Skins and Accents

@Talonmaster
I usually don't really care for Gaolers. But now I want one specifically for your skin! It's gorgeous! X)

@Dradog
What a cool skin! And quite unusual one. I really like colors and the silhouette X) It looks amazing on example dragon!

@Doglike
Very beautiful skin! It's layering reminds me of light boxes. It's quite difficult to create feeling of depth and demension on skin, and you did It perfectly! C:

@Ruforo thank you so much!! I was really going for that sort of storybook depth look so I'm glad it came across!

hello! i need somebody to help me out here. i've only made/submitted one accent before, and that way wayyy back in 2018 for Thundercrack Carnivale (it was rejected because it wasn't great). i used sai back then and now use Procreate. i'm struggling through the process a bit, but mainly i'm wondering how i can tell exactly where my borders are and how to tell definitively if i'm out of bounds. i'm working hard on this and it would be so frustrating to have a few pixels auto-disqualify it. i've included some images below. the original lineart is almost entirely transparent/translucent even at full opacity. all i did was resize it. am i doing something wrong? [img]https://i.imgur.com/uk71n6i.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/OBIpp19.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/745OiGI.png[/img]

@lemongems not sure about the lineart opacity fix (maybe duplicate the lineart layer then merge it to make the opacity stack up? although that might make it look a big strange). considering you resized it, it might be because of that? making the image bigger tends to do that so I'd suggest either working on the 750px canvas or setting your resize settings to bicubic or nearest pixel before you resize it, which should help (assuming you're doing the resizing within the program)

but as for the border overflow worries- don't worry too much about it!!

you can begin to put it through the custom skin submission (and cancel after you figure out if there's overflow, of course) and it'll tell you whether there's too much overflow and if so, where it is so you'll be able to fix it. reSKIN will also tell you how much overflow and where it is on the upload skin section, as well as coverage amount!

generally what I've found through my few skin/accent submissions is that a little bit of overflow around the lineart is hardly noticeable and doesn't amount to much- it always passes through just fine

hope this helped a bit!! can't wait to see what your entry looks like :D

[quote name="EldritchPhantom" date="2024-05-20 20:30:02" ] considering you resized it, it might be because of that? making the image bigger tends to do that so I'd suggest either working on the 750px canvas or setting your resize settings to bicubic or nearest pixel before you resize it, which should help (assuming you're doing the resizing within the program)[/quote] i can't believe i didn't think of this... so true! i did try to artificially up the opacity by duping layers, but not only did it look nasty, i also kind of psyched myself out because i wasn't sure if i could turn it in like that. (overthinking is a common issue of mine, sigh) i will for sure try that out. [quote name="EldritchPhantom" date="2024-05-20 20:30:02"]you can begin to put it through the custom skin submission (and cancel after you figure out if there's overflow, of course) and it'll tell you whether there's too much overflow and if so, where it is so you'll be able to fix it. reSKIN will also tell you how much overflow and where it is on the upload skin section, as well as coverage amount![/quote] thank you so much for saying this; i kinda feel like an idiot because the skin/accent-making process is taking me such a long time to figure out! totally misunderstood the FR checker guidelines and thought you had to have the blueprint to get to that stage [palm] thanks so much for answering my stupid questions [emoji=familiar heart size=1] i really appreciate it!

@lemongems (i hope you don't mind me pinging lol) [quote name="lemongems"] i can't believe i didn't think of this... so true! i did try to artificially up the opacity by duping layers, but not only did it look nasty, i also kind of psyched myself out because i wasn't sure if i could turn it in like that. (overthinking is a common issue of mine, sigh) i will for sure try that out.[/quote] yeah, I expected the duplication to make it bad LOL. and I don't think that's overthinking!! pretty smart actually, I didn't even think about how it'd work with the rules! [quote name="lemongems"]thank you so much for saying this; i kinda feel like an idiot because the skin/accent-making process is taking me such a long time to figure out! totally misunderstood the FR checker guidelines and thought you had to have the blueprint to get to that stage [palm] thanks so much for answering my stupid questions [emoji=familiar heart size=1] i really appreciate it! [/quote] nono, it's fine!! I didn't realize I could put it through without a blueprint either, and I can't remember if I saw someone else say this or I just tried it for funsies. either way, the skin/accent-making process can be tricky to figure out, and I and many others are happy to help!! there are no stupid questions :3 glad I could help and good luck!!

@EldritchPhantom (i don't, and i hope you also don't mind me doing it back, LOL) i am seriously so grateful for your help, i got so overwhelmed with the process of making this alone but i'm much more confident in the technical aspect now. you saved my literal skin, LOL. thanks!!![emoji=familiar heart size=1][emoji=familiar heart size=1]

I’m asking more for future me than current me, but does anyone know how much/what sort of lightening is allowed on the lineart and shadow layers? Can I lighten some of the shadow layer if I don’t erase it? I’m sure I’ve seen skins where the lineart color is changed also (most memorably turned light blue on skins that add white space to reshape the dragon)

@Churrell you can lighten the lineart to a good degree just fine!! for the lineart, as long as it's noticeably darker, it should be good. the example on the [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/wiki/skins/1]custom skins rules section[/url] shows you can get pretty light with it as long as it's visible- although I like to go on the darker side to be safe [quote][b]The line art must always be noticeably darker than the color on which it rests.[/b] Line art may be painted (lock the line art layer to preserve transparency.) Line art that is the same shade or a lighter color will not be accepted.[/quote] for shadows, you're free to change the hue, which I assume also adds to a bit of lightening. the rules say they should be noticeably darker as well, just like the lineart, but I'm not entirely sure if that means it can be lightened. I believe so by checking other existing skins that seem to have lightened shadows [quote][b]Custom Skin and Accent submissions should not alter/delete portions of the Shadow layer.[/b] You may alter the hue of the shadow layer as a whole. The shadow layer must remain set to multiply mode. Shadows must be noticeably darker than the color on which they sit above.[/quote] I've also noticed that when people have skins rejected due to too-light lineart they sometimes head to the [url=https://www1.flightrising.com/forums/skin/1199521]skin and accent problems forum[/url] where a mod usually provides an edited version with darker shadows/lineart as an example for what would be acceptable, so you can probably use those as reference to see what's too light and what's acceptable

@Churrell It heavily varies on the lightness of the accent colors, in my experience-- if the colors are bright, you can sometimes get away with as little as 30% opacity on the linework above it because the contrast is heavy enough. 40-50% opacity tends to be accepted on anything other than the darkest colors, and 60% is considered a safe bet in general. If you want to use super dark colors, you kind of have to play around with placing them in areas that don't heavily conflict with lines and shadows. You can also change the colors of the lines to pop more, but finding a balance there can be tricky too.