Collaborations

I love, love, LOVE collaborating on new stories and characters (especially with more talented partners; just call me Stan Lee!). And while I don't have a lot of time to sit down and skin these days, I can still occupy my imagination during class (it's just college, afterall) or while walking down the street or lying in bed. I've always been a much better writer than artist, anyway. Past collaborations with like-minded creators have produced dozens of fresh and exciting characters and storylines, the implementation of which has been stalled only by lack of time and resources.

At any rate, should anyone want a new perspective on old characters or a nice spin on a new idea they're working on, I heartily encourage them to contact me. I rarely demand anything in exchange for my help (though some simple credit wouldn't hurt!); I just really get a kick out of the collaboration process. Kicking ideas back and forth is what this is all about, afterall.

Requests For Skins, Etc.

Hmm... I really don't have much time. And when I do have time for online and computer blah-blahs I'm usually busy with my other site, Behind the Church. I haven't finished a skin in almost two years, but mostly because I can't think of anything to do, or how to do it, etc. I don't know why.

I'm generally open to requests for new skins. Usually avatars, but uncommon or interesting characters too. If someone were to contact me with a request I'd certainly give it a look-over, and get back to them with my thoughts on it. More likely I might just give some feedback about the request and suggest a more suitable skinner. But if someone were interested, they could copy the following short form and mail it to me:

Character Name:
Character Description: (Origin and personality affect a character more than his costume.)
Possible Mesh: (I'm not going to bother looking for a mesh myself; tell me which mesh(es) you have in mind, and PROVIDE LINKS.)
Reference Art: (Very, very important. Either show me the character in mind, or show me other characters similar in nature to what you're thinking.)
Notes: (Anything else important regarding the project.)

Frequently Asked Questions

How did you create these skins?
The process? Well, first I stuck to two programs: IfranView and PaintShop, the most recent versions of both. Most people use PhotoShop, but I got a pirated copy of PaintShop first, and found that it was simpler and less involved to use. As for IrfanView, it's a very basic image program that does all the simple functions (cropping, resizing, viewing) quickly and (most importantly) for free. It's very handy with creating preview images and portraits.

As for deciding what to skin, sometimes I would check out community message boards for individuals looking for skinners to fill requests. Typically you can find some interesting, and very unusual, ideas there, from requests for personal avatars to some of the less likely comic book characters to be skinned. Anyone looking for unique projects should always keep an eye on requests. Otherwise, I would just skim through The Marvel Universe Handbook (I'm a huge Marvel Zombie) or look at my favorite titles and other properties for what I'd really like to work on. Considering that it usually takes me about five or six hours to make a single skin, I have to want to look at the character for at least that long. Otherwise I lose all interest and it joins the 30+ unfinished skins in my to-do folder. (I swear, I'll finish that Iceman yet!) And sometimes when I feel uppity I'll see another person's skin that's been done exceptionally poorly and set out to make a better one. Though I assure you, if a skin started that way rarely pulls it off!

And this is the part where I delve into some poorly-advised attempt at a skinning tutorial, but I'm the last person qualified to write such a thing. Suffice it to say, from what I've learned of skinning, a successful skinner must be very patient, have a good concept of lighting, and always bear in mind two crucial functions of the design programs he's using: Undo and Save. You'll probably need to employ them in that order, too. Save like a madman! And when in doubt, create it on a new layer. And speaking of which: SAVE YOUR UNMERGED LAYERS. I've kept all but a few of my skins as .PSP (that's the PaintShop file extension) before merging their layers and saving them as .TGAs. After making a few skins you'll want to go back and see what you did before, or you may even want to touch up a skin to avoid too much embarassment. It's a bone-headed and obvious thing to say, but save every scrap of every skin you've made, and at every step along the way.

What is a portrait, exactly?
A portrait, in regard to skins, is an in-game image that corresponds to the character the skin represents. Open Freedom Force and start a campaign. The little boxes on the lower left part are the portraits, see? As far as making skins is concerned, the skinner is usually expected to create one to accompany the skin he's making. They're very simple to create and save a lot of trouble for someone using the skin layer. (Well, really, it's just that not having a portrait to go along with the skin results in a black box appearing in-game where the portrait should be.)

A portrait must be 64x128 pixels, and must be saved as "portrait.tga". It must be a Targa file (.TGA) or the game will not recognize it. Speaking of which, a portrait must be the dimensions stated or it will most likely crash the game. Portraits (all of which are named "portrait.tga", remember) should be placed in the same folder as the skins they are to accompany.

And the last thing to bear in mind regarding portraits is that they can contain whatever art you'd like. As long as they're titled properly and given the correct extension, the game will present whatever art you put in them. Most skinners use screen captures of their skins, but I usually include comic art of the character (Jack Kirby art for Captain America, some Mike Allred for the X-Statix, etc.), to help along the fantasy of the character the skin is supposed to represent. But it's up to you, and mostly dependent on how much time to have to kill.

Aren't you concerned about the copyrights of the characters you skin and make available?
Well, sure. There have been a number of times when skinners and meshes have been strong-armed by certain large comic book corporations, most episodes of which end in the skinners and meshers' sites being either shut down or forced to continue without said corporations' characters. And as much as that stinks, it's just how it is. Anyone with a site who makes such things available accepts the likelihood that they'll be hassled or brow-beaten, and they simply have to bear in mind that they may have to remove the contents according to the copyright holders' wishes. It very rarely degenerates into any sort of nasty legal affair, so long as the skinner (or mesher) can admit that he's in the wrong to begin with.

That said, however, the Skinventory will continue to make all skins available, and will continue to insist and acquiesce to the reality that all copyrights are reserved by their respective owners. This is a strictly non-profit (and if anything, anti-profit) site, and the contents being made available are simply for personal amusement and artistic expression.

How do you regard kitbashing and such?
Not very fondly at all. There's an awkward position where, as a particularly minor-league skinner, you want to create something but simply can't create, say, muscle tone or facial features. You typically can use a base skin. I'm probably the biggest user of base skins ever; only a few of my skins haven't used at least a base skin's face or musclulature, and those that didn't will not be appearing on this site! (Ouch.) But at the same time, some skinners go even further, lifting parts of skins that are unique to particular ones, for particular characters and so on. While base skins have been created and approved of by their creators for use in other skinners' works, taking parts of completed skins for your own use is known as "kitbashing."

Kitbashing is not looked upon favorably by most skinners. It represents the theft of your completed works to add legitimacy to someone else's shortcomings. Sounds a little harsh, but still. As I said, it's an awkward situation. But essentially, kitbashing is artistic dishonesty (as, frankly, a kitbasher will typically try to downplay any outside "contributions" to his skins, if not ignore them altogether, which just compounds the distaste of the situation). So what do I say as a skinner who makes routine use of base skins, and who (surprisingly) is sometimes kitbashed himself? Simple: If you aren't given permission to use another person's skins except as stated otherwise, you're kitbashing, and you're doing us all a disservice. Don't do it.

How do you know a skinner's specified uses for his skins?
Well, any smart-thinking skinner will include a "read-me" file with his skins. Read-mes are .TXT files that contain useful information regarding the skin, usually the name of the character, any pertinent information about the character, the mesh for which the skin is used (and its location, hopefully), a list of credits (for base skins and meshes, and maybe collaboratory help), and the skinner's position on acceptable uses of his works. He will state clearly whether the given skin can be kitbashed, used in mods or other artistic works, redistributed (emailed to a friend, uploaded to a file-sharing program, etc.), and so forth. They seem frivolous, but read-mes are essentially a fair-play agreement between skinner and user, and it's just standard decency to honor the skinner's requests.

If all else fails, simply contact the skinner and ask nicely. Explain your problem and give him an idea of what you intend to do with your skin and his. If he likes the sound of it he might just give you a thumbs-up. (Oh, but bear in mind, it's usually not a good idea to kitbash a part of a skin to create a new skin of the same character! Don't ask a skinner for help making a better version of what he's just done!)