I was wondering, how hard and what applications are needed in order to create and paint your own 3-d skin textures for V3 characters that you create. I see alot of very detailed characters and have wondered how they do this and if there any tutorials..

Thanks ahead of time!

You need a paint program such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, a lot of time and patience, a set of good reference photographs and if possible, a high quality digital camera. You composite the photographs in your paint program, bending and cloning (and sometimes painting) so that each photo blends smootly into the next, until you have built up the whole of the body and head. Same for the eyes, and any makeup or tattoo variations you want to offer, although these are most often painted over copies of the base textures. You'll need to create transmaps for the eyelashes, and depending on your preference, possibly the eyebrows and pubic hair. How easy is it? My honest opinion is that it's not easy to create a good texture. It takes patience, knowledge of anatomy and your software, and - as mentioned previously - a good source of photos to work from. There are several merchant resource packs on sale here, or you can buy a subscription to reference sites, such as 3d.sk, which has hundreds of high quality photos for exactly this purpose. If you have a good digital camera you can also take your own pics. If all else fails, take pictures of your own skin, or hire models to pose for you.