I'm not asking for like a complete tutorial. I am interested in editing my own heads. For example, taking a nose or an eye or a mouth from one elf and putting it on another elf etc. And I know that I have to edit the skin texture file. But i'm not sure how. When you edit these files, I know that you probably used like photoshop or another similar program.But I think my question is , did you edit the skin texture when It was flat and in the 3 separate channels on like photoshop.Or did you merge the 3 files and edit it flat?Or did you put the textures on the mesh and edit it in 3d?I'm just not sure where to start
with this texture set, I edited each file (HMVY, CLEA, NM) in Photoshop, separating each channel and then recompiling them after I was done editing. I really recommend reading over the BG3 wiki's modding resources as a starting point to understand the purpose of each channel. Personally I stick to PS because I'm most familiar with it, but I know other modders have managed to use GIMP and Volno's Texture Toolbox to make their own skin textures.
Thanks for the reply! I def checked the resources as well, but something wasnt clicking in my brain. i had done tats and make up, and as soon as i realized it was similar for skin it clicked and your explanation just helped reassure me. I only have GIMP because PS costs money, as far as I know, and i'm encountering issues with exporting, but who knows what the real actual issue is. lol. my goal is to study your files with the original files, and somehow learn from it and even out the texture on HEL head A. :)
Thanks for the reply! I def checked the resources as well, but something wasnt clicking in my brain. i had done tats and make up, and as soon as i realized it was similar for skin it clicked and your explanation just helped reassure me. I only have GIMP because PS costs money, as far as I know, and i'm encountering issues with exporting, but who knows what the real actual issue is. lol. my goal is to study your files with the original files, and somehow learn from it and even out the texture on HEL head A. :)
I use GIMP for texture edits for BG3. Import the .DDS textures without mipmaps, but export them with the generate mipmaps option selected and the BC3/DXT5 for most face textures (the MSK and tattoo/make up atlases use BC1/DXT1)
Use Gimp > Colors > Components > Decompose > RGBA to split the channels into black and white layers for editing. Don't even bother trying to edit the DDS files without decomposing the color channels first: alpha channels do not behave the same as color channels so it won't work right.
When you've made your edits, do the same thing but select Compose instead, and assign the appropriate layer OR GROUP into the Red/Green/Blue/Alpha channels. You probably want Compose, not Recompose. Keep your .xcf file for future edits, I'm pretty sure the image compression will result in artifacts if you re-open the .DDS and repeat this process multiple times.
If you create groups you can layer the textures between too faces and use a mask to select the features you want from the top texture, and Compose to RGBA without having to merge any layers by selecting the group instead of an individual layer.
The normal maps are easier to edit and combine if you convert them to regular normal maps first. Decompose RGBA, then Compose into RGB assigning the Alpha channel to Red and ignoring the all black Red layer that was the original red channel (green and blue go to green and blue). When done with your edits, flatten the layers, decompose to RGB, create a new layer filled with black and compose into RGBA with the black filled-layer in the red channel, green and blue as before, and the old alpha-turned-red channel back into the alpha channel.
HEY I love this textures and been using this cause it's my fav head in game but I was wondering cause I wanted to edit this head for personal use if I could use your textures with that head (I will not use it for publishing just for myself personally)
you can rename the files to whichever elf head you want to use (ex: ELF_F_NKD_Head_E is female elf 4, you can find the names here) and change the folders from HalfElves to Elves, HEL to ELF, etc. but the texture may look completely different on a different mesh, since these files were edited specifically for this head.
still works for me! so far only body textures appear to have been changed by the last patch so loose head texture files should still apply, but if anything changes in the future, i'll figure out a way to make it work.
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Use Gimp > Colors > Components > Decompose > RGBA to split the channels into black and white layers for editing. Don't even bother trying to edit the DDS files without decomposing the color channels first: alpha channels do not behave the same as color channels so it won't work right.
When you've made your edits, do the same thing but select Compose instead, and assign the appropriate layer OR GROUP into the Red/Green/Blue/Alpha channels. You probably want Compose, not Recompose. Keep your .xcf file for future edits, I'm pretty sure the image compression will result in artifacts if you re-open the .DDS and repeat this process multiple times.
If you create groups you can layer the textures between too faces and use a mask to select the features you want from the top texture, and Compose to RGBA without having to merge any layers by selecting the group instead of an individual layer.
The normal maps are easier to edit and combine if you convert them to regular normal maps first. Decompose RGBA, then Compose into RGB assigning the Alpha channel to Red and ignoring the all black Red layer that was the original red channel (green and blue go to green and blue). When done with your edits, flatten the layers, decompose to RGB, create a new layer filled with black and compose into RGBA with the black filled-layer in the red channel, green and blue as before, and the old alpha-turned-red channel back into the alpha channel.
This is a lovely edit, and I really want to thank you for not saying that you "fixed" anything.