Is there a GIMP tutorial on.....

[Kodiak]

Is there a GIMP tutorial on how to apply glossiness to a texture for FONV? I know that glossiness can be applied via NifScope, I've done that with Skyrim, but the affects aren't quite the same with NV though. Besides specular strength, I'm not sure what else is different between the two in NIfScope.

 

As for GIMP.. its free, Its what I have and need to learn. Lots of tutorials online on how to due X, Y and Z with GIMP, but none address gloss application to a skin texture. Closest I found was how to apply a gloss to a website button

 

Thanks in advance for help and feedback.

[BruceWayne]

I think what you want is to edit the specular map. You can find the specular maps of a particular texture in the alpha channel of the normal map (the ones that end with _n). It's a greyscale map, whereas black means no shine or specular reflection and white means maximum specular reflection, with shades of grey everything in between.

 

That's basically all there is to know about the specular map (I think the same system applies for Skyrim, btw). A lot of times you can achieve some nice specular effects by using the diffuse map (no color) for the specular map and play with levels/contrast/etc.

 

Unfortunately, I haven't used GIMP in ages, so I can't say anything particular about its use or what to look out for. In case you haven't got it already, you need the nvidia dds plugin in order to import/export the dds texture files.

[Kodiak]

I appreciate the help Bruce, thx. Yea I've heard that somewhere before, the issue is how to go about mucking with it and actually working. Oddly, the spec map of the texture I want to mess with is actually purple. Its weird. I'll try the defuse map though. I didn't know about that. Thanks again and if anyone uses GIMP frequently, please I'd still like to hear from  you.

[Guest endgameaddiction]

Environmental map (_m) deals with reflection as well. This does the same as Bruce mentioned, white = shine areas, grey = in between and black area = no shine. So, you could mess with the _m if it comes with one and tone it down or up. I had to do that with LiL - an eye improvement (eye replacer mod) because his was way too shiny and some people complained about it, but he never made an optional e. map, so I went ahead and did it myself.

[BruceWayne]

If it's purple, it actually just means that all layers are selected. Deactivate the RGB layers and only check the alpha layer and it should be greyscale.

 

As for "mucking" with it, I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve. If you want to just up/down the glossiness, all you'd need to do is to take the existing specular map (or copy/paste the diffuse map into the alpha channel, if you don't have one) and increase/decrease brightness. If you want to highlight certain areas you can increase the contrast to get a more emphasized result. There is an option In GIMP and PS called levels, with which you can finetune all of these settings, like brightness/contrast at once. 

 

If you want to add detail (like sweat, etc.), you'd need to actually do some "artistic" work, though there are many (free) brushes you can use to make your life easier.

 

I think there aren't that many tutorials out there that go like "This is how you make a specular map for Skyrim/Fallout". You'd need to know where the spec map is located and read up on general tutorials for specular map creation and how to use GIMP. I went through something similar a while ago and I rarely found a comprehensive tutorial for the exact thing I was about to do, regarding texture manipulation, armor creation, etc. I wouldn't dismiss tutorials made for PS though, since both GIMP and PS are working quite similarly, so while the menus and shortcuts might look different, the process is most likely the same.

 

[myuhinny]

I use gimp2 quite a bit but it's mostly just for modifying textures by making outfits transparent or cutting part of the texture out and making the piece you cut out disappear on the outfit/armor. The way that I add gloss is through nifskope and changing the glossiness float to 1000.0000. The main thing that makes gloss harder or easier to see all depends light and the color of your players skin. The lighter the skin color the harder it is to see the gloss while the darker the skin the better the gloss shows up.

 

Oblivion is the easiest one to do what with the tool called glossmax you just drag and drop whole folders worth of nifs onto it and it adds gloss to them if they are body parts in it and it also works on armors/outfits as well. Except for heads those have to be done manually.

 

Skyrim you can use nifskope or do the texture way or you can do the nifskope glosstech combo. First gloss everything with glosstech then after that is done use nifskope and manually change the glossiness float for all body parts to 1000.0000 that will make the bodies super oily/glossy looking.

[Eiries]

Generally speaking with GIMP, the more transparent a part of a normal is, the less shiny it is. So just select the area of the map you want to be shinier, go to Colors>Curves, select Alpha, and increase it.

 

 

Although like previously stated, the specular (or metal map, depending on the object) also controls shine/gloss, and a lot better. Most weapons and armor with metal bits will have one already. They're grayscale maps, and really easy to edit: the whiter it is, the stronger the shine.

 

Cubemaps can be utilized to give different reflective effects too, but that's a whole other ballgame that you might was well start googling to get an idea of.