CnP+Re-Colour VS the all might Free-Hand...

What do all you skinners think...

I never CnP so I would not know but I sumtims do re-colour (only when I cant be stuffed) and they come out lookin decent and all right...

Free-Hand is what YOU MUST know when it comes to skinning and I do...

I want to know if you people think that just coz the skin is free-hand its too good or CnP+Re-Colour that has had effort put into it is better... or is it just the look of the skin... emote_confused

BTW: I think it is Free-Hand that looks best and gets u good comments................

PLZ People post what u think...

The issue/fued between CnP and free hand came only on in these board when maverick bragged about his work that it was way better then blizzard's...although most of his work is CnP he didnt say that (he took right away textures from other games) and instead he insisted he created those by himself. To make something worse he had a sort of feeling that he was uber (or that feeling rose by the readers) and that the rest of the forumers were nitwits who were content with easy/simple things (what is still nowadays here on the forums with most skins) that makes him think he could brag about his stuff. Hence some forumers that frequently visit polycount at that time flamed him to the next century and a sort of anti CnP feeling is created here by some members...

CnP aint that bad, as long as you dont claim your work 100% for yourself and achieve the desired effect its fine (no-one complained about Brokk and Martel's skin at that time, even though they were CnP...even then I never bragged about those..)

Just to make things clear regarding the weird hatred between CnP and Free hand drawing on this board

Oh, and my opinion is that it depends on what of object your skin will apply to. IMO CnP is alright because i prefer to focus on creating the model and pplying textures at the same time (so I know how it will look like when modelling). Of course then you cannot brag about it =)

Free hand drawing is good, when you reach at the lvl when you are good at (skyquake is a good example of that) and it offers a wider perspective.

IMO if you want to start on skinning on a longer term (and do art/web graphics) I suggest to focus on Free hand drawing. CnP is only a viable option if you are focusing more on models editing etc to achieve a fast and desirable effect. It wont cut it though on the longer run

i think free hand is better. You can make your own structure. Not steel it.

omg its spelt steal =P

lol btw free-hand, i do it all the way!!! cept for my first crappy cnp skin... oh yes, recolor is more lazy... cnp u need to crop, resize, put them in place... recolor is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay easier... i supported free-hand all the way of course like i said

I reckon... but we are talkin about does free hand look the best or does a great combo of CnP+Re-Colour some how own it... emote_confused

ive already said free-hand owns... u need a source to cnp and recolor... but u dun need when u free-hand, get it?

Sorry bout that LOL...

I don't care, as long as it looks good and if it is CnP you don't say how you "made it from scratch yourself".

First of, the only thing I care about is how cool a skin is, how good it looks ingame and how well it fits in with the other wc3 models. Other stuff doesn't matter.

Given this, things drawn from scratch has a *potential* to look better and cooler than pretty much any CnP. Although to be totally honest, few people are good enough at free-hand drawing to be able to make something look better made from scratch than it would have if they'd based it on something they CnP'd. I myself have no close to none artistic skills whatsoever (and, admittedly, don't really care to learn) but I've managed to craft stuff that are, imo, completely up to par with the original wc3 textures and still look fresh and original.

There are huge amounts of graphics in the wc3 MPQs and much of it is never or rarely used, so there is much to work with. Creating textures and surfaces from scratch is really hard, coping the texture and then shaping it into something else is much easier, given enough experience with Photoshop or similar programs.

That being said, I have great admiration for ppl who attempt and succeed at actually creating something from nothing - hand drawn images require a lot more skill than simply aligning layers and applying tools in a computer program. But as I said initially, all I care about when it comes to skinning is how good it looks ingame. Anything else is stuff you can brag about on the forums, but it doesn't matter from a design perspective.

Oh, and another thing. I have no qualms about CnPing from Blizzard textures, but I've never used outside images. I consider it cheating, in a way, and there are also copyright issues to consider.

Oh, and CnPing something and then claiming it as your own work is, naturally, not acceptable. CnPing as an artistic shortcut is fine with me, but not stating your sources and methods (if they're not apparent) is bad form, imo.

thank god we have civilized people in this thread so far. Not those retards that are like, c-n p is wack son.
I personally love freehand, but i find cnp + recolor with a little smudgeing and light drawing with the paintbrush, can b its ow art style.

Justianes right tho if ur going ito the art field (im trying) this wont help.
but if ur skinning for run, why not. Have you seen those skins those french kids do. Holly crap

ya i spend alotttttt of time on my skins (i was doing the 1 4 the christmas contest all day 2 day). imagine if i was modeling and skinning.

i say freehand all the way but 4 its own style and efficiance when it comes 2 modeling cnp is ok.

um like i said, cnp needs a source, means if there isnt any source, lets say the world no longer has any art, or wad so ever, u still have to do it yurself, u cant cnp coz nothing for u... get it? in the end u will end up doing free-hand... coz u need a free-hand art to be cnped...

U don't need 2 explaine cnp in detail everybody knows you need a source and when in the hell is the world gunna have no art. There would have 2 be an apocalypse, and if there was 1 i don't think people would be woried about art 4 warcraft. Theres artist out there ,and i mean regular artist, that use "sources" all the time. Theres this 1 artist that uses liscence plates to make portraits of famous people. I myself am doing a self portrait made outta metrocards, and theres people who use pictures of people in magazines to make work themselves two.
So cnps source is a medium some people create with paint, sum wit licence plate, sum wit digital paint, and some people use blizzards skins like people use magazine clippings.

as long as it looks good its ok i have done a few cnp when it is hard to create the affect u want but free hand is best recoloring can be thrown in if you want that kind of thing just in a different color and cnp can be usfull but not very often ofcourse because most of the time cnps dont work well any way so realy it is the way it looks to get a cnp to look right takes alot of work (more than free hand because u have a rigged thing to work with) so basically it is the way it is that counts

Coltaire is considered in many places "the best skinner" but coltaire uses LOTS of cnp. You know that ner'zhul arthas? almost the entire bode (shoulders down) is cnp, but noone minds. I agree, this was all maverick's fault :nono:

I feel we should end this anti cnp feel, as long as we give credit where credit is due. Lets face it, unless you're Kain_m, Yoda24, Coltaire, Alfredx_sotn, or jacinthe (im sure there are more) or one of those l33t skinners, your freehand wont look even close to as perfect as it could be with a bit of cnp. I admit, I use a bit of cnp in all of my work, but I tend to freehand most of it, or atlease completeley edit it until it's unrecognizable. Everything but the face, eyes and mask on my SB was CnP (edited until it's hard;y noticable) of bronze dragon. Flame me. Do I care? I do NOT support entirely cnp/recoloring, but I do sure as hell support some of it. CnP is sure as hell valid if you edit it.

When you look at a piece of art, do you think,

"Man that took a lot of time and effort"

or

"Man, that looks FLAWLESS! Absolulely perfect!"

I know for a fact it's numba 2.

cnp is OK, it gets the job done quick and ez, like my human death knight, youd hardly know its from a Paladin and Arthas, with some bolts and that lion thing from the knight.
free hand maybe messy but it expresses indivduality, which is good, but may take a while and a good imagination.