Hi- any advice for a future skinner?

Hi Stratosephear! Welcome to WinCustomize!

Welcome to WC,  

Myself, for images.. Photoshop, 3D.. 3DSMax, and Skinstudio for bulding a WB, mix with lots of committment flavored coffee.  

don't get married or have kids, you won't have time for them...

shave ur head, as skinning will cause you to loose all ya have(by pulling it out).


seriously tho.. just have fun..

And make sure you got all your prenuptuals signed in case your married...and find a good support group for recently divorced skinners.

Take your time to make a skin and only put it up here when you are completely happy with it.

But don't be too critical for the first one, otherwise you end up releasing nothing..... I would know..

You can't go wrong with Photoshop.
If you want a pleasant introduction to skinning, download the Xion music player and read the skinning tutorial for it while you are on the site. It's a pleasure to skin it and very satisfying.

Have Fun!!

Its a good idea to do a few rough sketches on paper, it helps with the design process...I used to open corel draw and think "right, what shall i create"...but ended up staring at a blank screen for ages

Welcome to Wicustomize!

For images, Photoshop is probably the best out there! I also use Paint Shop Pro.

The main thing is to skin for yourself...don't worry about what other people would like. And have fun doing it! If you can't figure soemthing out, just ask...there are plenty of us folks here that are willing to help.

Just be careful....you may (and probably will) become addicted!   

You guys have come up with many fearful warnings in place of advices.

try gimp as it is a free app and does most everything PSP does.. if you actaually come to love skinning as most here have.. then invest in a higher end graphics prog...

the best advise i can offer is .. skin for your self and have fun...every thing else will come in time......

Crayons and a scanner.   

maybe he don't want to skin like me.. maybe he wants to be good and all...

Oh...and once in awhile stick your head out the window just to remember what the sun looks like and fresh air smells like. Also...get a little fridge and hotplate installed next to your desk...and a porta potty isn't a bad idea either....its a real pain when your right in the middle of something and having to get up and walk all the way down the hall.

Oh yeah...I use mostly SKS, MSPaint & Photoshop for everything I do.

Remember: if you stare at a skin long enough it will start to look ugly. Take a break now and then   

I stare at mine and it just gets older....

 

...oh, OK .... uglier, too ....

Ok - Thanks!

I am married with 2 kids. I cannot use that excuse for not completing my first skin though. I spend way too much time at work and then a lot of time playing games. Just completed every campaign achievement for Halo 3 (my XBLA gamer tag is same). I play games on Xbox 360 and PS3. Then I do help at home (vacuum, laundry, grocery...).

I used Paint.NET entirely for creating my first skin. It is not complete yet. It is already more than six months on it. Then I purchased Photoshop CS3. I have not mastered PS yet.

My advice is to stay away from complex tools if you are new to the whole concept and want to jump in to skinning right away. Or you can start on such a tool, master it and then come nack to skinning.

Oh, dear. Too late. We have 7...



Should my hubby be worried?



Okay, now, that is scary. (My hair is real long- over 3 feet!) Seriously though, as a graphic designer and a perfectionist I foresee a lot of hard, but thoroughly enjoyable hours. And, as long as your spouse (assuming you're married) loves computers as much as you, all is good.