Gloss tutorial

[Jerbsinator]

I originally posted this in my "Gloss effect on face?" thread but I think it would be easier for people to find here if they need help on getting their characters to look shiny. So ya if your having problems try this out. I don't guarantee results but it worked for me so I see no reason why it would not work for others.

 

 

 

1. Open your texture file, for this tutorial I'm using MoonshadowFace.dds.

 

 

2. Take your rectangle marquee tool and select the whole image, Copy it.

 

 

3. Go to the channels tab and select your Alpha channel, if you don't have one click the new layer button at the bottom.

 

 

4. Paste your texture into the Alpha channel

 

 

5. It should look something like this

 

 

6. Now, go to Image -> Adjustments -> Brightness Contrast

 

 

7. Make it brighter and it will be more glossy in game.

 

 

8. Darker and it will be less glossy in game.

 

 

9. Once you get what you want click the eye on the RGB channel to reselect the original layer.

 

 

10. Go back to the layers tab. Click Filters -> NVIDIA Tools -> NormalMapFilter...

 

 

11. This screen will come up, the defaults are good enough so leave it as it is. Click Ok.

 

 

12. Your texture will turn blueish, this is normal.

 

 

13. Your done editing, now it's time to save. Go to File -> Save as. Under Format scroll up to D3D/DDS (*.DDS;*.DDS). For filename save it as your texture file except add _n at the end. For mine it would be MoonshadowFace_n. Click Save.

 

 

14. Another window is going to popup, click on the dropdown list and select DXT5 Interpolated alpha.

 

 

15. Your window should look like this. If it is click save. Give it a minute to save and you should be good to go.

 

 

16. One other thing is to make sure that your Mesh is set up to allow Gloss. The easiest way to do it is download Gloss Max, open that, then drop all the meshes you use into it, it will automatically make the skin glossy. Useful when you download new armors and your skin doesn't look as glossy as it would if your character was nude.

 

17. Your done! Now go in game and try it out. Remember, if you want to change the gloss just go back to this file, click on the Alpha Channel in Layers and adjust the brightness as needed.

 

 

 

[Mailamea]

Very usefull indeed. kudos

[khyron]

Kudos to you. This guide is great.

[Weightbomb]

nice tutorial, but how to do it with gimp2 ? or can you tell me where to find a working photoshop

[Jerbsinator]

I've never used Gimp but it probably works the same way. You need a DDS plugin either way.

[teals03]

I just said screw gimp and I got adobe photoshop. I dont think the .dds plugin works with volume maps and thus gives some pretty weird and undesired results. Anyways on to my question!

 

I am trying to modify my Moon&Diablo elf using this method and again everything goes great until I save. I gives me this error "Image width and height must be multiple of four"

 

*edit* I saved the file "using existing mipmaps" and that seems to take away the error. I loaded up my char and it does look like she has more gloss, but its really hard to tell haha. I already had my meshes converted to 100% gloss so maybe thats the reason for the smaller difference. I also only edited the face_n.dds file, should I change the face.dds file as well? The alpha channel on the face.dds file is completely black, which is maybe why I am having troubles seeing a difference?

 

For the most part, I just want to know how the face_n.dds and face.dds files are related to each other and then applied in game. Like for instance, does the glossiness matter on the face.dds file if I am using the face_n.dds file?

[Jerbsinator]

I just said screw gimp and I got adobe photoshop. I dont think the .dds plugin works with volume maps and thus gives some pretty weird and undesired results. Anyways on to my question!

 

I am trying to modify my Moon&Diablo elf using this method and again everything goes great until I save. I gives me this error "Image width and height must be multiple of four"

 

*edit* I saved the file "using existing mipmaps" and that seems to take away the error. I loaded up my char and it does look like she has more gloss' date=' but its really hard to tell haha. I already had my meshes converted to 100% gloss so maybe thats the reason for the smaller difference. I also only edited the face_n.dds file, should I change the face.dds file as well? The alpha channel on the face.dds file is completely black, which is maybe why I am having troubles seeing a difference?

 

For the most part, I just want to know how the face_n.dds and face.dds files are related to each other and then applied in game. Like for instance, does the glossiness matter on the face.dds file if I am using the face_n.dds file?

[/quote']

 

The alpha channel in the main texture file as far as I know does nothing. It's the one in the normal map (_n) that the alpha channel affects.

 

As far as I can tell the face.dds is the actual texture applied to the body. Face_n.dds is the gloss map applied to the body.

[teals03]

Yeah I spent alittle more time fiddling around and a little less time pulling out my hair and I think I have it down pretty good now.

 

I found out that you can change the brightness save and then reopen the saved file and increase the brightness again, essentially doubling the brightness. For some reason I thought that the file would remember were the brightness cursor was. Which after I did this the gloss showed up pretty clearly.

 

I also found out that creating mipmaps for files that dont have them is also really easy. For some reason the body texture for the FFrace didnt have them but the hands and face did. Btw, is the only real point of mipmaps to just increase preformance?

 

Awesome Tutorial! I am starting to get intrigued by all of this, not to mention my characters are actually starting to look like ones you see in all of those pictures. As it turns out like most things in life, if you want your diamonds to sparkle like the next guys then you need to put in the same amount of work he did.

[Jerbsinator]

I forgot to add, if your alpha channel is black with white details and you want it to be white go to Image -> Adjustments -> Invert. This will flip the colors, essentially making the blacks white and the whites black. Instant gloss.

[Mailamea]

@Jerb: will it work if i only adjust the brightness of the alpha channel and noting else?

[teals03]

Actually, you only want to adjust the alpha channel. I ended up adjusting the whole thing and what I got was a completely white character. The most important part of this whole process is to keep a back of whatever your modifying so you can always start over or go back.

[Jerbsinator]

@Jerb: will it work if i only adjust the brightness of the alpha channel and noting else?

 

Adjusting brightness on the alpha channel will give you the gloss. If you adjust brightness on the Face.dds texture file itself it changes the color of your character. This is how chocolate elves were made by reducing the brightness, thus the skin is darker and boom, chocolate elves.

[gts_angel]

Very nice guide,can I use the some method on edit the body?

[Jerbsinator]

Very nice guide' date='can I use the some method on edit the body?

[/quote']

 

Yep, or anything really.

[harlock1969]

Thank's, amazing tutorial.

 

[DaSanvich]

Fantastic guide, got me up and running on the face. Though I have a bit of an issue. The body is glossed, as is the face, but the neck isn't. Checking both the femaleupperbody and head file, neither has the neck included, but my character clearly has one! Does anyone know where the nif file for the neck would be? I would be wondering about where the texture is as well, but I guess that would vary depending on what race.

[MysticImp]

Thanks for the great tutorial! If all tutorials were this thorough, it would be a better world

 

[Vitriks]

How to save femalebody_1_msn? I get block issue after editing it and saving in DXT5

[Jerbsinator]

If my Photobucket bandwidth is ever exceeded again please PM me and I will move these images to imgur.

[Mavado]

Theres another way to achieve the gloss effect without much effort or knowledge of modding, all you really have to do is copy the "_n" from the chocolate elf oily2(I think) folder and rename them to whatever the skins your race uses.

 

the 4 "_n" files you need to copy are;

 

Head

Foot

Hand

Ear

 

Download glossmax and do a windows search in your oblivion folder for .nif, wait till it finishes than drag and drop everything into glossmax.

 

The only meshes glossmax doesn't effect are the head meshes, so download nifskope, open your race's head mesh and manually set the gloss to 100%.

 

Also, every time you download new armor, before moving it into the Oblivion folder, do a windows search for .nif on the armor's folder and convert them with glossmax.

 

Almost every armor modder is unaware of the gloss effects, so their gloss settings are really low- so we have to set it ourselves.

[Mailamea]

mavado lol that method is what i use before when i dont know how to use photoshop. It works well but sometimes if using custom textures i try to make my own _n like this tutorial.

[Shugotenshi]

Theres another way to achieve the gloss effect without much effort or knowledge of modding' date=' all you really have to do is copy the "_n" from the chocolate elf oily2(I think) folder and rename them to whatever the skins your race uses.

 

the 4 "_n" files you need to copy are;

 

Head

Foot

Hand

Ear

 

Download glossmax and do a windows search in your oblivion folder for .nif, wait till it finishes than drag and drop everything into glossmax.

 

The only meshes glossmax doesn't effect are the head meshes, so download nifskope, open your race's head mesh and manually set the gloss to 100%.

 

Also, every time you download new armor, before moving it into the Oblivion folder, do a windows search for .nif on the armor's folder and convert them with glossmax.

 

Almost every armor modder is unaware of the gloss effects, so their gloss settings are really low- so we have to set it ourselves.

[/quote']

How to set gloss in Nif can you explain pls,do i need to mess around with Diffuse,Specular or...?

 

[Skagg]

Theres another way to achieve the gloss effect without much effort or knowledge of modding' date=' all you really have to do is copy the "_n" from the chocolate elf oily2(I think) folder and rename them to whatever the skins your race uses.

 

the 4 "_n" files you need to copy are;

 

Head

Foot

Hand

Ear

 

Download glossmax and do a windows search in your oblivion folder for .nif, wait till it finishes than drag and drop everything into glossmax.

 

The only meshes glossmax doesn't effect are the head meshes, so download nifskope, open your race's head mesh and manually set the gloss to 100%.

 

Also, every time you download new armor, before moving it into the Oblivion folder, do a windows search for .nif on the armor's folder and convert them with glossmax.

 

Almost every armor modder is unaware of the gloss effects, so their gloss settings are really low- so we have to set it ourselves.

[/quote']

How to set gloss in Nif can you explain pls,do i need to mess around with Diffuse,Specular or...?

 

 

nah he uses a program called glossmax check it out its super easy and it works. For the head however you do need to change the gloss manually ill tell you as soon as i remember how. Just search glossmax on tes nexus and there should be someone who tells you how to do it in the comments section. Thats how I figured the head part out

[Shugotenshi]

Theres another way to achieve the gloss effect without much effort or knowledge of modding' date=' all you really have to do is copy the "_n" from the chocolate elf oily2(I think) folder and rename them to whatever the skins your race uses.

 

the 4 "_n" files you need to copy are;

 

Head

Foot

Hand

Ear

 

Download glossmax and do a windows search in your oblivion folder for .nif, wait till it finishes than drag and drop everything into glossmax.

 

The only meshes glossmax doesn't effect are the head meshes, so download nifskope, open your race's head mesh and manually set the gloss to 100%.

 

Also, every time you download new armor, before moving it into the Oblivion folder, do a windows search for .nif on the armor's folder and convert them with glossmax.

 

Almost every armor modder is unaware of the gloss effects, so their gloss settings are really low- so we have to set it ourselves.

[/quote']

How to set gloss in Nif can you explain pls,do i need to mess around with Diffuse,Specular or...?

 

 

nah he uses a program called glossmax check it out its super easy and it works. For the head however you do need to change the gloss manually ill tell you as soon as i remember how. Just search glossmax on tes nexus and there should be someone who tells you how to do it in the comments section. Thats how I figured the head part out

 

Lol me and my bad Eng xD I was actually asking about head mesh editing in NifSkope.But anyway thnx for anwering Skagg ^^.I will look around on forums maybe i will find something

 

 

[Skagg]

Theres another way to achieve the gloss effect without much effort or knowledge of modding' date=' all you really have to do is copy the "_n" from the chocolate elf oily2(I think) folder and rename them to whatever the skins your race uses.

 

the 4 "_n" files you need to copy are;

 

Head

Foot

Hand

Ear

 

Download glossmax and do a windows search in your oblivion folder for .nif, wait till it finishes than drag and drop everything into glossmax.

 

The only meshes glossmax doesn't effect are the head meshes, so download nifskope, open your race's head mesh and manually set the gloss to 100%.

 

Also, every time you download new armor, before moving it into the Oblivion folder, do a windows search for .nif on the armor's folder and convert them with glossmax.

 

Almost every armor modder is unaware of the gloss effects, so their gloss settings are really low- so we have to set it ourselves.

[/quote']

How to set gloss in Nif can you explain pls,do i need to mess around with Diffuse,Specular or...?

 

 

nah he uses a program called glossmax check it out its super easy and it works. For the head however you do need to change the gloss manually ill tell you as soon as i remember how. Just search glossmax on tes nexus and there should be someone who tells you how to do it in the comments section. Thats how I figured the head part out

 

Lol me and my bad Eng xD I was actually asking about head mesh editing in NifSkope.But anyway thnx for anwering Skagg ^^.I will look around on forums maybe i will find something

 

 

 

Lol nah your english is good im just dumb X3

You do want to gloss the head though right? Im serious look up glossmax on nexus and in the comments section of that mod one of the people explains how to add gloss to the head mesh.