There are dozens and dozens of characters to choose, and each vendor have particular techniques in creating these characters.  On the other hand, there are excellent free textures available in the free section which can be used as a learning tools.  My suggestion, get your hands on Bagginsbill's VSSProp which is currently a skin texture shader enhancement system and any free V4 skin texture.  The following link will give you an overview and recommendation how to set up the prop as well as suggested lighting to achieve good results.  It does have a learning curve but you should be able to catch on quickly.  Face_off's system is very good but it is highly dependent on lighting arrangement; whenever you change your lighting, you must rerun your script.  And BB boasts that the initial skin texture does not have to be the greatest.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2737823&page=1