How do YOU make fur?

[ChubbyPanda]

I couldn't find any tutorials on google so...how do YOU guys do your fur when you're skinning an animal?
My hair ends up looking terrible!

[germanwolf]

well, I only tried a little, and let me tell you, paint does not work. You need something that will keep the texture of the fur, and I think the only free program that kind of does that is GIMP. I tried it with that, and it kind of worked.... but if you want a good program like the designers have here... you have to buy a program, but I don't know how much it costs.

[mikaboshi]

You can get test versions of almost every good program - I bought Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium for about 700 dollars USD, but I upgraded from a previous version, otherwise it would have been 1200 dollars. Just Photoshop alone (not an upgrade) is 700 dollars, so unless you have a reason to buy it (I do because I'm a graphic designer in training) then I wouldn't suggest it.

Paint Shop Pro is good; I've never used it but many people do. You can get a free trial of that I know. Just type "paint shop pro trial" in google and you should find it relatively easily.

[ChubbyPanda]

Hmm, I have Adove Photoshop 6.0. My uncle happened to be a graphic designer and he gave me this program after having upgraded to CS2 o.o I've used it mostly for cleaning up pictures and drawing.
I having alot of trouble drawing fur with it, so I need some tips =3

[Gloria]

I use photoshop. Basically I have a few different methods for doing fur, depending on what is needed:

At times I have used the clone brush tool and used it to directly copy the fur from a photograph onto the skin, then I edited the color of the fur using a combination of the color balance options and freehand painting.

In other cases I've simply used a multiply layer and/or different transparencies of brushes to recolor areas while retaining the "official" texture.  I tend to do a LOT of freehand coloring with my tablet (it's not a wacom, it's an acecat, which is a cheap but hardy option for graphics tablets) so I kind of end up painting some textures in myself. It's a pretty time-consuming process.  

For the sick/dirty skins I use the color balance and a dirt texture I made. That's the easiest part, by far.

Hope that helps!

[penguinbomber14]

I use the grass brush in photo shop, or take a photo of an animal with fur and use the clone brush.

For dirty skins I use the sponge effect. Turn the brush size and smoothness all the way down and definition all they way up.

[ChubbyPanda]

Ah, thank you, the clone brush really helps! I can't find the grass brush tool though, what is it? :sweatingb

[starstruck_disaster]

I paint mine in I do digital paintings so I have my own technique for painting fur.

[Peacenote]

You can get test versions of almost every good program - I bought Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium for about 700 dollars USD, but I upgraded from a previous version, otherwise it would have been 1200 dollars. Just Photoshop alone (not an upgrade) is 700 dollars, so unless you have a reason to buy it (I do because I'm a graphic designer in training) then I wouldn't suggest it.

Ouch!  That's definitely a lot of money.

I'd like to point out though, since a lot of people here are students, that Adobe (and many other software vendors, such as Microsoft) has educational pricing for their software.  This means you can purchase the full versions of these programs for a lot less with valid proof that you are a student.  You can do this at a store that sells educational software, or straight from Adobe's site.  Where I work we sell the boxed educational version of CS2 Suite for $379, for example, or just Photoshop for $279.  Granted that's still not cheap, but if you do need/want the program it's a good way to save a lot of money.  This applies to students in grades K - 12 and part time and full time college students.  (Since I work at a college, I think we can only sell to college students, but the Adobe Academic Online Store says students in grades K - 12 are eligible.)

Additionally, if you are a college student, Adobe works with certain colleges and has licensing programs, where you can get the Suite for even cheaper, if you're willing to settle for no box and documentation in .pdf form.  :wink: