New Texture: Opinions, help

[the-manta]

I don't really know if this is the proper forum for this but I couldn't decide which one was so here goes:

I have been working on a sort of evil/witch outfit, mostly to practice texturing until I can make something decent.

By autesia at 2009-07-15

Firstly, what do you think? I know there are far better mods along the same theme, but how could it be improved?

Second, the lacey parts which you can see skin through. I did those as a new texture based on the default skin with a transparent lace pattern on top, but if the user is playing as an Orc, Redguard, Khajiit or Argonian, it wont look right will it? Is there any way to make it work like the built in clothes/armour so that the skin texture is replaced depending on race?

[greenwarden]

I really like the color choices you made here.   That's a nice rich, mysterious purple.

As for any changes, hmm. What about adding sleeves? Something to further dramatically differentiate it from the Arena garment. Just replace the skin portion of the arms with more of the purple texture, or you could make the sleeves the lacy texture? Those are my initial thought.

I am not sure how transparency works in clothing for Oblivion. I've only just started retexturing things myself, so I have a lot to learn.

I think you are doing great so far though!

[the-manta]

Thanks, it's nice to know it's liked, I'll put on the purple texture and see how it looks.

[grond]

My favorite color.  Great work!  Don't have any idea about the skin, but more purple is always better.  

edit ~  I imagine if an Orc put that on, she'd have the white flesh tones.

[the-manta]

Tried with sleeves in purple, and I rather like it, it has the added effect of making the unsightly pauldrons look like puffed sleeves. Have a cookie!

By autesia at 2009-07-16

[greenwarden]

Woot! I'll take that cookie, thanks, and   you can join me.

Looks spiffy!

As for the pauldrons... hmm. Make a backup of that nif, put it in a safe place, and then open the copied nif in Nifskope.. maybe the pauldrons can be deleted?

[the-manta]

Mmmm cookies. I tried deleting them but it left a gaping space, which I assume would leave part of the wearers arms invisible. Anyway, I kinda like them with the cloth texture on.

And purple is indeed the way to go.

[the-manta]

Another thing though, what should I do for the normalmap? I've never done one for fabric.

[greenwarden]

Quote

Mmmm cookies. I tried deleting them but it left a gaping space, which I assume would leave part of the wearers arms invisible. Anyway, I kinda like them with the cloth texture on.And purple is indeed the way to go.

Well, you tried. It's not your fault that some people are so picky about having visible limbs..  

Keep it up! I am inspired to start retexturing some clothing myself now.


edit: I just saw your inquiry about normal maps. The easiest route would be to just rename the existing normals for the Arena raiment. However, making your own will help you improve your skills... Here's a link to the tutorial I've been using. Maybe you've already seen it, but it cannot hurt to point it out.

One thing I've noticed- I was using GIMP's dds plug-in to make my normal maps, but recently I've been using .DDS Converter, and I think the results are nicer. I create my maps in GIMP, but save them as TGA files, then load them into DDS Converter to make the .dds files.

[the-manta]

I've done the normal maps with GIMP, I'm going to test them in game and then I'll try DDS converter. Thanks for the help