Tutorial: Skyrim books creation

I have recently learned how to create book covers for Skyrim books and so I thought I'd make a tutorial about it. And why not compile all I know so far about book creation so people don't have to search through scattered posts?

So here it is. It shall be uploaded to the Nexus as well in due time. Click the pic to view pdf file.

Way Of The Monk - Part 1 Released!

Part 1 of the Way Of The Monk Skyrim mod has been released on the Nexus! You can visit this page to download. If you enjoy it, please feel free to endorse or spread the word if you enjoy it. :-)

Unfortunately I was not able to upload the mod to the Workshop. The Workshop has a file size that my mod exceeded and would not allow me to upload it.

Way of the Monk: Mod Diary #3

Work has been a bit slow recently because of end-of-semester school, but I have been able to put in a fair amount of modding hours on the weekends. Last weekend I added a whole ton of new craftable weapons, as well as some enchantments.

You can take a look at the Screenshots page for pics of my progress.

Weapons:


The new weapons are from tom349's mod Fist Weapons. I was given permission from him to use his models, as well as from BloodySunday's to use his retexture of tom249's mod.

They are all lore-friendly, craftable, and enchantable. The animations and killcams on them are a bit weird, but that is not my fault. For some reason, any weapon that uses the default Hand-To-Hand attack animation neither appears on the right hand when it is equipped, or is on the body when sheathed. This is not my fault, but the Creation Kit's. The way they designed the animation, it's not built to have models that use it. I am going to try my best to find a way to get the weapons to use the default animation, but I may not be successful. If you think you can help, feel free to contact me.

Robes:


As you can probably tell from the screenshot, there will also be some new robes. There was actually an entire set of hooded and non-hooded monk robes in the Creation Kit that were never used in the game. Fortunately for me, this means that they wont conflict with current items and will be new to players. Since they were all monk robes, they will also fit well with my mod.

Perks:


There were two perks which were not working properly. One of them suddenly decided to start working, though. I could not find any reason why it was not working in the first place, and since it is working now, I won't complain. The other one is still not working, but it should be fixable with some more coding.

Nearly done!


I'm mostly done! I just need to finish adding enchantments, fix that one perk, add some new characters, and write some backstory before sending the first version off to beta testers. Compared to the total amount of work that I have done, what is left is not very much. I have yet to decide whether I will add a follower for the first version. I'm not entirely sure how to do that, so I don't want to begin working on something that will extend the release too far. It may still be a few weeks because of beta testing and my own busy life, but it the first version should be complete soon.

By the way, if you want to beta test Way of the Monk for me, contact Woverdude and you will be added to the list. I ask only that you not distribute the files before I release the mod, and that you promote the release when you get the chance.

I will post more information on the release soon, including a detailed brief of all the new features and a plan for the release and second version.

Hint: Creating textures fitting in Skyrim

You have seen mods that either retexture items or add new ones in the game. And maybe you've noticed how some textures stand out like they come from outer space or whatever funky world that is NOT Tamriel. If you've never notice this then I suggest you to either look carefully the exemple or avoid doing any texturing job.

Textures are extremely important. You can screw the modeling, you can screw the level building, but do not screw the texturing! Textures are what you see all the time, if you screw them you screw the game. They are not the only thing that can screw the game of course, but we're talking about textures.

Skyrim was created with a graphic chart including a certain range of colors only to fit the rugged, cold, snowy place. It's not for nothing that we never see bright red big flowers. Even the crimson nirnroots aren't bright red:

So, which picture should be your reference for texturing a crimson nirnroot?

Skyrim uses mostly desaturated colors, almost grey for most of them. Now it's not always easy to figure if your desaturated colors will fit in the game. However note that you shouldn't just take screenshot of the game and use the colors of the screenshots as they are altered by the game engine's post process.

So how to do? Well, simple trick:

1. Find items in the games that feature the colors you want to use
2. Get their textures
3. Pick the colors directly

If you can't find items with such colors, then maybe you shouldn't use them in the first place and go for other colors. If you want to extract textures from the game you will need a specific tool (see here for info and links).

Now if you want to expand a type of items already existing in the game, such as weapons and armors, to create maybe new variations within an existing set, or a new kind of weapon like staves in exemple. I cannot smith a staff in Vanilla Skyrim, it would be cool to smith some glass, elven or ebony staff!

...Okay... But before going wild, OBSERVE the existing weapons!

1. Look their designs, see what are the smilarities between a dagger and a bow, between a sword and a mace, etc.
2. Look if they have specific patterns in their textures, specific shapes in their modeling.
3. When you're able to tell what are the graphic codes of a weapon set, you can start designing.
4. Then submit your drawing on a forum to get feedback and advice.
5. Eventually fix it before starting modeling and texturing.

It is very important to not neglect feedback. Unless you're doing a mod just for yourself you should get sure that your audience will like what you propose. Plus if people are aware of what you do you have more chances to get the audience you deserve!

Finally, here's a graphic review I made. I guess a concrete exemple speaks better.

You see the difference? Before and after?

(If not, maybe you shouldn't do any texturing for the moment)

You may also read this great post from Martigen on Bethsoft, gathering advice from Martigen and many other texturers who contributed to the thread. The main focus is texture compression and I found this post extremely interesting, both technical and professional.