Matching Head Colors to Body Colors

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

Okay, I'm not talking about eliminating seams (I know seams are pretty much impossible to eliminate), but every time I create a head texture & a body texture, the colors are a bit off, and I'm not sure how to match them.  The heads are way too large to simply plunk down over the body textures and try to match that way.  What do people do to correct this?

[DogOnPorch]

2 hours ago, DarkPhoenixFF4 said:

Okay, I'm not talking about eliminating seams (I know seams are pretty much impossible to eliminate), but every time I create a head texture & a body texture, the colors are a bit off, and I'm not sure how to match them.  The heads are way too large to simply plunk down over the body textures and try to match that way.  What do people do to correct this?

 

There is a set of head/face textures that has matching body textures that are quite popular. You're more likely to get better matches that way.

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/20022

 

Once you have a character ready to go, get a good well lit look at her in 3rd person and use the sliders in the skin shade area (don't use the skin tone slider on the first page) to get as good a match as you can.

[fejeena]

If you want to recolor a head or body texture.

Copy a small part of the neck area and paste it as new layer in the other texture. Then I recolor the texture until it matches the small layer, Then delete the layer.

 

And if I can not set the texture to the exactly right color I merge the neck layer with the texture.  Put it in the right position, change size or add more neck-color-layers, cut if needed.

Then merge all small layer. Create copies of the new layer ( 2-3 new layers )  and use blur and fate out with some of the layers to cover the transition.

 

Spoiler

Ckeck in NifSkope what you need.

 

Copy what you need.

 

Paste it in the texture, change size , cut if needed.

 

 

Copy the neck layer and add more neck layers.

Blur and fade out the new neck layers to cover the transition. The not blures layer is at top.

( The base texture is hidden in the picture )

 

Last check, maybe last recolor of the base texture.

 

 

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

17 hours ago, DogOnPorch said:

 

There is a set of head/face textures that has matching body textures that are quite popular. You're more likely to get better matches that way.

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/20022

 

Once you have a character ready to go, get a good well lit look at her in 3rd person and use the sliders in the skin shade area (don't use the skin tone slider on the first page) to get as good a match as you can.

Well, I started that way a while back, but I'm working with head06, so using default head textures won't work.  Plus I'm trying to make heads that don't exist at the moment, so...

 

Also, don't Ozmo's textures have seam problems in certain places?  It's why I'm trying to use only Navetsea's textures for women...

15 hours ago, fejeena said:

If you want to recolor a head or body texture.

Copy a small part of the neck area and paste it as new layer in the other texture. Then I recolor the texture until it matches the small layer, Then delete the layer.

 

And if I can not set the texture to the exactly right color I merge the neck layer with the texture.  Put it in the right position, change size or add more neck-color-layers, cut if needed.

Then merge all small layer. Create copies of the new layer ( 2-3 new layers )  and use blur and fate out with some of the layers to cover the transition.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Ckeck in NifSkope what you need.

 

Copy what you need.

 

Paste it in the texture, change size , cut if needed.

 

 

Copy the neck layer and add more neck layers.

Blur and fade out the new neck layers to cover the transition. The not blures layer is at top.

( The base texture is hidden in the picture )

 

Last check, maybe last recolor of the base texture.

 

 

I was having trouble following the UV mesh pattern; your tutorial makes it so much easier.  Thanks!

 

Also, wouldn't the healing brush and/or the clone stamp tool help out here, since it was specifically designed to blend skin?

[fejeena]

6 hours ago, DarkPhoenixFF4 said:

Also, wouldn't the healing brush and/or the clone stamp tool help out here, since it was specifically designed to blend skin?

Yes ,  use and try everything your graphics program has.

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

Okay, now I'm really confused.  I followed the tutorial you posted and did everything, and there's a huge mismatch between the head and the body.  The body texture is literally shining like metal, whereas the face looks like it should...

[fejeena]

???

Gloss settings in the nif ? 

Normal map ?

 

Check the glossiness of body meshes and head mesh. They should have all the same value.  ( Also check you vanilla armor and body replacer replacer, all armors and clothes with visible skin. )

In many body Mods default gloss is 10. But there are body and clothes with gloss 100 and more.

Set all meshes to the same gloss.  ( the skin parts. Body, head, armor , clothes  )

With the Tool Glass max you can change all meshes in a folder to a selected Gloss value.  ( Very useful it you must change all your armors and clothes )

 

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/41213/

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And Normal maps.

Also  normal maps can create a little gloss.

Open the footfemale_n.dds and the head texture _n.dds. Both should be blue, slightly transparent to very transparent. If the are very different ( nearly no transparent and the other almost full transparent ) then you can see it in game.

But first check the gloss.

 

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And your new/fixed texture...how did you save it?

Best you save it in same "quality" as the original.  DXT1 or DXT5  , And with with Mip Map.

 

Check the textures file size ( e.g. 1366KB is 1024x1024 saved as DXT5 . Or 5462KB  is 2048x2048 saved as DTX5.   Or 2731KB is 2048x2048 saved as DTX1 )

Most graphics programs show you the files size when you choose DTX1, DTX5 or other dds types,  and you know the original size , so you select the dds type with the right size.

 

 

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If you have problems send me your body and head meshes and the body, hand and head textures ( and ears if the color is also wrong ) with the   _n.dds.

 

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

So anyway, here's what I ended up with...

 

New generation Freckled Elf ^^

[fejeena]

Head (texture) is a bit pink.

But body  texture does not looks like  shining .

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

11 minutes ago, fejeena said:

Head (texture) is a bit pink.

But body  texture does not looks like  shining .

Yeah, the problem was the normals.  Once I figured out how to generate them so they didn't look like metal, the results were much better.

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

One more series of shots...

 

My gut tells me this is going to be the best I can do.  The neck just doesn't want to NOT be pink...  And the odd thing is, the face texture ISN'T that pink; it's actually almost pale white...

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

Actually, you mind looking over my files and let me know what I'm doing wrong, fejeena?  I'm using the seamless meshes from junkacc11, but the face just doesn't seem to want to cooperate...

 

Body is ZKEC C-Cup from SetBodyReloaded; head is Head06_Fem3_Tweaked.  I'm using OR's skin shader as well.

Terimer.7z

[fejeena]

Don't know if I have the right head mesh, can you upload it. ( some moddes change the color settings )

The body mesh I have.

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

Yep, this is it.

Terimer.7z

[fejeena]

I will check the meshes and textures...but I am little busy. 1-2 days.

But saw that the color settings of the head mesh are not optimal.

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

I think that did it.  I switched all the color settings on the head to match the body color settings, and now there's still a seam, but you have to squint and stare REALLY hard to see it.  From the front, it's almost unnoticeable.

 

Of course, this is without any clothes on.  I might have to check my armor & clothes settings later.

 

Edit: Never mind, suddenly there's a pinkish tinge to the skin again.  I double-checked everything, and nothing changed, so I have no idea.  But as I said, I changed the lighting to match across the head and body...

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

Haven't been doing much modding lately, since I had a big work project come in.  But it's over now, so I'm ready to start working on this again, and I'm still confused.  There's still a slight pink tinge on the face that isn't on the body.  I've tried everything; double-checking textures, meshes, you name it...

 

I switched back to the HGEC C-Cup body to see if that helps.  No dice...

[fejeena]

I will try to change the textures and meshes . Not sure if it works.

 

And the body does not change the head.

Set all values in the meshes to same color and gloss.

[fejeena]

Here changed meshes and textures .

 

I changed:

Meshes: earself.nif and Headelf_f.nif  (color and/or gloss )

Textures:

Footfemale.dds, earself.dds, handfemale.dds, headelf_f.dds

 

Spoiler

New textures and the original textures that you have uploaded.

 

Hand color

 

 

All freckles on the edge of the used texture.

At the seams on arms and back were many cut freckles.

 

 

Head:

Color of the whole head, less red.  And the neck part.

Ears: color.

 

 

 

Try this.7z

Have not test it in game.

 

[DarkPhoenixFF4]

Do you load all the meshes into Nifskope at once to get a look at it?

[fejeena]

Yes, I use the skeleton nif and add all body parts, so I can also test animations (kf files) with the body.

 

I use it to test clothes after I used MeshRigger or clothes converter and check if the BBB is OK or the body clips though clothes or armor during animatuions.

And of course for textures changes ( recoloring or add tattoos )

This is faster than starting the game, and you can turn it, stop it, zoom in and out,...

 

 

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If the color of my textures OK ? or at least a little better ?

[Potato_Skill]

Hi, can you please elaborate ? I mean, can please you tell me which headhuman.dds file do I have to edit? I can see there are a lot of headhuman.dds files in that \textures\characters\imperial folder. Why do this game need so many headhuman textures ? 

[fejeena]

27 minutes ago, Potato_Skill said:

Hi, can you please elaborate ? I mean, can please you tell me which headhuman.dds file do I have to edit? I can see there are a lot of headhuman.dds files in that \textures\characters\imperial folder. Why do this game need so many headhuman textures ? 

There are many age textures .  But why you don't open the textures files? You want to edit the file. Then you see if it is the right file.

 

Normally the game use one head texture for male and female.

And the imperila head texture is used for Imperial, redguard, Breton, high and wood elf, Nord, Sheogorath and VampireRace.

It is in folder textures\characters\imperial

The name is headhuman.dds

 

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If you use special race replacer Mods like  OCO Blockhead version you have a male and a female head texture ( OCO: textures\characters\imperial   headhuman_m.dds and headhuman_f.dds . Yes f = female, m = male  ) And redguard, Nord, wood elf, high elf have own head textures.

[Potato_Skill]

1 hour ago, fejeena said:

There are many age textures .  But why you don't open the textures files? You want to edit the file. Then you see if it is the right file.

 

Normally the game use one head texture for male and female.

And the imperila head texture is used for Imperial, redguard, Breton, high and wood elf, Nord, Sheogorath and VampireRace.

It is in folder textures\characters\imperial

The name is headhuman.dds

 

--------------------------------------------------

If you use special race replacer Mods like  OCO Blockhead version you have a male and a female head texture ( OCO: textures\characters\imperial   headhuman_m.dds and headhuman_f.dds . Yes f = female, m = male  ) And redguard, Nord, wood elf, high elf have own head textures.

Ahhhh , yeah, that explains the number with each texture, right, thanks. I'll temper with the texture a bit to suit my taste  . The reason why I didn't open it because it takes so long for GIMP to load up on my system, yes, I use gimp to import/export dds file then edit them with photoshop.