Hello future skinners and/or reader that wants to read my tutorial for no apparent reason! This is Skinning for Dummies, where, you guessed it, you will learn how to skin. Now, the way I think of it, skinning takes time and effort. If you don't have time to put forth your effort, then skinning is not for you. You also must remember that the skin that you create is normally for the purpose of other people, not just you. That means that you must think of what other people like before you think think of what you like. Now that's enough italics, don't you think?
First thing's first: you must have the correct software or application to create a skin. To start you off, I will give you a link to SkinCrafter by NewGrounds. Click the highlighted text below:
SkinCrafter: Skin Editor and Creator*
Hopefully you got there. The next thing you need is an idea of what a skin could be like. Some popular skins include: mobs, video game characters, adventure characters, and funny characters. Some character may be from tv, a cartoon, or anything. THAT'S the fun of it. It can be ANYTHING if you put time and effort in to it.
Wow, you got the software ready, you brain-stormed an idea, what's next. Well, it's time to commence operation skin creation. That's kind of catchy, right? This is where you design, pixel-by-pixel, your masterpiece.
A very beneficial tip: DO NOT MAKE A SIMPLE PART LIKE A SHIRT OR SKIN COLOR ALL THE SAME TONE.
Trust me, it looks cheesy. It looks unprofessional so don't even think about doung it. Make every pixel have its own shade. It makes it unique and unifying. Ask ANY good skin creator and they will say what I just said. Also you should make the basic shapes pretty much the same color, but then you shade it afterwards. It works better that way(this tip was provided by HeroGuy426).
One of your last steps is the saving process. Save it as a .png format for the best quality. If you use my link, when you save the skin you must put .png at the end of your title or .txt. After you save it, get on a website and have good luck with the skin!
I hope this helped. Thank you and have a good night.
*Thank you HeroGuy426 for letting me know that if you use SkinCrafter by NewGrounds, you musn't use the premade skins, for that is against the rules of submission