Either a texture or advice on how I can make it myself using GIMP or mudbox

[Aki K]

I want to create a specific slave tat, but I want it to be somewhat transparent when applied. I have some lovely skin texture mods yet not matter how I apply the new tat (which is a full body tat) I cannot see the gloss on my skin the way I want to. The colors of the tat are far too bold and make the character stand out far too much in the grey world of skyrim. I think if I can make the tat somewhat transparent so that it is mostly my character's skin shining through with just a subtle overlay of the tat it will solve the problem.

 

But I do not know how to do that. So my request is either someone teach me how using the tools I have (modbox and GIMP) or alternatively, I want my characters body to be covered in this sort of veiny look, and I will accept someone making the texture for me. I want it to be a tat though and not it's own skin texture because my goal is to have an "alien" sort of look for only one of my files, and leave it untouched for my other files.

 

I would prefer to be taught how to do this so I can upload my work when it is done. But like I said, I am willing to accept the texture if someone finds that easier than teaching me.

[poblivion]

20 hours ago, Aki K said:

I want to create a specific slave tat, but I want it to be somewhat transparent when applied. I have some lovely skin texture mods yet not matter how I apply the new tat (which is a full body tat) I cannot see the gloss on my skin the way I want to. The colors of the tat are far too bold and make the character stand out far too much in the grey world of skyrim. I think if I can make the tat somewhat transparent so that it is mostly my character's skin shining through with just a subtle overlay of the tat it will solve the problem.

 

But I do not know how to do that. So my request is either someone teach me how using the tools I have (modbox and GIMP) or alternatively, I want my characters body to be covered in this sort of veiny look, and I will accept someone making the texture for me. I want it to be a tat though and not it's own skin texture because my goal is to have an "alien" sort of look for only one of my files, and leave it untouched for my other files.

 

I would prefer to be taught how to do this so I can upload my work when it is done. But like I said, I am willing to accept the texture if someone finds that easier than teaching me.

 

I use paint.net, it is a simple program that can work with DDS format.  The easiest way is to open a similar tattoo texture and use it as a base.

 

 

[Aki K]

50 minutes ago, poblivion said:

 

I use paint.net, it is a simple program that can work with DDS format.  The easiest way is to open a similar tattoo texture and use it as a base.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

I'm less concerned about the specific content of making a texture and more concerned with transparency. For some reason when I attempt to apply tattoos i thought I made transparent they still aren't that way in the game.

[poblivion]

1 hour ago, Aki K said:

I'm less concerned about the specific content of making a texture and more concerned with transparency. For some reason when I attempt to apply tattoos i thought I made transparent they still aren't that way in the game.

I think  alpha channel must be included for transparency to work. I usually save in DXT5. 

 

I haven't worked with Gimp yet, so I'm not able to advise you on what you're doing wrong.

 

As you can see in the picture above, the checkered part is a background that will not be visible (it is transparent). In paint.net you can also interlace individual layers, so you can easily combine different tattoos and create one texture with everything you want.

 

Paint.net is free if you want to try it ?

 

[Aki K]

57 minutes ago, poblivion said:

I think  alpha channel must be included for transparency to work. I usually save in DXT5. 

 

I have no idea what this means lol. Especially not the DXT5 thing.

 

I am familiar with the checkered background part. I have made many tats before (which the link in my signature should direct to ^-^). I'm trying to get the tat itself to be semi-transparent. I've tried using a "color to alpha" option for the tat to make it more transparent and it looks transparent in GIMP, but then in the game it isn't transparent, just lighter in color but still completely blocks skin texture.

[poblivion]

18 minutes ago, Aki K said:

I have no idea what this means lol. Especially not the DXT5 thing.

 

I am familiar with the checkered background part. I have made many tats before (which the link in my signature should direct to ^-^). I'm trying to get the tat itself to be semi-transparent. I've tried using a "color to alpha" option for the tat to make it more transparent and it looks transparent in GIMP, but then in the game it isn't transparent, just lighter in color but still completely blocks skin texture.

Ah, I misunderstood you.

DXT5 is the level of compression in which the image is saved, at the same time it includes some other information of the image (I also don't know much about it).

I know it happened to me once that I saved an image with a different compression format setting and it was no longer transparent.

 

In the paint.net is possible painted image made transparent in the layer settings.

[Aki K]

4 hours ago, poblivion said:

Ah, I misunderstood you.

DXT5 is the level of compression in which the image is saved, at the same time it includes some other information of the image (I also don't know much about it).

I know it happened to me once that I saved an image with a different compression format setting and it was no longer transparent.

 

In the paint.net is possible painted image made transparent in the layer settings.

Interesting. I guess when time permits I can give it a shot and see if it works.

[Aki K]

Just wanted to let everyone know I figured out a way to achieve the effect I was going for. For some weird reason I can't fine tune it easily, and have to start from scratch each time I want to change the transparency. For example: If I have a tat and I edit it to have 50% transparency and that's not enough, I cannot increase or decrease the transparency with the same file. I have to go back to the original tat for some reason and edit it from there all over again. Weird limitation, but at least I have a method available now.

[nilead]

 There is another way to go about it. Racemenu overlays and slavetats appear to be interchangable, to a point where just replacing a racemenu overlay with .dds from slavetats works with just a rename, as long as its for the same body part. Active overlays mod allows changing  slavetats alpha in game. Id suggest you use one of those to get what alpha you want exactly, and just redo texture once to finalize.

 I can also recommend using GIMP with DDS plugin, just keep project untill you're satisfied with result.

[Aki K]

3 hours ago, nilead said:

 There is another way to go about it. Racemenu overlays and slavetats appear to be interchangable, to a point where just replacing a racemenu overlay with .dds from slavetats works with just a rename, as long as its for the same body part. Active overlays mod allows changing  slavetats alpha in game. Id suggest you use one of those to get what alpha you want exactly, and just redo texture once to finalize.

 I can also recommend using GIMP with DDS plugin, just keep project untill you're satisfied with result.

I have GIMP with DDS plugin I think.

 

I know how to do it in game but I switch my tats around regularly and would have to redo it each time. I don't think there's a way to transfer the end result and finalize it for publishing outside of the game with that method.

 

Either way I think I've found something close to what I want for now and will keep workshopping it.

[poblivion]

On 12/26/2020 at 7:44 PM, Aki K said:

Just wanted to let everyone know I figured out a way to achieve the effect I was going for. For some weird reason I can't fine tune it easily, and have to start from scratch each time I want to change the transparency. For example: If I have a tat and I edit it to have 50% transparency and that's not enough, I cannot increase or decrease the transparency with the same file. I have to go back to the original tat for some reason and edit it from there all over again. Weird limitation, but at least I have a method available now.

 

Changing the intensity of the transparency should not be a problem.  At least in paint.net

 

I would like to check something, can you insert some texture here that you would like to make more transparent?

 

[Aki K]

1 hour ago, poblivion said:

 

Changing the intensity of the transparency should not be a problem.  At least in paint.net

 

I would like to check something, can you insert some texture here that you would like to make more transparent?

 

This is the main piece of a Mod a friend and I have been trying to get right for a long time. I think transparency will possibly improve it. My friend gave up on the project a long while ago.

 

But it also applies to any lipstick tats. The lips don't look glossy at all if they aren't at least a little transparent. They just look like a splotch of paint. But too transparent and the lip color change doesn't make sense either.

To be edited.dds

[poblivion]

12 hours ago, Aki K said:

This is the main piece of a Mod a friend and I have been trying to get right for a long time. I think transparency will possibly improve it. My friend gave up on the project a long while ago.

 

But it also applies to any lipstick tats. The lips don't look glossy at all if they aren't at least a little transparent. They just look like a splotch of paint. But too transparent and the lip color change doesn't make sense either.

To be edited.dds 21.33 MB · 1 download

It is not necessary to start from the scratch, the degree of transparency can be changed later. I did several test versions with different degrees of transparency.

 

If you want the surface to look more glossy, it is affected by the Alpha channel.  The more white the image in the Alpha channel is, the more glossy the texture looks.

But it may not always apply !!! It also depends on the parameters of the Nif file (3D object to which the texture is applied).  You can change this with the help of NifSkope (I tried it once, but I don't remember how it changes).

TEST.7z

[Aki K]

9 hours ago, poblivion said:

It is not necessary to start from the scratch, the degree of transparency can be changed later. I did several test versions with different degrees of transparency.

 

If you want the surface to look more glossy, it is affected by the Alpha channel.  The more white the image in the Alpha channel is, the more glossy the texture looks.

But it may not always apply !!! It also depends on the parameters of the Nif file (3D object to which the texture is applied).  You can change this with the help of NifSkope (I tried it once, but I don't remember how it changes).

TEST.7z 2.41 MB · 0 downloads

Good to know. I'm going to try it a few times myself to see how things go, time permitting.