We all know what that means.
Decided to revise my Neko companions a bit. I had previous used vanilla hairs, as the custom ones I tried first didn't fit the heads. I had assumed this was an issue with the heads themselves.
Discovered yesterday that it was in fact the hairs (don't work with any normal sized head - no idea what they're intended to be used on) themselves. So I fixed up a few third party hairs that were made of less suck:
Much better, I think.
Still... I wasn't satisfied. I just don't like that they're all the same color. After all, kitties come in different shades all the time. No reason they should all be brown.
Away to the GIMP I went. Decided I liked the idea of a snow-neko companion, and a bit of texture finagling later...
As you can see, Eiko was kind enough to volunteer. I assure you, it had nothing to do with the fact that Maeva was standing behind me with her claymore.
On the whole, I'm pleased with the new texture. There are two issues that I can see: 1) there's a nasty seam at the wrists. This, it turns out, is on the normal one too; you just can't see it as well because of the colors. 2) CW's revamped Khajiiti use the standard ears from the base game. This means that they don't use a special texture; which means I forgot to extract it from the bsa and convert it with the others. You can see Eiko still has brown ears. Doesn't look horrible by any stretch, but it bugs my OCD so I'll have to extract and convert it, too.
Still deciding whether I want to try to do other patterns. I think tiger stripes, or solid color with a mottled pattern could be interesting. But, considering I can't release the things, I'm not sure it would be worth devoting several days of texture work towards.
Also: I didn't notice it at the time, but on looking at that last screenshot during conversion to jpg, wow. I think Keiko hates Eiko's guts. That kitty does not look happy at all. Some days I'm glad there are factions in place to prevent a bloodbath.
Lastly, I've got to say that one thing Bethsoft really did well was Khajiiti ears. One of the things I've always liked about catgirls in general was how emotive their ears are. I never paid much attention with the vanilla Khajiit, but since paying close attention to these from CW, I've noticed that their ears swivel and move based on the mood they're displaying. If you look close, you'll notice in that last shot that Eiko is smiling, and consequently her ears are perked right up. Pissed-off Keiko, on the other hand, has her ears almost straight out from the sides of her head. Adds a great - if small - detail to make them seem more alive.
Edit, several minutes later: went ahead and converted the ears, too. Much better now.
Yup... those emotive ears were one of the reasons why the Ainmhi were the first custom race I ever used on a regular basis. Since they don't have custom voices, those ears go a long way to convey their moods.
ReplyDeleteI can has kitty cat?
ReplyDelete~David
"I can has kitty cat?"
ReplyDeleteAlright, you win. I left myself wide open for that one.
Been so long since I visited a site in the cheezeburger network that it had completely slipped my mind.
Kudos to your rapier wit, sir.
What can I say? Lack of sleep makes witty remarks hard to find.
ReplyDeleteYet on another note very good job with what you did. Going to keep them or upload a few?
I would like to upload; but the custom race and base textures are Colourwheel's work, copied from her Sexy Oblivion Overhaul.
ReplyDeleteI've got to ask permission before I can upload.