Olila’s Second Life - Tutorials & Diary Diary & Tutorials

The Skin Tutorial - Part 2 is based on the earlier parts of the Skin Tutorial. You can find them on this page: Tutorials by Subject.

In the following parts of the SkinTutorial we are going to create some basic shadings. By “Basic Shadings” I mean both Highlights and actual darker Shades.

Again: There are many ways to do this - but I’m going to do the shadings in grayscale to start with. This is ONE way of doing it that works good for a first skin and also for a tutorial since the shadings will show. It is also a great way if you want to turn the same skin into several colours later!

For this tutorial I’m using Photoshop CS, but I’m sure you can make it work with older or newer versions, PS Elements and other graphic programs, like Paint Shop Pro, Gimp etc.

  

Open the file: Skin_Head you created in the earlier part of the Skin Tutorial. It will look something like this:

• Create a new folder (set) and rename it to: Basic Shadings.
  
  
  Create 3 new layers and put them in that folder.
• I named mine Dark - Shadings, Light - Highlights and BG Grey.




• Change the foreground-colour to a mid grey colour.
  
  
  
  
  Settings: R:149 G:149 B:149 (#959595).




• Select the Fill Tool.
  
  
  Fill the layer: BG Grey with the foreground colour.




• Open the UV-MAPS folder.
  
  
  To have ALL the guides visible is not the best when working on a skin. Turn off the ones you don’t need.
• I’m using: Middle Guidelines, Fills and UV Vector Smart.
  
  
  I also created some guides of my own (the red and green lines). You don’t need these but it makes it easier to see where the shadings should end.For this first skin: Don’t put any shadings or highlights beyond the green line - or the colours won’t match the skull or upper-body when you put the skin together.




• Select the layer: Light-Highlights.




• Use the Brush-tool and a big brushsize and draw the basic highlights on the face with a white colour. You can do this free-hand or use the mirror-technique described in Preparations Part 3.
  
  
  I used these settings:
  Brushsize: 100
  Opacity: 100%
  Flow: 100%
  - but other settings might work better for you.
  
  This is what my highlights look like.




• Select the layer: Dark-Shadings.
  
• Use the Brush-tool and draw the basic shadings on the face with a black colour. Again: You can do this free-hand or use the mirror-technique described in Preparations Part 3.
  
  
  I used these settings:
  Brushsize: 45
  Opacity: 100%
  Flow: 100%
  .
  
  
  You can use the Eraser-tool to soften the edges of the lines. That’s what I did. I used these settings:
  Brushsize: 45
  Opacity: 40%
  Flow: 25%
  .




• Back in the LayersPalette: Select the layer Dark-Shadings and turn the Opacity to about 10%.




• Now select the layer Light-Highlights and turn the Opacity to about 50%.




• Now its time to merge these layers together!
• A smart thing is to take copies of the layers before doing that. That way you can change the looks of the shadings and highlights later if you are not satisfied or want to change the skintone (but I didn’t do that here).
• Link the layers together as in the pic. Then hit Ctrl+E to merge them together.




• Now select the merged layer and turn the Blend Mode to Soft Light.

Simsalabim! The colours adjust to the skincolour! This way it’s easy to change the skintone underneath if you don’t like it or want to make the same skin in different skintones.

This is what it will look like in lighter and darker skintones:

Final words

The settings in this tutorial is just examples I used for… This tutorial! Play around with them and make it work even better.

To make this technique work with darker or lighter skintones you might have to change the Opacity-settings for both highlights and shades - that’s why it is smart to take copys of the layers before merging them together.

If you don’t have a fancy program like Photoshop you can always just paint the highlights and shadings in colours you prefer! It might take a little more time and its not that easy to change the look of them later - but actually it works the same or even better.

In the following parts we are going to do the same with the Upper and Lower body.

Tjingeling!

Tutorials by Subject

« Skin Tutorial - Part 1: Skintexture

 

Updated: December 2007