Question to Skinners.

[kay338]

ok, i been looking at many works that include skinning of robes,faces,hair etc... and the detail is quite amazing, i gotta say im impressed. I would like to know how do you people do that, what i mean by that is the detail(for example: In robes instead of a simple color, there are manny detail colors) and what program do you guys use? i got Photoshop 8, and i cant figure out anything, lol. hope im not confusing.

[Drazin]

I use Photoshop 7

And alot of it is as simple as cut & paste to add things to your skin. Or a simple Texture fill with varying degrees of opacity or mode type (ex. Overlay or Multiply)

 

Some of the more impressive skins like Chucks robes, well... That boggles my brain. Hopefully he'll tell ya how.

[90SK]

I use GIMP. Its good, but if you have Photoshop you should use that instead (GIMP has been acting really contrasty for me, and a lot of my work lately has been compromised). A lot of it it cutting and pasting, though colors and gradients work well too I suppose. I have no idea how they actually make the hair and the faces and the model skins, etc. Photoshop figures into the equation, though.

[Shadow Blaze]

Paint shop pro isn't that bad either it has a few testures I used in my mods already installed in that program.

[Prime]

Originally posted by Drazin

I use Photoshop 7

Me too. But I'd be happy with anything with a layers feature.

[kay338]

ahh so its all recoloring lol, for the simple stuff i mean. is there any uv's out there that tell you whats what in the skins, cause i open up a robe texture and i just get confused on what is what.

[General Kenobi]

For me I use "what you have" I got my belt design for my unique Nomi SunRider robes from an actual belt. For the chrome its just a matter of beveling and embossing with hue & saturation adjustment layers.

My Knights of Light MOD I used my python Spike's side scales for my dragon skin texture. When texturing something with a flat texture desaturate your texture layer then play with the blending options. Multiply, Screen, Overlay, bla bla bla.

For the variations in color and shadow use overlaying layers of black and white with blurring and opacity.

On layers try playing with the layer effects as well.

Basically just think about what you want to see in your head and then remove everything else that's not it Seriously though it's mostly practice and trial and error. You can do any of the skins your seeing out now with Photoshop no problem.

 

Hope that helps a bit

 

EDIT: BTW in the projects I've done so far I usually run anywhere from 50-80 layers depending on what it is and how detailed I make it. Example: my leather belt skin was about 120 small segments on different layers.

[General Kenobi]

Originally posted by kay338

ahh so its all recoloring lol, for the simple stuff i mean. is there any uv's out there that tell you whats what in the skins, cause i open up a robe texture and i just get confused on what is what.

I believe there would be. I've seen the same for other. and for the robes in my case I just recolor a block a bright color save a copy of the tga in my override and see where it pops up on the character in-game.

 

Hope that helps

[kay338]

lol that helps im an expert in messing around with photoshop and comming up with some wicked designs im gonna try 2 skin some stuff.

[General Kenobi]

You'll be suprised how easy it really is once you figure out where everything is located in .tga's. If your pretty comfy with pshop you'll have it in a week. Good luck with your work

[Shadow Blaze]

Originally posted by Darth Melignous

You'll be suprised how easy it really is once you figure out where everything is located in .tga's. If your pretty comfy with pshop you'll have it in a week. Good luck with your work

 

 

I was suprised when I started out too. I thought it would be dificult and annoying but in the end it is really easy. Can't wait to see what it looks like kay338!

[SuperSquall]

Strong Suggestion:

Before I do any work with a texture I always map the different parts of it into different layers. I usually paint a variety of really bright and harsh colors onto the areas that appear distinct and then see how that version looks in KotOR. This allows you to see where each part of the texture is mapped (e.g. if you painted part of the texture hot pink and another bright red, if the hands are appearing hotpink in one spot and bright red in another you now know which parts of the texture file get mapped to the hand).

 

After that I'd split each part of the texture into it's own layer, that way you can do much faster editing, particularly with color filters such as the channel mixer, brightness/contrast, Saturation/Hue, and the wonderful RGB Curves.

[Arlen Treesong]

Adobe Photoshop CS 8.0

 

The lasso tool and the clone stamp are probably the most used items on a day to day basis, also with hair, get a smidgeon sample of the hair you want, lasso where you want the hair then just clone stamp it.

 

EDIT: If you have gmax or 3dmax, you can also open up the mdl and tga you want to skin and unwrap the uvw, http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143301

[PoM]

 

 

..Ehm..I use photoshop cs 8.0

[Drakonnen]

I use Jasc Paintshop Pro, no filters or anything like that.

 

Personally, I don't use the layers, but I will often have different pieces in seperate images to work on, similar to what layering is good for, but I find it easier to work with.

 

I imagine most people do this, but if not: I always have TSL running minimized when I'm skinning, and have my character wear whatever it is I'm skinning, then I can make small changes here and there, check them quickly by switching over, then decide whether or not to keep them and move on, because everytime you maximize the window it reapplys the texture files currently saved in the override directory (only the ones already named and in there when you started the game, if adding more texture files you must restart).

[SuperSquall]

Originally posted by Drakonnen

I always have TSL running minimized when I'm skinning, and have my character wear whatever it is I'm skinning, then I can make small changes here and there, check them quickly by switching over, then decide whether or not to keep them and move on, because everytime you maximize the window it reapplys the texture files currently saved in the override directory (only the ones already named and in there when you started the game, if adding more texture files you must restart).

I didn't know it actually worked for that, but I guess it makes sense since it won't cache every texture before minimizing...

 

Cool

[Shadow Blaze]

Originally posted by Drakonnen

I use Jasc Paintshop Pro, no filters or anything like that.

 

Personally, I don't use the layers, but I will often have different pieces in seperate images to work on, similar to what layering is good for, but I find it easier to work with.

 

I imagine most people do this, but if not: I always have TSL running minimized when I'm skinning, and have my character wear whatever it is I'm skinning, then I can make small changes here and there, check them quickly by switching over, then decide whether or not to keep them and move on, because everytime you maximize the window it reapplys the texture files currently saved in the override directory (only the ones already named and in there when you started the game, if adding more texture files you must restart).

 

I do the same thing. And it is VERY helpful. At least I'm not the only one using paint shop pro for this.

[Achilles]

Originally posted by Drakonnen

I imagine most people do this, but if not: I always have TSL running minimized when I'm skinning, and have my character wear whatever it is I'm skinning, then I can make small changes here and there, check them quickly by switching over, then decide whether or not to keep them and move on, because everytime you maximize the window it reapplys the texture files currently saved in the override directory (only the ones already named and in there when you started the game, if adding more texture files you must restart).

I usually keep TSL running in windowed mode then use quick load (F5) to check my progress.

[kay338]

Wow, Great help!!!!! i didnt know u can run Kotor and it refreshes the textures i though u had to rerun the game

thnx

 

how do you run in window mode??? -window?

[T7nowhere]

Originally posted by Arlen Treesong

EDIT: If you have gmax or 3dmax, you can also open up the mdl and tga you want to skin and unwrap the uvw, http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143301

 

I agree, this is the best way to skin.

[svösh]

Originally posted by Arlen Treesong

EDIT: If you have gmax or 3dmax, you can also open up the mdl and tga you want to skin and unwrap the uvw, http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=143301

 

Originally posted by T7nowhere

I agree, this is the best way to skin.

 

lol so do I .. wait I wrote that

 

svösh

[Prime]

Originally posted by kay338

Wow, Great help!!!!! i didnt know u can run Kotor and it refreshes the textures i though u had to rerun the game

thnx

 

how do you run in window mode??? -window?

I believe it is a variable in the .ini file...

[ChAiNz.2da]

Originally posted by kay338

how do you run in window mode??? -window?

Prime is correct

 

add the following command in the swkotor2.ini file under the [Graphics options] header:

 

AllowWindowedMode=1

 

To 'toggle' the mode press Alt+Enter.

[kay338]

Originally posted by ChAiNz.2da

Prime is correct

 

add the following command in the swkotor2.ini file under the [Graphics options] header:

 

AllowWindowedMode=1

 

To 'toggle' the mode press Alt+Enter.

 

Thnx ill do that, i have already found out how 2 skin pretty good, i recolored the males underwear just to see how it works, and it was perfect

[Achilles]

Originally posted by kay338

Wow, Great help!!!!! i didnt know u can run Kotor and it refreshes the textures i though u had to rerun the game

thnx

When you initially apply a new texture, you will have to close down and restart. However once you've done this, you can make changes and use quickload to check progress.