Skinning with transparency

Post » Sun Jan 10, 2010 2:28 am

Hi, using photoshop to reskin the bb mesh and use as clothing (its a bodysuit). I would like to have part of the back exposed, but cannot figure out how to make a transparent area. I'd like to have it transparent so that different races can use it and not just the race I have it currently skinned for.
User avatar
Matthew Warren
 
Posts: 3463
Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 11:37 pm

Post » Sun Jan 10, 2010 2:30 am

Hi, using photoshop to reskin the bb mesh and use as clothing (its a bodysuit). I would like to have part of the back exposed, but cannot figure out how to make a transparent area. I'd like to have it transparent so that different races can use it and not just the race I have it currently skinned for.


For making a bodysuit you can't just retexture the skin itself - a bodysuit needs its own mesh that is very slightly larger than the skin itself, so it will be visible without graphical artefacts. There are resources for this and many other BB clothes, you can find them by searching probably without an issue. NioLiv has some for females; I think Sierrebrarc has some for males but I'm not sure.

Once you have the bodysuit mesh itself and the texture for it, you need to save the texture with an alpha channel to dictate transparency. Any part of the texture where the alpha channel is white will be visible, any part where it is black will be invisible and the skin underneath will be exposed. If the alpha channel is gray, it will be transparent but visible; the darker the gray, the more transparent it will be. Make sure you save the texture as a .tga or as a DDS with DXT5 compression or the transparency will be wrong on the mesh. Also make sure your bodysuit mesh is alpha-enabled, but most BB clothing resources are so you probably won't need to worry about that.
User avatar
Siidney
 
Posts: 3378
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:54 pm

Post » Sun Jan 10, 2010 8:52 am

Thanks. You just helped me level up. Actually it Took me quite a few days even after your reply to figure out how to create and use the alpha channels. Back on course. Thanks again.
User avatar
ImmaTakeYour
 
Posts: 3383
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:45 pm

Post » Sat Jan 09, 2010 10:08 pm

No sweat :) Happy to help out a fellow clothier. I'd love to see what you come up with.
User avatar
Kayleigh Mcneil
 
Posts: 3352
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:32 am

Post » Sun Jan 10, 2010 5:14 am

I've decided to avoid starting a new topic, so I hope you won't flame me. My question is quite simple - how to increase transparency in weapons' models? For a better view - I would like to create Sword Singer NPC (it's based on TES lore), who has special ability to form blade by his mind.
User avatar
Nathan Maughan
 
Posts: 3405
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:24 pm


Return to III - Morrowind