In life or on IMVU, we all want to look our best and – hopefully – create a look that’s unique.

One of the coolest things to develop is skins, because they help create that one-of-a-kind look.

You will ~absolutely~ need a graphic editor that has layer capabilities (Photoshop, GIMP, PaintShop Pro) and if you want life to be easier, it should be able to read Photoshop files (.psd).

Get the Templates

Here’s where having Photoshop comes in *very* handy – the templates. If you have Photoshop or a program that will read Photoshop files, grab the .psd and get ready to have a lot of fun.

If you don’t have Photoshop or your editor can’t read .psd files, you’ll need to grab the .jpg templates for each skin tone you want to work with and go from there.

Either way, I can’t recommend mayu22’s site enough for the most complete skin templates around.

For those who are experiencing issues downloading the .psd files from mayu’s site, I’ve compiled the .psd collection into a .zip file that is available for free download here.

Open ‘er Up!

I’m going to be working with a female body template. The same steps work for male skins as female skins, but there isn’t as much of a call for makeup on male skins … so I’m saving myself some time.

Open the head template you’re using in Photoshop. If you downloaded the .psd template, you’ll see a lot of folders – and layers for every skintone imaginable. Pick the skintone you want to work with and “hide” all the others by clicking the eye icon beside their layer.

Understand the Layers

If you aren’t using the .psd template, you can skip this step.

Beyond the skintone layers, there are many more layers in here. Mayu22 has done an amazing job at isolating every single piece that makes up a skin, which makes life soooo much easier on us using them.

Reference the diagram linked below to understand what each of the layers mean and do. Obviously, not nearly all of them are covered. I’ve just hit on some of the ones we’ll be playing with.

Get Organized

Trust me, you’re going to want to set up your skins correctly the first time around. If you don’t save the work you do, then you have to start from scratch every time you do a new skin.

It’s not necessary.

So, first click the little “folder” icon at the bottom of the Layers Palette. This will make a new group for you – name the group “Test” or something else you’ll remember, and make sure that it is at the very top of your layers palette.

Start Painting

When you’re first starting out, it can be a lot easier to paint the makeup if you find a couple of good pictures that you can use for reference.

The only thing you’ll want to copy of mayu’s is the layer named “Lips 2″ from the Makeup folder.

Other than that, you’re going to want to paint the makeup yourself.

Create a new layer (Layer, New, Layer) for each piece you paint – eyeshadow, blush, etc. Use a basic round brush.

Want to know how I get the high shine and shadow on mine? Reference the image linked below to view each of the pieces I paint.