Hello there! I've been asked a handful of times how I skin, my tips, techniques, and whatever else in regards to my skinning. I've decided to sit down and compile my style into a guide, to aid those who'd like to know more. If you are going to be following this guide, I beg of you - take elements, but not the entire style. One of the major reasons my skinning is the way it is because I've added my own flair and twists.
Here's a link to another tutorial on how to use MCSkin3D by Goldifish.
Some FQAs regarding my skins:
Q: What program do you use?
A: MCSkin3d - it's a program developed by paril from planetminecraft, but has since been absorbed into the actual site, so it doesn't receive any updates. It's a fairly easy to learn program, and I taught myself in only a couple of hours. There's a 3D mode, 2D mode, and a hybrid where you're able to see both.
Q: How long does it take you to make a skin?
A: In actuality, skinning doesn't take me too long. A full skin that I expend a LOT of effort into can take me anywhere from 2-4 hours purely of time spent skinning. The reason my skins take so long to be delivered, however, is motivation - I often find myself lacking any real will to skin, and as such, they sit half completed in my saves.
Q: Will you make me a skin?
A: If you pay me and it's a good concept, I'm sure something can be worked out :-D
Finding Shadows And Highlights
Here is a skin I've made previously, outfitted with highlights and shadows. The light blue is where I typically try to keep the shadows, and the light green is where I try to put the highlights. It'll differ on every skin, mainly because of the layout of clothing. For female skins, I do my best to put shadows below and above the waistline, beneath the bosom, below the puff of sleeves, and below the chin. For highlights, I do my best to put them atop the bosom, on the outermost part of the sleeves, and the middle of the dress. For male skins there isn't as much of a science, merely wherever it makes sense to have a darker part and a lighter part. I tend to put shadows where the arms meet the body and around the waist.
Choosing Good Colours
I'll shamelessly admit that I have a very difficult time choosing colours. Most of the time, I colour pick them directly from a reference I'm using - unless there's others someone wants me to use. When I'm forced to pick my own colours, however, I try to keep a good balance between saturated and light. I do my best to pick a colour in the midrange, dark/lightness wise, unless it's supposed to be a darker colour. Here's an example of where I typically pick colours.
Whenever I start a skin, I typically ask for descriptions, or find a reference. Working off your imagination can be tough, if you have no inspiration. Even just having something to take components from helps quite a bit. For the sake of this thread, I've chosen this reference here. I'll be going step by step, on how I typically make a skin from scratch.
Step One - Base Colours and Shapes.
This part is fairly easy, in comparison to everything else. All you really need to do is examine whatever reference or inspiration you have, and start slapping down some shapes and colours. Here's my blank skin.
I typically start putting the colours and shapes down only on the front, to save some effort and get a feel for the shape and look of the actual skin.
As you might've noticed, the colours and shapes don't match up exactly with the reference. Typically, it's hard to translate anything perfectly to a minecraft skin - and you'll have to make adjustments accordingly.
Step Two - Hat Layer.
Hat layer is incredibly important. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Without it, you skins would be flat, boring, and square. This adds a 3D touch without a ton of added work. For the sake of showing where I'm putting the hat layer, I'll do it in obnoxious colours.
Though it looks pretty silly with the bright colours, the hat layer helps to beef up the base skin, and create some depth and dimension. The blue on the shoulders adds a padded/raised look, while the chest and waist area helps to define some curves. The red amps up the sleeves and the sash at the waist, while the purple gives some shape to the boots and gauntlets. The green adds some to the gold, but notice how there isn't too much of it. Here's the same skin, but with the hat layer colours corrected.
Without shading and moving the model around, there isn't much difference. But the shape is there, which is a great start.
Step Three - Shading.
Shading may be the most difficult step. Or - at least - it is for me. The different values and where to put each of them often trips me up. The key things to remember when you're attempting to shade is the weight of your values, and the shadows and highlights of the body/clothing/armor pieces it's wearing.
If you're using MCSkin3D, it's a bit easier to understand how I get the values of all my shades. When shading anything, I typically use the second tab of values - HSVA.
When shading cloth, I use less intense shading, as opposed to armour, where the contrast between shades is higher. Here's the shade for the blue I'm using in the skin.
The reference shows a bit of a more blue-ish green than a green-ish blue, so I'll be going up on the H value. Typically, this doesn't move much, only about 2-3 per shade.
If I'm looking for a darker value, I'll adjust the S up 4-6, and the V down 5-7. I don't touch the A, as that's opacity, and I'd like to use a full amount of pixel instead of a partially transparent one. For lighter, I'll go the opposite direction on all of them, besides the A. Basically, I aim to make my darker shades more colorful and saturated than the lighter, which are more pastel and de-saturated.
For the shading of the skin, I'll be going shade by shade, just so it's easier to see how I make the shapes and follow the shadows/highlights.
For the sake of saving space, I'll go ahead and do the rest of the pieces without taking pictures.
I left the gold untouched, because metals are something special. I'll do them last, to show the process of that. Next comes shading the hat layer. Instead of simply copying whatever shading was beneath, I typically go lighter and brighter for the hat layer, to show off the depth and 3D effect. I simply take the base shade, and go lighter and lighter, like shading backwards.
Here we are. When shading, instead of putting the highlights around the middle, I put the lightest colour at the top - and let gravity do the rest of the work. I.E. putting the lightest colour at the top, then the middle colour in the middle, and the darkest colours on the bottom.
Step Three ½ - Shading Metals.
Gold and silver are tough to present well, and not just as a yellow or grey. When shading these, I typically go from yellow to red, and from grey to blue. This helps give it a 'shine', and make it more realistic. Here are some values I typically use for gold and silver.
To achieve this, just do a bigger jump on the values in the H slider/value thing.
There we go, outfit shaded!
Hopefully that helped somewhat on making and designing skins! If there's any interest, I may add on how I make/shade heads, but for now I think this'll suffice. Happy skinning!
- Bunemma
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