How to make skins?

[Metal]

oh man,how you guys making this skins,I wish I know how to make them too

[bla bla]

if you want to skin, get either of these paint things

1.photoshop (your comp might of came with it, i wouldn't buy it if i were you)
2. Gimp (link here>>>>> http://www.gimp.org/)

then follow the tutorials and then pretty soon you will get good! like drsaws and fishtank, + all the other good skinners outa there

[PGG]

^ Almost kinda not really.

Skinning is a little more complex than downloading a program and following tutorials. That's how you learn to skin, but that's not how you actually make the textures. As bla said, the most important part is obviously gettting a program you feel comfortable with. However, you don't have to get your hands on the full version of photoshop to make a decent skin. I made a thread a while back in skinning with programs like appleworks, paint, and graphic converter, all of which are readily available.

Next you need to learn how to use your tools. What SOME people in this community have been doing lately can be easily compared to taking a chainsaw to a rock and calling it michelangelo. Not how it works.

Before you undoubtedly go to pirate photoshop, let me tell you one thing: DON'T USE FILTERS! Start with a completely blank tank skin (also found on these forums), and then look up some tutorials that teach you both texturing and web design.

Tutorials I suggest:
http://www.bluesfear.com/tutorials/metal.htm
http://pegaweb.com/tutorials/tigerskin/tigerskin.htm
http://www.bluesfear.com/tutorials/trip.php
http://cgtutorials.110mb.com/index.php/ ... e-texture/
http://cgtutorials.110mb.com/index.php/ ... e-texture/

Go at it. Look through them, learn the tools. Only then can you start to make some respectable skins. This doesn't mean you're not going to get to make skins at first, they just need to be focussed on learning, and not looking good.

Once you feel that you know the program you have well enough, it's time to PLAN your first true blue skin. What will the theme be? I suggest either a piece of construction equipment, or something military related. Both are easy, incorporate minimal colors, and and generally match the "awesome" level that you want.

Now it's time to look up reference images. Let's say you chose to do a bulldozer. Simply do a google search for "bulldozer" and look at the pictures that come up. The general color theme is black and yellow, and there are a lot of gears on the lower side. Maybe get a companies logo, too, so you can use it in the skin (or even better, DESIGN YOUR OWN!!! :D ).

After you have all this, it's finally time to start skinning. All art, no matter computer generated or done in real life, needs three levels:
1) Base Coat- This is just the blocking in. Maybe making one panel a different color than the other, shadows, stuff like that
2) Broad Detail- These would be things like gears, wheels, and painting. I feel like most people only do this step halfway.
3) Fine Detail- Scrapes, dirt, crap, anything to give it another level. Maybe a little hook on the side, a glint of the steel, graffiti. It's all up to you. Be artistic.

Now of course this isn't the only way to go about skinning. There are plenty of other paths you could follow. There's a bunch of really bad ways, too. Say, for instance, you want to make a skin in ten minutes. You take the original skin, apply a "find edges" filter, or a "bas relief" filter, and call it done. THAT would be the bad way to do things.

Good luck! And stay away from filters. They're the spawn of satan.

[bla bla]

heh, my little post compared to ^THAT!!! omg [faints]

[drsawbones]

all good input ...but, when all is said and done if the concept sucks so will the skin.