Skinning tips

These tips can be used for any skin/texture. For quake3 you wont have NST to help you, but on the other hand, you won't have the palette to destroy your work.
Never forget: the skin is supposed to enhance the model (respect the shape as most as possible), not use the model to be enhanced. if your skin look crap in 2D but good on the model, it's not bad, that was the goal. A skin that looks killer in 2d but doesn't enhance the "volume" of the model isn't a good skin. The light is coming from above, not from upper left, or whatever else. Of course, you can make a skin lighten from below (cool satanic effect), but it has to be vertical.
The best way to learn things is to analyse other people's work. I spend hours in front of id skins, trying to understand why I like them. Always, if you love a skin, open it, zoom, and analyse it (colors used, position of light colors and dark colors, where is it smoothed, etc...).

1.metallic/gold (shoulder pad)
  1. open your model in NST with the wireframe.pcx skin (see quake2 skin tutorial)
    skin
    on the model

  2. prepare the texture with medium dark brown/orange
    skin
    on the model

  3. put the shadows (darkest brown/orange)/ highlights (lightest brown/orange) in NST. You can let it gritty (painting quickly)
    skin
    on the model

  4. save your skin
  5. open it in Paint Shop Pro, convert to 24 bit. and use soften retouch mode (opacity 60 size 1 or 2) where it's needed:

  6. Now switch to lighten retouch mode, opacity 15 size 5 (2 or 1 on the small areas) (as always, you can use the airbrush with a specific color). and highlight where it's supposed to shine. use opacity 20 or 25 and make small very bright "dots" on angles.

  7. you can notice that there are some small darker(a little bit) areas on the gradients (yeah, the gradient is not perfect).You can let them like this or use them to add detail/ worn effect to the skin.
    use the darken tool to make them a bit darker (size 1 or 2 opacity 15).
    Then highlight "below" these dark areas (its depending on the light direction, for example :if the light is coming from right side, highlight the left side of the areas):
  8. load the quake2 palette, save your skin, go back in NST, hit F5.
    skin
    on the model
2.making cracks
  1. open your skin in PSP, convert to 24 bit. use the airbrush (opacity 2 or 5 size 1) and make a dark line.
  2. Now, darken the upper border of the lines (darken size 1 opacity 15 or 20). If the line is perpendicular to the light direction, darken both sides.
  3. Now lighten the metal just below the cracks (opacity 15 or 20, size 1). you should simulate a kind of "lips".

  4. You can use this technique to make engraved logos or deep wounds (just paint the lines with a red aibrush).
    Also, if you an area looks too flat, adding cracks will help you break the flat ugly look.
3. playing with layers (easy rust effect)

Using layers will help you making cool material effects very quickly (it's better to know how to create these effects without the help of layers, you'll have more control on your work when you'll use them).

  1. In Paint Shop Pro, click on layers/new/OK. (show layer panel, it's better :)).
    note: you need to be in 24bit
  2. with the selection tool, select the part of your skin you want to play with.
  3. open a texture image you like (rusted metal, etc...)
  4. copy it (or a part of it you especially love)
  5. go back to the skin (the layer should be selected (see pic below))
    Edit/paste/in selection (ctrl+shif+L)
    you can also paste the image as new layer (ctrl+L), invert the selection, and delete it if you don't want the texture to be stretched(it's stretched in the pic below).
  6. Now, play with the opacity/modes (here, I selected multiply, opacity 100) until you're happy of the result
  7. then go to layers/merge/all (flatten)
  8. fix/improve the new skin if needed.
  9. load the quake2 palette. save the skin, go to NST, hit F5...

©F-X Delmotte 1999