A few skinning questions

[Herio-san]

Im new to skinning and I am currently working on my first skin (aka. a Blood Elf Assassin) and I had a few questions:

1. Is using the smudge tool on the face a mistake?
2. Is there a better program to use for converting to .blp files than Wc3 Image Extractor?
3. Why does my skin look fine flat, but blurry wrapped?

Heres a pic of my skin so far (Its not the best, but we all hafta start somewhere right?):

 

[HappyTauren]

1. sometimes, unless you can use them reeeeeealy good way (i dont see mistake here)
2. yea, use wc3 viewer
3. that's blizzard problem, not yours (although you should do your best to fix it as you can)
4. im not skinner

 

[Xlightscreen]

1. Smudge can do wounders but it takes alot of practice to learn how to use it. I recommend the Burn and dodge tools for doing shading on the face though.

2.you can also use the Magos model editor it also works for applying the skin

3. the reason it looks blurry is becuase of the streching cuased by unwraping you can semi-counter this by making the texture a higher resolution and mainly rewrapping it again but acourse it woulden't be that effecient in terms of making it hassle free.

 

[NiRVaNa_87]

1. Try to avoid using any other tool than the brush if you can. I guess that if you´re just starting , you could use dodge and burn (You should use the recolor tool later to fix the colors), but once you get used to drawing you should do everything with the normal brush. But i suggest that you don´t use smudge AT ALL, it gives crappy result.

2. I always recommend the WC3 Viewer tool, you can extract both models and textures, it´s not buggy and it´s very reliable.

3. What everyone said

 

[Kimbo]

1. Yes, the nose is all squished up and the shading is no longer smoothed as it should. Avoid dodge,burn and smudge, use the normal brush, you will have more control over it and it wont give a dirty oily look.

2. Yes, use wc3viewer.

3. Thats normal because the unwrap is slightly squished and the unwrap of the chest is small.

 

[Kuhneghetz]

1. Is using the smudge tool on the face a mistake?
2. Is there a better program to use for converting to .blp files than Wc3 Image Extractor?
3. Why does my skin look fine flat, but blurry wrapped?

1. Not if you use a 1 pixel brush with 75% opacity and have a knowledge of blending the colors together with this method. If you don't know how to smudge correctly, either don't use it or practice until you are good at it.
2. I wouldn't say better but Warcraft III Viewer and BLPaletter are alternatives to Wc3 Image Extractor II.
3. For the blurriness, like everyone said, the unwrap. For the flat skin, you haven't given the texture proper shading. Dodge and burn is one solution, but you can also just put darker colors and then blend them together.

Oh, and she needs better nose and better lips.

 

[Nasrudin]

Dodge and burn is NOT a solution

Meh. Fixed.

 

[Mechanical Man]

About smudge, why then many skinning tutorials on wc sites are using it?

It is smudge good for making comet tails or whatever are called ... you know what I mean

 

[Kuhneghetz]

Meh. Fixed.

http://forums.hiveworkshop.com/showthread.php?t=18235

Even if Afronight_76 doesn't use dodge and burn anymore, his old and effective tutorial includes the dodge and burn technique and the result turned out very good.

EDIT:

http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=84752

My skin was done in dodge, burn, smudge, weak blur and Hue/Saturation, and it didn't turned out crappy.

 

[Mechanical Man]

It is wise to use built-in patterns with low opacity for certain zones (ex. clothes) ?

 

[camel's_hump]

I'm sorry to say this Dan van Ohllus, but it kinda did. Nothing has those strange, pure white highlights that your skin has. If you look at afro's newer skins compared to his old dodge and burn ones you will see a huge difference. Dodge and burn has no advantage over just using the brush. Using the brush is much more precise in what you are doing because you can select which colors you want to add on to your skin not just make it lighter or darker.

 

[Deleted member 126647]

I'm sorry to say this Dan van Ohllus, but it kinda did. Nothing has those strange, pure white highlights that your skin has. If you look at afro's newer skins compared to his old dodge and burn ones you will see a huge difference. Dodge and burn has no advantage over just using the brush. Using the brush is much more precise in what you are doing because you can select which colors you want to add on to your skin not just make it lighter or darker.

God has spoken.

 

[Kimbo]

TDR has a tut here on how to avoid smudge and the result is better since you will have actual control over it
http://forums.hiveworkshop.com/showthread.php?t=30072

Teaching other people to smudge is horrible,they use it just becuase its "faster" but you cant really control it. Alot of people use it, but about 99% dont know how to use it properly, even me.

I use to use smudge, hell all of my old work pretty much had smudge or..burn or dodge and dam, my work looked like fucking crap that id use as toilet paper. Ever since TDR convinced me to stop using Smudge (it wasnt easy, since i was more of a flaming brat back then hmm..stil am...abit..) my works started to bloom out into different trees and i starting to use a wide range of diferent techniques, and experimenting with the brush(and the real life brush) also taught me the shades of colours you should use to shade and highlight and that also taught me alot in my traditional paintings, and i learnt from them and..blah blah..crap ..blah.although i still lack, im still learning, and with smudge, i wasnt learning at all.

So i suggest you guys try to practice without the smudge, study how things are seen in your view, how they can be achieved, how you will do it (without SMUDGE) and explore. I also highly recomend you start pencil sketching and painting since most artists who can study and learn to use the colours and shades in their life can transfer that to a computer.
(although most traditional artists i know completely drop computers since the suppress what programs can provide)

I am no master or lord or pro, merely stating my opinion, although id rather get a opinion from TDR, since he has greater study in the arts far better than anyone (yes, even me duh) that i know here.

I edited this since i was sounded like i was on crack.

 

[camel's_hump]

God has spoken.

Basically the advantages of brush over smudge and dodge and burn are this, more control. Smudge blurs your skins, ruins the colors, and takes away that professional look. Dodge and burn only lighten or darken your color. With a brush you can sharper, smooth, lighter, darken, and change the colors of your skin. Everything is under your control.