Disclaimer: I am using Photoshop 6.0. If you're using some
other program, it very well may have the same features, they just might
not be in the same place, and they might not even be there. Look around,
experiment. But don't ask me, I haven't used other programs, so I don't
know, sorry!
Also, I've been using photoshop for about 5 years now, doing illustration
work, and 3d animation textures, so if this is too advanced, let me know
what I should change, or clarify, and I may get to it.
email: andrewgd@imaginationispower.com
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| Step |
Directions |
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Photoshop |
Character Tool |
| 1) |
Alright, lets start. I'm going to use the male_belt mesh that you
can download off of www.freedomfans.com.
First we've got the base skin. I wanted to give this guy a belt,
so modified the base skin and added a rectacle where the belt would
be.
You'll need to find a copy of Gryphon's Male_Belt base skin for
this.
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| 2) |
Some of them start out in greyscale, some are skin
colored, depending on who made them. The way I do the skins, it makes
more sense to change them/keep them in greyscale. |
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| 3) |
Result:
You may want to adjust the brightness and contrast of this, to
make the lines of the muscles more pronounced, or less defined.
Play around, and get the look you want for his muscles.
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| 4) |
I find it very helpful to use the wireframe image on
top of this, and toggle back and forth between the final skin, and
the wireframe to see where things fall on the 3d figure. Most models
come with a .jpg version of the wireframe skin. You'll need to convert
this to a .tga, rename it, and put it into a "wireframe"
directory in the skins folder. I then inverse it in photoshop (command
is under beneath desaturate), so the lines are black. |
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| 5) |
Now to set up the final .psd file to work on the skin.
Drag the wireframe image on top of the greyscale image, and make sure
it fills the image. Then change the layer passthrough mode from Normal
to Multiply. What this does is adds the values of the layers together,
thus transfering the black down, and making the white (in effect)
transparent. |
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| 6) |
This step is a little advanced, and you can skip it. But since
you're now working with layers, you can only save it as a .psd if
you want to preserve the layers. I do this, but then I create an
action that hides the wireframe layer, saves the image as the flat
skin .tga, and then reveals the wireframe layer again. This saves
me a lot of time of having to go back and forth saving, creating
a copy, renaming it...etc....
It also allows me to hit one button, then switch to the character
tool, and see the changes I have done.
If you don't get it, just move on.
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| 7) |
Ok now, who do we want to create? I'm going to go with
one of my favorite, Savage Dragon's very own Star. Get plenty of reference.
Depending on the character, there should be a lot online. (This guy
was kinda hard to find though.) |
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| 8) |
Now, in the .psd file, create a blank layer. Rename
it "Color". Select the areas you want to fill in with a
color using either the lasso or the polygon select tool. Fill them
with the tone you need. Star's costume is mostly blue, so I started
with that. If you have the wireframe visible, you can see just how
far out you should bring your color, so it covers the skin. |
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| 9) |
Continue doing this, until you've got all the areas
colored you want. I try to make separate layers for each color. You
don't really need to worry about the muscle texture at this point,
if you're using the wireframe as your guide. |
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| 10) |
Here's the layers that make up the image you see above.
If someone really wants a copy of my final photoshop file, just for
reference, I may post it, but I don't really see the need. |
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| 12) |
Now, here's where the greyscale base skin comes in.
Drag the layer up, so its the top layer of the image. Make sure your
wireframe is off. Change the opacity to multiply, just like you had
with the wireframe layer. You'll see that the muscle shades now pass
through, down onto the textures. |
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| 13) |
You'll notice that his eyes and facial features show through, which
I don't really want for Star. Also, parts of his costume aren't
spandex, so the skin shading wouldn't show through. So I'll just
paint those out with a flat color.
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| 14) |
And thats it! Enjoy your skin! |
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I do want to strongly encourage people, if they have the time and
skills, to make their own base skins. That way we'll have a much
higher diversity of what characters look like. I myself hopefully
will be doing some soon, only making them look more like comic book
inking and shading.
Thus far, the only sericous skin I've created was Hellboy, which
you can get here, and I like how it looks like something right
out of the comic.
You can download my Star skin here.
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