LE Sealing Wax & Seal

[thumbincubation]

Poet, I have been tinkering with this. I'm going to have to get more familiar with normal map settings, in order to make this sharper, but it looks like applying a flat image to a blanked out coin, with a strong normal, will give it the impression of being a shallow seal, sort of like a notary's seal. I strongly doubt I could get it to the level of the one above, as that's an actual mesh set into the other mesh, but it could be made to look at least close. This particular one is kind of hastily thrown together, with a dwemer spoon, a coin, and a picture of the imperial logo, with some pebbling filter in the background. Unless something changes, I think the same could be done with the hold logos. Do you, by chance, know of a free-to-use source for clear pics of them? All I see in CK is the paint/stencil pics for the shields.

 

 

*edit* These are just some hasty experiments, with a freeware whiterun logo and an old compass star pic. The imperial seal stamp was about 25ish points on the normal map. I took this one all the way to 100, just to see how embossed I could get it to look. I think it took the coin ridges a bit too far, but it gives an idea what it would look like.

 

Jess, I've been experimenting with putting a silver dinner plate between the bottom of your stamp and your dragon seal, to give it a wreath-like effect. I'll include both when I send.

Edited September 13, 2016 by thumbincubation

[NinjaWarriorPoet]

Wow, it looks great.

[thumbincubation]

I changed it again. Instead of using the coin texture with the center blanked out, I basically blanked out the entire coin and replaced it with either a smooth gray or the seal itself. This is the same emblem, on the same compass rose, but extends to the edge and has a smooth band, rather than the coin ridges. This is 100 pts in a normal map, which I think is the max "embossing" I can get out of a flat image.

 

*edit* Morthal's also. I've discovered the vanilla coin mesh is not round. I'd like to find something a bit more elegant looking as a handle, than a dwemer spoon. It should be something relatively small, though, as I am doing mesh mashups and it's still going to have collision, even if invisible.

Edited September 13, 2016 by thumbincubation

[thumbincubation]

Ok, so what do you think of a reduced iron mace handle, instead of a crappy old dwemer spoon?

 

 

Also, ninja, do you prefer the hold symbol only, or some type of decorative things, like this brunswick star? The morthal one is hold symbol only, so far.

Edited September 13, 2016 by thumbincubation

[MadModderJess]

This is super great, honestly, and an iron mace handle would probably work well, if you can shave off the ring on the end. Or maybe the turn-handle from a cooking spit? I may see if I can fire up Blender and separate that bit. Collision issues, as you say, but for something that small you might be able to sub in the collision with like a charcoal stick or something.

 

(Still haven't done much in the way of tinkering with what you sent yet, sorry!)

[NinjaWarriorPoet]

That looks good. I think the iron mace handle works. I think the hold symbol only. Maybe have one or two holds do something more ornate. Maybe Solitude and the College.

[thumbincubation]

Jess,

 

On that I am severely limited, I'm afraid. I don't know blender or 3ds max, and can only do mesh mashups, with pieces cut out of the textures. I tried the steel mace handle first, no ring, but the end piece in the texture is used at both ends, so deleting it killed my handle. Do you prefer these image/normal versions or the 3d logo set in, like in the mini statue? I can try to do one of these as well, if you like. May be a little less detailed to avoid distortion.

 

Ninja, sounds good. I'm going to try to make the back/side coin texture look a little less plasticky, and then I'll put the hold symbols alone into each. I'm using high quality hold symbols from http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/68479/? so I'd ask that you credit the that author if you release these, please.

[MadModderJess]

I understand, that's why I was trying to use Blender myself. I think I've successfully split off the piece I was talking about, although it's open at both ends and would need a cap of some sort. Can I send you the file I've exported, to see if you can use it? I basically went into Blender, deleted the rest of the mesh, made sure there was a texture on it to preserve the UV map, and then exported. I slapped a collision on it using NifSkope, as after import into/export from Blender it had no collision, but I haven't tested it in-game to determine whether it works.

 

 

 

I'm honestly still rubbish at this and had to reference five separate Blender tutorials but it might be viable?

 

Also, I rather like the normal-map technique you're using. Any chance you'd take a suggestion for one of the symbols, in addition to the actual Imperial/Dragonborn symbol?

[thumbincubation]

Absolutely, send back to that same e-mail if you want. I'll see what I can do with it. One open end will have the coin/seal on it. I may be able to plug the other with a miniature of it.

 

As far as suggestions, by all means. I just took this chance, when I saw your post, to see if I actually could make something like this work. If I can make something the way you want it, I certainly will. Ninja also. I'm not planning to make my own mod of this, so I'll do my very best to make it the way you want it, subject only to my capabilities. I really do need to learn blender one day. It's just completely overwhelming to me, when I open it up.

[MadModderJess]

Awesome, I've sent it off!

 

Could you do letters (of the alphabet)? Would that be too much work? I'm absolutely 100% hopeless at normal maps so I'm not sure exactly what I might be asking in this suggestion in terms of how much time it would take you.

 

This was the closest thing I found on a quick search to an ornate version of the handwriting font used on Skyrim notes and letters.

 

 

 

 

(Yeah Blender is a nightmare; its UI is so non-intuitive I want to hurl my laptop whenever I have to use it.)