I''m making a 3d model (modeling is easy ), but now i have to skin the sucker and my ski11z aren''t as 1337 as they should be. I''ve searched google, etc. etc. but i didn''t find any good tutorials so now i''m here to ask for help :D The problem isn''t adding (mapping) the skin itself, but to DRAW it. I just simply haven''t found any good techniques to do things like skin (looks like too much plastic when i try) and hair... Please help! n_n Maybe i''m just a bad artist... Anyway. I''ll upload a sample of what i''ve done so far later...

Gamedev doesn''t really have any skinning articles yet, though to get rid of that ''plastic'' look you might want to check this article on sprite drawing (it covers things like "The Gradient Tool Is Evil")

quote: Original post by Michalson
Gamedev doesn''t really have any skinning articles yet, though to get rid of that ''plastic'' look you might want to check this article on sprite drawing (it covers things like "The Gradient Tool Is Evil")

Yeah... I know ''bout that one. The point is that i''m working sortof like you do when you paint on a canvas, and not by a pixel by pixel basis. I make the skins approx 4x times as big and then i scale them down... But thanks anyway :D

I can''t remember where I read it but I remember a tut on textures for objects. It suggested taking a digital photo of like a rusted can or something for metal texture. Couldn''t something like that be done with human skin. Then adjust how bright or dark you want it. That might take away the plastic look some since normal human skin is not flawless. Anyways thats just a hunch, I don''t have a digital camera to test my theory out.

quote: Original post by TechnoHydra
I can''t remember where I read it but I remember a tut on textures for objects. It suggested taking a digital photo of like a rusted can or something for metal texture. Couldn''t something like that be done with human skin. Then adjust how bright or dark you want it. That might take away the plastic look some since normal human skin is not flawless. Anyways thats just a hunch, I don''t have a digital camera to test my theory out.

Heh... I just got hold of a digital camera. The quality of the pictures is really bad, though... I''ll try your suggestion out anyway.

Hey Ganryu, post here when youre done. I think we''d all be interested in whether or not that works. Could save some time trying to texture skins the right color.

have you tried polycount yet?

Technohydra :
I have seen this technique used for a model of a heart.
Basically, the guy took a picture of a piece of beek meat and used it as a texture. Without any modification, it looked pretty impressive, in fact.
Of course if you looked closely you would see that it didnt wrap seemlessly, but the idea was still brilliant and very effective.

I think if you took a closeup picture of skin, say the inside of your forearm, or your belly (some part without too much hair), you could then extract the texture by using a High-Pass filter in Photoshop.
What I mean is that you would get the details that make the skin so special, and then you could simply put that as an Overlay layer, on a color layer of your choice.
If you plan on doing realistic skin as opposed to cartoony skin, it would be a good idea to study your own skin. I cant say anything about black skin, but for white skin, it''s pretty much a colourful lot. It''s more a yellowish base, which turn to redish on some exposed parts (cheeks, nose, knuckles, etc), and more blueish on the parts were you have veins.

Really, the best thing is to look at yourself.

But anyway, technohydra has a good idea, it would be worth a try. The hard part is to find a good sample.

Good luck


Sancte Isidore ora pro nobis !

Thanks!

Can you tell me, though, what exactly is a High-Pass filter?

Man I need to get a digital camera now just to try this out for myself!