Eloh Eliot is indeed generous!

I have spent a fruitful morning making new skin out of her templates, called another skin, which can be downloaded from her blog.

I use Photoshop, however gimp can be used as well I think. And obviously there are many more free or low cost image editors available as well. What is important is that the application is capable of displaying all the layers and the channels of the original file, as well as being capable of saving values for the image adjustment palettes. I have never used gimp so I am really not at all sure if gimp does indeed have all these capabilities. Photoshop most certainly does.

Modifying the original file in the image editor

Eloh Eliot has done a truly beautiful job here, not only in terms of the craftsmanship but also the organization: All the components of the skin are placed in separate folders, with different colors for makeup on separate layers. I have stayed away from the brushes since the original skin is rendered to perfection and I really do not see how one could improve upon what is already there through that kind of an intervention. Thus, I have only changed adjustment values and opacities of individual layers to come up with new skin and makeup tones. Since SL skin consists of three separate tattoos for face, torso and legs it is very important to save all the values for whichever adjustment palette it is that you use and to re-load it for the remaining two files. If you are using multiple values to achieve a particular tone it is also very important to make a list of the sequence in which you implement these. Thus, as an example, if you start out with curves, then go to levels, then from there to HSL and then finally back to curves it will be crucial to remember that sequence and proceed in that precise order since a change in sequence will result in an entirely different skin tone.

Uploading and saving in SL…

Once you are done with your adjustments, you need to save the file as a .tga file, with the alpha channel provided by Eloh Eliot, visible. The transparency enabled .png format works very well with a lot of building endeavors in SL, however when it comes to skin you really need to use .tga so that everything is absolutely perfect.

Make sure you do a save as and give the new file a name that will make sense to you later…

I had my heart set upon a dark, sallow skin. It took a couple of trials and errors and multiple uploads to achieve precisely what I wanted. Make sure you do a save as as you are saving new versions of the skin. And make sure that you re-name these newly generated files in such a way that you will remember what they are later.

The skin is perfect with its highlights and shadows, as well as its makeup, not to mention that it comes in many skin tones as well. Apparently another skin is what many a SL skin designer has used as an initial template for skins that they subsequently proceeded to charge those fortunes for. Eloh Eliot says:

“You’re allowed to remix and redistribute this skin: it’s released under a BSD License; please see the attached license notecard for usage, redistribution, and liability details.”

And the BSD License states that:

“Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• Neither the name of Another Shop nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
   

One really cannot say this often enough: Eloh Eliot is generous!

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