Hello folks, Im new here.  I just  bought some stuff at the market place so Im looking forward to returning for more.

However I have a bit of a problem. (Ive also looked through all the PS tutorials here on the site and could not find what I needed)

I am making a skin for a virtual game.  It is made solely in photoshop with their UV maps and then imported in to their game and placed on the avatar.  So I do not have access to anything other than what I can create within Photoshop.

I have the neck down done wonderfully.  I have used the noise and Gaussian blur filters to give it some texture.    However, when the same method is used on the face, the face still looks rather shiny and fake.     And when I made the layers I used the filters on more apparent the face looked like it had blotchy skin.

There MUST be a way to make my face look realistic and not so shiny?  What can I do to make my face look texturized like a real humans? (Maybe small pore marks, etc....But how?)   It is like the face is ALMOST 'there' but I`m missing a key ingredient and can not figure out what it is. (Did I mention this was my first attempt at making a skin? So there could be some things that are common sense to a non-beginner that I have missed)

The body and legs are fine looking a bit on the shiny side, but the face really bugs me and I can not seem to get it right.  And everyone who has seen the skin so far tends to agree.

Any help would be much appareciated.  I have been at this for days now with no luck.
Thanks!

Could you post a screenshot?  Might be able to help if I could see it.

Hey :)

Im attaching a photo, Its the closest I could do.  You notice it is very shiny, or smooth looking, (Yes eyebrows are crooked and other imperfectins as well) if you could see it closer there is no detail to the face at all, it looks totally airbrushed.

I would like to have it look more real like this:
http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=45740&

I am not looking to get it THAT detailed as i`m sure that is over my head (Nor am I looking for my skin to have black heads lol) but I would love some sort of texture to my work and I can not seem to get it to figure out a the way.

Around my eyes look very plain for one, I would like to add some realism to the cheeck area and perhaps where the beard would grow in at.  The lips also look plain but I guess once I understand how to texture the face I can apply that same method to the lips.

I have a headache from being on the computer non stop trying to figure this out so I`d deeply appreciate any form of help.
Thanks!

Part of your problem is probably the game renderer.  It might tend to smooth things out, depending on your lighting.  Also part of what makes the face from the marketplace link so great looking, is that Poser software allows for bump maps, making his skin have somewhat realistic pockmarks and stubble. I believe that the creator of that skin, took photos and cobbled them together.  You could try doing something like that. It might at least give some texture to the face and make it look more like you want. This website has a tutorial about that: http://www.3dtutorials.sk/index.php?tutorials=5&software=6&id=109&page= Or as http://www.animationartist.com/2001/02_feb/tutorials/character_modeling4.htm shows, they took just a front facing photo to make the face look more realistic.

And here is just a quick and dirty example that I cobbled together from photos of family. Not too noticeable, but it did make the model have more texture.  I've been looking for more tutorials that could help and I'll post them if I find any.

Hi, thanks so much for taking the time to help.

When I first began the skin I did actually try using my RL face.  The problem was I had already done the neck down one color and my face was a totally different color than the rest of the avatar so I ended up having to delete my face.

I notice in the tutorial they keep her face the same color and don`t talk about changing it.  If you look on this page of the toturial:
http://www.3dtutorials.sk/index.php?tutorials=5&software=6&id=109&page=5 
You will notice they have her face done, and then where the scalp would be its a different color and does not blend in with her face; that is how mine looked.  I had my RL face and then all around it was the color of the rest of the avatar I painted on the scalp.  Then when you look at her finished product the skin suddenly has a darker tint to it.

How would I go about matching the color of my face to the rest of the avatar body?  Or do I need to go ahead and put my face on the avatar and redo the body in accordance with my RL face color?  Admittedly I never took any photoshop classes so I only know what I`ve taught myself or read from tutorials/forums.  All I could think of doing was selecting my face layer and playing with the color balance options but that was just a nightmare, is there a more suitable way?

They mention:
"One thing you will need to bear in mind is that when using the fast skin shader there is more work to be done with regeard to the specular map an subsurface scatter maps."

Fast skin shader, Is that what I need to do?   I hope I do not need to start over and that I can work 'backwards' and color the photo of my face to match the color of the rest of the avatar body.

Edit  Ah I think I figured it out, the "Hue and Saturation" option. :)

Original post-

Hey, I just got back from watching some tutorials with the link you provided, thanks! I wish I found that site 3 weeks ago.

It looks like using a RL photo to do this is definitely the way to go, I`m just not sure mine are good enough for that so I think I need to purchase reference photos.   

I guess my only question I`m left with is basically-  How do I get the reference models skin tone to match the rest of the avatars body?

After this skin is created I also need to do it in 2 other tones.

Thanks!

About the fast skin shader...I have no clue. I am primarily a Photoshop person, but asking in one of the other forums here might get you some better advice. :)

On the one tutorial link, I didn't like what they did with her head either, giving her a strange bald spot basically.  I would have made a selection from maybe her forehead, and used the Patch and Clone tools to build up the skin on her scalp. 

There are some free human textures out there, but usually just samples of arm skin or something like that. http://www.3d.sk/?id=15 has a small free section that you can test out. If you find something else, I'ld love to hear about it. :)

As for adjusting the skin tone to the rest of the body, you could use Hue and Saturation adjustment layer like you found out. Or test out the Variations option if you need more subtle change. You could also pick out a color from the body that you think is representative of the whole and flood fill over the face on a new layer, and choose a Layer option, like Hue and adjust the opacity to see if it matches.  Anyway I hope this gives you at least a good starting place.