[looking for] skin texture tutorials

Does this seem like a decent tutorial?

http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutorial_detailed.php?id=824&catDisplay=1&roPos=1&page=3#.VXZbxebTEdU

The map seems simple enough to remake (they even said how they did it), but I’m curious about how it looks when you show more than the face. The Final Fantasy 13 renders I see, you see the veins in the legs (Lightening render in link below) Unless that detail is somehow controled with shaders

http://www.ff-xiii.net/images/media/4e2a76cf_Final-Fantasy-XIII-Lightning-High-Resolution-Artwork.jpg

But I also know shaders do a big part in making the skin look right, but I’m not sure if Painter has that level of shader control