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Posted by Sinastra on Jul 21, 2009• In Depth Clothing Re-Texturing Tutorial for the TSR Workshop
Part 6: Designing Your Clothing
Now it is finally time to begin to work on our design in Photoshop. Remember to always work in layers. Working in layers saves time later when we do our alpha and mask.
Texturing (Multiplier)
We begin by opening our multiplier and skin .dds files. With the multiplier layer open, select all (CTRL+A or Select > All from the top menu) and cut the entire image and paste it on top of our skin in a new layer. This step isn’t always nescessary, depending on the mesh.
Now, if you planned to simply add to the texture, you could do that in the multiplier file without pasting it on top of the skin, However, if you plan to bring in your own design, or a source image, it is best to see where it falls on the skin so you have a reference.
With this particular mesh, what I would do next is on the top layer, remove all the black areas so you can see the skin below the shirt without having to adjust the opacity. You can use the magic wand tool to select the black background and delete, or edit this out yourself with an eraser or other methods such as the polygonal lasso tool or the pen tool.
This is what mine looks like completed (with a censor lol). Notice that now my shirt has it’s own layer and you can see the skin beneath it. I just used the magic wand tool, but in instances when you plan to keep the majority of the original design, take the time to do a more precise cut.
At this point you will edit your source image (remove it’s background and resize it appropriately) and paste it as a new layer on top of the old shirt.
I could remove the shirt all together and just paste my new shirt on the skin, however, the bottom of my shirt is extruded, so to make sure I cut off my shirt at the right spot, I am using the old shirt as a reference.
I have decided to make it easy, that I will only be keeping the top part of the new shirt, but keeping the rest of the old shirt.
As you can see, my shirt was too big. So, I will be using the free transform tool (CTRL+T with the new shirt selected) to resize my image. I can also move the image while I am transforming. Resizing and placing the image in the correct spot at the same time.
Resizing your image multiple times can affect it’s quality. Only do it once if you can help it. Once it’s in the appropriate position, sharpen it slightly. Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen and then Edit > Fade Sharpen > 50%.
Use the back shirt as an example for the suggested coloring/shading. If your image has any color to it, desaturate it, Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. And use the brightness/contrast to either brighten or darken your shirt to a similar shade that was used in the original.
Since I am not keeping the full image from the new shirt, I will now erase what I don’t want and then re-touch the new areas to match the bottom (I use a combination of the clone stamp tool as well as the smudge tool).
Quite a difference. It’s not perfect, but its a good start. The important part is positioning the breast area of the shirt. If that is correct, everything else can be fixed.
Before I go any further, I will test that in the TSR Workshop.
Duplicate your image so you do not risk messing up your layers (Image > Duplicate).
And in the new image it opens, fill the background with black (Edit > Fill) and delete any layer except your shirt layer(s). Duplicate the image again, and in the new image with the shirt layer selected, click the fx button on your layers window.
Go to color overlay, and choose white.
Your image should now look like this:
Now flatten the image (Layer > Flatten Image) and then select all (Select > All) and cut the image. Close it, do not save it, and go to your other duplicated image. Click your channels tab (should be on the same box with layers) and click the ‘Create New Channel’ button.
Select the Alpha Layer it creates, and paste your clipboard (the black and white image) into this channel.
Now, click and make all the channels visable (click the empty boxes next to them where you see the eye on the alpha mask).
Remember this step, it is a quick and easy way to do alpha masks!
Now save the duplicated image as a DDS file with the following settings: DXT5 ARGB 8 bpp | interpolated alpha
Do not overwrite your old multiplier dds file. Save it as _2, or _B. Whatever you like.
Back in the TSR Workshop - import the new .dds file in place of the old Multiplier.
Horrible positioning!
Continue to fix the positioning and follow the previous steps each time to test it in TSR Workshop until you are happy.
Now that I am happy with the positioning of the new area, I am going to fix the straps.
On your image with all layers in tact, delete and replace the old straps in the correct positions. After that, make any necessary changes to the texture. Add buttons, stitches, whatever you need to do to make your design your own.
But remember: The design needs to look good both with and without patterns.
Here are in progress images of my completion of this shirt:
Now, say you finally have your shirt finished, and you’re ready to move to the next step.
My shirt isn’t anywhere close to being finished - but for the sake of this tutorial I am going to continue as if it was.
The Mask
Next, you would move on to masking. This will allow you to set what areas in the design you want to be recolorable.
Open the mask DDS file you exported earlier.
Depending on your mask for the particular mesh you chose, you may see a pure red image, or it may include other colors as well depending on the # of recolorable palettes in the original mesh.
There are multiple ways you can create your mask image.
- You can place the empty mask (just the red block) on top of your finished design, lower it’s opacity and draw in green and blue your additional re-colorable areas (red being the base of the shirt).
- You can draw on the green and blue channels directly.
Depending on my image, I will either use the first option, or a third option. If you have been working with layers (I told you this would make things easier for alphas AND masking), the third option is the quickest way (that I know of) to creating your mask.
My layer window currently looks like this:
As you can see, I only have the background and the whole shirt layer.
If I wanted to have only one recolorable palette, A mask filled with red only would be enough.
However, let’s say I had two areas I wanted to be recolorable.
Edit your shirt layer until you have multiple layers, each layer designated for a recolorable area (or if you already have multiple layers, skip this step).
I now have two layers (I just cut off the bottom half of the shirt and pasted it in a new layer, and put it back in the correct position).
I have decided to add one final touch to the image, a third recolorable area.
I am adding this bow to the shirt as an example, just to show the process for 3 recolorable areas.
My layer box now looks like this:
Duplicate your image so we do not mess up the original layered file.
In the copy, fill your background layer with red. (Select the background layer, go to Edit > Fill, and when the window appears, choose “Color” and then red).
Next, we will be selecting each layer that we plan to be recolorable.
Whatever part of your shirt you want to be your first recolorable area, or the red channel, can be deleted from your layers. As we already have the red in place, it can be removed.
In this project, I am deleting the ‘top of shirt’ layer (in your MASK duplicate image, do NOT change the original).
Next, select your next recolorable areas on the layers box.
Just like we did before with the alphas, we will be using the “Color Overlay” fx option.
Use green on one layer, blue on another.
This is an example of a completed mask image. Flatten your image (Image > Flatten Image) and save your new mask .dds file.
Like we did before with the multiplier, IMPORT your new mask into the Mask position.
Depending on the default mesh options, you may or may not see a change right away.
Patterns
Now we will edit the Patterns A - C areas in order to customize our design further.
For each recolorable palette, you will need to make sure each pattern is enabled.
Enable them by using the dropdown selection after selecting the enabled line.
After each pattern is enabled, you can customize them further.
You can choose colors by clicking the plus icon (+) next to Pattern A Pattern (or B, C). Just click the color line and click the drop down to change the color.
You can also use the Pattern Browser to find a pattern in your game to place on the area. To use the pattern browser, select the line with “Pattern A Pattern” and you should see a “ ... ” icon appear to the far right of the line. Click that box, and the pattern editor will appear.
At this point you can create an entirely new pattern for the design, or use the ‘Browse’ option to find one from the game. (When clicking Browse if the workshop freezes momentarily, give it a moment. Let it load the patterns.)
Once the browser loads, find your pattern by navigating via the drop down menu.
Note: Only base game patterns will be loaded.
Here's how it looks after I've chosen a pattern on my design.
Clothing Specular
At this point, you need to decide how you want your fabric to look.
Do you want it to be shiny and reflective, like leather? Or do you want it more “matte” or flat?
Duplicate your multiplier dds and flatten it if necessary. Use the brightness and contrast to adjust your image for your specular.
Brighten it if you want it to be more shiny fabric, darken it if you want it matte.
Tip: You can also select certain areas you want shiny or matte. Use brightness/contrast on different layers.
Save your new .DDS file so you know it is the “clothing specular” .dds. Do not overwrite any of your previous files.
Back in the TSR Workshop, Import it like you did the others, in the “Clothing Specular” section.
Adding/Deleting Variations
When you are happy with your design, it is time to edit the other variations.
At the top of your TSR Workshop window, you will notice a dropdown box with the name of your original mesh. Clicking that will show a drop-down with multiple variations of the shirt we cloned (some items you clone will not have any variations).
You will need to edit or delete each variation. Note: It is suggested to have at least 3 variations.
With a variation selected you can either duplicate or delete a variation.
Use the previous steps to do the same for each variation.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you are using the same .DDS files for each variation, do not re-import them. Use the BROWSE button to select an image already in your project. Having un-needed .DDS files will increase the size of your design.
Continue to page 3 for the next part of the tutorial...
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