Basic skinning with photoshop.

[satanea juda]

PHOTOSHOP BASIC TIPS AND TECHNIQUES SKINNING GUIDE

Ok first off your going to need these.
Vercingetorix,PAK Extractor
http://www.twcenter.net/downloads/db/?mod=43
And this will allow you to view tga. files with windows.
http://www.nvidia.com/page/search.h...ords=dds+plugin

This is just a basic skinning guide, it will show you the tools and techniques used most when skinning with photoshop.i'll add to it when i have time.

So something simple to start with.
1.using the marquee tool pull a box around the area you want to work on.
2. add a layer, this is so you can work on a layer above the original image, and as you'll see later drop the opacity when you need to.



1. paint the boxed area with the paint brush any colour you like.
2. Add some simple shadows with the burn tool, if you can't see the burn tool right click over the area it is there. notice along the top of the window i have it set to range;highlightes, Exposure 7%, this will make the shadows subtle and easy to manage.



1.Use the Dodge tool to make some highlights above your shadows. Range;Highlights, Exposure 6%.
2. Along the top of the window go to Filters, in the drop down menu select noise, this is the easiest way to add texture to your units clothes.i have the slider at 2.03, Gaussian,Monochromatic,



1. Drop the opacity, click on the blue arrow and a slider will appear.
2. now you can see your original image underneath,While holding down Alt use the marquee tool to pull a box around the belt. now right click over the image and in the pop up select, select inverse, now you are able to work on the area outside the box.



Now use the erase tool to rub out the area over the belt and turn the opacity back up.



Next you want to merge your images together. follow the picture.



Now you have one flat image.All you need to do is go to files at the top of the window and save it,in the Nvidia pop up use the settings shown.





Ok thats it for now, not to exciting i know but i just wanted to kick this off as gently as possible, and show a few basic tools.

If you want to see my work click the sig, and say hello.

Part 2

Ok in this part i'll show you how to add a texture you have copied from the net.
use Google images to hunt for textures, cloth, slik, patterns, diamonds, tartan,anything you might want to use, i'm going to use



1.Use the Move tool to move your texture over to the skin, click and drag.
2.Its better if you texure is to big rather than to small, to resize your texture
select the Marquee tool, right click over your image and scroll down to free transform, a box will appear around your texture now resize it to the position you want. when you have positioned your texture click on the move tool, a box will appear, click apply.Your texture may be slightly out of focus, go to filters at the top of the screen and scroll down to sharpen, select sharpen.

Now for a simple technique that you will use a lot in skinning.

i want to add a part of the texture to the top of the sleave, use the Marquee toll to select an area on your texture larger than the sleave area,

you need it larger because the sleave stretches on the model, now with the move tool selected and holding down Alt drag your cursor over to the top of the sleave, you should now have a new marquee selected area,



Free transform so it fits over the top of the sleave.



If you don't like the colour you can change it, there are two ways to do this, along the top of the widow go to Image/adjustmensts/ you can use colour balance or Hue and saturation, i'm going to use hue and saturation, just move the sliders until your happy, sometimes you may have to save as close as you can to what you want and then repeat the prosses, its a bit trial and error.



At this point i've dropped the opacity as shown before so i can make a triangle at the front of the skirt from the belt line to the hem, this is because the skirt stretches in this area.Use the Polygonal lasso for this its a marquee tool (under the square one)i've added noise and shadow as shown above.



Now you can repeat the shadow and belt parts as before or add parts from other units and save as it is.

Part 3

As i've got this texture open i'll show you how to make buttons for his tunic, this is a simple technique which can be used in many ways ie; adding details to armour.

first add a new layer.
Ok right click over the Marquee tool select the circle, now make a circle and paint it grey.

1.Double click on your layer, this will bring up your Layer style box.
2.Select Bevel and Emboss.
3.Select pillow emboss.



These are the setting i use to make a button but play around with them depending on what you are doing.



As shown before hold down Alt and use the move tool to create multiple buttons. then merge and save as shown in part 1.

I've added a few touches to the finished skin but i havn't used ant techniques i other than the ones i've shown. just remember this is a basic guide if i tried to show you every detail it would take to long.



And other than the shield this one uses the same techniques to.



Part4

Alpha Channels.
Erasing parts of a unit.

1. select channels.
2. select alpha channel.
3.paint this area black.and your shield will no longer be visable in game.



Click my sig to see my work.

[runner3434]

the second link is broken

[Squid]

The link is two years old, I'm sure nvidia has moved stuff around in two years, perhaps you could go a search for dds plugin that is mentioned, you might find a newer location on the nvidia site.

[Ibrahim]

sweet!

for you

[Charles the Bold]

can u release one for paint.net i've been try this tutorial out on that but got no luck

[Recoil]

what's the name of the dds plugin that's needed? when i go on google and type in 'nvidia dds plugin' and click on the nvidia link it comes up with a bunch of tools to download, not sure which i need. cheers