Almost done texturing this armor, but . . .

[Topazanite]

Big pictures since I'm too lazy to resize.

 

http://i.imgur.com/y8nGs.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/DYs47.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/lH3FB.jpg

 

Ignore the boots, gloves, pants and brown skirt, those textures are incomplete. Here's what I need advice on -- the back of the leather tunic looks a bit bland to me. I think it might look better if I extended the gold trim that you see on the front of the tunic around to bottom edge and along the arm holes. My boyfriend -- the only other person available to ask -- thinks it looks fine like it is. Normally I'd just add trim and compare, but . . . adding trim is a huge pain. The UV map edge is all zig-zaggy, and it took me nearly a whole day to get that much trim done and looking good. I'm too far along to change the UV map now, so that option is out.

 

So, my question is: moar gold trim along all the edges, or leave it as is?

 

Any other suggestions are appreciated too; the goal is to make an armor that will fit into Skyrim without breaking immersion/clashing with existent meshes too badly.

[razorpony]

I think it looks good so far, but you're right more detail always looks better. One thing I've done before when adding trim to armors with uneven UV maps is add a slightly raised surface along the bottom edge using the extrude tool. You can select just the bottom edges along the tunic, extrude them outward, then upward and back in again. Imagine it like a belt only running along the bottom of the tunic. Doing this will allow you to UV map a new section of faces without disturbing the existing ones underneath while giving you a nice even surface in which to UV your trim. It doesn't even have to be raised that much, just enough to hide what's underneath. Hopefully I explained this in a way you can understand, I just woke up and am lacking caffeine. :P

 

RP

[Topazanite]

I think it looks good so far, but you're right more detail always looks better. One thing I've done before when adding trim to armors with uneven UV maps is add a slightly raised surface along the bottom edge using the extrude tool. You can select just the bottom edges along the tunic, extrude them outward, then upward and back in again. Imagine it like a belt only running along the bottom of the tunic. Doing this will allow you to UV map a new section of faces without disturbing the existing ones underneath while giving you a nice even surface in which to UV your trim. It doesn't even have to be raised that much, just enough to hide what's underneath. Hopefully I explained this in a way you can understand, I just woke up and am lacking caffeine. :P

 

RP

 

I don't know if what I'm thinking of is the same thing as you've just suggested -- making a new object to overlay the edge in Blender? -- but that is definitely a possible solution to my problem. :dance: Thank you!

[LHammonds]

That is basically what is being described by razorpony but depending on how your existing geometry looks, it might be better to highlight existing faces you want to become the trip and duplicate, then scale up a little to make it slightly bigger. Then modify the UV so it gets its own area on the texture so you can paint it gold.

 

Duplicating will allow you to keep the same rigging which means the verticies on top and below will move the same...thus reducing clipping issues where the texture under the trim doesn't pop through the gold trim.

 

LHammonds

[throttlekitty]

Turn off the nodes and don't show it on a black background please.

[Ghogiel]

It's always bugged me why the default background is set to black. :/

 

I use one of the 2 preset colors labeled 'grey'. :shrug:

[LHammonds]

I use one of the 2 preset colors labeled 'grey'. :shrug:

And I've always set it close to the orange color used in Oblivion menus because it saves me some pixel hassle when I create my menu icons...and it also makes it easier to view models...just about anything other than black is easier. hehehe.