Is it possible to take a texture from a JPEG photo and wrap it around a 3D model?

[Kutt]

Is it possible to take a texture from a 2-dimensional image and wrap it around a 3D character or object model in Skyrim?

 

Like someone's face or tattoos, for example?

 

I know that wrapping 2D images onto 3D models or even turning 2D images into 3D models themselves is possible in Adobe photoshop.

Edited December 21, 2014 by Kutt

[Oubliette]

Yeah that's pretty much what a texture is. All you have to do is use photoshop or gimp to turn the .jpg into a .dds file then some ck and/or work in nifskope.

[Kutt]

Yeah that's pretty much what a texture is. All you have to do is use photoshop or gimp to turn the .jpg into a .dds file then some ck and/or work in nifskope.

Please elaborate further, perhaps this is something I could do myself.

 

What is a .dds file and what is CK/nifskope?

 

I would imagine that putting someone's face from a photograph onto a skyrim character model would be extremely difficult because the texture has to properly fit the 3D model of the face almost perfectly for it to look good.

 

None of this requires a degree in computer science, does it?

Edited December 21, 2014 by Kutt

[DeeJayVee92]

CK is Creation Kit, the others im not sure of

[Terra Nova]

 

Yeah that's pretty much what a texture is. All you have to do is use photoshop or gimp to turn the .jpg into a .dds file then some ck and/or work in nifskope.

Please elaborate further, perhaps this is something I could do myself.

 

What is a .dds file and what is CK/nifskope?

 

I would imagine that putting someone's face from a photograph onto a skyrim character model would be extremely difficult because the texture has to properly fit the 3D model of the face almost perfectly for it to look good.

 

None of this requires a degree in computer science, does it?

***Texturing 101*** - Texturing - ESIV: Oblivion Modding - Tutorials - TES Alliance

[Lord Garon]

As mentioned, a texture is a 2D image applied to a 3D object. The main consideration is how to get a piece of the 2D image to cover the desired portion of the 3D mesh. What is needed is a "map"; something telling the game where to put a portion of the image (texture) on a portion of the mesh. Something called a "u-v map" does this in Skyrim. The most important part of texturing a mesh, IMHO, is making that u-v map.

 

This tutorial goes into it, but I would recommend getting Blender and playing around with simple object textures before trying to texture an actual game mesh. Blender has a useful function called Texture Painting which allows you to paint an image onto a mesh, using a u-v map that you create or that came with the mesh, and save the resulting texture. Note that texturing almost always involves an image distortion (the flat texture image looks really strange) because it is a representation of a 3D "skin", so to speak. That distortion is why a normal camera image is difficult to map onto a head/face mesh. Imagine cutting a basketball up and laying the thin material flat on a table so you can see the entire surface (front and back) of the ball all at once. Now you photograph all the flat pieces, print the image, cut it up, and glue the pieces on a plain ball to make it look like a basketball. You would have to place the cut up image pieces in a certain place on the plain ball to make them fit even closely (a perfect fit is impossible). That's sorta what a u-v map does for a texture and a mesh; tells the game's render engine what goes where.

 

The above example shows that you will probably need several photographs of a head (front and back, at least) to create a game texture for a 3D head/face mesh. Not really a "problem", just takes some work.

Edited December 22, 2014 by Lord Garon