[digitalism]

Ah hi all. I was just looking at some quake 3 arena skins and they just blew me away. Ya gotta love the details! I also saw some litestep (www.litestep.net) themes screen shots which were also very nicely done and had great details. I guess what my question is, how do they do it? I can fiddle around with an airbrush a little but never come up with the results they come up with. Are there any tutorials on that or does anyone have any advice for me where to start learning or looking? What should I be concentrating on? Please help!

[digitalism]

The detail I had in mind (great work):

[digitalism]

Sorry. Forgot to post credits. Those 2 skins were taken from http://www.planetquake.com/pandemonium/

[Anthony]

There's no difference between this and painting normally in photoshop. Work at a much higher res and downsample if necessary. If you can't draw or paint, then it's not likely that you'll do a good job on a Q3 skin(unless you're good at texture creation from photos). I'm not saying that you are or aren't good at painting or drawing-but if you're not, I wouldn't bother trying to make skins. Learn the basics of drawing and painting first.

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[Fat Assasin]

I don't know of any tutorials, but here's a few things I can think of...

First, look around the house and keep an eye out wherever you are for things made out of different materials. Try to copy them in Photoshop (or whatever), and try to ask yourself while you're doing it, what makes metal look like metal (for example)? And is it copper or steel, new or rusted? Try to pick up on the characteristics specific to that material.

Also, you don't need as much detail as you might think. I can almost guarantee those pictures were done a lot bigger and then shrunk down. If you get the colors right, and the highlights and shadows in the right places, then the viewer's eye fills in the rest. Take a look at Frazetta's paintings, or Spooge's quick sketches to see what I mean.

Hope that helps.

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If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.

Visit my world

[Jeezus]

Well, the quake 3 skins that come with the game were either done by ken scott, adrian carmack or kevin cloud.. and they're all oldschool pixler guys, and buy looking at how things are so perfected in their skins, they're probably working at the finished resolution. it's just a matter of zooming up and adding detail after the main shapes are layed out. i'm sure the use of would layers would help in adding texture and stuff.

[Anthony]

I seriously doubt they paint from block colors at that res. There would be no point. If you do it at a higher res you get detail for free. Then you can go in after you shrink it and fix and pixels you don't like.

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[Freddio]

Hey isnt it weird thaT John Carmack and Adrian Carmack aren't related.??

Carmack isnt a very wide spread name..

well maby it could be in the US

[LeperKhan]

Shane is probably one of the most qualified people on this forum to discuss this (loved the UT skins, Shane!) However, here are my 2 pennies and a bit of a tutorial for 'ya. Keep in mind these are basic principles that I use when doing real-time skins.

Also, another good thing to keep in mind regarding q3 skins, Kenneth Scott is a God when it comes to what he does. He's one of the best that I've seen, along with Rorshach (sp?) and ALPHAWolf. There are also a couple of lurkers on this forum who are really good. Agent? Wrath? Mr. Rogers? You guys want to speak up?

Anyway, here's my approach:
When mapping the object I plan to skin, I always choose some form of isometric view as shown by the box below. I used to do everything with an orthographic layout, but found that this works better in terms of space-saving and control.

1.) So we have a box. Yea!

2.) I then fill the shape of the box with an even fill color (brown shall be my homage to Q2's limited palette). I'll also usually throw in some noise for detailing purposes.

3.) Give each "face" that you are texturing a different value. Keep in mind, this really only work well in engines that have an even-lighting scheme. Doesn't work well with T&L.

4.) Here's something Mr. Scott does a LOT of: enhancing your edges. Of course, the amount that you enhance the edge relates to the material. Bright edges for metals, dull edges for most everything else. This really helps define the shape of your model, so I can't emphasize this too much.

5.) This is first-pass detailing. I decided that I wanted this box to be an ammo pouch or something. So, I've added and lid and some pack details to help flesh out the "hidden" shapes in the object. I've also increased the shading here to illustrate what's best for Half-Life skins, IMO

6.) Final details. Add some bolts. Further play with your edges and in some instances blur them back down. Remember: you're trying to use a small number of polys to define a large amount of detail. The more detail, the better (But, don't clutter your skins).

7.) Finally, I scale down the finished piece and enhance the pixels that need it. Honestly, this is pretty friggin' big for an ammo belt on a character. In truth, I wouldn't assign more than 100-150 pixels to something this small, but this is a tutorial.

8.) And last of all, i wanted to show off an example of a skin that I did for my most recent Half-Life character: Seer. If you want to view the entire thing, go to:
http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/info/halflife/seer/seer.shtml




In conclusion, I hope this helps you out. I'm sure there are more resources out there than what I've posted, but this should get you started. Essentially, just try to do it. Nothing teaches better than experience.

-L

ps -- thanx to Francis for hosting my image.