Texturing:: Painting Creation (GIMP)

[InsanitySorrow]

Creating a new Painting [GIMP]

This tutorial will guide you through the basic steps of creating a new painting for Oblivion. The steps will teach you the basics, but there is no harm in taking time to really look at the features.

Choose your imageLoad up GIMP Create a base backgroundSet up your imageResize ImageApply Clothify FilterCopy image over base backgroundPosition and touch upSave File Create a basic Normal MapExtract Painting .nif from .BSAApply new texture to the NifSave .NIF with new texture

First: Main Texture

The first thing we are going to do is create our texture, obviously without it we cannot do anything else

Step 1: The very first step to this tutorial is to find the image you want to use for your painting. This can be absolutely anything you want, for this tutorial I am going to pick an image from Morrowind.

Step 2: The next thing you want to do is load up GIMP, now we are going to create a base background. The main reason for this is that a .dds texture needs to be a multiple of 2 for it to save, so that kinda explains the reason for 512x512 or 256x256 image sizes.

Ok so now lets crack on a bit, create a new image, so file and new. Set the image size as follows:

512 pixels

512 pixels

The final thing I am going to do is change the background colour to black. This is purely something I am choosing to do but you do not have to, I find it helps make the image a lot tidier and easier to blend edges that are not quite right.

Step 3: Now open up your chosen image, once that is done, re-size the image to 512x512, don't worry if its not perfect since it will be going over the top of our background.

Once its re-sized we shall apply the nice fancy filter to it. Ok navigate to: Filters>Artistic>Clothify

This will bring up a little option box, just click ok and carry on with the default settings. If you want to you can try out different settings before moving o

You will now notice a nice little effect has been applied to your image. This will give the image a more of a painting look. There are other filters you can use instead which will produce different filter effects. Anyway you should have something like this:

Step 4: So we have our nice new image with funky filters, so now its time to apply it to our background. Copy and paste the whole image over the top of your background. Position so you can see all your image and it looks nicely aligned.

You should have a result like so:

Now is the time to adjust the image, make sure all edges are tidy and the image is nicely aligned. If you followed me earlier and applied a black colour to the background then you may notice [Depending on the image] that it looks good. if so we shall continue on.

Step 5: Now that we have our painting we will need to save it before we can use it. So we need a .dds texture. Go file, save as. A new dialogue box will open up, here name your file and click the select file type box and navigate to .dds. Click it and the our image file type will change.

Click save, now another box appears, this is where we will choose our options, but first:

Settings are DXT1 and click the Generate Minimaps checkbox. We are going to Save as DXT1 because there's no transparency.

Ignore the GIMP message that pops up and complains about mipmaps, that is due to the plugin and not the image, Since it is saved as 512x512, a multiple of 2.

Additional file save notes by DarkRider

[InsanitySorrow]

Second: Basic Normal Map

This tutorial applies to any normal you want to create, this is a universal tutorial for creating basic normal maps

Step 1: So now we are going to create our normal map. The normal map is used to give our texture some more detail, with a detailed normal map you can give the surface of the texture a bump effect where the ridges etc stand out and look more detailed. The normal map also controls how the texture responds to some of the games shaders, for example it controls how the texture reflects the light.

Normal maps are saved as a .dds texture just like in our previous section, the major difference is that it is saved with a _n suffix.

Now make a copy of the texture we made in the previous section and add a _n suffix to it. After some changes this will become our normal map.

Step 2: Open up GIMP and your _n texture. So now were are going to add an aplha channel to our image, this is an important step becuase it is this that controls how the light reflects off our texture.

>Image>Layer>Transparency>Color to Alpha



In the Alpha window we now want to change the colour, you will see a white box with the text "From" next to it, select this box and change the colour to black or put this in 000000



This should now change to black, if not do it again , click Ok to close both windows.

Your image will now look ghostly compared to its what it was. This means you are doing things right, so lets continue.



Step 3: Now we have an image that looks good and has an odd black and white alpha channel

So now we need to apply the normal map filter, (download link) and install.

Ok with the filter installed, Filters>Map>Normal Map



Click it and a nice litte dialogue box should pop up:




Step 4: Now we have a few steps to complete before we can save our normal map.

So now our normal map filter menu is open, click the 3D preview button to open another box:



Hold the Left Mouse Button over the preview window and drag the mouse upward so the Quad tilts back.Click the light bulb icon at the top left, now move you mouse either back or forward to adjust brightnessClick the sphere icon so you can rotate the image again



Note: Tilting it back makes the image darker in the preview box, this makes the texture darker in-game, works the other way for the lightness. As far as I am aware this works like the colours on an alpha, but it does not apply any time of shine to it though. Best thing to do is get a nice grey look to the image, this should give the best effect in-game.

Best thing to do is drag the mouse toward the lower right until you can see good shadow contrast.

So now we have the lighting done we need to change a few settings in our normal map window:

Wrap: Check
Filter: 3x3
Scale: 6.00000
Height source: Alpha
Alpha channel: Unchanged
DU/DV map: None



Click ok on the normal map window, and we shall now save our normal map.

Now its time to save, >File>SaveAs>, Make sure you select .dds as the file type, and select DXT3 for our compression. Then save, overrite your texture if it asks.

Thats that done, you should now have 2 seperate textures, now its time to get this in-game.

[InsanitySorrow]

Third: Nifskope Magick and in-game

Ok so now we have our two new textures is time to apply them to a model using NifSkope and prepare them for use in-game.

Download TES4ArchiveUse it to Extract MeshOpen Nif and apply new textureEdit texture source Final Notes

Note: The mesh used in this tutorial may not perfectly display the texture we made, Ie it may show the black borders. If so just search through the other meshes for something you like. Also note that this does not explain how to place the files in you Oblivion folder, I took it as you already know this.

I have a final note on this to help regardless, so lets crack on and enjoy preparing our mesh

Step 1: First thing we are going to do is extract our mesh from the Oblivion - Meshes.bsa so we have something to apply our texture too. So go ahead and Download TES4Archive, I prefer this to all other .bsa programs, but if you prefer something else use it.

Now once that is downloaded, extract the TES4Archive.jar file, double click on this to open it, you should see this:

Step 2: Go to >File>Open, navigate to your Oblivion data folder and you will see all the .bsa files. Open up the <span style='color: orange'>Oblivion - Meshes.bsa</span>

Once you have double clicked it the program should start loading it and you will see this:

Step 3: Now that we have opened the.bsa we are now going to find and extract a painting mesh, but first make sure you are seeing something like:

Ok so we are going to be working with meshes only, so where you see the meshes you will see a little + sign next to it, click it to expand the mesh list.

Now after that navigate to the clutter menu, this is where most paintings are usually stored, so our best chance is here.

The painting we want is a castle one, more specifically its one from Anvil, so click to expand CastleInterior and then AnvilCastleInterior to get to where we want.

The painting we want is Ancaspaintinganvilstreet01c, so click it. Now its time to extract our mesh.

Step 4: Extracting the mesh is really simple, now that we have clicked on the mesh we need to tell the utility to only extract it, so on the right hand side of the utility you will see two options and a button.

Check the extract selected files

Now click the extract files button and it will ask where you want to place the file, for me it will be the desktop, but that is for this tutorial.

Thats that part done and now we are finished with TES4Archive

Step 5: Ok so now thats done, find your new .nif and double click to open it up, you should see something similar to this:

Click on the little white arrows next to the text, they are positioned on the left. These arrows expand the rows, so do this untill you get to this point:

Now the row I have hightlighted belongs to the texture we are going to change, the one above is for the from, but since we did not make a new frame texture we will leave it as the default one.

On the line you see hightlighted you will see a small purple cog on the left of the texture line, click it and it will open a prompt to select a new texture. Navigate to your newly created texture.

Double click the texture and nifskope will apply it, you should see something like this now:

The final thing is to adjust the texture path, becuase most players will have different places where Oblivion is installed its best not to set the path to a specific drive. Instead, delete all before Textures, this way the game will pick up that its stored in the textures folder, even with different Oblivion installs

Final Note: Now in this tutorial we did not cover placing the mesh and texture into our Oblivion folder. This is a simple step and most paintings are saved in the clutter folder, so just move your files to the relevant folders to something like this:

MeshesClutterXXX.nif

TexturesClutterXXX.dds

Where XXX denotes the name of your mesh and texture. They do not have to be placed like this, its just more common thats all.

You can also pick a different paintnig .nif than the one I used, this was purely for the tutorial and to get the best one you will need to try different .nifs.

[InsanitySorrow]

Additional: Tutorial Resources:

Here are a few additional resources that can be used to help you through the tutorial. These are here for additional help and are not required for the turorial.

Painting Tutorial Resources

Contents: 512x512 base Background [black], Tutorial Painting Texture and Normal Map and a 512x512 Painting.Nif.

Additional Notes:

Posted by: RedDragonDreamer

Now after doing numerous paintings, thanks to this tutorial, I have a good pointer I stumbled accross, if you're like me and like your pictures unblurred up close in game, instead of clothyfying your picture, do apply canvas and set it to 1 (trust me, 1 is perfect), now I know you're saying, wait, 1, it won't show the canvas look ingame.

Actually, it does, also when making your picture, the .png works best, and if you follow Insanity Sorrows tutorial ( like me ) when you go to save as a copy, if you want a superior quality painting look, save as DX3 alpha. then go and use it to make your normal map.

Another thing, colourful pictures work best for this, like daytime screenie landscapes.

Oh and if you want your picture to fit the rectangle sized painting frames better, change the size to 256 height and 512 width.

[DarkRider]

Great tutorial! I really liked the details you went into in creating a normal map, mine always came out shiny because in figuring it out, I never figured out the lighting step, good one!

[InsanitySorrow]

Great tutorial! I really liked the details you went into in creating a normal map, mine always came out shiny because in figuring it out, I never figured out the lighting step, good one!

Thank you, I think that is the reason why its a little more complex than other tutorials. I am planning to make the first section easier

Glad you like the normal map section, I had to learn how to do it before writing this tutorial

[greenwarden]

Woot! IS, I am on a painting tear now, thanks to your tut.

Gracias!

And it seems like these same steps could be followed to make tapestries, correct?

[DarkRider]

And it seems like these same steps could be followed to make tapestries, correct?

Yes, you could supplement this with the basic retex guide and you should be more than capable of making tapestries! A tip for tapestries, the texture is 512x512. You should stretch a thin tall image to be 512x512, the texture will look stretched in GIMP, but when it's added to the model, it looks flawless because the tapestry model squishes it. Have fun!

[InsanitySorrow]

Woot! IS, I am on a painting tear now, thanks to your tut. Gracias! And it seems like these same steps could be followed to make tapestries, correct?

Why thank you Greenie

And up you could make tapestries with it, just do as Rider said above and you will be good as gold

[greenwarden]

Awesome! Thanks to both of you!

[DarkRider]

Click the light bulb icon at the top left, now move you mouse either back or forward to adjust brightness

IS, could you give more info about this particular step? I'm altering the brightness, but it's not clear how brighter/darker relates to the in game appearance. For example, when tilted back, I adjust it so it looks dark, but when I rotate it back up it looks white, so I'm not sure if I'm making it brighter or darker. In game the result is almost plastic in appearance.

[InsanitySorrow]

IS, could you give more info about this particular step? I'm altering the brightness, but it's not clear how brighter/darker relates to the in game appearance. For example, when tilted back, I adjust it so it looks dark, but when I rotate it back up it looks white, so I'm not sure if I'm making it brighter or darker. In game the result is almost plastic in appearance.

Sure,

Tilting it back makes the image darker in the preview box, this makes the texture darker in-game, works the other way for the lightness. As far as I am aware this works like the colours on an alpha, but it does not apply any time of shine to it though.

Ok so what you are doing here is moving the mouse back for lightness and forward for dark, I think the plastic look is coming from too much white, possibly as a shine effect.

Best thing to do is drag the mouse toward the lower right until you can see good shadow contrast.

[DarkRider]

I'll give that a try thanks!

[InsanitySorrow]

I'll give that a try thanks!

Hope it helps, if it does not then post back and I will dig up some additional information for you

Also to all would-be users, the additional information Rider requested has been added to the tutorial:D

[DarkRider]

Got this sorted, now! Turns out the real issue wasn't the lighting depth, it was when I would add color to the alpha I was just choosing black, but it wasn't true black. Once I tried typing in the 000000 it worked perfectly, Thanks!

[donnato]

Thanks IS. I`ve been taking my screenshots through my photo-paint apps experimenting with canvas effects, using minor relief,emboss,etch attributes. Then into the adlustment labs for work on temp.,saturation.a little tinting to simulate aging-fading-yellowing effects, etc. Some of the results I`m really happy with. I can format into .jpg, .png, or any of a bunch of others. So, now I can import them into Gimp and proceed as you`ve directed to finally gat them in-game? WoooHooo. I`m lovin this.

[InsanitySorrow]

Got this sorted, now! Turns out the real issue wasn't the lighting depth, it was when I would add color to the alpha I was just choosing black, but it wasn't true black. Once I tried typing in the 000000 it worked perfectly, Thanks!

Glad you got it all sorted out

Thanks IS. I`ve been taking my screenshots through my photo-paint apps experimenting with canvas effects, using minor relief,emboss,etch attributes. Then into the adlustment labs for work on temp.,saturation.a little tinting to simulate aging-fading-yellowing effects, etc. Some of the results I`m really happy with. I can format into .jpg, .png, or any of a bunch of others. So, now I can import them into Gimp and proceed as you`ve directed to finally gat them in-game? WoooHooo. I`m lovin this.

Your steps sound a little more complex than my tut, but you only get back what you put in. At least your having fun with it

[donnato]

Oops, I guess I`ve got a question, how and/or where do I find NifSkope? I`ve pretty much got everything else.

[InsanitySorrow]

Oops, I guess I`ve got a question, how and/or where do I find NifSkope? I`ve pretty much got everything else.

Here

I would suggest downloaded the .exe installation file, its easier to use

[RedDragonDreamer]

Thanks for the great tutorial, works great!

Was wondering, I did a retexture of the castle building blocks as a resource, your tutorials helped a lot, however, I am still having trouble with the walls they like fine from a distance but up close they are terribly blurred and not good.

Any suggestions what settings I should use?

Also, am also in the process of making a Crystal Castle Resource using the vanilla welked stone textures and altering them to fit the castle textures size wise, but, are having the same problem, look good from a distance but not up close.

Any suggestions?

Thanks so much, you guys rock for having so many tutorials and being so helpful.

[donnato]

Ya got that right RDD, all this and a persistand mp3 player that follows where ever I go. Hey IS, can I some how bookmark this thread? With all the traveling I do in herec and the wiki forest I`m having trouble remembering where I can find what. If I print any more pdf`s I wont be able to see my desktop w/paper. Stupid icons all over, if I delete a PDF icon, the file goes with it. Crazy huh? Thanks for everything.

[donnato]

Thanks cbh, that was one of the things I was meaning to try...when I got...around...to...........What was I doing? Oh yeah nighty night all, thank you kindly. Here have a cookie.

[RedDragonDreamer]

RDD, are you saving at a high enough resolution? Without checking, I'm guessing 1024x1024 should probably be about right, but less than that could look a bit mushy when viewed close up.

Thanks, will try that, had no idea that had to use a large resolution.

[donnato]

Uh oh. Made background, sized it ( my gimp`s a little different so I had to hunt for the buttons a little) set the color to black, chose an arial jpeg of Donnato`s Ranch, resized it, applied it to my b-ground, file>save as, named it, went looking for the .dds extension....and no .dds. 8 or 10 others but no .dds...um how about .gif or something.

[RedDragonDreamer]

You've got to install both the .dds plugin and the normal map plugin. No other format will work.