Texture editing - Thoughts?

[Pellape]

I did start testing to make faces more appealing yesterday, in Fallout 3 though, by editing lips and eyes with gimp and I do think I did manage to get a step in the right direction. Still some more editing must be made as this was a rough one. Lets peek at the cute Sarah and compare her with before and after. I might need to add more contrast and saturation and also peek at similar face textures from Oblivion that I am using still today. Does it matter? Well not really, well yes.    

I do like when something can be enhanced, appealing to my eyes but I am not to keen about how F3 and FNV girls really looks like and I have searched for solutions for sure, never found any but if you know any, you could point at them. In the other hand, if I may make something that is unique and appealing to the community, fine. This is not FNV, not yet, as I did it in F3 still it is no difference and right now at this moment I work more with F3.

This was a quick test. More can be done. Did I try everything in face gen to actually pull off anything looking like it?  Yes, did I fail? Yes. Which face do you actually think is most appealing?  Light is also an issue as it is 2 days between the screenies, but still same weather and almost same time a day, early morning outside Rivet City.

I keep that face right now and make more edits, add more colors, then the player can choose later which one that is most appealing.

My references is F4 and just look at my Cait, the ugly duck, turned into a swan. Not to much, not to less, just perfect in my eyes. Different Light sources used as light is vital. Does she knows what she is wearing? Well luckily, she does not. 

 

When I was a teenager, this was the reference of perfection, a punk rocker, that also was turned from a duck into a swan.    Punk rock? Well this one is not. It was the biggest hit the same year it got released and was played every weekend at every Disco available all around the world. She is punk, no doubt still. Debbie Hurry, Blondie. NY undeground. From poor to rich, over a night. Do I like Disco? Well actually yes. Will I be able to pull off that makeup?  IDK, maybe. The lip glance is not possible, not if I do not fake it. Lip glance is possible in F4. Does it matter?  No, not really.

Well compare it to their first video, that they ever released: She do sing and wrote the lyrics after a personal experience as she was followed in RL, by a former BF, which is not a big secret.

 

I do recall she was much older then I am, but not as old as my own mother. Her story.    There are more references to appealing faces...  Debbie did cross my mind first though. It is easier to have one than none at all.

Edited November 8 by Pellape

[Pellape]

Another references?  I did like my first char in Oblivion, after I used the best face texture available back then but I also needed to work a lot to make this look, so damn frustrating. It is also a Bosmer, which dies not make it easier as they are hardest to make. Back then, we did not had new meshes, like blockhead, which we do now. I also did try to find something like that for Fallout and it did surprise me I did fail to find any.

Just look at better heads for Morrowind, so damn well made: My char there as reference for everything else I made:

That head is lost forever.

So what is the difference?  A lot I just did notice. I made a compare right now, and the colors are extremely similar, which did surprise me a lot. Oblivion have higher resolution and this texture is also very clean and soft made. The normal's do have a huge impact of the final result as well, and I may take a look at them later, if anything needs to be changed or not. Right now, IDK.  Maybe I do not even need to edit them more even?  IDK...

F3 left side - OB right side, player made texture, Imperial race, also Bosmer and Breton.

New colors at both sides here. We could add more saturation at Oblivion as well, for the lips as it is lips and eyes I am doing right now. I should also include a PSD, that allows you to make your edits easy as lips and eyes are in separate layers. That PSD will also work in gimp, well it is exported from gimp in the first place so...  I also made the shadow to large for the eyes in F3 but I can keep that, make a new layer, smaller and darken it a bit. If interest pops up, I may add a tutorial as well.

 

Nice good looking player made Golden Saint, with that texture, but yellow version. Screeny from CS.

I do not think we need other meshes honestly, we just need more colors. 3D body parts is not easy to make, specially heads.

 

BONUS. Look at the painting, my char dying beta-testing my first dungeon in Oblivion 2006.    Screeny from my companions bedroom in my latest house mod 2020.

The runes at the frame say: Paintings by Canadian Ices Friends. Only original Bethesda 3D mesh here is the round frame, arrows and body, well jewels too and the candle. Hair is player made and the face texture too.

 

As a 14 year old teenager, I did look at this LP cover, scratching my head. Is she cute or just damn old? Well both, she was 33 here...    I could never make up my mind. I just kept looking..  For a long while, staring even.    This record will do fine for another evening with GECK. I must have music. Punk Rockers where extremely conservative in a way, as they did use the 50's and the 60's as their music influences, simple and fast but with nasty lyrics mostly, like 6 Pistols, which was great.  So was Queen and they did hate each others. Freddie did hit Sid Viscous hard in his face after Sid came in to their studio, screaming f4gg0t and Freddie did had aids already at that point. Otherwise I as a classic musician did hate most punk. It does sound terrible, I better find some Queen from the same year instead.

 

 

Edited November 8 by Pellape

[Pellape]

It is very hard to make the lips more filled, well we do not even have something to compare with, but lets use this as a reference for now, and I add more next to this later. What I did here, was a smaller area around the eyes, added shadow and more contrast to the lips, hardly noticeable in game. What about Cross and AfroAmerikans? She use the same texture as the males do, so a separate race is needed for all except Scandinavians. Honestly, I think she is looking great as she does really. My own char did had a nice face lift, no doubt. What is your thought about AfroAmerikans girls in game?  Are they cute as they are?

Just look closer around her eyes, I like that, it looks good but also natural and not pale at all.

So what about their fake mustaches?  All girls in F3 and FNV appears to have fake mustaches, a dark area slightly above their upper lips, specially around the corners of their mouthes and that is extremely disturbing honestly. The textures has 2 pieces, standard and normals. I cannot see that mustash in any file, so it must be the mesh. What is your thoughts about it? Does it matter?  Nope. It is just me that wanna do something about it if it is not to hard that is, as it is not natural. All girls really do have more or less hair under their noses and I even knew a very cute girl with hairy boobs, and they just looked good.    A bit odd, but it suited her really. White hair. Well, it is the bloody mesh. I am convinced of it.

Yes, do you see it?

Edited November 9 by Pellape

[JimboUK]

There are a couple of useful resources for faces...

This one is contains loads of options for face textures https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/62355

This fixes the green that can appear on darker skin tones and the blotches that can appear on the lighter ones https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/71577 

 

[Pellape]

Thanks @JimboUKThose 2 links looks very good. I do not like the permissions demanded in the first link. I never set such odd rules myself ever. I do not understand why really, Still, it could be useful as a reference.

As it seems right now, I cannot add more colors in game, I will try that texture on all NPC's and see what happens or what it looks like. Well not ghouls of course. Males are extremely pale and all lips looks like they are frozen.

Edited November 9 by Pellape

[JimboUK]

It's the EGT files I installed the optional download from that second link and it did help, as you can see here there are still patches around the nose and top lip but it's better than it was and this was taken in lighting that was far from optimal, it's also only 1024x1024 which isn't ideal, 2048x2048 is better. 

 

[Pellape]

WOW @JimboUKJust WOW. Not the game though...      Earlier tonight I also did reread the description again, trying to find a loop hole as I had plans to make something and also release it as I do release everything I make. Damn I soon have enough opt-code points to allow Nexus to buy me a game. Maybe I will be able to buy TES 6 with them later?     Well they have only 50 titles to choose among but still. Well i do not do this for opt really. If i recall right, where we not able to get a Premium account for opt? Never the less, I am a poor dreamer.

Did anyone release their edits? Or do we still need to make them? I did loose my Adobe Cloud account when I did quit 3D school. So lets hope I can import that PSD into gimp but as it is published 2016, I should be able to it. When I did import PSD made a year ago, latest PS into gimp, a lot of info from layers got flushed away. I hate PS so much and I love Gimp. PS do make better normals, no doubt but they will delete normals soon from PS.    Why?   I bet they add it into another product, who knows? I did ask my main 3D teacher and he sure wonder why as well. It is what it is he said and just glared at me. 

2048 is for big monitors. I have a standard 1920x1080, so 2048 is useless to me for sure. But with new monitors or big screens, I know what you mean.

Edited November 10 by Pellape

[JimboUK]

I have a laptop with a 1080p screen that I use on occasion and the improvement with a 2048 face texture is still noticeable, eye makeup and lipstick is better defined and doesn't creep onto areas it shouldn't do. 

On Premium accounts, mod authors get a lifetime one for free when they hit 30,000 unique downloads, something that's not easy with older games. 

[Pellape]

@JimboUKAhh. I see. Well and some of my mods is under my old account, not that it has many downloads really. One day, maybe, in my lifetime.     I do not plan to play F4 nor Skyrim, to get opt. My mind is blank in those games anyway from a modder's perspective. Most likely because they are more complete with all modder's adds and mods maybe? Well I do not get any ideas when I am playing them for sure and that is vital, is it not? 

Edited November 11 by Pellape

[Pellape]

@JimboUKSam Colt did look damn pale...  I disliked it, so I used my method, added some colors to him.

Only male I could find, that looked descent. Well, not his colors though...  It seems I have a lot of faces to make. I take one every day or so. Maybe we can use the other more clean ones maybe? IDK, well, I like this one really as it do look natural and still more colorful. I should had taken the screenshots in the same room, with the same light, but never the less, the new one is much better. Specially in full Pip-Boy light, and that really makes me more happy, no doubt.

I may change his hair, maybe? Well it sure fits a soldier boy to look like he does, does it not? I really like this guy more and more and he is the only NPC I use right now, well except 2 dogs and a robot that is.

Before

After - He looks alive now, not half dead or an albino zombie. We cannot see the eye socket colors, but they are there. When we did play live during the 80's, we all used theater makeup, because of all the strong spotlights, which made everyone to look extremely pale and dull. Still, he is not close to how we used to look like.    RED lips and Black and blue eyes, rouge, colored faces, brown powder. Still, in that light, we just looked normal, but maybe a bit more cute. In short range, we did look terrible.   

What did we play back then?  80's rock and Toto and stuff like that, We did Rosanna and I love that song a lot. I did play the ending piano solo as well and I just loved to play it and it sure felt extremely cool to do it and still does. Timing and tightness is vital, as if you fail that, well then you destroy that whole song. Just feel the vibe. Jeff Porcaro, the now dead drummer, became famous for this beat, that is very hard to play on drums for sure. Did our drummer set that beat, he sure did, very good as well. Also, this was how we also looked like, almost the same clothing as well. That was a couple of very fun years for sure. I do think Rosanna was released 1978 at Toto IV. So many good songs came that year really when I think about it.

 

Honestly, this song is better and the sound on this live session is MUCH better. Rosanna is on it as well. But listen to this song first. Toto is also called the tightest band in the world and maybe most boring too. I did see them live 30 years ago, well they where a bit boring, never the less they are damn good. This is better really, more alive...

 

Edited November 11 by Pellape