#71
29th Sep 2009 at 10:49 PM
Wow Delphy... this is brilliant. How long have you been sequestered away grinding these out?
They work wonderfully--furthermore, I didn't even realize there were that many elements to control when defining the female breast!! Of course now there is probably some poor girl out there that is looking in a mirror and fretting "hmmm..... well I think my fullness and scale are OK, but now I am not so sure about my vertical height!"
But your nifty little plugins lead to a question...one which is probably rudimentary and does not have to be answered by you (just someone who can set me straight). One of the biggest confusions I am having with creating my own clothing is "texture" vs. bumpmaps vs. the shape (i.e. 3D texture) of the underlying mesh. [If a mod needs to move this post, I am sorry--I just had the impulse to write this and didn't want to let it pass.]
I know that the texture map in the RGB channels controls the texture (the illusion of same anyway) such as folds in clothing, a satin finish or a bumpy seam. But I have some CC that I have downloaded where someone (Morgade? either from TSR or here) had written a hack to increase the breast size generally (nothing like your add-ons obviously). And other tighter female clothing CC has the nipple protusion -- not shading but an actual shape.
So illusory textures are in the texture maps, so if someone made clothing with the nipple protrusion (or the larger breast size), would that be in a bumpmap or the mesh for the clothing or the body mesh? Or is the "mesh" that people refer to when speaking of clothing actually refer to a new body mesh?
The nipple question sort of became more difficult to avoid after your hacks. The skins many of us use (or at least I do), are the latest from Rose--a decent recolor and they also seem to change size from the default maxis breast and butt as well. So after using her skins, the breast is a bit larger, but upon examination, the nipple is a painted--and contoured with highlights and shadows but not actually providing shape. So do you know (if you have looked at her package).. is her skin a "mesh" too? or is this just a texture?.
Sorry if this is basic, but I am trying to grasp the mechanics of the applications and the layers of everything (texture map, alpha, stencils, etc.) It is very confusing (like your hack affecting most clothing, but not certain items). As to each element/layer, what throws me is determining what contains (or can contain) what, and if whatever is contained in that particylar layer/mesh---does it affect layers or textures wrapped on top of it?
Hope that makes sense. Thank you!
Of you know of a tut that actually goes through all of this in detail, that would be great. I just have not found one that lays it all out. Every tutorial regarding a tool or modding covers these concepts narrowly -- only as it relates to their specific tutorial. Also, people throw different words around interchangeably (skins vs. meshes. vs. textures) all of which adds to the difficulty if you are not familiar.