~Understanding the Skin Editor~

A TON of people have been asking me how to skin their bots. The problem with most of them is that they don't even try, but a few of them genuinely can't understand the skin editor so I'm putting this together for you guys. I know there are a lot of things to click on, so I'll just show you the things that i mess with.
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Hope fully you already read cosmic break's paint guide Here and know what each button does.

Question: "Cass how do i color a part? I'm clicking it but it's no doing anything. "

Well, 1st off, stop clicking the preview window. If you look at that map on the right side, that's your part. To color, you have to pick a color, then a tool, and then draw directly onto the map. As you draw on it, you can see your work on the preview window to the left.


As for colors, you can have up to 9 colors(divided into 5 categories) on one part.

• Main Color - This is the color you will see the most for this part. You can pick a color from the palette and a lighter and darker shade of your color will be selected for you. Later when your skin is complete, this color is changeable in the "parts paint" screen.
  
• Sub Color - This is a secondary color you may pick for this part. You can pick a color from the palette and a lighter and darker shade of your color will be selected for you. Later when your skin is complete, this color is changeable in the "parts paint" screen.
  
• Light Color - This is the color of all the "lights" on this part. You can pick a color from the palette and a lighter and darker shade of your color will be selected for you. Later when your skin is complete, this color is changeable in the "parts paint" screen.
  
• Frame Color - This is the color of mechanical places you can see between each part. You may pick up to 3 custom colors for this.
  
• User Color - These are 3 free colors you can use however you want.

Once you have your colors sorted out you're ready to make a skin!


If you are looking for a certain part of the map, the easiest way to find it is to click the "Show UV" button. It places your parts on top of the map as outlines, so you can edit skins with more detail. Personally i scribble a bit on the map and see where it shows up on the preview. Once i find my spot, i hit the undo button and get to work


After you finish your skin, click the save button or export image if you're just skinning 1 part. Then you can upload the file to the forums for everyone to see!

And THAT'S the basics. Any questions?

Hyoka wrote:

How do you edit the eyes on S.Elme HD? I've been trying for a long time to place a red cross on it with no success.

technomo12 wrote:

the skin tone i cant get the proper skin tone it must be im color blind or dont have a good sense in art >_<

Hyoka wrote:

I was thinking of making a skin for zero saber girl regular, except.. I have no inspiration.

Yes!

How do you edit the eyes on S.Elme HD? I've been trying for a long time to place a red cross on it with no success.

Unfortunately the eye shape of this bot cannot be changed.
See that blue line?


That line is applied multiple times to make smaller and smaller hexagons. All together they become the eye.
You can still alter the line for strange effects.


Usually you'll only see this kind of thing on certain bot's heads. Another example would be the ear pieces on Crimrose's head. There's a hexagon shape on the ear pieces but if you look on the map you'll see it's just a single triangle multiplied 6 times.

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Keep the questions coming~ I'm not an expert but I've been messing with the skin editor for a long time.

Yeah, they use that pixel stretching trick a lot. Notice though that it's right between two pixels, so if you mess with dithering, you can get blends of colors or a nice smooth gradient in the eyes if you want to.

i have been trying to get my seraph crim to look butt nekid but it seem im either color blind or my patient is soo short hehehe

every time i try to make it look nekid i dont feel it looks natural

technomo12 wrote:

i have been trying to get my seraph crim to look butt nekid but it seem im either color blind or my patient is soo short hehehe

every time i try to make it look nekid i dont feel it looks natural

You're meaning the fact that the polygons are not the shape of a naked body? Or do you mean that you can't get the colors to a proper skin tone?

the skin tone i cant get the proper skin tone it must be im color blind or dont have a good sense in art >_<

technomo12 wrote:

i have been trying to get my seraph crim to look butt nekid but it seem im either color blind or my patient is soo short hehehe

every time i try to make it look nekid i dont feel it looks natural

pervert.

Anyway, the skin colors are in the User Colors be default.

Hyoka wrote:

technomo12 wrote:

i have been trying to get my seraph crim to look butt nekid but it seem im either color blind or my patient is soo short hehehe

every time i try to make it look nekid i dont feel it looks natural

pervert.

Anyway, the skin colors are in the User Colors be default.

i am haha so sue me >_<

anyway hmm still ned som work done soo il practice a bit

There are three user colors, and I'll use Crimrose (regular) BD as an example

the first, white shade is used for Crimrose's... how do you call it, shine marks? (on her breasts)

the middle shade is general skin color

and the third shade is for something like drawing curves (e.g her butt? I don't know)

Have fun, pervert =3=

technomo12 wrote:

the skin tone i cant get the proper skin tone it must be im color blind or dont have a good sense in art >_<

The skin of all the human types is made of 2 shades of a color and usually a white for things like eyes or shiny parts. I'll give you my usual skin colors. Just change the RGB to the numbers in whichever skin color you'll be using(if you decide to use one of these anyway XD).


Default

Spoiler:

Darker Default

Spoiler:

Brown Skin (GANGURO)

Spoiler:

And don't forget to put in a belly button!

Hyoka wrote:

There are three user colors, and I'll use Crimrose (regular) BD as an example

There are actually six user colors, you can set the three greys to various skintones or whatever you'd like (a nipple tone, perhaps?). On faces I make the lightest grey into a blush color. Normally on Body and other parts with skin, I turn it into a white, and tone the three skintones darker for smoother shading and deeper shadows.

Hyoka wrote:

the first, white shade is used for Crimrose's... how do you call it, shine marks? (on her breasts)

Highlight tone is the technical term, Sometimes this sin't set to white, so you'd have to set the lightest gray user tone to white for real shine on parts. (looks really good for leather/latex bits)

Hyoka wrote:

the middle shade is general skin color

Or if you set the hilight darker, you can use a dithered mix between highlight and midtone to make a really good skin.

Hyoka wrote:

and the third shade is for something like drawing curves (e.g her butt? I don't know)

Shadow tone. Also goes well dithering with the midtone. Putting a shadow tone and a highlight in a line next to each other can make a "seam" or "ridge" in the skin to accentuate their robotic nature. Adding seams and ridges in the non skin parts is a good way to add complexity and visual interest as well, if you do it right. there was a Crimrose skin I saw on the official forums that had an enormous amount of seam work on the mechanical bits, she looked amazing.

Hyoka wrote:

Have fun, pervert =3=

Perverts always do! ...Even when it's wrong.

Cassidy wrote:

Brown Skin (GANGURO)

Spoiler:

That looks like one horrible spray-on tan... Oh wait, ganguro, that's the intended look. Normal Japanese girls look so good, why do their "scene girls" look SO AWEFUL?

I'm guilty of being a longtime fan of the look x) My 1st crim was gangu till she turned seraph~ Tho...needs more makeup.

Any more questions? :3

Cassidy wrote:

I'm guilty of being a longtime fan of the look x)

...Why?

Ah, nevermind. Love takes all kinds, I guess. I won't say they look like prostitutes, but they look like that's what they aspire to become... It just kind of makes me sad for humanity more than anything.

I was thinking of making a skin for zero saber girl regular, except.. I have no inspiration.

Hyoka wrote:

I was thinking of making a skin for zero saber girl regular, except.. I have no inspiration.

The thing about Zero Saber Girl is that she is a mecha girl or Mecha Musume. if you've browsed image boards im sure you've seen what can be done. Inspiration is as easy as finding something you like.

Examples

#1

Spoiler:

#2

Spoiler:

Take a look around if you'd like. Come up with something new! Anything you like, or even hate can be made into a skin. Did you see the transformers movie? A mountain dew machine turned into a robot and went on a rampage.

Hope that helps x)

sorry did you just say the mountain dew machine?

anyway, I'll probably model it off some...thing...argh.

I see you have a nanoha siggy. Why don't you make a personified Raising Heart?

And yes. A Killer Mountain Dew Vending machine. Obviously on the side of the decepticons xD Too bad the uploader slowed it down.

I was planning to turn my pink haired Seraph Crimrose into Raising Heart, but apparently when I tried to stick a magic circle onto her back it didn't end well (hard to make out)

Still need a bit more messing with, though I want to skin my Zero Saber Girl first.

Cassidy wrote:

I'm guilty of being a longtime fan of the look x) My 1st crim was gangu till she turned seraph~ Tho...needs more makeup.

Any more questions? :3

Did you save that look? I'm actually curious as to what that would look like on a bot.

Cassidy wrote:

Examples

#1

Spoiler:

#2

Spoiler:

Just realized my images didn't come out at all D:

Fixed em. Sorry if i confused ya.


I think the Gameboy Mizugi would suit Zero Saber Girl nicely.

...

I think I have an idea.

Lets make her..

A loli Jedi o3o

Editing polygons are hard .-.

so theres no way to change the parts itself, not the colors, right?

like get a helmet and extend something, or.. making breasts larger lol

its cuz i really wanted to do a Jehuty bot, but just got a bit depressed when i saw i couldnt do it.

for the ones who dont know what im talking about and dont want to google it (i know, its boring to google something just to understand a single post), here 'she' is:

Spoiler:

its from a mecha game called 'Zone of the Enders', very nice game.

Zone of the enders, woot~

You can edit the head however you want, extensions and all if you're using the polygon editor, altho i dont have much experience with it. Like Desu said, it's kind of hard x)

But, you can't do the body of human types Beta's over so i can't check machine types. x.x