I know absolutely NOTHING about creating with Poser. Everything I do, I buy from other people. I'm sure I need like 40 other programs to create clothes and the like, which is why I find it cheaper to just buy from other people. But I want to know, to create a 2nd skin for a character like Victoria, what program do I need if I ever wanted to go in that direction? Can anyone tell me what I need to know? Thanks for listening.

Photoshop is the best bet as far as I'm concerned.
It has paints, effects, styles, actions and filters to work with for creating all sorts of stuff.
You work in layers and save as a psd file so you can re-edit things if you need.
then you save out you finished work as jpeg or bmp, png or even a tiff.

I save out as jpeg.

You need to download her seamguides to work with and you find them in freestuff by doing a search for "seamguides" or by artist "Snowsultan".

Hope this helps. :)

You don`t need photoshop, all you really need is a paint program and the templates or seam guides.

there's a pay site out there that specializes in skin textures; I don't know the name, but someone should recognize the reference.

Quote - Photoshop is the best bet as far as I'm concerned.

A opinion that Adobe agrees with and is reflected in the price ($650).

those of more meager means could try Corel's PaintShop Pro ($90)
http://www.corel.com/

or those of no means can try The Gimp (free)
http://www.gimp.org/

All of these programs have layers and many (if not all) of the same basic tools.

Well, I own Photoshop already, so if that's the best program, then great! I just didn't know about the seamguides. Thanks for the info everyone, but please keep giving advice if you have it. :) WildHunt

Yeah...I just found the seamguides...I don't think I'll be messing with that. I'm not THAT artistic. LOL.

http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2660658

There are a bunch of links on texturing.

.

"2nd Skin" is a program, tha makes Poser Figure.CR2s.  The really interesting part is that when you load a Poser Figure.CR2 into it, the 2nd Skin.exe will output a new Figure.CR2 that is almost indentical to the one you loaded, except that it is a "Skin's" layer thicker.  THe new .CR2 hs allof the same Parts, Joints, and Material Zones as the original.  You then apply whatever Clothing Material you want to it, and touch that off with a Transparency Mask!  Whala, a "2nd Skin."  Very Simple.

What you would need to know how to do is with Photoshop, etc.  You'll need to open the UV Map for whatever figure you want to cloth, and begin the trial and error process of drawing a nice Black/White outlines of clothing.  These will be you Transparency Masks, and define the shape of your clothing.  With a good set of these you can change the fabric/appearance of your clothing over and over!

The Poser Material Room...will allow you to stack/layer materials, with/without Transparency Masks.  In other words you do'nt need to alter(Paint on) a good Skin Texture Map to cloth a figure.  You can comine the two Maps in the Material Room.  Here is what it would look like, and a link to the thread I got into this with:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2667893

Since then I've become more adept at this.  Attached is an image of a Alpha/Suit I did for a client, with just photoshop and the Material Room.  This character is known as Rebelette, by Mike Shoemaker(Rebelette.com)

To really get an idea of how powerful the Material Room is, checkout this link!  Mind you this image wa rendered with only V3's skin Material Zones.  There is no clothing geometry added, I just used the Transparency Mask I'd developed, and bagginsbill's Matmatic Chainmail material!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2694524&page=1

Wow, 2nd Skin sounds like a really great program...other than the fact I own an iMac and 2nd Skin is Windos...Vista. =/ I will never use Windows again. Not seeing any of the billion error messages daily is so wonderful. But, yeah, I know that a Mac has it's flaws, but they're like 1 compared to Windows billions. I guess I'll have to find a good tutorial on how to use the Materials room since it seems I can use that for the same effect. Thanks for the info and any other forthcoming you all might have. :)

Angelouscuitry, sounds like a method I might give a try later.  :)

I've got a free copy of the Gimp but haven't figured it out yet but I already know Photoshop.

But if you don't have a copy, yeah, Paint shop is good too and anything free catches my eye.  :0)

Another approach to second skins ( I gather you mean second skin clothing ? )- adamthwaites ,for instance, has done a second skin merchant resource template set, actual outlines for a variety of 'second skin' clothing items here http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=52638, also look up PandyGirl, kaiZ, they are some others I have seen in the RMP. There are others over at 3D Commune too. Something of that sort might help you get started if the full on blank body seam guides look too daunting. Just depends on what figs you want to do 2nd skins for...... more template sets available for V3 & V4 than other characters but dig around there are others at various sites. I've def seen mens mil fig ones somewhere. You open the template you want, ie leggings , bra, unitard etc in PS and paint/comp/clone patterns , colours, textures, what ever you want using that as a guide and then use your finished thing as a layer on top of figure textures you already have....instant clothes ! Certainly less worries about matching up edges and seams with these as the vendor had done most of that for you. So they might be a bit less daunting for you than the full figure templates - at least to start with.