Here is "What you would need for getting truly real skin": 1. A Descent 3D model (The ones with Poser are quite good enough though the lo-res ones ain't) 2. A good UV-Mapping Prog or Texture Map Templates for the character 3. A really very good bump map (This is the most important and the hardest to make map) 4. A colour map 5. A specular map 6. Map to Fake SSS or else a Renderer which has SSS 7. A good light setup, get yourself an LDRI of the place you want your character in 8. Decent Working knowledge of Materal Room ...but this alone won't get you going. You see skin has a lot of components whih are light dependent, the amount of transluc showing up, the freckles visible, etc etc. Stahlberg's tut on www.androidblues.com is a good place to start. Alternatively if you are script-happy, Face_off's Real Skin Shader is worth the buy, but the sort of results you can get by manuually setting up your mats can be atleast as good if not better. Read face_off's tut if you may. And there is a loooong sking shader thread at CGtalk.com, take a look if you wish to. The link http://www.cgtalk.com/showthread.php?t=145071 LOL