Welcome to a user friendly guide on how to make your own skins using the premium feature Item skinning!
(Premium because it costs you Luna to have these created)

This guide will take you through how to simply and quickly recolor something,
Right through to adding in details to make the item skin truly unique.

If you have any questions or need help please make a post and i will do my best to help you out!

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Index

- How to Start
- Simple Changes
- Adding Details
- Lighting and Shading
- Submitting
- Applying Skins
- Q & A's

To Begin head to the Artist page.
Click Simple skinning to see what you are able to Skin.

You will need to own the item you want to skin.
If you do not own the item it will not appear for you.

Recommend Programs to use



Paint tool Sai - A Drawing Program that requires a one time payment - also have a 30 day free trail.
Gimp - A FREE Drawing program that is a simplified version of Photoshop
Photoshop - Subscription based Drawing program.

For the purpose of this guide i will be using Gimp for all examples as it is free and can be obtained by anyone.

Recolor the whole item!
You can Easily and quickly change the whole color of an item using the Colorize Option under the Colors tab.
Any of the Option under the Colors tab will change the overall color of the item so play around with it!

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Recolor a section!
To recolor a certain section you will need to cut that bit out and place it on a new layer.
There are a few ways to do this but i find this the easiest:
Cut out the area you want -> press "Crl+C" to copy -> then press "Crl+P" to paste -> Create a new layer and the pasted section is assigned to it.

From here you can then color that layer only separate from the rest of the image.

Using Solia Items
We have a number of ways to add details, it all depends on what you would like to do.
A great way is to use Solia items to add something to an item,
Simply grab the item you want and put it on the image.
Hearty Belt Clip -> Added to Kitty
->
What you need to remember is that you cant have the details outside of the original items frame.
Something like this will not be accepted and is an Item Edit not a Skin:
Outside the kitty but in frame - allowed -> Out side the frame - Not allowed
->

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Making your own details
I would highly recommend using a new layer with ether the mode set to multiply or something else.
I do this so that the shading of the item actually shows through and is less work over all.

Original (with colored tail) -> Added Strips
->

lighting and shadow is very important to give your item dimension.
Sometimes when you recolor something it can come out very flat,
Or when using to many colors it can come out very flat.
Rainbow example & And dull Color example:
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So how do we improve the look of your item? add a light and a shadow layer!

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The Shadow layer
Simply start by adding a new layer,
Select a painting tool and have black (or your darkest color) ready.


Pencil - Paintbrush - Eraser - Airbrush

Study your original image to get an idea of where the darkest points are and mimic them.
Its good to focus on the outline of the image and the areas that would normally have shadow.
Don't panic, it will be super dark, once you have blended the sharp edges play with the layer Opacity to get it looking nice.

-> ->

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The Lighting layer
Much the same as the shadow layer but using white or light colors instead,
The light layer generally does better on top of the shadow so your final result will look something like this
-> ->

Just a small amount of work goes a long way to making your item look 1000x better.

A better example of an items shading would be on a bunny pet:
Flat image -> + Shadow -> + Light
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Or a Goat
Flat image -> + Shadow -> + Light
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Seasonal Items
With Seasonal Items you have two options when uploading your skins / or edits.
You can choose to upload one single image under the "All season" option.
This means that during all in game season the items will remain the same.
OR you can choose to upload the seasonal images under "Winter, Spring, Summer & Fall".
All 4 must have an image for the skin to change from season to season,
this happens automatically as the seasons change in game.
You can only submit one or the other not both at the same time.
When you are happy with the item and would like to submit it give it a Name.
Once named Hit submit and note that it will cost you between 25 to 100 Luna to be approved.
Once you hit submit a small pop up with appear and your item will now be waiting approval.
You will receive a notification when it has been approved.

All season Entry example -> Season Entry Example
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Non Seasonal Items
Pets can not be seasonal and will only show with the one option to upload into.
To Upload hit the upload button under the save button.
Once uploaded a small preview of the item and how it will look in world will show up.
If you notice anything that is off or that doesn't line up stop here and go back to editing it.
When you are happy with the item and would like to submit it give it a Name.
Once named Hit submit and note that it will cost you 25 Luna to be approved.
Other items can cost More so be sure to check what item costs what.
Once you hit submit a small pop up with appear and your item will now be waiting approval.
You will receive a notification when it have been approved.

Once you receive a notification that your design has been approved you can apply it to your items!

First lets check on what ones have been approved, head back to the artist page and click on:
You will see a pop up like this:

Once you have the info you need start gathering the items you wish to reskin.
The items need to be in your avatar inventory to reskin them.
When you have the item ready click it and look for the "customize land item" option.

A pop up like this will appear:

Hovering over the icons will show you the names if you cant see them very well.
Select the one you wish to use and Hit Choose Skin.
This will cost you 25 Luna every time you wish to reskin something.

Once an Item is reskinned, it can be reskinned again but can not return to it's original at this point.

If you have any questions please ask!
Happy to answer them or make videos to help people out.