Any recommended skin making tips?

[Fanta UwU]

Hello.

I recently changed my store to a skins and tattoos store (was Moon.Order but now is Soleil et Lune), starting with normal hooman skins and having fantasy skins as well.

I would like to see if anybody here has any tips or tricks in improving my skills!

I use Autodesk Sketchbook (highly recommend for UV map painting and such! More tools than GIMP in painting... and it opens large files unlike GIMP where it has given me errors) for drawing/painting the skin. GIMP is used for any color changing, filters, adjustments, etc... I do not have Photoshop. It is quite pricy for me atm.

I have attached a photo of my (currently) eyebrowless, latest skin, my fourth one. It is a huge step up from my first skin as this has highlights and blush and such. ALSO! Ignore the neckseam. Genus and Legacy aren't exactly the best combo due to material differences. It looks fine if I turn off advanced lighting, suggesting it is a materials thing.

I was also told that most skin creators are using stock photos of real face and blending them with painted pieces. I absolutely despise this notion and I refuse to do that. I prefer to paint every detail of skins I make and NEVER use stock photos and morphs. It's a pride thing.

Anyways, thoughts? Improvements?  As long as it is constructive criticism and nothing like 'omg ur so bad at this'  

OH! And windlight is TOR MIDDAY - Rebranded Skies. If thats useful  

[OptimoMaximo]

I would suggest to take a look at scanned models with their polarized  textures, meaning shadingless color from actual skins. That should give you a reference of the actual color palette in everyone's skin, so no, I'm not suggesting to use those textures for projection, but as a reference for color picking and getting an idea as to what concerns the various colors noisy placement. 

Your skin over there in the picture looks like porcelain, too smooth and mono toned. See also how bumpy skin surface is. Light placement should be the last step and should take both bumpiness and pigmentation variations into account. 

My 2 cents 😊

[Fanta UwU]

1 hour ago, OptimoMaximo said:

I would suggest to take a look at scanned models with their polarized  textures, meaning shadingless color from actual skins. That should give you a reference of the actual color palette in everyone's skin, so no, I'm not suggesting to use those textures for projection, but as a reference for color picking and getting an idea as to what concerns the various colors noisy placement. 

Your skin over there in the picture looks like porcelain, too smooth and mono toned. See also how bumpy skin surface is. Light placement should be the last step and should take both bumpiness and pigmentation variations into account. 

My 2 cents 😊

May I ask where can I find those? I'm not quite sure how to find those... Nor do I know a whole lot about that. From what it sounds like, it is a 3D model scan but ah... Again, I'm no sure how to find ones... Google Images or actual Blender files or Blender compatible files?

[OptimoMaximo]

4 hours ago, Muiregwen said:

May I ask where can I find those? I'm not quite sure how to find those... Nor do I know a whole lot about that. From what it sounds like, it is a 3D model scan but ah... Again, I'm no sure how to find ones... Google Images or actual Blender files or Blender compatible files?

You can simply Google for scanned body or head and polarized skin scan textures. Most are for sale usually as obj format with png, tga and/or tiff image formats. The key point for you is the polarized texture and displacement maps you get from the purchase rather than the model itself. It is basically an AO/specularity/ambient light free texture (albedo aka base color) you can use to pick the most relevant true skin colors and study both their placement and their type of noisy placement, and the displacement gives you a good detail source you can sample from, too. 

On the other hand, photoshop users can utilize an adjustment called "shadow and highlight" to remove all shading from a picture and get a very close approximation of a polarized skin texture. High-pass filter instead can give you a nice bump version from the skin, although it's not a reliable source for a physically based bump (it's not a real displacement map) 

Eta: 3dscanstore.com is a good site to see what the thing is. 

Edited July 8, 2020 by OptimoMaximo