Creating skin variation!??

[allenatl]

I'm working on skin textures also. I checked out that tutorial and at first I was lost too but I think I've found what he's talking about. In Photoshop, go to Filter>Distort>Diffuse Glow. The diffuse glow filter has 3 adjustable settings including graininess. He applied this filter then used a blur filter to soften it up a little.
You'll have to play around with the diffuse glow settings to get the desired effect but I tried it and it does get good results. Never would have known what this filter was good for if I hadn't read your post and reread that tutorial!

[Shogun]

Another way to do this:
create a new file. (preferably a power of 8 size, e.g. 256x256 pixels.)
pick two skin tone colours, one a kind of beige-orange, the other a pinky colour (make sure neither are too saturated.)
create 2 new layers.
fill each layer with one of the colours.
pick the top layer & set its blending mode to dissolve & opacity to about 80%
create a new layer & press (ctrl-E) to merge down. This allows you to edit the dissolve.
Use Gaussian blur filter - between 2 & 3.
Set the layer's blending mode to overlay & reduce opacity to about 50%
Add some noise - about 5 - 10% & uniform distribution.

for more colour variation, try playing with the pointillize filter, (a small cell size of 3-5 works best,) or you could create a new layer, fill with either 50% grey or your skin tone colour & then go to the channels & use the clouds filter in each of the R, G & B channels, (but not the top 'RGB' channel) then set the layer to soft light & adjust the opacity to taste.
You could also add another 50% grey layer, add some gaussian noise, monochromatic, about 1-3% & set the layer to overlay.
Now if you want, you can flatten the layers & choose edit/define pattern & use it to flood fill a larger file & use that as a base to paint on. Check for any obvious tiling & edit accordingly using either the high pass filter or else the good old clone stamp.
Hope this helps.

[gizmo1990]

allenatl: Cool thanks I think you worked it out exactly. Thats what he did nice piece of investigation!

Shogun: Thanks for the tips I'll get experimenting.

Thanks guys, Im going nuts no longer! :bounce:

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