Remember how in Daggerfall you had a spell book or grimioire? Is there one for MW? I could always just use a default book and change it's ID and all that, but has anyone made a special book texture/mesh for spells or something? I don't necessarily want it to have any function. It's not like I could click on something when reading it any ways. It's more just for aesthetics.

Some of the books in http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5782 could be used for spellbooks. Some of them have runes on them.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=2992 would also make a great spellbook.

I don't know if http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/fms/Download.php?id=93996 book meshes / textures fits.

I would prefer people didn't use my BoV book textures for other books, because I would like them to remain unique in the game. You can modify them however you like and use them as bases for other books, but if you're going to release it as a new mod, I would prefer them to be significantly altered.

If you would like me to make a new book texture for you, you can specify what you would like it to look like and I can come up with something. Let me know what base book mesh you want to use as well.

Here's some elements to consider:
Base color
Base texture (leather, cloth etc.)
Ornamentation (gold leaf, hinges, metal studs etc.)
Imagery (if any - even a small picture of what you want will work)
Text (font, size, color etc.)
Open/Closed (one or the other or both)
Interior Illustration (if open)
Age (if you want the book to look new, ancient, dog-eared etc.)

I like making book covers. Request away!

It was actually just for personal use but that'd be great if you could do a custom one and then release it. I'm sure I'm not the only person who wants a spell book.
One of the real reasons also is for role playing. My character was in prison for over a year and she can't remember all these spells. So she needs a book that has them written in there for her. I wonder if you could write Daedric font in there. Hmm, it'd probably just have to be pictures of daedric font as you can't actually type that stuff.

I'll find some pictures of books, Stuporstar. Thanks!

Yep, you can write daedric font. All of the spell scrolls in the game are written in it.

Oh that's right! Duh. I never use scrolls so I kinda forgot about that. I need to go to the lore section to recap on spell incantations. But lemme find some pics though. Boy, it's already 1:14am

I think I spelled grimoire incorrectly in the title. oh well.

Okay, so here are some pictures I found. Some look really good. What I don't want are grimoires that actually say "grimoire" in big letters on the cover. That just looks stupid. Like that time I was into Transformers and I bought the Optimus Prime toy and the trailer part said "Optimus Prime" in huge letters. I was like "How is that supposed to be a robot in disguise?" lol


http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o243/witchflames1981/spell-book.jpg - I like the text but some illustrations would be cool.
http://www.blogcdn.com/nintendo.joystiq.com/media/2008/10/spellbook_ninokuni_003.jpg - I like the illustrations on the pages.
http://cliffandolivia.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/spell-book.jpg - Too plain but I like the weathered look it has.
http://api.ning.com/files/*gfoW2oin9UWpGgtap4JijtgkkFV88X3H6V-wxzXLqGtW-CTKhXYjBXfhMGCbVkq2sveTnAlIaFypQtfrC9vUAVDsrZ0Aztk/grimoire.jpg - Cool design except I don't like the pentagram. Tamriel doesn't use pentagrams. That's an Earth thing, not a Nirn thing.
http://www.maybelogic.org/maybequarterly/06/images/Figure5.jpg
http://www.lunerouge.com/galerie/scherer/grimoire.jpg - the face coming out of the cover is interesting. I like the weathered look.
http://www.swordandsorcery.org/images/books%20grimoire%2023%202.jpg - I like the locks on the book. It's like, keeping your secret spells that you've composed "secret". Ya know, like a diary or something.
http://www.dragonsfire.co.uk/slvrdrgnad.jpg - cool ornaments and stuff
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RNrl2Gr0VwI/SoIL1fiJBNI/AAAAAAAABSg/FvnGrHsAn-I/s400/Grimoire+book_Page_10.jpg - looks mystical. I really like this cover since my character's forte is Mysticism.
http://www.datamancer.net/projects/grimoire/grimoire_example.jpg
http://periodfinebindings.typepad.com/royal_bindings/images/guardian_angel_royal_bindings_2.JPG - cool looking but those runes don't look Tamrielic. But maybe they're from a language from a civilization on the other side of Nirn.
http://www.celticmythmoon.com/images/Wildwoods_Grimoire_800W.jpg - I'm not too keen on the string binding. Looks like a wicca notebook you'd carry to class or something. But the cover design is cool.


If you could, would you make several? It's really hard to just decide on one model. I like the weathered look with ruffled tattered pages. I like the swirls on the mystical one, how it looks like you're falling through some interdimensional vortex or someething. I like the metal lock on the side and the metal studs and hinges and all that stuff that goes on the outside of the book. I'd also like to have the same book be available for both open and closed, although it would be kinda redundant. I'm thinking I'd just go with closed as that's how you would carry it with you. Who carries a book with it wide open? (unless you're reading while walking).

What do you think, Stuporstar?

I have to work late tonight and early tomorrow, so that kind of kills all my spare time for this evening, but I'll see what I can do with these in the next few days or so.

Some are at a difficult angle to work with, but now that I have an idea, I have some resources of my own as well that I can throw into the mix. Feel free to post any more that you find as well. I probably won't use all of them, but it's great for ideas.

I'm not in a hurry at all so take you're time. No rush. I'll keep looking.

Here are some good pics from this site. I particularly like the serpent ones.

http://www.leighmccloskey.com/Author/Grimoire.htm


http://www.leighmccloskey.com/Author/images/Grimoire%20book_Page_10.jpg

http://www.leighmccloskey.com/Author/images/Grimoire%20book_Page_15.jpg

Those are neat. I try my best to stay away from using other people's art though, and stick to either creative commons licensed stuff, or stuff so old it's out of copyright (like medieval woodcut prints, illuminations, and other stuff like that), or paid for stock images. If I can't find just the right thing, I make my own. If you can obtain permissions from any artist that you would like me to use images from, I will use them though.

It'd probably be better if you just made your own designs then. These are all just for ideas and inspiration basically.

It'll take me a while to find some more stuff or make some art of my own based on these ideas (I also got side-tracked with an incredibly silly little mod that's now pending approval on PES...I'll post a RELz thread once it's up). I plan on making a few now. How about different books for each school of spells?

That is a very good idea, each school should have an iconic symbol not only in the cover, in the side too. This way, a mage could distinguish his/her books by school on any of his/her shelves. This could be a very nice resource for Writing Enhanced users

Oooh, I hadn't thought of that possibility. I'll look into what I would need to do to make them useable for Writing Enhanced users.

It seems I can easily make an add-on by just adding the MWEWriting script to the book. I can make a regular and MWE version of these books this way, the MWE version being dependent on Writing Enchanced so that I don't actually duplicate the script and create any incompatibilities. The regular version will have daedric writing in it, and the MWE version will be blank.

Edit: I'm off to a promising start. I found the perfect base texture for the book cover by doing a GIS for "old leather", and combined it with a picture of a really old book spine. Here's what it looks like so far:

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/4752/grimoirebase.jpg

I can adjust the hue and saturation easily to make books for different schools of magic, since the schools are color coded in the game. I won't be making it bright pink, purple or blue though, but probably kind of greyish or brownish with just a hint of that color in it.

After that, I need to add all the other elements: embossments, gold leaf (perhaps), findings (I think clasps or a lock on the side that opens is enough), imagery, and text. I tend to slowly work these things from the base texture up. After it's all done, I'll give each individual version its own wear and tear.

Yay! A MWE version
This is a good improvement indeed and I'm very excited about this ^ ^ because it will enhance roleplaying 200% to any mage player.
The plain leather one looks pretty good, with some goldleaves garments will be perfect

I found that using a combination of hue/saturation and color balance works best. This is just a test coloration for one of the spell schools color coded pink (alteration or mysticism) because I figured it would be the most difficult to get just right. Blues/yellows/greens are easy to make look good, but pink...well it's best to go with something on the grey side. I think it turned out alright.

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/2890/grimoirebasepnk.jpg

Not pinky, looks apropriate for mysticism Alteration has for me a yellowish or orange tone.

I decided to go with completely different looks for each book. I think I've finished the Conjuration Grimoire to my satisfaction. We'll have to see how the other books turn out and how it compares to my later stuff...and I may go back and revise it, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's looking at the moment. I even added the claw marks of a daedra. I finished the mysticism book as well.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/300/grimoireconjuration.jpg

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/2328/grimoiremysticism.jpg

Here's a new one:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/8746/grimoirerestoration.jpg

Edit: And here's two more:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/1599/grimoireillusion.jpg

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/3412/grimoiredestruction.jpg (complete with scorch marks)

Now I just have left to do the Grimoire of Alteration.

This guy does some really neat book bindings on Deviantart. Steampunkish. Dwemerish as well, I guess. Its good for inspiration, at least. Not sure about his policy on usage, though.

http://diarment.deviantart.com/gallery/

It's cool stuff, not not really suited for the grimoires.

Also, I finally finished the last one:

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/6273/grimoirealteration.jpg

Here's what they all look like in the game:

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/7546/bbgrimoires.jpg

I may do another mod that just adds blank books with pretty (or battered and ugly) covers specially as a resource or for Writing Enhanced users. However, I have to finish the next version of Books of Vvardenfell first. I'm going to sit on the Grimoire mod for a day or so, just in case I feel the need to do any last minute revisions to the designs.

These are superrific Stuporstar, very nice! B) :thumbsup:

They look fantastic, being Conjuration my favourite
Thanks again for an MWE version!