[GRAPHICS] Skin Tutorial (English/German) (Page 1 of 4)

You can find the up-to-date-version @ teewiki.info.

This is an outdated version of my tutorial:

So you want to do this crazy skin stuff and show the world how creative you are, but ... you have not got any idea how to do these things? Wait, you've heard of that paint.exe thing and seen the graphics in the skin directory? DO NOT follow your instincts! First, read how to do it, so nobody will laugh about your grainy (c3wl 1337-r0xxOr) pixel heaps!

First I will explain you which freeware tool you want to download. Then you should watch some basic Inkscape tutorials, my explanation of the skin structure and a video tutorial on how to do a teewars skin. Finally, after you've all had that input, you are officially allowed by my humble presence to create your output.

Quick links:
Take a look at this basic tutorial about the structure of a skin.png: skin structure (basic)
The German version of the video can be found here
The English synchronized version of the video can be found here or here(higher res) (excuse my stumbling, I've never recorded my English before!)
raxxar obviously liked my video and did something similar in Italian: youtube pt.1, pt.2

-----------------------------------------
A: Learn the difference between pixel programs and vector programs

To cut it short: A pixel based graphics program will save the inforamtion as a table of different colours. If you draw a circle, the program doesn't know that it is a geometric shape with certain properties. Once it is put into the picture, it won't remeber those. The skins are saved in a pixel format called PNG.

A vector based graphics program "remembers" those properties, e.g. position and size. Each shape has an outline and a fill. You can combine two shapes with boolean operations, e.g. substraction or division. The main advantage is, that it will scale to all dimensions, regardless to your zoom level, because the program gives you the best approximation of a circle. It "knows" it was meant as a circle. This is a main advantages, 'cause you can easily change properties like outline thickness, fill style or colour. Therefore you want to do skins as a scalable vector graphics (.SVG) which is a format Inkscape also uses.

There is a picture in the wikipedia which illustrates this very well. There, you might also check for further information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_graphics

-----------------------------------------
B: Choosing the right program

Remember kids: pixel style isn't teewars style. To make skins that fit into the game, you should remember this. Therefore you should get yourself a graphics program that can handle vectors. There are plenty of free vector programs out there. Adobe Illustrate surely is capable of handling it, but it is most probably too expensive. Corel Paint Shop Pro (<3) might be a good alternative, if you want to spend something like 20 Euros/Dollars. If you are a student or just don't wanna spend any money, choose a freeware program like Inkscape.

-----------------------------------------
C: Installing Inkscape

1. Get yourself inkscape for your OS at http://www.inkscape.org/
2. Install inkscape and give it a try, doodle around, feel free to be creative!

-----------------------------------------
D: Basic working

1. It might be helpful to do some of the basic tutorials (Jeppo proposed to look  here or here) To do some interesting skins, you should know the Bezier-Curve tool and the boolean operations. You might also want to give this wikibook (good quality only in German)
a try.

2. If you've never seen or understood a skin file, watch my basic tutorial on the structure of a skin file, which can be found here. You might also take a look at Jeppo's template in which he explains which space is used for which skin element here.
To sum up: (from left 2 right): Normal eyes, "player gets katana"-eyes, hurt eyes, kill eyes, death eyes (not implemented yet), "another player gets katana"-eyes (thx Landil)

3. Now it's getting serious. I did a video tutorial in which you will get an impression on how a skin could be done. Watch it here in German or there a synchronized English version.
-----------------------------------------
E: Redrawing the pixel-skin

So now you have seen a lot, but didn't make a skin. Follow the steps in the video which are:

1. Load your grainy skin into Inkscape
2. Re-Draw your skin with Inkscape (just like I did in the tutorial)
3. Delete the old graphic from the background
4. Export your redesigned skin to .png

-----------------------------------------
F: Sharing your skins with the community

Most probably you want to share the skin with the community to get famous for your great skins. But do hesitate for a moment:

1. Do you like your skin? If you're not happy with it, sleep a night and correct some details.
2. Mail your skin to a friend. If he/she is a good one, he/she will tell you, if it's good and if not, what he dislikes. Again: correct the skin until you think it's perfect.
3. Upload your skin using an image hosting service or your own webspace. You could use:
http://www.imageshack.us (they rename the file)
http://www.rapidshare.com (they do not rename the file, but it's an indirect download)
Ideally it would be a hosting service which allows .PNG uploads and does not change the filename. Because only if the filenames are identical on all clients you will see other players using your skin.
(proposals?)
4. If you create a thread in this forum, be so gentle and remeber the mod's words (based on his words):
- Write clean topic title (author/type, e.g. [SKIN] Lappi's skins)
- 1 preview graphic (a small graphic in which you'll see your skin in action. Don't post screenshots, 100x100px are sufficient)
- 1 download link for the graphic (or the skin itself)
- Don't open multiple topics with your stuff
- Twice is nice: NO multiple topics, edit your "[SKIN] yourname's skins" topic. Instead modify your unique thread and add a comment like "I added the new skin XY". Don't do that without publishing a new skin - bumping is forbidden!