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How I created Wallpaper Panels in Skyrim This would not have been possible without the unending guidance and support received through The Enclave. Participating in the Graphic Artistry Course began this quest of mine with InsanitySorrow and Hanaisse offering guidance to help me reach my goal. My instructions assume basic understanding of steps taken in Graphic Artistry Lesson #1 and Lesson #2 What you will need: Gimp or PS; I used PS (I hope things are the same) Brushes for Gimp or PS (Grunge, spatters, spills, peels) I found some for PS here and here and here (Please give credit where credit is due) 512 x 512 wallpaper image of your choice (I made my own from free wallpaper samples) Wall kit piece Meshes and Textures (I used smdewalsol05.nif and swoodplanks01.dds) Nifskope Place the mesh and textures (including the wallpaper pattern; it can be removed later) to be used in their proper places in the data directory. Because of the trial and errors I went through I do things a bit backwards to the steps I learned in Graphic Artistry, but it produces the results I desire. The goal is to have rips and tears visible and enhanced with the normal map, but not the pattern on the wallpaper. To do this, I begin with the tears and rips in the paper. I work with 3 layers, two we have in place and one will be created for temporary use. In Gimp or Photoshop Open the stock wall texture (swoodplanks01.dds) Open the wallpaper image texture to be used. Open a new file sized 512 x 512 On this image fill it with a color similar to the wallpaper. Do this by selecting the Paint Bucket Tool and picking a color from the palette. There are now 3 tabs open which make our layers, copy and paste them on top of the stock wall texture in this order: Wallpaper texture Solid Color image The layers should appear like so: Using an assortment of brushes (scratches, peeling, etc) any type which would expose the wood beneath begin by applying them to the Solid Color Image first. Select the eraser tool and a grunge brush tip. Be sure to check the opacity; for these 100% is usually best. Lining the selected grunge brush up check the measurements on the ruler; click to remove the selection on the Solid Color Image. Navigate to Layer 1 (the wallpaper) align the brush in the same spot and click to remove the selection to satisfaction. (How much damage wanted). Navigate between the layers until the amount of damage desired has been applied. At this point I create my normal map. Navigate to layers and select merge all visible. Navigate to Filter and select normal map I select 4 sample with a scale of 1.5 to 1.7 (personal preference, but I found this to produce nice results). File save as: Whateveryouwant_n.dds DXT1 No Alpha (To prevent shininess on wallpaper or a wet paint look) Return to your normal mapped image and step backwards until you have the filter removed and the layers separated again. Delete the solid color image layer. Merge the remaining two layers and using grunge brushes select a color suitable for the desired effect and apply. Change brush tips and colors for a variety; grunge until desired effect is reached. This is the final product and what will show in game. File save as: Whateveryouwant.dds DXT5 Discard any of the images not needed (solid color image/wallpaper pattern) NifSkope Magic In Nifskope we will attach our wallpaper panel to the mesh and eliminate the shader which caused an unattractive beveled look to the finished wallpaper texture. In Nifskope Load the mesh (smdewalsol05.nif) In the render window click on the portion of the wall which will display the wallpaper, this selects the proper block details and highlights it in the left panel (Block details). Click on the + and expand the selection to expose the NiTriShapeData, BSLightingShader and BSShader Texture headers in the block list. Click on NiTriShapeData doing this will display a huge list of details in the bottom pane of Nifskope. Find Vertex Colors and click on the + expanding the individual colors used, each one in the section needs to be changed to white. Do this by: Click on the Color Wheel find and select white Or Double Click on the #panel and fill in the boxes with 1.00 all the way across. Now go back up to the Block List and click on BSShader Textures and add the normal map and texture in the lower panel as described in Lesson #2, ensuring after loading your textures any words in the path string before Textures has been removed. When all the changes needed have been made, save the file as Somethingyourecognizebutisnotvanilla.nif The wallpaper panel is now ready to be added in the CK for use as explained in lesson#2. Credits go to: The Enclave (DarkRider's TES Alliance) Insanity Sorrow Hanaisse Image #3 IS WillieSea, camaro_69_327 and all the other fine folks who offered suggestions!

There are several under Activators

Welcome to my second workshop on texturing here at Graphic Artistry! Last time we created the texture for a worn blade. This time I'll show you how I recreate a texture from scratch based on a reference image. The model we're going to texture is nothing less than Frodo's famous shortsword named "Sting". The model was made by my partner in crime InsanitySorrow, who always takes care to provide a good working UV map to work with. First of all let's have a look at the reference picture: As you can see it's pretty basic at first sight: just wood and metal. The engravements on the grip, guard and the blade itself is where the real challenge lies. Let's start blocking! As I've shown and explained in the previous workshop I will block out the basic shapes first. The base textures Next up I choose a fitting wood texture, which I add to a new layer. Using the warp tool (Edit>Transform>Warp) I make it fit the shape of the grip in my UV map. The original woodtexture I used was a lot lighter, but by altering the hue/saturation and brightness/contrast I managed to make it very similar to the wood from the reference image. I create a new layer for the metal parts. I use a metal texture which is a nice blend between two excisting textures: a scratched one and a smoother one. That way I can make it look like it's actually used in combat, without giving it that very worn look. In a new layer I set the blending mode of this layer to "Overlay". I also add a layer mask so this layer won't affect the wood texture of the grip. On the guard and the pommel I want to make all the edges a little brighter. There's a quick and effective way to do that: In the layer with my blocks I select all the parts I want to affect by using the Magic Wand tool With the selection still active I create a new layer and fill the selection with a solid color, it doesn't matter which one as we just need the shape to apply a layerstyle. I set the layer to 0% fill to get rid of the color: Finally I add a soft inner glow in Layer Style: And here we have the result: Creating the rim When we look at our reference picture we can see that one part of the guard has a rim, which is not in our model. That means we have to fake that through the texture. This sounds more complicated than it actually is and it gives me an oppurtunity to show you a great method for making those pesky rims and cover a bit about how to handle light and shadow at the same time. Using the same method as before we select the part of the blocks we want the rim on and give it an inner stroke effect in Layer Style. To keep the stroke effect without it being a layerstyle, right click the layer in the layer tab and choose "Convert to Smart Object" and right click it again to choose "Rasterize". Now we have something to work with! Once again we set our layer fill to 0%. In Layer Style we check "Drop Shadow" and "Bevel and Emboss". Using these tools means we have to decide where the lightsource comes from. As a peronal rule of thumb I always want the weapon to look it's best when it's held by the player. That means the light will most likely come from the tip of the blade and falling on the guard: These are the settings I use for "Drop Shadow" and "Bevel and Emboss". Note that I have unchecked "Use Global Light" for both effects, this gives me the most control over each individual setting as I can determine where the angle of the light on that particular piece of the texture. To get the rim on the other side of the guard I simply duplicate the layer with the rim, flip it vertically (Edit>Transform>Flip Vertical) and move it to the right position. For both "Drop Shadow" and "Bevel and Emboss" I set the light angle in the opposite direction and because we unchecked "Use Global Light" this doesn't affect our first rim. Here we can see how that looks: And here we have our faked rim on the model. Great illusion, eh? Later on we will add more shadows and highlights to enhance our texture. We'll be making smart use of gradients and of course find a method to duplicate the engravings on the weapon. To be continued soon!