm familiar with photoshop, and the stamp tool, but I never really knew what the dodge and burn tools were about... thanks man! Can the same be achieved with the dodge and burn layer settings?

MAGGOT

 

[BabyEater]

Sort of. The tools allow you to paint effects on locally. The layers will make it so you can use your airbrush tool to paint on a layer that will do it entirely.

 

[BabyEater]

I put up a home for my skins today. Sort of a shabby-chic little home on the web. It's been nice reverting to my cheesier/lamewad design for a day. Anyway, I think I may host the tutorials there, but I would be completely and totally honored to have them hosted here as well.

Also, SaD, I linked my downloads to SkinCity, but to the listing pages, not the download mirrors. I didn't wanna be a butt, but I still wanted to direct folks here because this site rocks. Is that cool and would you mind if I threw a link to SkinCity's homepage somewhere?

 

[arsenicpants]

great site design

is that you on the front page?
heeheehee, awesome

 

[BabyEater]

indeed. and although I do have a big noggin, it's not quite as big as portrayed there.

 

[SaD]

Anyway, I think I may host the tutorials there, but I would be completely and totally honored to have them hosted here as well.
..
Also, SaD, I linked my downloads to SkinCity, but to the listing pages, not the download mirrors. I didn't wanna be a butt, but I still wanted to direct folks here because this site rocks. Is that cool and would you mind if I threw a link to SkinCity's homepage somewhere?

No problem.I´m honored , if you link SkinCity .Send me a banner and the URL to your webpage in a mail and I put you in SC´s Linklist.
Also no problem with the downloads.Thanx for asking.

Would be great to host your tut´s . I hope Marco (SkinCity´s coder) finds the time to expand our AdminBackend and I can start hosting Tutorials.

 

[BabyEater]

awesome. if it's easier, you can take the banner and URL from my signature. it's all i have so far.

 

[SaD]

awesome. if it's easier, you can take the banner and URL from my signature. it's all i have so far.

Done .

Linklist

btw : Your banner @ your skinpage is a big and ugly red X .

 

[Nalid]

Oi.. I can't wait! I mentioned in at least four posts now, that I really want to learn how to skin.... or at least how to 'begin'. I would love to have the chance to add to the community some... ecspecialy since my mapping venture failed. (I keep having ED issues that are video'card related.) >_o

Soo.. <grins> Get t'work ^_~ Thousands of wannabe's out there are counting on ya.

 

[BabyEater]

I'm workin', I'm workin'! :-D I've got a basic tutorial down, but it's not in-depth at all. It's ultra-basic for those who've done it with other games before. The bigger one will take some time. I'll try to get the first one up this week, though.

And thanks for the note on the banner, SaD. My html app's save functions got whacked by some errant keystroke or something, and it insists on updating my links when I don't want it to, which provides you with a nice little harddrive link. ::rolls eyes::

 

[SaD]

And thanks for the note on the banner, SaD. My html app's save functions got whacked by some errant keystroke or something, and it insists on updating my links when I don't want it to, which provides you with a nice little harddrive link.

That´s why I use teh mighty Notepad .