I've downloaded the .psd file from MZ's site, and I'm not getting what I expected. I was expecting a generic white skin that I could design, because that's A LOT easier. So how should I get to that step?

you have to be a bit more specific. What program are you using? A lot of (bad) skins in this forum are just logos pasted to the deault skin Is that what you wanted?

You'll need a gfx app that handles layers (and PSD files).

Each section on Bunta's skin kits are on a separate layer meaning that you could strip the lot down to a plain white skin if you hid / removed the other layers, but the others are there to guide you.. the wireframe in particular is _very_ useful to helping to align logos / design elements of your skin.

In short, you paint on a new layer _below_ the mask, wireframe and shadow layers, then once you're done, hide the wireframe and save as a DDS file. You'll end up with a skin usable in LFS with the design you expect.

This is the basic concept of the skin kits anyway.. and once you understand how they work, you'll find them a _lot_ easier than a default plain skin to work with



Regards,

Ian

Quote from Ian.H :

<snip>
In short, you paint on a new layer _below_ the mask, wireframe and shadow layers, then once you're done, hide the wireframe and save as a DDS file. You'll end up with a skin usable in LFS with the design you expect.
<snip>

Why do we all use JPGs?

Quote from Dalek0220 :

Why do we all use JPGs?

Because that's what the old format used to be. I tend to save files in the format they expect.. plus I can control the DDS settings to adjust quality etc direct from Photoshop rather than LFS using whatever defaults it has hard-coded in.

I forgot though that the CMX viewer probably still requires JPG files (would be good to have that updated to allow either both, or just DDS) and of course, LFSWorld only handles JPG files (something else that could do with being updated).

If things were updated to use a single format, it'd make life easier and the LFS dir / file structure much tidier.

Maybe saving as JPG is the best deal, unless you're concerned about quality (converting a lossy format to another lossy format (ie: LFS converting from JPG->DDS) is never going to produce the best results).



Regards,

Ian

Oh, so it's underneath the wireframe? I'm using GIMP, btw.

Quote from OdeToArsenal47 :

Oh, so it's underneath the wireframe? I'm using GIMP, btw.

Yeah. I haven't done any skinning for a long time now, but IIRC, the layers go something like:


Mask
Wireframe
Shadows


The GIMP can handle layers.. so create a new layer below everything else and start painting away. The shadows layer will be set to 'multiply' as its transparency option, so will shade whatever's below rather than covering it completely and the wireframe.. I wouldn't bother to skin without it personally.. it's a life saver to aligning items up.

When you save the file to check in the CMX viewer.. just hide the wireframe layer before you save it.. then unhide it and carry on with the next part. Lather, rince, repeat



Regards,

Ian