How do you make skin have a natural glow?

[Karina Kingsley]

When creating skins in photoshop, how do you create a layer which adds a natural glow to the look ..... I am just starting attempting to make skins, they look ok - but are boring flat ..... need some dewy glow to them.

[valerie Inshan]

Ask Marianne Little, she's the best at this. :smileyhappy:

[May Caramel]

You must draw it on, just like everything. Shadows and highlights will give depth. So for the glow you must paint on lighter colors.

[Marianne Little]

I can't do anything without a tutorial to follow.

I don't add on so much stuff because I play with windlight settings instead. This tut looks good. http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/soft-focus/http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-effects/soft-focus/

You can google all sort of effects and use it with SL photos. I do it all the time, looking for a tutorial that is easy enough to follow.

If you can't afford PS, I like Picnik a lot. Using the Orton-ish effect can give nice results, especially if you try to pull the sliders and add to brightness and also let it fade 50-80%.

Edit: Sorry, for some reason I thought it was about photography. 

[Ry0ta Exonar]

Gimp has a filter called softglow and it makes a lighting effect as above. So PS should have a better filter/plug-in.

But if the original image doesn't have shading, highlight and shadow, it doesn't work.

 

[Melita Magic]

I don't know what that Photoshop setting would be.

I wish people would share their tricks of teh trade, though I can understand why they don't.

SL needs more teachers/mentors in the crafts dept.

[Shelby Silverspar]

the problem is, there aren't necessarily 'tricks' of the trade.

getting good at skin creating is hard, and requires a pretty high level of drawing skills, familiarity with the human body, musculature, how light and shadow work and throw in a good amount of skill with the software, as well as a huge amount of trial and error. learning the software alone is a big undertaking and can't be taught on a forum, but Chosen Few certainly did educate many people here. I'd search for Chosen's posts and read them all, definitely worth the effort.

there isn't just one easy answer, everyone has their own work flow and level of skill and experience with digital software; and also how much time and dedication they are willing to put into learning it. being good at doing something doesn't mean you are naturally good at teaching it, either. the ones who are making good money in SL in the skin trade are not spending much, if any, time here in these forums either.

 

[Melita Magic]

I agree with all of that.

It would still be nice.

There are little tricks such as on Mermaid Diaries with how to make silk fabric texture.

There is a program out there which can make any texture seamless (I have it, I don't remember its name offhand, but in my experience, it has yet to work perfectly.) But it would probably be easier to learn how to do it perfectly on one's own. I know there's the thing about taking parts of the texture and swapping them around or something. It all seems so convoluted. It seems like there should be a way to draw them on it to begin with.

I found a way in Photoshop but then it makes the prim see-through when that texture is put on a prim.  But it's something about drawing in 3D. Wouldn't that be the way? Make it so that the person draws beyond where the borders will be, and then the program wraps the drawing in on itself seamlessly. Without making it an alpha.

A lot of tutorials assume the person knows their way around the program tools and this is not always the case. It's a pro talking to another pro who probably doesn't need the help then.

Just little things like "I move the brush to 45 percent opacity" can go a long way. It won't compete with the teacher because there is still talent and overall skill to have or not.

*sighs*

 

 

 

[Shelby Silverspar]

the offset filter in photoshop can help make a  seamless texture, but you will have to manually repair the areas that "touch" when the image is offset. I can walk you through it if you want, either PM me or message me in-world, or you can  just search (google, youtube) for 'seamless texture making' or 'offset filter' and watch or read one of the tutorials.

[SadieRose Beaumont]

If you are using photoshop these are invaluable:

http://www.xero-graphics.co.uk/freeware.htm

Play with them and get some wonderful effects. Have fun!

[Greenlee Markova]

Hello I tried this softglow filter and i never got the result u are showing ... how did u do that?