How to make skin?

[PrincessBlueMarbles]

Someone suggested I ask in the creation forums instead so here I am. 

I am looking to create Asian skin like this.

 

I see people make skin for the sims and make the avatar look very different, I was wondering if I could achieve this asian skin type with just a regular second life mesh? The skins in the second life store they are made from the base mesh right?

And people paint them?

Hope this is clear thanks for reading.

[Lindal Kidd]

Yes, skin is a bitmapped image that's painted in a program like Photoshop or GIMP and then uploaded to Second Life.  You can get free Photoshop templates to serve as a starting point for your skin creations.  Here's a link to a tutorial, and in the tutorial is a link to some templates: https://enlades.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/using-an-eloh-eliot-starlight-skin-basics-1/

 

[MilouRoux]

Unfortunately the links on Eloh Eliot's that page don't work :(, but I found downloadable links here: http://www.outworldz.com/download/ !!

[Lindal Kidd]

That's an excellent resource link, Milou!  Bookmarked.

[Nalates Urriah]

I read your question as you asking if the skin alone can make an existing mesh look Asian. Yes, to an extent. Between skin and avatar shape settings you can have an avatar face look like any ethnicity. 

We currently have Classic, Mesh, and Bento heads in Second Life. The pre-2017 non-Bento mesh heads are going to be a problem. They are much less responsive to the shape sliders, if at all. _Plus, the new thing is Bento heads, which everyone wants. Non-Bento mesh heads are out of fashion. I suggest you skip designing for non-Bento mesh heads and ONLY design for Classic and Bento.

The various brands of Bento bodies and heads provide development kits for their products. They TRY to protect their products from theft, which is understandable but ineffective. The effort does mean it is hard to get good UVMaps (templates) for some of the Bento products.