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!
So, a couple days ago I began to see a lot of hits from 8ch.net. I had to go see why. Now granted I know a thing or two about anon boards by now. To cut to the chase, they didn’t much like KM. But, as Kaz says, you can learn a lot from anons. They don’t beat around the bush, that’s for sure!
What I did finally wrangle out of them was that they thought it was pretty shitty borrowing someone else’s character. Katherine may not be Katia, but it’s no secret she might as well be. Well, I don’t want to be That Guy who tries to steal someone else’s character. And after (not much) consideration, it does make sense.
I don’t regret having done KM, I learned TONS! But they’ve definitely got a valid point. I’m still no artist, nor do I plan to ever become one. But if WHEN I venture into the Webcomic arena again, I’ll come armed with my own characters rather than borrow others’. So the Epilogue is off – I did some screenshots, but it was really just setup for the next arc. I’ve ended it pretty well though, I think.
Gave it a good shot, but it was flawed from the outset. Much as I like Prequel and Katia, I shouldn’t use them as the foundation of my own work or it will never be anything beyond a fanfic of a fanfic. I toyed around a bit with the thought of making a yellow-ish Skyrim khajiit rather than the Katia model and call HER Katherine. But, that would really be painting over the underlying problem of benevolent plagiarism. Best to start over from scratch with a solid foundation.
So my immediate focus will finally be on that Cloak of Grey Tomorrow mod that I’ve been promising. Thanks for the readers tho! I’ll make more, just not of KM – i’ve got the itch to tell more stories and take closeups of more Khajiit tails!
I know some of you are following me for the Cloak of Grey Tomorrow mod, which I’ve not done ANYTHING of substance on yet. But I JUST finished a marathon screen shotting session for KM. I’ve enough for 3 posts, 2 easily. But it’s a kinda sad moment for me. I’ve got epilogue to do and setup for the next arc, but the climax is completed now. I’ve seen it. I like it, but it’s still kinda sad when I’ve spent months with these characters in my head and now some are gone.
Once I finish the Epilogue posts – probably 2 or 3 – I’ll get into the CoGT big time as I have PLANS for it in KM Arc 2. Which I can no longer resist doing. I’ve the major plot points for it already in my head. I’ll probably post the next KM on Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday for the 3 part conclusion you might say.
If you happen to read it, heres a spoiler. It’s what I plan to use for the final shot of the conclusion before the 2 or 3 epilogue posts after that. Seemed fitting.
Ok, well – he replied to an email I sent. The very man who contains the soul of Katia within his demented and sadistic head deigned to reply to my humble email!!! I’ll never wash my monitor again.
Yes – THAT Kaz. The designer of such memorable characters as:
Happy Gator, your Customer Service Friend!
Evil Quill Weave, the sexiest Argonian you’d ever like to be tied up by!
Mikahail, the funloving, devil-may-care Assassin…
Furry Red Fox Guy… wait… Not him… go back to that sexy argonian…
Yeah, her. And he did some yellow cat girl too I think…
(You can’t really call it hero worship though – he’s the madmad who causes Katia such tears. More like villian worship?) Anyway – no, mostly I just wanted to see if he’s ok with Katherine Managan. I pretty much knew what his answer would be, but still it seemed the polite thing to do if I’m going to promote it out there first. Of course he said it was fine as long as I wasn’t looking to profit (I’m not), though he did ask me to be sure to make it clear that it’s a fanfic (of a fanfic) and not endorsed or associated with Prequel. And that it wasn’t for-profit. (Profit? Off my innocent version of Katia? Perish the thought!) So I stuck a little disclaimer on my banner.
But he also made one little comment – basically, “for god’s sake, get Blender and learn to MESH”. Ok, not quite in those terms, but that’s the gist of it. He’s right of course. But my problem is time – I know I could Learn To Mesh, but by the time I finished Katia will have long since lost her Cloak to Sigrid and I’ll be lucky to clothe her in Ectoplasm.
So, to quote a certain fox, “I understand what you’re saying, and your comments are valuable, but I’m gonna ignore your advice.” (How’d that turn out for him btw?)
Alas, the Dragon Priest cloak from Cloaks of Skyrim mod was not all I hoped it would be:
So it doesn’t wrap around the front at all. The “v” cut in the back really isn’t that big a deal either – I have learned how to “cut” models by making parts of them transparent so I can cut a v in anything really. Think of it as having a great pair of scissors but no sewing needle. I can subtract, but I can’t add. And where a hood would be, there’s nothing. But while I had the mod installed, I wanted to see some others…
COUNT KATIA! Ok, no hoodie. Neck thing is rediculous (but remember those scissors!). Does wrap around pretty good though. Frankly, this is the most likely I’ve found yet (with a lot of cutting!). But obviously it still doesn’t cover anything in the front.
The rest all appear to be variations on this theme (though I’ve only looked at a FEW, there must be HUNDREDS in this mod!) Different colors, textures and lengths but all basically similar:
There are quite a few with hoodie-type things on the back though.
So, what to do… Best from this mod that I’ve seen is Dracula cloak (Daedric technically but throw some red inner lining in and we’ve got dracula!) Do I want to start work on this, knowing that it won’t look canon? Frankly, I don’t think so. Not yet anyway. I want to see a few other mods first before I commit. So, no mod work yet. Besides, I haveotherstuff to do too.
Yes, it’s that time again. Time to begin a new Skyrim mod based on Prequel. This time, Cloak of Grey Gray Tomorrow. (Stay Cannon! GRAY not GREY!)
This one’s gonna be tough I fear. First, let’s reiterate one thing – I can’t do mods from scratch – I’m just not good enough for mesh editing (though I did do some VERY slight mesh editing on Arena armor). So it’s critical I first find some existing mods to work with.
But even before that, I need to figure some things out. First, going as canon as possible, I’ve only got 2 images to work with right now:
So this first one has the cloak on but not the underneath outfit. So… should the cloak be separate? I think so. Also, here the hood is down so THAT should really be separate too. (or a version with cloak hood up and another with it down – either way). So we’re really looking at 3 separate items here. 1-hood, 2-cloak,
3-undergarment. The cloak is the most important of those though.
And here we have the undergarment with it. There’s a .gif where she pulls the hood up, but it’s so short we don’t really get much of a look at the hood. Fortunately the original designer gave enough of that here:
(bottom right) so when it’s time to start creating the texture file for that, we’ve something to go by.
Ok – now back to the cloak itself. It has some features that are going to be hard as hell to imitate. First, it covers a significant chest area. Almost (if not all) the existing cloak/cape mods I’ve found mostly just cover the back like a cape and nearly nothing over the shoulders. Here’s some I’m looking at:
Velvet Robes and Cloaks
Not much in front, but beautiful cloak. Problem is it would not reflect the swooping curve from the front to back. But all have problems, this may be the least!
Winter is Coming
Has the advantage of much more in the front, but all Furry and quite mounded over the shoulders. Plus, there’s still no way to make that swooping curve from front to back.
Cloaks of Skyrim
This one has me interested. I’ve yet to see a good front-view of it though, but it does appear to carry around quite well around the shoulders from this view – plus it has a split in the back that is canon. the tatters around the bottom may not be an issue either as it needn’t be quite this long and I’ve proven I can “erase” with no problem using the texture file.
So I’ll probably at least try first with that Dragon Priest cloak from Cloaks of Skyrim mod – if the front isn’t just too “off”.
Wow, I’m starting to feel like I understand Kaz a bit more. Sorry for the Katherine Managan delays. I always feel like its a bit of a cop-out though to try and explain way – it doesn’t matter really. But more to come soon. I finally got my privacy back and it’s kinda needed to do KM the way I want to do it.
Once this first cycle is complete, I think I will push it a bit in various places. Though I said last time I probably wouldn’t continue, I’m already starting to think of another plotline. Probably not a good idea when I’ve not finished this one yet. Problem is, >I< know the ending of this one so it’s a bit less interesting to ME. So never say never, I think there’ll be a KM Cycle 2 after all. But I would like to complete this first and hopefully get at least a couple more readers first.
bdprequel 