Hi i need help with my Skin making skills. Ive benn making skins for about mothand a half but i want to know how to get smooth designs instead of rough polygonal lasso designs

please help

What program are you using? If it's photoshop you should learn to use the pen tool to draw vector paths and shapes.

yeah its photoshop but i have a laptop and its hards to control the cursor heres my skin

Quote from hyphy_racer :

yeah its photoshop but i have a laptop and its hards to control the cursor heres my skin

ever thought about getting a USB mouse? Those laptop mouse pads can be a right nightmare!

Once you have your usb mouse go check out Bunta's excellent skinning templates on the Master Skinnerz forum. Then search for some photoshop tutorials on using the pen tool and oval marquee for designing curves and shapes.

You should also try to work more accurate. Your hood doesnt look really symetric. So make one side and mirror it to the other side.

thanks for that anathema i thought it was just couldnt figure it i did think about getting an usb mouse but i dont have a way to get to the store most of the time as im underage oh yeah how do i mirror the sides

Copy-Paste-Flip .
If you use the skin templates from Master Skinerz you'll be able to use the wire frame (makes life sooo much easier!!!)
It really doesnt help but i have a spare USB mouse lying around! lol

oh yeah i forgot i had the wire frame i alwayz used the mask wats the big difference though

The wireframe makes it easier to line up the elements of your paintjob, plus it shows the centre of the car. Makes alignment much easier. The Mask is there to reduce the filesize of the .jpg skin.

A nice try with the pearlescent paint effect. Can you post a cmx-viewer screenshot?

I think you just have to do it slowly and don't rush it. plan forward what you are trying to do before messing with the computer.

Quote from Anathema :

A nice try with the pearlescent paint effect. Can you post a cmx-viewer screenshot?

he ya go

hey i tried the pen tool twice doesnt look to good to me and yes i forgot to take the wireframe off the second one

What doesn't look good about the pen tool?

Quote from hyphy_racer :

hey i tried the pen tool twice doesnt look to good to me and yes i forgot to take the wireframe off the second one

It seems you have used the pen tool as just a marquee tool as you still have straight lines with sharp edges. When you click to add the point on the pen tool, hold down the left mouse button and move your mouse, giving you a tangency which will give you some really smooth curves. If you go to the pen tool option, right click on it and select the bottom one (looks like a '>' ) and you can drage these tangency's about to create nice smooth curves.

Edit : Quick google search provides a nice tutorial for the pen tool

Edit 2: What that tutorial doesnt show is once you have created the path you can fill it, stroke it or make it into a selection. Just go into the paths section (iirc - layers palette at top pick the tab called "paths") then right click on the path or use the little icons at the bottom. The pen tool takes some getting used to but it is a powerful tool when you know how to use it.

Edit 3: Another tutorial This one is a bit more complicated in the explaination but if you know the basics it is good (imo anyway as i learnt something lol )

Quote from MAGGOT :

What doesn't look good about the pen tool?

its not the pen tool its my skills that suck but thanks for all the help greboth and everyone else i keep on practicing

there's a lot of skinning help and resources over on Master Skinnerz forum might be useful for you. http://skinnerz.proboards26.com/

Quote from al heeley :

there's a lot of skinning help and resources over on Master Skinnerz forum might be useful for you. http://skinnerz.proboards26.com/

thx al