Oh, there you are Kitty! “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. Were you looking for me?” – Kitty
Yeah. Mind trying it on again? “But I just got here!” – Kitty
Oh, come on. It’ll just take a few minutes. “Grrrrrr” – Kitty
So ladylike. “Oh dearie me, dids’t thou view my tuzzy-muzzy? I shame so.” – Kitty Like you are EVER embarassed by anything!
“So what have you got done now?” – Kitty Check it out…
“Oh, you’ve added pants!” – Kitty Well, leggings at best. They’re really modified pantyhose! “I suppose you’ll claim they prevent clipping?” – Kitty (scoffing) They DO! “Uh huh.” – Kitty
Well they do. “Let’s go outside where i can get a better look.” – Kitty
Say, have you gained a little weight? “Maybe… After that comment about my boobs, I may have tweaked the dial a little.” – Kitty Hubba Hubba!
“(hubba hubba? who says that?) – Hey, I can do whatever I want with my own settings!” – Kitty Sure you can! “…besides, isn’t this a little SHINY?” – Kitty Yeah, but I PROMISE I’ll reduce the shinyness.
You DO like shiny things don’t you… like leather…“ – Kitty Yeah, but I’ll lower it. ”…and silk… latex…“ – Kitty Ok, ok… yeah. ”…rubber.“ – Kitty OK, that’s enough. Give it back to me. I’ve got more work to do! "No way, I like it!” – Kitty GIVE IT BACK! “SUCK MY FURRY TOES! I knew there was SOMETHING these holey leggings are good for!”
“Wow, where have YOU been?” – Kitty Honestly, I’ve been learning. “Learning? Learning what?” – Kitty Oh, textures, normal maps, things like that. And how to use Photoshop really.
“So, nothing new to show me yet?” – Kitty Well, I do – but it’s just a start at the outfit. And even what I did I need to redo some. “Well, let’s see what you’ve got anyway.” – Kitty Ok but… I have a favor to ask.
“…why do I feel apprehensive? Oh, go ahead. What?” – Kitty I need to take a closeup of your chest.
“My BOOBS? Why?” – Kitty Oh, covered of course, but that’s where I did the most work and so… well.. “Yeah, figures that’s where you’d concentrate. Ok, go ahead. Let’s see what you’ve got.” – Kitty
“Oh this isn’t too bad at all!” – Kitty No, but the color’s not right, belt is too wide, inner sleeves aren’t full length. But really I’ve been learning about normal maps and texture files mostly and how to work with them. “Mumbo jumbo – what’s all that mean?” – Kitty Well, let’s take a close look at your back…
See how the texture has that grain, and how the seams sort of indent visibly. That’s the first thing I did. Gives it realism (well, other than that little clipping). “Well that looks pretty good – so what’s the difference on the front?” – Kitty I’ll show you.
See, the back looks good – but it’s too perfect. It needs SOME defects. Wrinkles and folds. So I’ve been watching tutorials on how they’re best done… “Oh, go ahead, it’s not like you’re going to pinch them.” – Kitty. Thanks! So look…
See, the texture’s still there, but in front we have a few wrinkles. Not lots, but enough to give it some depth. But I went too far I’m afraid. I accentuated your tits too much. The cloth there is a bit highlighted and that just doesn’t look natural. The wrinkles are fine, but the boobs don’t need more dark under/light on top. “Ok, now I’ll add the cloak.” – Kitty
Yeah, I know – wrong color. It looked a lot closer in the Photoshop. But I’ll adjust it. “And from this angle, I see what you mean about the boob accent. Yeah, it doesn’t need that. I’m fine in that department!” – Kitty Fine indeed! “Well, then back to work. Come see me again when you’ve made more progress.” – Kitty
“So… whatcha doing? Working on the Cloak of Gray Tomorrow more?” – Kitty Yeah. Just doing some small tweaks to it now. I think it’s almost done, but I have a couple things I can’t fix.
“Show me.” – Kitty Well first there’s that section between the hood and the dust cloak that’s open. “Oh, the boob window? I thought that was cute!” – Kitty Me too – but it’s not cannon.
“You know, if you’d taken Kaz’s advice and ‘learned to mesh’, you could fix that.” – Kitty I know. But you’d have been old and grey by then.
“With THIS body? Never! What else?” – Kitty Well – the cloak has a clear red inner liner. I’ve not figured out yet how to paint the INSIDE different from the outside. “Oh, you’ll figure out some way. Anything else?” – Kitty
Well, I’d like to use the normal map and raise those triangley-thingies to make them look more like separate clo… HEY! What’s that outfit? “What, this? Oh, it’s just something I got from Whiterun. You like?” – Kitty Me like! But it’s not cannon either. “Cannon my butt – it’s gorgeous and you know it. Now let me try on the cloak again or I’ll scratch your eyes out.” – Kitty
OK OK! Sheath those claws. Here you go.
“How do I look?” – Kitty Sexy as always. Love the shoes by the way! “Thanks. So, what did you change?” – Kitty I told you it wasn’t much. Cleaned up some neck issues mostly and added that little red button in the middle of the clasp. I tried to get rid of the old clasp completely but…
“But you didn’t learn how to mesh.” – Kitty Well… yeah. “Hey – it may not be cannon, but >I< like it. If you can get that inner color changed, I’ll be satisfied.” – Kitty
And it’s all about satisfying you, right?
“I’d like to think it’s mutual.” – Kitty Hey, you’re warping the mesh!
Good morning Kitty! Rise and shine! “Mmrph. KAK!” – Kitty
Not exactly a Morning person are you? “Grfff” (scratch) – Kitty
“Grawlright.” smack. “I’m getting up.” – Kitty That’s what I like about you, so graceful and ladylike!
“I don’t recall you asking me to be ladylike last night.” – Kitty Oh come on, get up and get some clothes on. I’ve got another update to show off!
“What to wear, what to wear?” – Kitty Try something at least somewhat like the Festive Holiday Disaster garment.
“How’s this?” – Kitty That’ll do fine. Now, try this on over it… “Oh, yeah! It’s definitely coming together!” – Kitty Still some work around the neck to do, and that clasp is all wrong. But yeah!
“You’re kinda like those guys on that clothes-designing show aren’t you?” – Kitty Well, in SOME ways, yeah – I guess I am!
“Yeah, there are some CLEAR differences…” – Kitty Well, YOU should know! “There’s that. And they, like, create their OWN designs. While you…” – Kitty
Ok, ok – I get it. “…take two people’s designs, combine them, and try to make them look like a third person’s design!” – Kitty OK! I GET IT! Now turn around and let’s see the revision I did there. Had the purple border wrong.
“Maybe they should make a new show: World’s Best Plaguriarists!” – Kitty Thanks for turning around Kitty. (and showing your best side.) “I HEARD THAT!” – Kitty
Ok, I’ve got an update for you Kitty. “Oh, great. I suppose I have to take off my top to make it fit now?” – Kitty
“OH! This isn’t too bad! There’s actually potential here.” – Kitty I know, right? “And my tail is free too!” – Kitty
“But I suppose I have to keep wearing this to keep from clipping?”
Try these on… “What? But they were clipping so badly…” – Kitty Just try them on.
“AWESOME! Of course, there’s still a lot of work to do…” – Kitty Yeah, I know… but you did say that if I could get you back into regular clothes… “I did didn’t I. Well… come get your payment, stud.” – Kitty
WOW you DO change fast! “Even faster when I don’t have to put anything else on…” – Kitty
AAAnd, if I’m going to have Kitty in a bikini, I had to agree to take her to the beach… “You know, it’s a great start and all, but this cloak does weird things when you lay down.” – Kitty Yeah, I know – but that’s inherent in any cloak mod I’m afraid. But NORMAL in game poses should be fine for the most part.
“Well, good job BD. Come here and let me give you a hug!” – Kitty Really? SURE!
“YOU WISH! Keep dreamin’ dweeb. We’ll talk when you get me into some decent clothes.” – Kitty Sigh. Well, next I’ve got to start doing some transparency-scissors work and get these trimmed to be shaped more like the Cloak of Gray Tomorrow. “You’re going to take MORE cloth away from me?!!” – Kitty
Having some troubles with the FHD mod I’m afraid. I mashed the two together, but for some reason the Dustcloak isn’t showing up. I tried it two ways – first, I tried copying the cloak to the dustcloak. Only cloak shows up. Then tried copying the dustcloak to the cloak mesh instead. Again, only the cloak shows up. Something odd going on with the dustcloak obviously.
Here are both in a single .nif so you can see I DID manage to join them, but no joy in Skyrim. I’ll figure it out, just may take a while. Kitty’s not happy with my progress. In my defense I DID find a body that eliminates the breast-poke-thru:
Kitty’s not happy that the outfit for this body is a bikini though. She thinks I’m a pervert. She’s even less happy about her tail being removed though:
I think I’d better fix that first before I get turned into a newt…
I’ve not been idle dear followers! But it is awfully important for me to pick the right starting place for the Cloak of Gray Tomorrow – or, as I’ve decided to call it officially, the Festive Holiday Disaster outfit (which is also better because it describes the whole outfit, not just the cloak).
Ok, so when last I left FHD, I was trying to decide on what to start the base with. I wasn’t happy with Cloaks of Skyrim though, primarily because that mod didn’t really wrap around the front much and, from most views, the front is the most important part. Well, guess what I found? Check it out:
Just the top blue part here – known as the Dust Cloak by Calyps. Not the underlying outfit. But of course it has no cape. But what if I can combine it with a cape from Cloaks of Skyrim? http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12092/?
Fortunately, even without modding, I can already start putting pieces together, which I’ve done on this lovely Khajiit (shying away from the Katia Managan model now. I honestly think this is prettier even if she doesn’t look much like Katia) Let’s call her Kitty. Yeah, I’m not very imaginative today. Here’s Kitty with the Dust Cloak and Investigator outfit in a green tone:
Now, this mod uses the base body UNP/UNPB. I’m not personally a big fan of UNP If nothing else, her waist is just TOO thin for me. This will be important to note in a moment.
Enjoy it while you can – now it begins to go downhill – but not too badly to be redeemed by mod work I don’t think. So, now let’s add a green Cloak from Cloaks of Skyrim:
Definitely potential here. Granted there’s some clipping around the shoulders. That may not be fix-able much, but if they were both the exact shade and texture, it may not be all that bad.
Imagine, if you will, the front of the cloak cut with my transparency-scissors a bit below the clasp and curving downward across the shoulders to join with the cloak in the back. It’s so crazy it Just Might Work. Now though, let’s throw a standard Redguard outfit underneath instead of the Investigator outfit (that’s made for the UNP body while this Redguard outfit is using the CHSBHC body):
Yeah – clipping just got nasty. Granted CHSBHC does have big boobs. Yet the waist is reasonable. And to make matters worse, she is at MINIMUM weight here. On the plus side, if I take my transparency scissors and cut away most of the front for the Festive Holiday Disaster curve, MOST of the clipping goes away anyway as there’s no material there anyway. Plus, I don’t NEED to keep the CHSBHC body anyway. I can revert to a more normally-curved one.
Perceptive followers may also be asking, “Uh… dude. Tail?” Yeah, there’s that too. Cloaks of Skyrim by default remove the tails when worn by Argonians and Khajiits. But fortunately there’s a fix for that. Plus using transparency-scissors I can cut the back “vent” up to tail level so it doesn’t appear to be poking out of a perfectly placed hole (clipping really).
SO! I think I’ve got a good base here at LEAST for the actual Cloak. Now, one downside. Calyps, author of the Dust Cloak and Investigator mods, isn’t terribly keen on allowing mashup mods like mine to use his stuff. I can do whatever I want with it personally, but he would have to approve it’s use to be made public. No need to sweat that now, but before I could allow others to use the end result mod, I’ll need to get his approval. Maybe I can organize a write in campaign to overwhelm him with requests to let me use it though! But at very worst, I can still use it personally and do screenshots. I think it’s worth the risk – that front is just PERFECT.
Ok, I know this was long. Next up, trying to mash together the Dust Cloak and a Cloak of Skyrim into a single piece. Hope I remember how!
bdprequel 