Twin Sun WIP

[MrPhil 58]

Hello, I've said-it many times, I hate the Twin Sun's skin and model. I always thought that they lacked a natural feel and I have been trying to have them improved by a few people over the year. It seems that few thinks the Twin Sun looks bad and so far, I haven't seen anything to make them look better. I've been trying recently to improve their skin. I've had an idea: the Twi'Lek and the Asari, from Mass Effect, share some similarities. One thing that the Asari have over the Twi'lek from TSL is a better graphic appearance. I have been trying to make a Twin Sun skin that looks like Samara. It is a frustrating process, because I cannot modify models or the way the skin is mapped, because I lack this knowledge. So far, I've been working on the head. I feel this is not too bad, though I know there are many problems with-it so far. The brain tails look terrible and I have to work some more on the middle, but here goes:

[W4rb1rd 5]

What?! The vanilla ones looks very good and sexy. There is nothing urgent to be changed IMHO!

[MrPhil 58]

Yeah, you are entitled to your opinion on this matter. They look like plastic dolls to me, with bland and featureless skin.

[W4rb1rd 5]

I get it, but the skin tone of the head of yours doesn't match the rest of the body. I don't consider that as an improvement. It would be better if she wore a bag

[LDR 234]

Well he said he was only working on the head skins for now. I think they look great so far. Looking forward to when they're finalized. Rock on brother.

[MrPhil 58]

Thanks. It is hard to get the things looking the way I want them. Also, I'm not too far in my game and the testing process is a bit hard for now. I'd love to be able to spawn a passive Twin Sun for testing purpose

 

So far, I've redone the brain tail 3 times. Not sure what I'll choose yet. I'll show more screen when I have something a bit shinier

[Vriff 21]

I think yours are anything but natural, that being said I do like them for the Twin Suns. Looks cool.

[VarsityPuppet 1,085]

You know what would be even cooler? Turning them into Asari

[Vriff 21]

You know what would be even cooler? Turning them into Asari

Too bad Nautolans aren't ingame. You could just chop off most of their tentacles, give them human eyes and bam asari

[Malkior 476]

Well, Mr Phil, I like to see where your head's at. I've tried numerous times to find a proper testing scene, but your choice of the Nar prologue is the only one with good enough lighting outside of walking up to one of them in stealth on Goto's yacht during the final fight aboard it. 

 

A particular feature I like is how you gradually added the green and pale blue to the sides of the head because they make the transition of the head-tails look more natural.

 

The head/brain-tails are only off because the stupid UVW unwrapping is bulging out your pattern on the sides and causing the pixels to smudge. The only real solution to this I've found is identifying the problem spot and making the pattern in that region smaller, so there's less to stretch.

 

As far as your choice of colors; you're doing fine It's good to see that you have such a particular taste that you're taking it into your hands in order to make it a reality. 

[W4rb1rd 5]

Head/brain tails... lol, can't you just say lekku?
Another good scene (I think) for testing is them talking with Atton in cantina.

[Malkior 476]

That's what I used for my texturing tests, but it turned out unreliable due to being too brief with too low of lighting.

 

Also, you have a good point. Lekku would probably remove confusion, it's just less esoteric to use non-specific terms normally. 

[Quanon 263]

You could try and track down Gmax and NWmax and then import the head model or body model to see how your skin is shaping up. So you can switch quickly between Photoshop/ Gimp and Gmax to see the results. Without the need to fire up the game each time you make a tweak.

I know Gmax is a bit rare now. In the old days it was just one click away on TurboSquid.

[MrPhil 58]

I think yours are anything but natural, that being said I do like them for the Twin Suns. Looks cool.

Yeah, that's probably a misconception due to our society used to skin free of imperfections. Normal skin generally features moles, pimples, and a few other things. Twi'Lek being aliens, I tought it was weird that their skin would be that bland. But hey, I'm doing this mainly for myself. When I see an Asari skin, I know it is not natural, it just feels more natural than the twin sun's skin.

 

 

You know what would be even cooler? Turning them into Asari

It would. Though you would be much more successful attempting this than I would!

 

Well, Mr Phil, I like to see where your head's at. I've tried numerous times to find a proper testing scene, but your choice of the Nar prologue is the only one with good enough lighting outside of walking up to one of them in stealth on Goto's yacht during the final fight aboard it. 

 

A particular feature I like is how you gradually added the green and pale blue to the sides of the head because they make the transition of the head-tails look more natural.

 

The head/brain-tails are only off because the stupid UVW unwrapping is bulging out your pattern on the sides and causing the pixels to smudge. The only real solution to this I've found is identifying the problem spot and making the pattern in that region smaller, so there's less to stretch.

 

As far as your choice of colors; you're doing fine It's good to see that you have such a particular taste that you're taking it into your hands in order to make it a reality. 

Thank you for your comments! I just wish it was easier to test stuff, but it's gonna have to do for now. I too liked the color transition. I'm having trouble to get the nose to look good, though. I'll show you sometime this evening.

 

I've changed the Lekku skin, so I'll show you that. I'm not sure what to do to improve-it. If I could find an art that has a crazy high definition and very large image, maybe I could get brain tail pattern from an Asari that looks good and can be reduced without having to use the clone tool. That bugger makes things super blurry and I'm not too good with the pattern tools in photoshop. It is producing seams that have to then be worked on

 

 

Head/brain tails... lol, can't you just say lekku?

Another good scene (I think) for testing is them talking with Atton in cantina.

Lekku. Good enough for you? I was thinking that too, but looking at the below comment, it seems I'm out of luck for that...

 

That's what I used for my texturing tests, but it turned out unreliable due to being too brief with too low of lighting.

[sNIP]

 

 

You could try and track down Gmax and NWmax and then import the head model or body model to see how your skin is shaping up. So you can switch quickly between Photoshop/ Gimp and Gmax to see the results. Without the need to fire up the game each time you make a tweak.

I know Gmax is a bit rare now. In the old days it was just one click away on TurboSquid.

Yeah, not too familiar with using them though. Do you have them lying around perchance?

[Darth Hayze 19]

Sweet. I always really disliked the appearance of the Twins.

[MrPhil 58]

Okay, I've worked a bit more on this. Before any of you go crazy, I'm gonna say up front I'm merely experimenting to see the skin color on the body and this is by no mean actual progress. I've been working some more on the face. The Lekku looks better this way, in my opinion. They are less distorted and looks less smudgy. The nose actually looks better, even if it still feels like there's a frigging light at the end of her nose. Also, I've moved the lips a bit and they overlap a bit less, though still too much to my taste... Tell me what you think about the mouth!

 

[LDR 234]

What I would do, is go into a module with good lighting, and change the appearances of two NPCs into that of the Twin Suns. That way you won't have to reload the cutscene again and again, and you'd simply be able to walk up to the NPC and look at the texture in first-person view.

 

And oh wow, that looks great!

[Malkior 476]

This is what I used when I was working on the reskins of the Twin Suns when I was adding tattoos.  Simple Model Viewer by Adinos

It at least worked for the duration of my work on them.

It has a pretty basic interface and provides you with the ability to have the model rotate at variable speeds. My biggest limitation is that it doesn't display .txi shader changes. (That and you have to have all of the models and textures saved in the same location in order for it to find them.)

[MrPhil 58]

What I would do, is go into a module with good lighting, and change the appearances of two NPCs into that of the Twin Suns. That way you won't have to reload the cutscene again and again, and you'd simply be able to walk up to the NPC and look at the texture in first-person view.

 

And oh wow, that looks great!

 

How could I simply do that? appearance.2da? What should I modify within-it (I'm pretty sure I could find the texture name, I'm just not sure wher I have to apply-it!) And where would be a good spotlight? I suppose Dantooine would be good!

This is what I used when I was working on the reskins of the Twin Suns when I was adding tattoos.  Simple Model Viewer by Adinos

It at least worked for the duration of my work on them.

It has a pretty basic interface and provides you with the ability to have the model rotate at variable speeds. My biggest limitation is that it doesn't display .txi shader changes. (That and you have to have all of the models and textures saved in the same location in order for it to find them.)

I've downloaded-it. I'll try it later.

 

Meanwhile:

[LDR 234]

Okay, so pretty much, let's say we'll use Dantooine; pick two NPCs that you would replace. Let's see we use the Enclave Exterior, and replace two of the mercenaries in the mercenary camp. So go into Kotor Tool, find their UTC files, and manually change their appearances to that of the Twin Suns under the 'Appearances' tab. Then plop them in override. Of course you'd probably have to remove the armor, but that's just an example.

 

Nice far shot, by the way.

[Quanon 263]

Why not just use KotorSaveGame editor or KSE for short. Change the Handmaidens appearance or Mira's into one of the Twin Suns sister.

I'll have a look around if I can't find Gmax. It's not that difficult to just get a headmodel into the program and then applying your own skin to it for previews.

 

Only draw back to Gmax is that it lacks a rendering engine. So you never see your skin at full quality though :-/

 

Nice work on the lekku's, they match with the face much better now. Still needs work, but take it in steps.  

[MrPhil 58]

I tried Malkior's program: I'm pretty sure it hated Windows 8, so it seems I had to try something else.

 

Thank you Quanon, KSE is just what I was looking for. Worked like a charm. I'd like to point-out that I could not make Fair Stride's KSE 3.3.4 work, for some reason. It would not find the saves. But 3.3.3 works great!

[MrPhil 58]

I've worked a bit on this: I've slightly changed the lower part of the eyelid. It felt weird to me. I'm wondering if the dark area on the breast bother you guys as much as it does me. (Same thing around the bellybutton)

 

Also, it seems the model hates me for trying to apply an actual texture and it is very visible where the arm begins not sure what I can do about this...

 

Corrected a few skin errors on the body. Anyway, tell me what you think! (Note: the weird dots are just an experiment. I'm trying to figue out what is what so I can modify the back of the neck and maybe do something about that weird liaison at the shoulder.

 

[Malkior 476]

The Twin Suns as Atton; excellent choice!

 

Your choice of pattern is quite nice as well

 

Sucks that the program didn't work. It's older, so that's probably the case with it. 

 

And, your shoulders seem to just be seams showing. (Which looking at the red dot you have drawn, you seem to already know) You'll have to treat them like skyboxes where basically you have to find exactly where the texture parts converge and blend it in. One way is to paint the color of the arms onto the edges of the torso portion where the arm connects. Bear in mind that character textures will sometimes be UVW Unwrapped horribly, so seams and even reused texture portions can be quite unpredictable. 

 

Changing a dark skin to a light one can be bothersome, but a way to lighten the area is to paint white in a new layer and then go to the layer mode/filter (dropdown menu above the layer that has options like multiply, color dodge, soft light, overlay..etc) and change it to "Luminosity" in Photoshop (Or "Value" in Gimp, but Gimp seems to use it differently, so you may have to experiment with its filter modes) I prefer to use paintbrushes for detailing work, such as lightening up a specific part or adding color hues, but you can also theoretically use brightness/contrast and tweak its layer mask to only show up in those specific regions.

 

(Ah, and you also have to remember that the bellybutton and back are actually getting darker at the edge of your texture, since it's mirrored, so you have a gradual darkening that needs to be corrected on the edge of the stomach and back region of your texture file, and not the center.)

 

If your brushes are too rough, you'll have to either utilize the eraser tool with a softer edge, or make a layer mask and use a softer edged brush. Blending can be another unforeseen nuisance, in that sometimes brush work will look blotchy until you have the right combination of brush softness and opacity, but it is a necessary part of making texture work look realistic.

 

(If this is a confusing explanation, I apologize. I'd be happy to help with any questions or further information if need be)

 

 

One last thing I also noticed is the way you did the eyelashes; very interesting design which looks great with your coloration.

 

 

--Lastly, lastly, does this process remind anyone else of "FaceOff"?--

 

 

 

 

 

^

Beware the word-wall.

[LiliArch 115]

I'll have a look around if I can't find Gmax. It's not that difficult to just get a headmodel into the program and then applying your own skin to it for previews.

There's a couple of Gmax download links in Holowan, both of them seem to work.