Graphic Artistry: Lesson #2

[donnato]

Thanks IS, I`ve looked through my unpacked texture files and can`t find any _go files. Where might I find such entries?

[InsanitySorrow]

Look through your meshes instead, the ground models use the same textures as the wearable version of the armor, so you'll be needing to copy and adjust the textures for the ground NIF and then link them in the CK.

[donnato]

Wow, that was really easily done in nifskope. Thanks IS. Now I just have to go in game to see if the dropped armor shows the change.

ADDED QUESTION: for the homework we are to do the boots and gauntlets. I play an argonian so I`m guessing I should use gauntletsarg_0.nif etc. ?

Edited November 18, 2012 by donnato

[InsanitySorrow]

Ooops missed your edit there Don.

Yep use that NIF if you don't play a Nord and want to use them in-game

[donnato]

I didn`t see this asked before so I`ll ask it. There are no 1st person boot nifs in my archive. If I leave those blank, AAGAsteelboots don`t show in the object window after deleting the entry in the models list and clicking on add armor.

If I just use the remade mesh ... same same. I`ll go back and make sure all the names match and are entered correctly.

[InsanitySorrow]

Yep you're right there aren't any first person boot NIfs there, the best thing you can do is leave that as the default value.

[donnato]

Ok, thank you IS. I just fixed a naming protocal and the boots now show in the armor add on list. They do not, however, show in the CK render window when I drag them in from the object list. I`ve gone back and checked all my paths and nifskope entries but couldn`t find anything obvious to me.

[Tigersong]

Query. In the chainmail layer it appears over the fur; in the fur layer, under it. Is this natural?

[InsanitySorrow]

It depends on the layer selected when you paste in your chainmail. It doesn't matter what order you have it as you'll remove/hide the fur.

[Tigersong]

Like thus- http://s1311.beta.photobucket.com/user/Jorin_Gedamke/media/Untitled_zps37c9038b.png.html ?

[InsanitySorrow]

Yep like that.

Did you do the first Lesson before moving on to this one?, Might be best if you start there and work your way through them

[Tigersong]

Yeah, I did. I also followed a tutorial on the Lucasarts site.

[RonRay33]

I'm using GIMP, and I reached the end of Part 3 of GA Lesson #2. But when I try to Export and DDS the Compression options are greyed out ???

Hopefully, the image inserted below will work as a part of the post....While the image showed in [Preview Post], the [Add Reply] returns the brown band saying "You must add a post." So, I had to remove the image - I didn't want to place it in my gallery....

Have you any idea what I've done wrong?

================================== Updated

I seem to have accomplished the Part 3 Save, by making a 'composite' layer by merge down of Chainmail down on Fur and then that new layer merge down on Original Main Surface.

Edited February 8, 2013 by RonRay33

[InsanitySorrow]

Good that you have it fixed and saving now

[RonRay33]

I have reached the NifSkope stage in the Homework for Lesson #2. Search as I may, I cannot locate the 1stpersonboots_0.nif, nor 1stpersonboots_1.nif

For the Cuirass and Gauntlets I find all four types of the required files. I have looked at several others' submissions, and see no problem with these files being mentioned as missing. I would appreciate some guidance in this.

Ron

Edited February 18, 2013 by RonRay33

[InsanitySorrow]

The only NIFs you need are these:

• 1stpersoncuirass_0.nif
  
• 1stpersoncuirass_1.nif
  
• Cuirass_0.nif
  
• Cuirass_1.nif
  

There aren't any 1st Person meshes for the boots, for some reason Bethseda left those ones out.

[RonRay33]

Okay, and thanks for the rapid comeback.

Ron

[InsanitySorrow]

[RonRay33]

Here is my Graphic Artistry Lesson #2 & Homework

Extracted Steel Armor from Skyrim - Textures.bsa using FO3Archive.jar . The full path being; textures>armor>steel>m>steelarmor.dds . The total 'M' directory held 17 dds files was exacted to my Extract folder on the Desktop.

The steelarmor.dds was opened from my Extract folder in GIMP 2. It differed in appearance from the example in the lesson materials. The background between parts were transparent and the fur attached to the upper portion looked partly transparent.

Using a copy of the initial dds image, all materials were erased except those that were fur. This 'Fur' image was saved and then the blank areas were used as a mask to create a 'selection area' layer. Next, a provided chainmail image was copied and added as a new layer above the 'selection area' mask layer. The 'selection area' permit the single-click deletion of all, save the areas corresponding to those of the fur portions of the initial steelarmor.dds image. A copy of this Chainmail image was saved, and then the image of the steelarmor.dds added as an additional layer and moved below the Chainmail layer. This 2-layered image was merged into a single layer, thus creating a single layered image, which was further adjusted – as per lesson instructions – by setting the Brightness to -60 and the Contrast to +20.

An image of this stage is shown at the left side of Figure 01, below.

This image was saved as my new steelarmor.dds image for a chainmail version of the original armor. In doing this 'save', since GIMP was being used, it was necessary to use the [Export] command, rather than [saveAs] that works in some other programs. The additional settings used in the dds save were Compression = DXT5 , and Generate mipmaps.

Figure 01 Left=Texture with final chainmail edit; Right=Normal Map.

Next, a copy of the new steelarmor.dds image was loaded, and desaturated. That created a greyscale version of the image. Before saving a copy of this Alpha, the lesson material said to do additional Brightness/Contrast adjustments. The recommended values were Brightness to 120 and the Contrast to +90. Perhaps, due to my use of GIMP, those setting were much too high. The closest match I could make to the sample image in the Lesson was Brightness to +85 and the Contrast to +85, and even at that level, the final in-game armor is a bit brighter than expected (See Figure 02 later, below). The results were then saved as an Alpha 1 image for later reuse.

Using the Normal Map Filter in GIMP, the lesson recommended settings were entered:

Settings made for = Filter Type: 4 Sample / Invert Y / Scale: 5 /

However, GIMP did not offer a Max (RGB) , therefore, Average RBG was used for the Height source setting.

The results were then [Exported] to accomplish the saving in the dds format. The file was saved with the Normal Map “_n†added to the title as SteelArmor_n.dds and again the Compression = DXT5 , and Generate mipmaps setting added. This resulting image is shown in the right side of Figure 01, above.

The previously saved Alpha was reloaded from its saved file. Figure 02 shows the Alpha 1 image in a “before and after†the above mention Brightness to +85 and the Contrast to +85, adjustments.

Figure 02 Left= initial Alpha 1 image; Right= Brightness to +85 & Contrast to +85 adjusted.

The right side image, shown in Figure 02, was now saved as the Environment Mask/Map with the filename of SteelArmor_m.dds and the Compression = DXT1 , and Generate mipmaps setting added.

In order to separate the modified file and to permit creation of a new item in the Creation Kit, some new folder structures were add in the ...\Skyrim\Data\... folders. Additions were made to the already existing Texture and Meshes directory structures.

Additions of Textures>Armor>GraphicsArtistry and Textures>Armor>GraphicsArtistry were made. Following the modification to me made next, the files contained under these two structures will match the folders shown in Figure 03, below.

Figure 03 Top = Textures>Armor>GraphicsArtistry ; Bottom = Meshes>Armor>GraphicsArtistry

Using the FO3Archive.jar (aka Fallout 3 Archive Utility) to open Skyrim - Meshes.bsa and four nif files ( Cuirass_0.nif / Cuirass_1.nif / 1stpersoncuirass_0.nif / 1stpersoncuirass_1.nif ) were extraced and into the Meshes>Armor>GraphicsArtistry . These are the file seen in the bottom half of Figure 03.

Following that, the NifSkope.exe program was opened and those four file's Textures data modified as shown in Figure 04a and Figure 04b, below.

Figure 04a Left = mods to Nif texture pathes in Cuirass_0.nif; Right = mods to Cuirass_1.nif

Figure 04b Left= mods to Nif texture pathes in 1stpersoncuirass_0; Right= mods to 1stpersoncuirass_1

After saving all modified files, work shifted to the Creation Kit ( CK ). CK was opened the the prescribe fashion, established in CK tutorials, and then, in the Object List, the object ArmorSteelCuirassB was located. A new object iniated from a copy, which was named aaGASteelArmor, The modification can be seen in Figure 05a and Figure 05b, below.

Figure 5a CK window of the new aaGASteelArmor object.

Figure 5b CK window of the new aaGASteelArmor object's Model settings.

Once these changes were completed and the object saved, the original Object list entry of the SteePlateCuirassAA item was deleted. Then using the armor add-on option aaGASteelArmor was placed in the model list.

Finally, this new aaGASteelArmor item was added inside the Warmaiden's interior in Whiterun, just as was done within the Graphic Artistry: Lesson #2 materials. The CK plugin was saved and CK exited.

Skyrim game was started, and at the Warmaiden's shop, the new armor item found and modeled for some in-game screen shots, some of which can be seen in Figures 06 and 07, below.

Figure 06 Left= Overall front view of new item; Left= the back view of the new armor

Figure 07 Left= Low angle front view for better detail; Left= Lower portion view for more details

HOMEWORK

The complete set of Steelboot.dds - Change the fur to Chainmail and the Steelgauntlets.dds - Change the fur to Chainmail can be seen in Figure 08, below.

Figure 08 Side and front views of the full finished Chanmail set; Boots, Gauntlet, & Cuirvass.

Screen Shots of the new items from in Creation Kit are shown below:

Figure 09 Armor\GraphicArtistry\cuirvass_1.nif from Creation Kit.

Figure 10a Armor\GraphicArtistry\gauntlets_1.nif Closeup from Creation Kit.

Figure 10b Armor\GraphicArtistry\1stPersonGauntlets_1.nif Closeup from Creation Kit.

Figure 11 Armor\GraphicArtistry\boots_1.nif from Creation Kit.

I think that covers everything. If not, please let me know.

Ron

[InsanitySorrow]

Good stuff Ron, you can move onto Lesson #3

[RonRay33]

I thank you, IS. I will do so

Ron

[Tigersong]

This one has done some of the assignment tonight. Here are the boots... and there will be more soon.

Not sure what happened, but after changing the contrast of the armor...

Edited March 21, 2013 by Tigersong

[JornWolfgang]

I created an account to thank you for these lessons. I had an idea in my head but no clue how to get it in game. I had an armor that had already been modded that I just wanted to get the fur closer to matching. Following the first two lessons I ended up with the results below on the third attempt. Each attempt has just made me feel more relaxed with the tools to do this. Though still a bit rough I a get happier each time I pop in game to see the results.

 

 

[NoukNouk]

For the Cuirass:

Textures after edit

(Changed the color a bit too, to make it more different from the original one. Also used masking instead of erasing.)

 

Alpha 1 Channel

Folder structures and .nif textures linked
(I added the in-world model too, that's why there's one extra .nif)


NormalMap


EnvironmentMap


Ingame Result

Will edit the post to add the extra assignments later

Edited December 2, 2014 by NoukNouk