3 replies to this topic

[Zonzai]

When I first started Leather & Lace, everybody was very excited about it. Read more about LNL here.

With the relaunch of the project people have been skeptical, which is understandable. One of the questions that keeps coming up now, is why I am even making skin textures at all. The Art of Magicka is a clothing mod. Leather & Lace is primarily a clothing mod. So what gives?

When I released AOM I noticed all of the existing skin textures looked very unrealistic and plasticy. What's the point of having robes so detailed that you can clearly see the texture of the fabric when your character looks like a Barbi doll? When I decided to release Leather & Lace I was faced with the same problem. I can create lace textures so detailed that they look like lace, but what's the point when my character looks like glass?

So I decided to fix that. And this is not intended as an insult to any of the talented creators of the body textures available for Skyrim. I appreciate what they have done. Blending detailed body textures is incredibly time consuming. But I wanted to do it anyway.

In the end, creating over 100 detailed articles of clothing and other parts that look like they fit together and creating four different photo-realistic body and face textures has been an epic task. (And still is.) But with less dependance on others and a more realistic time table, it is getting done.

I chose to create four different textures for another reason. First, I wanted to release four unique followers and races. Second I wanted to create textures which will (after LNL is released) replace the elf, orc, nord and breton body textures. I will reallocate each of the existing races to use one of these body textures in an .esm file (so as to reduce incompatibility issues with other mods that edit races).

I also didn't want to limit customization. For that reason, the four girls will utilize whatever custom makeup, hair, eyes and eyebrows that all of your other characters do. The file structure also easily allows anybody to replace the normals and textures for LNL with one they've downloaded. I also wanted any modder to easily improve or edit the textures, normals or other assets of LNL without needing to edit the CK. The files structure and free-of-use creative commons licensing allows modders to create any number of derivative mods utilizing LNL.

The following screenshots feature one of the four different face textures that will be a part of Leather & Lace. This image has not been edited in Photoshop save to change the format and crop the image. The body hairs, pores, wrinkles and other skin details are on the texture itself. This is using the base UNP msn and Bella's face msn. The details are not on the normals, but on the texture. Also please note that it looks much better in game than in these images. These are pre-alpha WIP.



http://skyrim.nexusm.../Images/240374/

http://skyrim.nexusm.../Images/240370/

[Hosseldon]

I like the detail. However you should consider adding some imperfection or it's never going to look much realistic. I find that Mature skin texture mod still provide the most realistic textures. Maybe you can find some inspiration from it? Here's a link http://skyrim.nexusm...m/mods/32986//?

[Zonzai]

In response to post #7982886.

You're preaching to the choir. The Mature texture does look great! As a user and fan of Maeven2's, I am actually using them as the "canvas" if you will, to paint these high rez textures (with permission of course). As far as flaws go, it is important to build the base of the texture first. Flaws will be added from stock 3dsk images - as with the Mature Texture - once the basic body texture is blended. These images highlight the detail of the base texture. One of the things about a flawed texture is that all characters have the same flaws. So rather than adding the same flaws to each of the four textures, I will create individual flaws for each girl (and other details like lips, bellybuttons, etc.) but by using the same "canvas" - the texture shown here. You can basically think of it as if I were adding the flaws of the Mature texture to a background with more detail, and doing it multiple times.

Edited by Zonzai, 05 May 2013 - 04:25 AM.

[lordofthedread]

Following your work with great interest, The Art of Magicka is already a piece of art and as much as I like Mature texture from Maeven2 (I dont use any other body texture since the day it was released, even if I wou,ld have loved to see an higher resolution of it) we can never have enough body and customization options.

Take all the time you need to release and the alpha looks already great!