Sared's Ten Commandments of Skinning
Posted: Sun May 29, 2011 11:30 pm
Disclaimer: I am guilty of breaking quite a few of these myself. Apparently Tomoran was able to break eighteen of these.
If you think that I'm talking about you, then I probably am. Hopefully you know me well enough not to take it personally. It's all just subjective masochistic editorializing anyway. Lots of love. <3
10. Hoodies
No Jedi in canon wears one. You will be made fun of behind your back for it. If you want to cover your face, use a full robe, or go through the process of designing some decent headgear.
9. Skimpy outfits
No amount of dental floss and pecan shells can excuse this. Jedi are modest at all times; and while the skin may be aesthetically pleasing to look at and may be completely anatomically correct, it has no place in a family-friendly role-playing environment, much less in a Jedi Enclave. This also goes for you shirtless manly men. Save it for the real gym fellas.
8. Clashing colors
This should make a little more sense, but still needs addressing. Contrasting colors are good, and can be done well. (Black and white, red and blue, yellow and pink), but pairing colors that have no place being together (neon pink and brown, any solid color splattered on across the board with no shading or depth difference) is just a poor choice. Along these same lines, using an easily recognized preset (the blue to gold gradient in Photoshop) is unoriginal and lazy. Such presets are easily configurable and can be adjusted to look better with little effort.
7. Race Inconsistencies
Is your chosen race blue? Then be blue. Don't try to be the .001% of your race that's odd-off, or have some genetic anomaly or something in your heritage that has you being red, or having any other physical deviance for some reason. Being different is good. Being different to the point of flying in the face of the rest of the established race is bad.
6. Stealth/Recon/Battle Armor
This is not Call of Duty. This is not a Tom Clancy game. Jedi are not assassins. Jedi Shadows have not existed since the Clone Wars. If a Jedi wants to hide, then they will use the Force to do so. Does it look cool? Maybe. Is a Jedi going to be wearing body armor in their own home? No. At very best canonically, padded jumpsuits were worn by some during the Yuuzhan Vong War, and Obi-Wan wore Clone Trooper armor during the Battle of Muunilinst. That's it.
5. Shaders
This can actually be taken both ways. First, using shaders to make your skin shiny or give it additional depth is good. Very good. Overdoing it (ending up with hair that looks like it was carved out of woood), or using the wrong shader with the wrong light map can ruin it easily. Just as well, *not* using a shader where one would improve the look of the skin (such as leaving a metallic part of the skin matte), then it detracts just as much as it would have added to the overall look of the skin.
4. 'Terran' Fashion
Levis, wonderbra, sports jerseys. These are all things you could expect to see walking through your local mall. Yes, you can fashion a similar design, or take notes from fashions that you may see here on Earth, but this is a fantastical setting with vastly different cultures and influences than our own. Something that is distinctly 'terran' (read, 'earth-like' or 'from the IRL') may be novel for a short while, but breaks immersion easily.
3. Accessories
I'm the first to admit that we are playing dress-up with our dolls, but putting the amount of effort in to animate a screensaver on to your datapad (while notable) is overkill. Accessories serve to reveal more story to our characters. They are not the story of our characters. (Insert Tyler Durden quote here)
2. Scars
Bacta is a miracle medicine. Simple as that. Right now, in our current day and age, we have the technological and chemical understanding of the human body to treat, heal, and cure many diseases and wounds extremely well. In a society as advanced as the setting we play in, that medical and technical understanding is increased ten or a hundred fold. The only reason that one would still have a scar is if they intentionally kept it 'as a reminder'. (And be honest with yourself, after the first twelve people draw a scar across their eye, it gets old.)
1. OOC Humor
Internet memes and jokes have no place in the IC world of JEDI. I will say again that using a particular style or idea as inspiration, and then throwing on a JEDI/Star Wars spin on it is great. Copy pasting a Creeper on to your datapad is not. (In fact it's downright terrifying.)
P.S. If you really are convinced I'm taking the piss out on you, or want clarification, come talk to me. I don't bite.
If you think that I'm talking about you, then I probably am. Hopefully you know me well enough not to take it personally. It's all just subjective masochistic editorializing anyway. Lots of love. <3
10. Hoodies
No Jedi in canon wears one. You will be made fun of behind your back for it. If you want to cover your face, use a full robe, or go through the process of designing some decent headgear.
9. Skimpy outfits
No amount of dental floss and pecan shells can excuse this. Jedi are modest at all times; and while the skin may be aesthetically pleasing to look at and may be completely anatomically correct, it has no place in a family-friendly role-playing environment, much less in a Jedi Enclave. This also goes for you shirtless manly men. Save it for the real gym fellas.
8. Clashing colors
This should make a little more sense, but still needs addressing. Contrasting colors are good, and can be done well. (Black and white, red and blue, yellow and pink), but pairing colors that have no place being together (neon pink and brown, any solid color splattered on across the board with no shading or depth difference) is just a poor choice. Along these same lines, using an easily recognized preset (the blue to gold gradient in Photoshop) is unoriginal and lazy. Such presets are easily configurable and can be adjusted to look better with little effort.
7. Race Inconsistencies
Is your chosen race blue? Then be blue. Don't try to be the .001% of your race that's odd-off, or have some genetic anomaly or something in your heritage that has you being red, or having any other physical deviance for some reason. Being different is good. Being different to the point of flying in the face of the rest of the established race is bad.
6. Stealth/Recon/Battle Armor
This is not Call of Duty. This is not a Tom Clancy game. Jedi are not assassins. Jedi Shadows have not existed since the Clone Wars. If a Jedi wants to hide, then they will use the Force to do so. Does it look cool? Maybe. Is a Jedi going to be wearing body armor in their own home? No. At very best canonically, padded jumpsuits were worn by some during the Yuuzhan Vong War, and Obi-Wan wore Clone Trooper armor during the Battle of Muunilinst. That's it.
Dan Thorsland, editor of the Tales of the Jedi comics wrote:You won't see Jedi wearing a lot of armor, and there's a reason for that. So we make sure no one's running around looking like King Arthur from Excalibur. That's not the way of a Jedi.
5. Shaders
This can actually be taken both ways. First, using shaders to make your skin shiny or give it additional depth is good. Very good. Overdoing it (ending up with hair that looks like it was carved out of woood), or using the wrong shader with the wrong light map can ruin it easily. Just as well, *not* using a shader where one would improve the look of the skin (such as leaving a metallic part of the skin matte), then it detracts just as much as it would have added to the overall look of the skin.
4. 'Terran' Fashion
Levis, wonderbra, sports jerseys. These are all things you could expect to see walking through your local mall. Yes, you can fashion a similar design, or take notes from fashions that you may see here on Earth, but this is a fantastical setting with vastly different cultures and influences than our own. Something that is distinctly 'terran' (read, 'earth-like' or 'from the IRL') may be novel for a short while, but breaks immersion easily.
3. Accessories
I'm the first to admit that we are playing dress-up with our dolls, but putting the amount of effort in to animate a screensaver on to your datapad (while notable) is overkill. Accessories serve to reveal more story to our characters. They are not the story of our characters. (Insert Tyler Durden quote here)
2. Scars
Bacta is a miracle medicine. Simple as that. Right now, in our current day and age, we have the technological and chemical understanding of the human body to treat, heal, and cure many diseases and wounds extremely well. In a society as advanced as the setting we play in, that medical and technical understanding is increased ten or a hundred fold. The only reason that one would still have a scar is if they intentionally kept it 'as a reminder'. (And be honest with yourself, after the first twelve people draw a scar across their eye, it gets old.)
1. OOC Humor
Internet memes and jokes have no place in the IC world of JEDI. I will say again that using a particular style or idea as inspiration, and then throwing on a JEDI/Star Wars spin on it is great. Copy pasting a Creeper on to your datapad is not. (In fact it's downright terrifying.)
P.S. If you really are convinced I'm taking the piss out on you, or want clarification, come talk to me. I don't bite.