I was originally writing this in response to one particular wallpost but I figured it'd be helpful to dedicate a whole wallpost to it and maybe expand upon a few things unrelated to the OP. Recently I've seen a handful of posts regarding practice, improvement and self-denigration.

Firstly on mindsets - overall, skinning should be fun/enjoyable. Any mindset that encourages unhealthy lines of thought will wear you out and you'll end up dreading skinning as a whole.

One of these is the self-denigration mindset (which Kawaii has commented on): especially if you're new but even if you're a seasoned skinner, please don't denigrate yourself when it comes to your skins. I'm no stranger to self-deprecating humour but it's only something I do on occasion and usually it's at a point where it's bants with close friends. If you lower yourself all the time to other people, you'll never rise up

The other is the excuses and expectations mindset: don't beat yourself up over missed expectations, excusing yourself, etc. Personally, that's only ever been useful when I'm trying to confront something unhealthy about myself irl. Skinning is something to be enjoyed and thinking in those terms is the farthest thing from fun

As for getting better as skinner - yes, the answer is practice. How do I practice? usually I practice with three steps(?) in mind:
- I read up on what other people do (blogs, descriptions, whatever) or I'll talk to them (usually via Discord servers)
- I download skins I like and dissect them by zoomin' in a bunch and using the eyedropper tool; all the while I'm relating concepts I know/have heard of to what I'm seeing in front of me
- then I'll put what I've read/learnt together in a skin

But how should you approach practice? Personally, I don't sit and practice skinning, per se - first and foremost I skin for the purposes of making something; practice is something I achieve along the way. Often I'll come up with an idea for a skin first, then I'll look for something new to actively try or something I've done before that I'd like to consciously improve upon. Other times I'm not really seeking to improve, but even then every lil bit helps.

Now to keep things real, a lot of the time I'm not terribly satisfied with the end result. But at the end of the day, and getting back to my main point, I skin cos it's something I enjoy. If I'm not enjoying it, I'll find something else that I can enjoy and get back to skinning later. Hell, sometimes I'll just go on break altogether

TL;DR: skinning should be fun - if you're lowering yourself to others, if you're beating yourself up over excuses, if you're wearing yourself out over practice, then you're probably not having fun.

Welcome to day 2 people, today we present our newest ally in the road to a more solid system! HatThing, welcome to the SSP main hub! Hatsy is exactly what is needed to make our economical prowess the greatest of the election! Vote smart: Bringtrunk, bringbass and bringchange to PMC!

Thought I'd share one of many WIP projects I've got going, the store bought Wizkids Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures Young Silver Dragon. Honestly an easy paintjob, really just need to do the underbelly, teeth/claws and eyes and then when I get my delivery of bases, that needs doing too.

It is time, people!

Oh my, oh my!

Just make sure that this event of HD skins being opened to be released doesn't result in every skinner being bombarded with questions to make them, regular skin requests are enough as is. HD skins take long to make, I am a fast skinmaker, and a detailed HD skin takes me up to 4 hours: I know it's exciting to see, but understand that they do take a lot of time, which can be incredibly draining. Don't let the existence of HD skins degrade what regular resolution skins are either: HD skins are cool, this does not mean regular resolution can't be too. Just something to keep in mind.

Since launching PMCSkin3D, our skin editor has supported the creation of HD skins...

Today, you can publish HD PLAYER skins to the PMC skins section!
While they are listed alongside standard definition skins, they are easily identifiable and filtered using the "Format" filter. We support 128x128 resolution because it's officially supported by the Bedrock Edition.

Besides the higher resolution, it's easy to identify HD skins by their isometric preview and label "HD Bedrock Minecraft Skin". HD skins can only be downloaded. We are unable to support remote change or papercraft.

Game Version Support
HD skins are officially supported by the Minecraft Bedrock Edition and unofficially supported in Minecraft Java Edition with the use of Optifine the MorePlayerModels mod.

Note: If you've already published your HD player skins in a blog, you can republish them without taking down your blog. It's up to you.

Contest hosts - We've been adding results to the Calendar! If your deadline is greyed-out and you'd like the results of your contest included, please let us know in the comment section of the calendar and link to the results. Deadlines greater than 2 weeks will be removed to keep things tidy!

Interested in hosting a contest or event of your own? Below the calendar you'll see several tips! You can also refer to this tutorial for an in-depth guide. Banners aren't mandatory but they are encouraged because it not only attracts attention, but it might also end up on the pop reel, which means more visibility and possibly more participants! We also include new contests with banners in the PMC Weekly. Be sure to check out this How to guide by DinowCookie if you're not sure where to start!

Don't see your contest listed? Please provide the title of your contest with a link, type of contest, and deadline in the comment section of the Community Event Calendar.

Another note: we're always accepting PMC Weekly Feature suggestions! Whether you're proud of your own work or someone else's work caught your eye this week, send us a PM with the link to the project, skin, pack, mod or blog!



Have a great rest of the week PMCer's!

lots of talented people on here

I've seen people often think of an original character (OC) as a particular design, and while that will hold true in some communities it is also not an unambiguous interpretation. Delving into what an OC is (or can be interpreted as) might be in order, particularly with events as of recent.

Original character refers to a character that isn't a part of previously licensed material. This explains the originality part of it; so what is a character exactly. Contrary to what seems to be the focal point on pmc, a character is usually defined equally or moreso by their bio, their mind etc. compared to that of how they look. This is because those attributes or traits will remain the same, no matter the visual you put over said character. Of course the visuals play a role too, however, an OC is more than the visuals alone. You can find several definitions of character, that hints towards this.

Of course this doesn't mean that the visual aesthetic of your character should not be accounted for, particularly when others have a spin on your original character: What it does mean is that you can reimagine the visuals of the character in case you keep their unique traits consistent. Reshading a skin is not the only way to remake an OC, adding your own ideas to it should be equally, or more, appreciated, as it might help you find new sides of the character you invented. A question that might be worthwhile asking yourself is: if you only view your character as a visual shell, is it really a full-fletched character?

Don't apologise for taking a break from something that was once fun and has turned into what feels like a chore: in the context of skinmaking on pmc, skins you post on planetminecraft will commonly be something you do as a hobby; people do not have the right to expect you to make a skin to a schedule when this is the case. People shouldn't push that expecation onto anyone, neither should you have to push it onto yourself. I think me, and several others, much prefer to see one or more really really good skins followed by a break, than someone churning out par to subpar skins because of lack of enthusiasm; if you can stay on your A-game while making several skins a day, by any means do so, that's awesome, just make sure you stay fresh and interested.

Taking a break from anything that you spend your freetime doing is to be expected, in fact, I'd encourage anyone to just do it without even having to explain why: Breaks being good for your continued interest and enthusiasm in the subject is all the reason needed. Stay on top lads!