[Greetings from Storm Raven]

*The young man throws aforementioned rotten vegetables*    

*...miss*

*The young man upgrades*    

*...miss*

*The young man upgrades again...   ...miss; again...   ...miss; again...    ...miss*

*The young man stops because this is begining to feel like a Monty Python sketch*

*...*

Welcome, I'm glad you can join us ;-)

CC

[Official Modeling Class REGISTRATION IS CLOSED]

Oh, no worries with that amount of time :-P  I'm currently taking a course on java where an estimated 2 hrs a day are required, and I was afraid this would be a huge-calibur thing like that, that required, say, 7 hrs per week (in some countries known as an hour per day :-P).  I am totally in!

(btw, I woulda gone for a U2 referance, buy AC/DC works :-D [oh no!  I just turned this into a "what are you listening to?" thread!  Please don't kill me Mr. Moderator-Who-Knows-All!])

Ai...

CC

[silver_fox_rival a.k.a silver_phoenix_rival Hi again!]

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It's me again silver_fox_rival under a new account name. I was not banned or anything I just forgot my PW. Anyways, I hope I can log back into my other account soon!

Well, it's great to see a new face... wait, nevermind :-)

[Official Modeling Class REGISTRATION IS CLOSED]

As I mentioned in your other thread, I am interested in taking part in this, and have no prior modeling experience (well, I know a very little about NifSkope, but otherwise, nothing).  Anyway, I'm both excited and scared by the way this looks like it will operate as an actual class; I love the time put into this, and I'm sure this will be very useful, but I am generally very busy, and am not sure I can spend much time on t his regularly.  Anyway, my question is, how much time are you guess-timating this will take on a weekly basis.  Also, how long are sessions?  Thanks for taking the time to put this together for us noobs :-P

CC

[Normal / Glow Maps Tutorial?]

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@Running4Cover, I believe I read somewhere that the two .dll files should go in the plug-ins folder.  You might give that a try.

   
That TOTALLY just worked, thank you!!!  I'm going to read a few tutorials I found, and if I need more help with this later, I'll revive this thread, but until that happens, thanks all for helping me with this!!!

CC

EDIT:
Okay, I just feel inclined to note, I just made my first (admittedly simple)  Normal Map using only what I learned on this thread, and it worked beautifully!  Now I need to make the Glow Map to match it! ( )  It proves that you guys are awesome, that you managed to get me to understand this :-D

EDIT2:
Holy crap, the glowmap works too! (although admittedly it's a bit bright for the weapon I was doing... still, easily fixed :-D  Thanks so much, guys!

[Normal / Glow Maps Tutorial?]

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Are your sure your going it right? Did you go to the Filters>Map>Normal Map options? Are the other files in their correct locations?

Yes, I go to Filters => Maps => Normal Map, but it's still greyed out.  My files are installed like so:

normalmap.exe   is in C:Program FilesGIMP-2.0libgimp2.0plug-ins
glew32.dll  is in C:Program FilesGIMP-2.0libgimp2.0plug-ins
libgtkglext-win32-1.0-0.dll  is in C:Program FilesGIMP-2.0bin
libgdkglext-win32-1.0-0.dll   is in C:Program FilesGIMP-2.0bin

...I'm confused...

[Normal / Glow Maps Tutorial?]

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Ok, found it.Place libgtkglext-win32-1.0-0.dll and libgdkglext-win32-1.0-0.dllin the C:Program FilesGIMP-2.0bin folder

It sorta... didn't change anything?

[Normal / Glow Maps Tutorial?]

Okay, the Nvidia Texture Tools thing said I needed some other Nvidea downloads, which I don;t really want to get, and I can;t figure out why the Gimp plugin isn;t working.  There are 4 files, with directions on where to extract them.  The readme says you put two of them into your Gimp Plugins directory (so I put them in C:Program FilesGIMP-2.0libgimp2.0plug-ins), and the other two are supposed to go in C:Program FilesCommon Filesgtk2.0bin... this address didn't exist (only up to the Common Files), so I created it, and added the files to it.  I wasn't sure if perhaps they wanted the files to be added to this directory instead; C:Program FilesGIMP-2.0bin, so I put them there too.  Anyway, when I'm in Gimp, if I go to Filters => Maps => Normal Maps, the Normal Maps option is greyed out (even if the texture I have open is a Bump Map).  Does anyone have any idea how to make this work, or another really simplistic "load your bumpo map and we'll make a normal map" program I could download?  Thanks ;-)

CC

[Hola XD]

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LOL! thanks for the warm welcomes everyone. I just got home from school, so I am gonna start perusing the forums to see if there is anything I can dig up. Does anyone have any idea as to where I should start looking? Meaning not what part of the forum, but what part of the modding process. Plus, beside the CS, are there any other tools you think I may need?

Well, if you plan to do more than worldbuilding (like making new textures or models, or editing existing ones), you will most certainly need NifSkope.  If you want to work with textures, you should use The Gimp (unless you have Photoshop).  For modeling, I don't have any personal experience, but the general recomendation is Blender (unless you have 3DsMax).  Thats pretty much the basic tools of the trade (other than the occasional plugin or converter).  Hope that's helpful :-P

CC

EDIT:
Concerning where-to-start, if you don;t already have a working knowledge of the CS, you'll probably want to check out one of the classes in Enclave.  If you already know the CS well, you may want to give thought to which path of modding you wish to pursue

[Hola XD]

Welcome, and best-of-luck to you, Tanis!  If you figure out the key to becoming well-known, let me know ;-)  (i.e. "You know that Running4Cover?" "umm, no, who's he?" "He made all those mods whose names start with 'Running4Cover"" "Such as..?"  "Never mind...")

Anyway, you're at the right place if you want to learn to mod, and I hope you enjoy your time here ;-)

CC

[Normal / Glow Maps Tutorial?]

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As WT said, you have to make your own.  Here's one example.  First, a texture of a stone floor from the web: In this case, to make a bump map you actually have to blur the original image a bit.  Remember, the normal map encodes slopes (tilts) to the surface, so if the bump map has an area of white pixels right next to black pixels with no shading in between, that corresponds to a vertical slope which the normal map can't handle.  So, I converted the original image to shades of grey and blurred it a little bit (using a Gaussian blur).  After this, I adjusted the contrast and brightness to create this bump map: Next I converted the bump map into a normal map.  I did it with Nvidia's Texture Tools 2 (free from the web).  You can do it with the GIMP normal map plugin.  I also changed the hue and contrast of the origional image for my diffuse map.  In the screen shot below, the right half is textured with both the diffuse map and normal map.  The left half is just the normal map with a uniform dark grey diffuse map.As WT said, it takes a little practice and experimentation.  Well, I've got to get back to RL and preparing for the modeling class.  

Generator was the wrong word to use, what I meant was the program for changing a Bump Map to a Normal Map.  I will check out the Nvidia Texture Tools thing then, thanks for the info :-D

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Glow maps basically make parts of the texture "glow" or stand out in the dark.The best way to make one is to take your texture, and color everything black where you don't want it to glow, and color where you do what it to glow with whatever color you want depending on the glow color you want.Save it with the *_g.dds extension.In the object nif, you need to change the Emissive color on the objects NiMaterialProperty block to white to get the full effect of the glow map.Best i can explain it. Hope it helps.

I will try this :-D

[Normal / Glow Maps Tutorial?]

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 I don't have a bump-map, though, will it some how automatically make one?  Thanks :-D

No you'll have to make the bump map. If you're lucky desaturating a copy of the relevant portion of your texture and tweaking the Brightness/Contrast will be a good start, but you usualy have to paint in by hand. It's not hard with a little practice.WT

Gotcha, I will totally try this now!
So how exactly do glow maps work, then?

EDIT:
Also, anyone know of a different Normal Map generator I can use, as the Gimp one doesn't seem to be working for me?)

[Basic Retexturing Services]

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upload to a file hosting site please ,http://www.mediafire.com/

Here you are!

Linkity-Linkum-Linkers

Another Satisfied (I hope   ) Customer :-D

[Normal / Glow Maps Tutorial?]

Ah... okay, I'll have to try what you guys are saying.  I don't have a bump-map, though, will it some how automatically make one?  Thanks :-D

[Basic Retexturing Services]

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Yeah , thanks its perfect!

How would you like me to get this to you?

[Normal / Glow Maps Tutorial?]

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Running4Cover,Although glowmaps can be useful, normal maps are essential.  As a first step, you should really understand what a normal map is and how it works.  Once you understand that, making normal maps, in a variety of ways, becomes much easier.  Once you have that overall understanding, you will see why it's nearly impossible to edit one, but not that hard to make a new one.  A good place to start is: Ben Cloward's Normal Map Tutorials   Good luck.

Thank you both for helping.  I have read a bit of the info Vince provided (thank you!), and I think I understand how they work, but I still do not know how to make Normal Maps with Gimp-Normal Maps Plugin, and really want to figure out how to make them!!!  :-D  Anyway, thank you both for your help, and I still hope I can find a good tutorial for this.  Thanks ;-)

CC

[Normal / Glow Maps Tutorial?]

Okay, one of my limitations in texturing is that I don;t understand how to edit Normal/Glow Maps.  I was wondering if anyone new of a good tutorial for how to do this with the Gimp - Normal Maps plugin?  I read THIS, but didn;t find it particularly helpful.  Thanks ;-)

CC

[Basic Retexturing Services]

Is this like what you were wanting?

Let me know what you want changed ;-)

[[WIP] An-Arane Cey: Armor of the Fallen]

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The dagger's got my name on it.  

You know, I think if someone told me they had a dagger with my name on it, I would be scared... but I guess it depends on the context :-)

[[WIP] An-Arane Cey: Armor of the Fallen]

Ooh, black, good idea :-D  The red one will look great with my Dark Hashshashin/Crimson Scar armors   good move  

[Ok I am new, well ish!]

New recruits, sweet!  (now I don't feel as new!  just kidding[-ish])

I respect you for doing landscaping because I can't :-P  I'm quite happy with retexturing, thank you :-D  Anyway, soon there will be enough here to commence our world domination, we only need a few million more people (or a pair of genetically altered lab-mice [the same thing we do every night, Pinky; try to take over the WORLD!!!]).  ANyway, I'll try to stop scaring the new people, it's great to have ye 'ere, mate ;-)

CC

[Basic Retexturing Services]

Okay, I've messed with the design a little, and came up with these.  Sadly, my bandana-addign skills are pretty pathetic :-P  Anyway, this is the basic Skull with axe layout I made:

and here's the rather pathetic addition of a bandana:

By the way, for the finished product or whatever, should I leave the icons on the flag looking as superimposed as they do on these, or should I try to make them look like they blend into the rest of the flag a little more?  Let me know what to change :-D

CC

[[WIP] Ultimate Gemstone Collection]

Wait, these are for Morrowind???  Gah! what is the likelihood of you porting them to Oblivion?  I only have Morro for the Xbox, so I won't be able to run this :-(  Ah well, either way, they look beautiful!

[[WIP] Ultimate Gemstone Collection]

Wow, very pritty  

How are they going to be added to the game?  These look like they could add some awesome reasons to thieve  

[Basic Retexturing Services]

Something sorta-like these?

Tell me what to change :-D