Twin Sun WIP

[Kainzorus Prime 206]

Fix the second set of eyes that are clearly visible in the screenshots. The ones that appear above the actual eyes and close to the nose. That tells me you've used a texture from a different model if the mapping pulls these from behind the actual modeled eyes.

[MrPhil 58]

@Kain: I'm actually just using reference pictures. But the eyes were not made the same way so I'm still fiddling to make them look right. I'll take what you said into consideration.

 

@Malkior: Now, being french, there are a certain number of specific words in what you said I'll have to try and do what I think you said to the best of my knowledge, which is not very big. I had like one class on using photoshop and bridge and I'm not exactly good using-it. I'm not exactly sure how I'll find the seams and correct the thing. I'll have to work on that. And I'll also try to fix the too dark area. If you must know what I did so far: I've taken a big part off of one of the ref pic I've shown you, slapped-it on the grey part as a new layer and put Linear light mode + 55% opacity. I've tried working directly on the background to make the dark area lighter, but I've decided against-it as it did too rough a job and was something I may not undo without having to start over. If you can elaborate on how I could do it without touching the background, I'd love-it lol. I know you said to use a layer and to put some white upon-it, but I'm not sure how I can do that without having a crazy and very bad looking demarcation, if that make sense.

 

Anyway, I will not be able to work on this just now, because I have exams to prepare for next week and tons of homeworks

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

Bit hard to compare them with the vanilla versions, but, looking good .

 

Nice to see I'm not the only one who has to resort to weird colored dots and lines to work out the UV mapping for textures, too .

[MrPhil 58]

Yeah, I could take some vanilla pic. And yup, weird dots for the win. I cannot begin to understand why they do things that complicated. I'd much rather have something that actually looks like a human body and transparacy zones. That would make things so much easier...

[Kainzorus Prime 206]

I meant these things, in case it was unclear - http://i.imgur.com/SBtgeAh.png

[MrPhil 58]

Yes, it was my understanding. Here's the ref:

So I guess the model is different, which is why I have difficulty adapting the eye to fit...

[Quanon 263]

If you want, I could get you the UVWmap of the twinsun model. You can use that UVWmap as a new channel in Photoshop, set it to Screen. And you'll see all the seams and edges clearly.

[Malkior 476]

How would one go about obtaining the UVWmaps for other models? It could make some of this retexturing a significant amount easier.

[Fair Strides 510]

How would one go about obtaining the UVWmaps for other models? It could make some of this retexturing a significant amount easier.

You'd need to open the model in Gmax or 3DSMax, then apply the UnWrap UVW modifier to the model. After that, there should be options to edit the UVW in the right-hand pane. One of these lets you view the UVW layout, which you can then save as a pic.

 

If you need just a few, throw me the names of the models and I'll PM you an archive of images...

[Malkior 476]

@ FairStrides

 

Cool! I'll have a list drafted as soon as I can.

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

The rendered UV map used as an overlay may not be of much help, some of the faces may overlap into a mess of lines, along with various being reversed. Why the dots and lines so as to see how things actually are when the texture is applied to the model.

[MrPhil 58]

If you want, I could get you the UVWmap of the twinsun model. You can use that UVWmap as a new channel in Photoshop, set it to Screen. And you'll see all the seams and edges clearly.

Sure, I'll take-it! One more tool is always welcome!

[Quanon 263]

Sure, I'll take-it! One more tool is always welcome!

 

The rendered UV map used as an overlay may not be of much help, some of the faces may overlap into a mess of lines, along with various being reversed. Why the dots and lines so as to see how things actually are when the texture is applied to the model.

 

The UVW clearly shows where the seams are though. All artists paint outside the lines on their textures. It can be serious PITA just to know where something ends. It's not going to do major magic on working away seems, but its helpful as a guide. Doing decent skins is a real artists job, it takes many trial and error to see what works and doesn't. No quick dirty jobs on this sort of thing.

 

 

Sure, I'll take-it! One more tool is always welcome!

 

Hold on I'll get it to you ASAP.

 

EDIT: Here you go, a UVWmap for the body and one for the head model. Both are 1024x1024pixels, so you might have to scale it down.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/bone1vt6ai4g54n/TwinSun_UVW.rar

[MrPhil 58]

So, I have been working on this some more. I'm mostly satisfied by the head, even if the colour is slightly different from the rest of the body. Worked on the breast to make-it less of a mess, colour-wise (it was pretty dark in some area). Found a work-around that's not so ugly for the shoulder: a kind of shoulder sleeve. Doesn't look too bad, except in the scapula area, I have some kind of dark area that does not look too good. I'll try to fix-it, but I don't know where this precise zone is on the tga. Also, I've been able to put what Quanon sent me on the the psd I'm working on (the one that will become the tga) and I will be able to use-it at some point, though not right now, as it is kinda late and I'm done working on this at this point of day. I'll post screenshots at some point.

[MrPhil 58]

I've posted the UVW so you guys can help me pinpoint on-it where I should change to correct the weird black area at the back of the first picture. However, you may notice a bit of improvement. Thanks Kain for the correction of the weird eyes issue!

 

 

 

 

 

Last thing is I realize the sleeve option might not be the best ever, but it was the more simple option to me and I kinda like-it. The only thing is I wish I could give-it a bit of shine and I have no clue how I could do that. I read about-it in SIC's WIP, but I'm not very adept without an in depth guide step-by-step. Also, it seems my laptop's graphic card is too weak to handle the shine in TSL, so that's kinda problematic to me (gotta hate those transparent Mandalorians, I swear...).  Anyway, what do you guys think? Should I keep that to myself, or release-it? If I do, it is probably going to be after the 2nd twin is done, which could take a few more months, as I'm very slow...

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

I've posted the UVW so you guys can help me pinpoint on-it where I should change to correct the weird black area at the back of the first picture. However, you may notice a bit of improvement. Thanks Kain for the correction of the weird eyes issue!

 

                <Screenshots removed>

 

Last thing is I realize the sleeve option might not be the best ever, but it was the more simple option to me and I kinda like-it. The only thing is I wish I could give-it a bit of shine and I have no clue how I could do that. I read about-it in SIC's WIP, but I'm not very adept without an in depth guide step-by-step. Also, it seems my laptop's graphic card is too weak to handle the shine in TSL, so that's kinda problematic to me (gotta hate those transparent Mandalorians, I swear...).  Anyway, what do you guys think? Should I keep that to myself, or release-it? If I do, it is probably going to be after the 2nd twin is done, which could take a few more months, as I'm very slow...

 

The "shine" as part of your texture has nothing to do with specular; that's just the diffuse color with it shaded that way -- that is NOT specular; I'm starting to wonder if people even know what the difference is between my texture work and the work of others, and why, it's important... :/. 

 

Adding shading to the texture is a bit technical and fiddly. I would suggest that you remove the added sleeve and go back to bare skin -- which is always a good thing for sexy psychopathic killers . It's easier then to make that blend better by modifying your texture overlay.

 

FYI: unless you plan on editing the base model, expect there to be at least the odd noticeable seam with textures, where one part doesn't blend properly witth the other. If you look at the vanilla texture, you will likely be able to spot seams there already; the best you can do is make sure what you add does not make it even more noticeable, and if you can, try and make it less noticeable .

[MrPhil 58]

Snappish aren't ya ? I know that the technique used by the developper to have the leather shine is not the same as yours. However, I know that you have a technique that can make object shine kinda the same way than the effect I want to get and this was what I was reffering to. Another example of what I'd like is this:

 

 

The thing is that Vanilla skin looks very bland and that makes the seem that much less noticeable, as you noticed with the beach in the restoration zone. However, that blandness is why I always wanted to mod these skins. So I have 3 choices:

 

-either I go for a very long approach, requires me to modify something, save-it and test-it thousand of times until the seams can't be seen anymore, kinda like what Malkior has been doing with his skyboxes, but a bit more, because of the nature of the skin I'm working on, with all the small details.

 

- I could also leave-it with a big ugly seam that will make people criticize and avoid-it because it looks very bad. And I also do not like-it, so I'd rather not.

 

-Last option is to take the sleeve up there to cover the shoulder so that looks less weird. I think it already looks better that way.

 

On the last option, I would like to add a bit of shine and since it has been done before, like what Kristy did, I'd like to make something similar.

 

That's all.

Edited June 13, 2014 by MrPhil

[Rtas Vadum 17]

 

On the last option, I would like to add a bit of shine and since it has been done before, like what Kristy did, I'd like to make something similar.

 

That's all.

 

To add shine to a texture, it's done though an Alpha Channel(make a new channel in the Channels tab, and it should be called "Alpha 1"). Make it pure white, and nothing is going to shine. Pure black, and everything will. It's just getting the right level of grey on the channel. Likely, it's best to copy the entire texture, and paste it onto the channel, which will show up desaturated. Then, make any of the skin parts white(unless you want a bit of shine there too, in which case it will need to still be light grey), and then use the Brightness/Contrast tool to get the look you want. 

 

The only other thing to do is make a txi file, which can be done with notepad. Add:

 

envmaptexture CM_Baremetal

 

to it, then when saving, Change the "Save As Type" box to "All Files", and add .txi to the file name - which should match the name of the tga file. However, the only problem that might occur is the game not accepting the txi file(though I have no idea why), in which case the appearance.2da file will have to be edited, in order to give the texture a shine(adding the CM_Baremetal to the envmap column for the Twin Suns lines, which are 652, and 653).

[sELFiNDUCEDcOMA 98]

 

Snappish aren't ya   ? 

 

Yes, yes I am. I've progressively gotten more agitated as the week has worn on; not for any particular reason though, just one of those weeks .

 

 

I know that the technique used by the developper to have the leather shine is not the same as yours. However, I know that you have a technique that can make object shine kinda the same way than the effect I want to get and this was what I was reffering to. 

 

That's fairly easy to do, either use Rtas Vadum's way or if you are really set on doing the same even shininess as seen in that screenshot, you can simply duplicate the image, erase all the skin areas from the image, select all the transparent parts, invert your selection, and then switch to the other layer and delete these from those. You then set the opacity of the clothing layer to something you're happy to. You then need to create the TXI file, and yes, you may need to edit the relevant appearance in the 2DA file. With the TXI, you might want to use a different environment map texture than the default; simplest is to take the default image, and then modify the hue, saturation and lightness to something more blue and darker -- if you want a black vinyl look.

 

 

The thing is that Vanilla skin looks very bland and that makes the seem that much less noticeable, as you noticed with the beach in the restoration zone. However, that blandness is why I always wanted to mod these skins. So I have 3 choices:

 

-either I go for a very long approach, requires me to modify something, save-it and test-it thousand of times until the seams can't be seen anymore, kinda like what Malkior has been doing with his skyboxes, but a bit more, because of the nature of the skin I'm working on, with all the small details.

 

- I could also leave-it with a big ugly seam that will make people criticize and avoid-it because it looks very bad. And I also do not like-it, so I'd rather not.

 

-Last option is to take the sleeve up there to cover the shoulder so that looks less weird. I think it already looks better that way.

 

On the last option, I would like to add a bit of shine and since it has been done before, like what Kristy did, I'd like to make something similar.

 

 

Well, you might want to try the blend mode of the new skin layer and set it to something other than normal and fiddle with the opacity so that the original underneath texture shows through. It will help you get more detail yet help with the covering up of the seams. 

 

As far as the ugly black texturing underneath the arms, well if I understand it correctly, it is because you have simply made all the faces of that area of the texture / mesh black. You are following the UV map too closely in that there is no straight arm seam there as far as textures. You will need to find out where the clothing sleeve "edge" is on the texture rather than relying on the edges of the faces as shown by the UV map.

[Malkior 476]

 

That's fairly easy to do, either use Rtas Vadum's way or if you are really set on doing the same even shininess as seen in that screenshot, you can simply duplicate the image, erase all the skin areas from the image, select all the transparent parts, invert your selection, and then switch to the other layer and delete these from those. You then set the opacity of the clothing layer to something you're happy to. You then need to create the TXI file, and yes, you may need to edit the relevant appearance in the 2DA file. With the TXI, you might want to use a different environment map texture than the default; simplest is to take the default image, and then modify the hue, saturation and lightness to something more blue and darker -- if you want a black vinyl look.

 

 

Look. That's a tad too complicated to follow for me at least. (Least of all if it's his first reskin.. correct me if I'm wrong MrPhil)

IMHO, if you want to get a "unique" reflectivity that doesn't shine all over, just EDIT THE ALPHA LAYER with the paintbrush tool. It's worlds easier.  You just paint black that which you want to have the specular/shiny (or whatever environment effect you use) applied to and blend it like you would with anything else. It literally adds shine to different places, so I fail to see how it applies it all-over.

 

(What I actually did for a lot of my leather textures, is pasted noise into the Alpha layer and then used the white brush to remove it at parts I didn't want to shine as much)

 

 

However, a good point on using different Environment maps other than Baremetal and Specular. One thing to note, you can easily find all of the Environment maps you want to use in the "CM" category of the texture pack in the Kotor Tool. It's good practice to just try out whichever ones look appropriate for the look you're going for by copying their name and replacing "CM_Baremetal" or whatever you have in the .txi

[MrPhil 58]

Yeah, thank you guys, I've got more options now and I'll sure try these out!

[MrPhil 58]

Haven't worked on the shine yet. In fact, I have not worked on a lot since I last posted, but here's what I've got: I've changed the Lekku model once again for AssB. Tweaked the pupil a bit, tweaked the neck. Still have to work on that shoulder, but I'm keeping this for later.

 

Until then, I've worked on AssA. Original color is blue, but I figured one of em' should be pink or green. Decided on pink to remind a bit of Aria (and yeah, I know she is more purple than pink...)

 

Edited June 28, 2014 by MrPhil

[Quanon 263]

NIce! A lot improvements on a lot of areas since the last updates I checked. Keep it up, this will be a must have for the annual TSL playthrough

[MrPhil 58]

Thank you for the nice feedback! Hey, I wonder, what would happen if I were to use tga's 1024x1024 instead of 512x512?

[Malkior 476]

As long as you worked on the textures when they were already scaled at 1024x1024, there'd be a moderate amount of detail preserved. However, if you were to take the normal 512x512 texture and scale it up, there would be no difference whatsoever.