What makes a good skin?

[Lions Gate]

Well, I have decided to finally start posting on the forums rather than just leeching maps / resources. I think that I will turn down the path of skinning because I have done alot of graphic work in the past... even though I dont have a tablet or anything.

One question. What makes a good skin?
I lied, Two. What is a good model to start off with?

 

[Mr.Goblin]

the first skin you should start with is.. a hero .. cause its usually clear... and you easily understand witch things goes where... and there's no stretch parts...

and what makes a good skin? ... a sharpeded and colorfull skin.. that respect warcraft 3 style much.. so it can be use in every map...

now what makes a bad skin..

--> to blurry
--> no color
--> Wierd pixelled design ..mostly

 

[Hawkwing]

Everything should be thick, defined, and well shaded, as far as Warcraft III skins go.

 

[ike_ike]

Decent definition - Should be easy to distinguish what is what from normal viewing distance, without excessive delineation
Colour schemes - Please refrain from the rainbow thermal-hued recolours that were all the rage several years back. Remember, striking colours that complement each other!
Highlights - Put where they're meant to be, highlights are very effective. However, don't be like some who splash the entire skin with the dodge tool.
Shading - Shadows and highlights, with a modicum of blending in between is nice. Build up shades with brushes, as opposed to the dodge and burn. Dodge and burn appear nice at first use, but in retrospect (say...2 days later), it will cause your eyes much pain and possible internal hemorrhaging.

 

[CombatTheWombat]

Here are the top 3 things that I think make a good skin:

-Attention to detail, this is doing everything you possibly can to get the skin looking its best, not just throwing down a simple skin and calling it good.

-NEVER use dodge and burn, this is why my skins were bad at first, once you learn to shade with brushes you will be doing great.

-Last but not least, unless you are doing a robot character NEVER use perfectly straight lines, they just make everything unnatural and weird looking.

A very good model for beginning skinners is the Dread Lord model. It has a pretty simple and easy to follow wrap and minimal stretching so you can really fit in a lot of detail and it will be noticeable. Especially on the face. Dio made a really good skin for that model in the 10th skinning competition, you should go check that out.

 

[KalamMekhar]

one thing to remember is make the skin usable. Make it a skin that peopel can actually use ina range of settings/map types. And always try to make something new not that skin that most decent skinners have done and put a little tweak here and there type thing... Creativity and usablilty are two key elements.

 

[TheDivineBoss]

Shading,
Variation but keeping it to the subject,
Contrast,
Colours,
Orginality,
And off course; file size.