56 replies to this topic

[greatfool1]

Npc Actions

If you use the alert (weapon drawn) from the Actor in charge on an npc you should be able to get them on a horse with thier weapons still out.

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If you make an npc or use any other one go and fight the npc and you can somtimes get some moves which you cant get from the AiC mod. I got a good one from Godric who is casting a summoning spell and doing somthing else with the weapon. I didn't even photoshop it.

Player Actions

I wanna be a spiderman,
If you use tfc and move the camera up or down till it makes everything looks upside down like this.

A more complex way is to make a room in the cs and turn it upside down or get a room from one of the interiors and turn that upside down so you get somthing like this. Make sure before you enter the interior that you put tcl or all the stuff like books will probably crash down to the ceiling as in the floor.

combine the two and you can get somthing like this.
If you get the actor in charge mod then you can make somthing like this.

In the cs turn a room sideways and play the death animaton and you could get a character leaning on a wall like this.

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Leaning
Have the actors in charge mod and go to a table or some other flat surface. Use tcl and use sneak hand to hand attack (i think it was) and try to position yourself as best as you can so it looks as though your leaning on the table or whatever like this....alt view.

When Sitting
When using Aic you can use the get in/out of bed animations while sitting on a chair or others sittable things, since the legs are disabled in the animation and the upper body still works. This one uses the Nightmare or uneasy sleep.

The vampire animations seem to work while sitting like the Vampire sleep animation on this shot.

Various bed and vampire stuff
....and I fell over like this
Got a numb bum
Where's the money?

Ascension works too
Somthing wrong with my heart!
uuuuuuuuh

Guides

Here is a link to understanding more about graphics.
Tweaking Oblivion.

Photoshop,
This could be used with AA and no bloom.
Creating a bloom effect.

I took this shot using AAx4 AFx16 with no bloom
Using photoshop with bloom effect
Animation of the difference

Here's another photoshop tip that might be handy.

Some pictures you take may have rather rough edges but one way to make them look smoother is using the Blur Tool. By blurring the edges you can get a better smooth picture. This is a sort of alternative way if you don't use AA and dont want a jagged picture.

Here's a quick one I made, Before/After

How to make text bubbles in Photoshop.

In photoshop I use the elipse tool to make the bubble, text tool for the text, either I adjust the text size or bubble. For the talk I use the polygonal lasso tool and make a triangle having the top point to the character and paint it white, I merge the bubble and triangle together and have the text merge into the bubble. The thought bubble is basically the same thing but just don't use the triangle and use the elipse tool and make smaller bubbles. To make them abit more nice I usually double click the bubble or right-click and goto blending options and use the stroke effect, I set the size to 1 or 2 and for the colour it can be black (basic) or my last speech coversation pictures I used a dark purple for the dark seducer and dark red for the dremora.

My older shots used different speech bubbles because photoshop wasn't working for me at the time so I used paint shop pro. For that I used the preset shape tool and the text tool to make my text bubbles and the elipse tool to make the thought bubbles.

You can make the text bubbles more colourfull in photoshop by using the Styles shown here and make your screenshot cooler.
The same can be done in paint shop pro with Swatches that is shown here.

With enough fiddling around you can make text bubbles like this or better!

[greatfool1]

Here is a link to understanding more about graphics.

Tweaking Oblivion.

Yeah, mind you the performance hit is rather off putting anyone got any tips for boosting the fps
Running 1024x1280 Bloom + 8x AA with everything on (sliders maxed) apart from self shadows.

Did you look at :
This is an excellent Tweaking Guide and has been updated for the latest OB patch.

Also:
http://www.tweakguid.../NVFORCE_1.html

It says:

"Note: This guide refers to the latest Official Nvidia Forceware drivers for Windows XP Version 93.71 and Windows Vista Version 100.65. Make sure to check back regularly as the guide is updated for each new Forceware release. The guide is not usually updated for Beta or Unofficial Forceware versions."


It also recommends this NVidia Beta site for Vista users:

http://www.nzone.com...betadriver.html

[greatfool1]

<Snip>
I wish imageshack worked a bit better though, given the number of people who link to it.

<Snip>
Me too. I'm sick of that damn yellow frog. It takes ages, too.

"You know you can get rid of the ads on imageshack if you use the direct link format. That is, get rid of the "my.php?image=" and put in the direct path instead. Much nicer to look at."

Oh, here is a good example right on the prior page:

Note how Shi_shinu's first shot below is a direct link without any ads. His second shot is not a direct link - and therefore has ads and takes longer to load.

Its a Happy day...: http://img84.imagesh...enshot40ng6.jpg

Adriel Casual: http://img485.images...elcasualsr7.jpg

Here is Shi_shinu's code:

Its a Happy day...: [url=http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/247/screenshot40ng6.jpg]http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/247/screenshot40ng6.jpg[/url]

Adriel Casual: [url=http://img485.imageshack.us/my.php?image=adrielcasualsr7.jpg]http://img485.imageshack.us/my.php?image=adrielcasualsr7.jpg[/url]

Using the direct link method, the code would look like this for the second shot:

Adriel Casual: [url=http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/5051/adrielcasualsr7.jpg]http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/5051/adrielcasualsr7.jpg[/url]

to get this: http://img485.images...elcasualsr7.jpg And no ads.

It can also be done this way if you prefer to use an external editor (Notepad, etc.) but the point is, note the use of the direct link rather than the "my.php?"image" part:

[url=http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/247/screenshot40ng6.jpg]It's a Happy day.[/url]
[url=http://img485.imageshack.us/img485/5051/adrielcasualsr7.jpg]Adriel Casual[/url]

to get:
It's a Happy day.
Adriel Casual

This actually worked out to be a better example than I have in the Screenshooter's Guide, so I hope it is OK with you, Shi_shinu, that I include this on that thread so others might possibly benefit from it. Very nice shots, btw!

[greatfool1]

Copy/pasted from OB mods at greatfool1's request:
If you're interested here're a couple of things I find useful for sorting out lighting in game:

For exterior shots use the "set gamehour to XX" (where XX is a number from 0 to 23.99) console command to rotate the sun/moon around into the right position. Also if you're going to be posing for a while try "set timescale to 0" in the console to freeze time. I believe this also stops NPCs from doing things like going to lunch which helps to keep them off your set. I remember when I was posing this pic I was just about done and a woman came in and sat down in that same chair and started eating!

Something else I find useful is to set up NPCs off camera with torches. Open the console, click on them and type "additem 0002cf9f 1" followed by "equipitem 0002cf9f" if it's not dark enough for them to equip it by themselves. They'll equip the torch and then put it straight away again if it is too light so before they get a chance open the console again, reselect them (if needed) and type "tai" to disable their AI. This also has the benefit of keeping them in one place. In this pic I had a guy with a torch standing a little way behind the camera in order to get a little more light on his face.

For the truly dedicated you can place your own lights in game. You'll need to open the Oblivion.esm in the CS to get all the hex codes for all the different lights but taking the 'ARWhiteAmb200' light for example you'd do it like this: Stand where you want the light to be, open the console and type "player.placeatme 000a334d" which will spawn the light at your feet. In order to position them accurately you'll probably need to toggle collision ("tcl" in the console) and float around until your feet are at the right height. The problem with this method is since most lights don't have a 3D model you can't select them in the console to disable them, so if you position one wrong or change your mind you're outta luck, unless someone here knows a way of getting the reference without selecting it in the console. This pic used low level lights dropped into the basin of the shrine in front of him to create a little extra light on his face. I forget which lights they were though I'm afraid.

I do most of my lighting in post-production (for example this pic was all lit in photoshop) but I still find it helpful to have a good base to work from. Hope you find that helpful.

Also if you have the drop lit torches mod installed you can just chuck a few torches around to brighten things up.

That and the brighter torches mod helps too.

http://planeteldersc...w...tail&id=287

http://www.tessource...ile.php?id=1842

I have posted this in the Screenshooting Guide and I am reposting it here because it might be of interest to some people. Everyone here is usually looking for a little bit extra from their shots and this could be useful

Screen Shooting Tip - Better lighting using console commands

The specific command I am talking about here is TS (toggle sky). You may be familiar with this command already, but perhaps you have never thought of using it for a screen shot. What TS (toggling sky off) can do is give you sunshine at night or indoors. I wouldn't recommend it for every shot, rather an option to be considered when lighting is poor and not really showing your character in the way you would like. I have some before and after examples below.

In this first shot On The Hill, the in game lighting was quite good for night time, but for a screen shot the light was poor. Using the TS command we retain our night time sky and we get sunshine HDR at the same time. This could even pass for a bright moon light.

This shot taken inside a cave was acceptable lighting for game play, but unusable for a screen shot. Using TS makes everything visible.

In this shot Crossing The Niben On Horseback the light for game play was perfect, ambient and moody, but the screenie didn't work. Then we use TS and now it works.

The Thermae bath mod is well known for its lighting, but maybe at some point you would prefer to let the sun shine in.

This shot was taken using TS. This next shot is identical, also using TS, but with the console still open when the picture was taken. Notice the sky disappears.

It all comes down to what you want. Some people prefer a darker shot that sets the mood and better reflects what the player was experiencing, while some viewers would prefer greater visibility. I prefer shots that I can see clearly, without having to puzzle out what I am actually looking at.

None of the pictures above were Photo-shopped in any way. What you see is what you get. Using HDR and 4xAA. I have also tested TS on a Vanilla game with Bloom and it works just as well.

Edited by greatfool1, 09 August 2007 - 04:35 PM.

[greatfool1]

Tip for direct linking:

If you are using Mozilla Firefox as your browser, just right click the desired image image, select "Show Image" in the roll-down menu and paste URL of that window instead.
NOTE: This is only working for firefox as i know, Internet Explorer doesn't have something similar to "Show Image"

To get rid of Photo Bucket ads:

See the link to the right of your image? Use the top one.

MORE DETAIL IF YOU NEED IT:

And this is just for kicks:
one with nature's guardians

I like that shot a lot, AM.
You can do this to get rid of the ads in PhotoBucket - modify the "url" link they display as follows:

[url=http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k202/drs2328/ScreenShot422-5.jpg]one with nature's guardians[/url]

So you get the same shot with no ads:

one with nature's guardians

If you look right under the pics in the thubmnail page it has the link there for you jsut click it and it auto copys for you.

I don't use PhotoBucket, so I am not sure what you mean, Spike - but I will include this comment in the Guides too. In the above example, I just copied the text from the URL link by the thumbnail and added the "url=", etc.

Edit: I see now, when use the Insert link option in this forum's editor, you can load in the URL link and automate it that way. (I usually do this from notepad first because I don't have options like that on my website and I find when doing a lot of screenies, notepad is way faster than this Forum's editor.)

Yes that is what I am saying. It give you thats url for just the pic here or here.
Just clicking it copys to the clipboard so you just have to past it where you want it.

[greatfool1]

Regarding linking to other posts (and also using img tags, which are not active in TES):

Still can't get the linky thing on this site to work right.

Here is what works for me, using your latest post as an example:

Your <snipped> post:

<Snip>
Listening for termites?

Chiglet

To link to your post in the Screenies thread, go to the top of the page, and copy the url, and subtract 1 from the post #:

Top of page = http://www.shsforums...p...26842&st=40

Your post is #49. Therefore reference 48 (because I imagine the counter is dealing with the number of replies not the op):
http://www.shsforums...p...26842&st=48
add the "url" as follows:

[url=http://www.shsforums.net/index.php?showtopic=26842&st=48]Chiglet[/url]

to yield this:
Chiglet
Funny caption! I am finding the shot a bit too dark for my monitors though.

I think I will put this info in the SS Guides thread for future reference. If anyone has a faster way to do this linking, please let us know.


Linkable thumbnails - not relevant in TES...

What's the code to do linkable thumbnails?

It's basically a combination of the IMG tag, and the link for the pic, here's an example:

[URL=http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z248/Slaying_Souls/ungol.jpg][IMG]http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z248/Slaying_Souls/th_ungol.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Produces this:

[greatfool1]

Quick Summary on how to take a screenie:

You can use Fraps to take pictures, or you can use the default ingame feature, but that requires you to edit the .ini in My Documents\My Games\Oblivion, open that oblivion.ini and find bAllowScreenshot and set it to 1, then go ingame and press print screen, and your picture will be taken. It will not work if AA is on, if you want AA on use fraps for the picture. Then, go under your Oblivion folder, and you'll find the screenshots there, or if you used fraps, you'll find the pictures in the fraps folder. Open up your screenshot and save it as a .jpg and upload it somewhere such as Imageshack

WRYE BASH USE:

Here's what I do for a companion should also work for npc's, using cosmetic compilation at the time so if you are using Beautiful People you'll need an esm of that instead if planning to use rens hairs etc on the npc.

For example changing companion Valeria:

1. Get Wyre Bash
2. Wyre Bash comes with a blank.esp file, take a copy of this and rename to something like facelibrary.esp and stick it in your oblivion data dir.
3. Within Wyre Bash select this facelibrary.esp and import the faces you require from your saved games.
4. I'm using cosmetic compilation so I need an esm version of this file (you can run the esp version and esm version at the same time, your companions will use the esm whilst the save game characters will still use the esp), use Wyre Bash again to create an esm version of it and stick that in your data dir to.
5. Open the tes construction kit and in the data file menu select oblivion.esm, cosmetic compilation.esm, GG_valeria.esp (set this one as active) and facelibrary.esp) *note other companion mods might use other esm's as well be sure to select these.
6. Once loaded, save.
7. Look for Valeria in the npc list, in this case she was an imperial female and open her window, look for your character under what ever race it is and open that window to. Change Valeria's race as required then copy the face data over from your character, I find the hair and eyes don't copy over but the hair and eyes are listed in there windows so you can just select as desired.
8. Save, all done.

*********************************
Using TAI:

Your best friend for action screens is the tai command. You can use it to freeze npcs (or yourself) while they are doing animations like attacking, etc.
I find it easier to make screens that way. Example. =)
Though using the tai command on yourself sometimes will not freeze you in place if you are doing an animation that makes you move (walking, two-handed forward power attack, etc.). But fear not, for I have a solution to that.
If anyone does not know this already, take notes now:
First, make sure you have a mod like actors in charge, or there is almost no point in doing this.
Open the console, and click on yourself (in 3rd person view obviously), then use the createfullactorcopy command.
Now use actors in charge to do the animation you wanted to do on your "clone" self. =D This way the animations that would render the tai command on yourself useless, are now usefull.
But I'm sure most of you knew that already. =)

Very interesting approach, Shadow. I never thought of doing that using the createfullactorcopy command. I will add this to the Screenshooter's Guides thread. Thanks! :goodjob:

Now, is there a way to pause the game and STILL move the camera around?

Spike mentioned trollf's Trick (SS Guides Post #65) - what is cool about it, is that it will keep blades from falling, blood from fading, etc. Follow the instructions carefully though, as you can lock up OB otherwise, though no damage to a game has been reported. Some peeps have not been able to get it to work, but I use it a lot:

Here is an example (REPOST) - all 4 shots are the same but very different points of view:
From the losing contestant's point-of-view [DialUp #1]
From Layla's point-of-view [DialUp #2]
From someone in the audience's point-of-view [DialUp #3]
From some circling vultures' point-of-view [DialUp #4]

Thank you! I've found so many bugs in this game that I've been wary of downloading any mods (though I ran a mod-laden Morrowind I still had less bugs than vanilla Oblivion), but seeing such great pics convinced me to take the plunge. It's like a whole new game! Fingers crossed for no (unreasonable) increase in bugs!

Very nice to hear this, Lulabelle. I also approached the idea of loading up mods cautiously, especially at first, so I know what you mean. But so many of the mods have been test-driven for quite some time now, that you should be fine loading them in almost all cases - particularly if you see they have been downloaded thousands of times and have a 9 or 10 rating!

Of course, it is always best to back up your Oblivion folders - both where the Mods are installed, and where your save games are located - as a precaution. And also, just load one mod (unless two or more are required to run together), try it out for a bit, then load another one, etc. If you are running vanilla oblivion, make sure you have upgraded to its latest version; if you are running OOO 1.3 or Francesco's, check in the Mods Forum and the mod's readme to insure compatibility.

I realize you probably know all the above, given you ran a mod-laden Morrowind, but I wrote it in case you did not and/or others may want this info.

And finally, if it were not for Mods and the screenshooting process, I think I would have finished playing Oblivion quite some time ago. Of course, this is just my opinion. Anyway, have fun, and thanks for your post!

[greatfool1]

Name sites:

Here is a site with some Japanese names

They have lots of other countries too.
I think cyberakadjmoose posted a very cool Names site link once, and I thought I stored it in the Guides thread, but couldn't find it.

http://www.behindthename.com/

Thats the one.

Edit:
I see what I did - I posted it on my Bloodiest Screenies thread...
About naming your character:

Anyone want to help me name the new girl?
One
Two

How about Akemi? It means "Bright and Beautiful" in Japanese.
And if you're ever stuck on a name, this website is amazing!
Edit- It seems that website is down today. But check it out, it's really good!

[greatfool1]

For an effect that makes your character look like a ghost without a mod, do the following:

Stand your character in water of any depth. In 3rd person move the camera below the water level so it is submerged. Now use the "tfc" comand and go look at your character. He/she should be transparent, easily visible at full daylight, but specter-like at night.

Or you could open the console and type Player.AddSpell 4D7D8 - this is the ability that makes ghosts look ghostly. You can also make other NPCs and creatures look ghostly by selecting them in the console and omitting the initial 'Player.' in the command.

Or use this: http://www.tessource...ile.php?id=5999

[greatfool1]

Getting rid of ads in PhotoBucket:

heres my shots of the newly Xivilaied Sin
Sin 02
if anyone has any tips please share them with me :flamed:
thx

Your pictures look good to me in terms of lighting, framing, etc. Try getting closer up in some future shots too.

However, the ads and surroundings in PhotoBucket detract from them. Use the "URL Link" method, i.e., the second option in PhotoBucket, as follows:

[url=http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b120/Doddle576/ScreenShot51.jpg]Sin 02[/url]

to get rid of the ads:
Sin 02

Also, experiment with changing your video settings to 1024x768 - as 800x600 is a bit small. Of course, if you monitor won't allow this, then 800x600 will have to do.

[greatfool1]

Some great Photoshop tips from xantir' posted on the Pictures of Oblivion Characters thread in Mods. Thanks xantir'!

Happy 50th thread! =)
Some hints:

- Color Dodge layer
The first thing you want to do when you open an oblivion screenshot in photoshop is to duplicate the background layer (Ctrl+ J), and set layer options (you choose blending options on the 'Layer' tab, it says 'Normal' at default) to 'Color Dodge' on the new layer. I'm not saying it will always make the shot better, but in most cases it will make the colors and contrast much better.
Be aware of the sky when doing this though, as it will often get too bright. What you want to do in that case is to grab the Eraser tool, and set Opacity (on the eraser, you do this in the upper part of the screen) to 10%. Then gently start erasing where it's too bright. Eyes also tend to get too bright very often.

In the example below I didn't have to erase anything because nothing got too bright. All I did was the step above.
The difference is huge, and is very simple to do.

Before
After

- Black & White
Making your shot black & white can make it really nice. Black & White on wikipedia
There are many different ways of making shots black & white in photoshop. The most common way is to use Image > Adjustments > Desaturate. I advice you to try some other ways, because the result can vary alot.

Open a screenshot in photoshop, duplicate the layer. First; make sure you have set white as foreground color, and black as background color on the "color chooser" on the toolbar. Now apply a gradient map: Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map - click ok.

And you're done! Try experimenting with different blending options (you choose blending options on the 'Layer' tab, it says 'Normal' at default) on the new layer.

Gradient map is my favourite way of making pics black & white in photoshop. It has a much darker effect, and give the evil feel.

In the example below you see the difference between gradient map & desaturation. I've also set the layer opacity to 80%, and erased some parts to make parts of the shot have color)

Gradient Map
Desaturation

- Curves
Image > Adjustments > Curves
Enhances colors & contrast.

What I got from these settings:
Before curves
After curves

- Depth of Field effect
Depth of field @ wiki
There are various ways to get this effect aswell, the easiest way is to use the blur tool (right click on the other tools to make it pop up). When you've got the blur tool up, simply start bluring the background (or whatever part of the picture you want to have out of focus) until you've got the result you want. I suggest using a big brush size (around 300, right click to adjust). Maybe a smaller brush size around the character, so you don't screw up.

A better but more time consuming way is to make a selection around the part you want to have in focus, often this is the character. When you've made a selection (I prefer the polygonal lasso tool, you find it the same way as you find the blur tool, right click on lasso tool and it pops up), right click inside the selection and choose 'Select inverse'. Now you've got the background selected, use Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur (experiment with settings) until you get the result you want.

This is something I did fast to show the result.
It can be done much better if you use time.

Combine these effects and you should be able to make your shots much better.

Thats it for now, I might come up with some more hints later. Hope I didn't forget anything, and if you have a question or spot a mistake, please ask/tell me.
Thanks, and happy editing.

Hey GF1,

I saw a post not too long ago where someone posted a guide using Gimp to highlight the characters in an image and blur the background to give the image a focused look. Now, I can't seem to find that post anywhere. Maybe you remember where it was and would like to include it on your screenshots guide thread.

Yeah, I think saw that one too, ~Lyre~ - but are you sure it was relative to Gimp? There are several posts here for that effect using PhotoShop, so maybe some of these may help you. Sorry, nothing on Gimp - but if either of us find something, definitely post it here.

See Posts 52, 53, 66 for PhotoShop tips on blurring, etc.


Also, I just picked this out of a recent prior PoOC thread:

Heres the repost of my tut.

Ghosty's Photoshoping Your pics tut.

Ok I see a lot of unedited pics and the fine and all but they would have some more power and viability to get commented on if you just took a few moments to touch them up.

A few things before I start: Even tho I say Photoshop you could do most of these in paint, and most definatly in gimp, which is free. Secondly there are something I would cover if I could get some better pics but mine are very chopy so I cant get the best pics. Also I will only becovering the photo editing things, not the actual picture takeing theres very good guides writen on them already.
Ok now on to the things to do.

1. The Crop- well I used this more back in my mw days but still can be used in ob. The use of this is if you forgot to use the tm command in the console.
pros: Gets rid of the hud if you forgot to take it off.
cons:takes more effort than the tm command.
Heres examples before after

2. Brightening- A simple use of the auto levels command in the adjust tab and your pic will be much brighter. Best used on interior/night pics.
pros: Makes pics ezer to see.
cons: makes things too bright sometimes.
pic before
after

3. Blur- my personal fav. This is a very usefull tool, alows you to focus in on a certain item. This is effective if you wish to single out a person in a pic.
pros: Gives a focus point, adds effect to the image.
cons:Can be very hard to undo effectivly makeing certain parts very hard to see.
pics
pic look around the two people

4. Smudge- an intresting effect if used corectly. This can be used in a few difrent ways.
4a. The flame effect- I call it this because I first used it on images of fire to make them look bigger. Its a simple way to create a bigger part of a image without haveing to draw more. simply you drag the effect in the way you wish it to go and then repeat untill you like it.
pics since the flame was already there I just made it bigger same idea
4b. the effect effect-odd name but I use this to make hand draw effects look bigger, same basic idea as the flame effect but you bring in the color.
pics I gave my blade a poision look to it and then gave it a forward motion by bringing the smudge back
simmilar idea
4c. blur with smudge- same idea as blur with the smudge instead of the blur
pic lookie
4d. I'm to lazzy to make a pyco looking mod. Yea I dunno I just made some wings with this tool
pic poke
pros: Can create intresting effects, and help the unable to mod with creating items and such.
cons: can look bad if done wrong and hard to undo.

5 photo editing- adds more detail to a pic. simple
yet another one
pros adds more detail.
cons:can rly mess up a pic if done wrong.

6 Cut and past- Simply useing one pic to cut and then past it in another pic.
pic an example of what you would use
pros/cons: not rly any to either side.

7: Fixing cliping- Ah every one complains about cliping in pics and I my friends have a anwser.....in a way. With any painting program you can fix cliping by coloring in where the cliping happens.
my pics can explain it better than I
explaination of the clipings
the result
another explanation
another result
pros: makes pics look better.
cons: can look bad at times.

8. Burn and doge- good tools for light and dark, gives the "god shining a light down on me" thing.
some light and blur
shield got doged mask got burned
pros: gives more demention than the game.
cons: can look funny.
ok there you go its that simple each of these takes no longer than 10 min, unless you get realy detailed.
ok I I'll have some screen shots latter

A very cool Photoshop Effect and tutorial resource:

Guess I'll post a shot or two as well.
A new spell called Photoshop.

That "spell" is very cool!!! Nice job! What effect is that in Photoshop?

Well, I could explain it here, but I guess it's easier if I link you to the lightning tutorial of PixelPerfect and tell you how I modified it.
Go go Bert!

After adjusting the lightning and colorizing it, I gave it a small twirl of 250 and duplicated the layer with yellowish color and moved it slightly to give it more dimension.
The smoke is a simple difference clouds with screen mode and 75% fill.

Thanks a lot for the link and the explanation. I will post this in the Screenshooter's Guides thread as it looks like a very excellent resource. Your application of it is fantastic!

Edited by greatfool1, 03 August 2007 - 07:08 PM.

[greatfool1]

Hi, I haven't started Oblivion yet, but I'm loving the shots in it so far. Greatfool asked me to post this here as well.

I've been going over some of the screen shots here, and they're all great. I have also been looking at some of the suggestions on using photoshop (which I have, thanks to several family members, as a birthday present), and would like to add a few notes on it as well.

Brightness / Contrast / Gamma: Lots of photos I see posted are much too dark to see, and have to be copied and pasted into photoshop to bring up the lighting. If it's too dark to see, how can someone enjoy it? Always adjust these things before posting (not a flame, just a suggestion).

Filters: There are a number of filters in photoshop and you should experiment with a number of them. You'll be surprised that you thought you could live without them.

Stargate mod for the ES III with a lens flare rendered in it.
Same lens flare with the two moons.

Lighting effect, flashlight with 'glass' effect. One of the sliders in the lighting effect gives a 'glassy' look to it. You can see how it makes this almost photographic quality, and improves the over-all look of the image.

Magic Wand: Adjusted just the dragon's skin in this one. It made it look like the shock spell was giving it a blue-ish glow effect without affecting the rest of the image.

Crop those photos: Just about everyone into photography tells me this. Most of my current screen shots are direct off the screen, but if you're looking to center the viewer's gaze on something, crop it. The game camera normally centers on your own character, and revolves around them. However, if my narration, I might want my character talking to someone and not have the camera centered on me, but on the center point between me and the other person.

Battle, but now the camera is centered between us, not on me. Otherwise, you have a lot of unused space to either the right or left of the action.

Closeups: I found recently in Morrowind's console command (and I assume it'll be on the PC version of Oblivion when I play it) that you can toggle things like AI and Collision, to get very close to a character and not have them attack you, giving you the option of taking those dramatic shots without having to do battle at the same time.
Dagoth Gares, close up.
Corprus guy, close up.
Both of these were with AI and collision off, and cropped. You can see how cropping can help center the attention of the viewer.

High-pass Filter: I think I have fallen in love with this feature of photoshop.

Closeup of dragon's head with this lighting adjusted normally.
After running it through the high-pass filter. Note that you can now count every single scale in the dragon's head, and that's detail I couldn't see in-game, either.

I'm really enjoying these screen shots of Oblivion, the graphics look great. Eventually, I'll get my new PC put together and add this to my list of things to do every evening.

Hope the suggestions help, and keep those great shots coming.

Could look at this

I figured this may be a helpful link for anyone wanting to do this to a screenshot.

I took this shot using AAx4 AFx16 with no bloom

Using photoshop with bloom effect

Here's another photoshop tip that might be handy.

Some pictures you take may have rather rough edges but one way to make them look smoother is using the Blur Tool. By blurring the edges you can get a better smooth picture.

Here's a quick one I made, Before/After

Here's a link to a thread someone posted showing one way to do that effect you mentioned.
http://www.guildwars...mp;postcount=33
(It's for a different game, but it's a photoshop tutorial so I hope it's ok to post a link)

She has a lot of pictures that showcase her work in that full thread. That site gets a bit laggy at times though, so if the link doesn't work, try it again later on.

I'll copy and paste what she has on that thread so at least you guys can read the text if the site is being a punk (thought the images would help, so it's better see her full tutorial). Again, I did not write any of these myself. All credit goes to Bethany.

Step 1: An image. I decided to pick the introduction screen right after login in. Isako has, once again, agreed to pose for me, so here she is in regular screen capture.
Step 2: On the lower right on the Photoshop screen, I right-click on the image and choose Duplicate Layer. This effectively creates a copy of the image and it is placed right on top of the original image. Think of it as two plates of glass placed on top one another.
Step 3: Now, let's blur our image. Remember that Photoshop will apply all effects on the top layer (the one we've just made) unless we tell it otherwise. this is exactly what we want. To do that, go on top, select filters, then Blur, then Gaussian Blur.
At this point, before Photoshop applies the Gaussian Blur, you must set the Gaussian effect. I usually set it at 3.0 pixels which provides a nice 35mm effect.
Step 4: At this point, this is the image we have:
The nice effect of the Gaussian Blur is that it creates a faint and soft halo around just about everything. Isako here has not escaped this nice effect as you can see.
Step 5: Now, we must uncover Isako from the blur. Now you'll notice that the blur is relatively strong and we must see very clearly what we are doing. In order to do this, go to the lower right again, select the opacity and set it at around 75%. Our top layer will become transparent enough to let us work.
Step 6: If any of you in this thread mentioned using the Eraser Tool, well, they were right. But because of the Gaussian Blur, our erasing will let us cut Isako from the background all the while keeping our blur effect. Go to the side tools, select the eraser tool and set it's size at about Hard round 5 pixels.
Step 7: Start erasing carefully around the character without going over in the background. Only erase the character itself. If a space is too small, select a smaller size. Keep on doing this until you've uncovered the character entirely.
Step 8: At this point, my image looks like this:
Step 9: This is the point where we don't need 2 layers anymore. Select Layer then Flatten Image.
Step 10: Here, I usually use a lighting effect. Go to Filter, Render then Lighting Effects.
Step 11: We don't want our lighting effect to be too bright or anything. that's why I use the Soft Omni . But before applying the effect, notice the different options of the lighting effect? Set the Gloss to Matte . Leave the other ones like they are. Also, you can select the center of light and it's radius. Play with it and see what size pleases you more. Then click ok.
Step 12: At this point, my image now looks like this:
[I have no idea why she doesn't have a step 13. Triskaidekaphobia perhaps?]
Step 14: Let's lighten the image. Some areas could use a bit of uplift in term of light. Isako's armor for instance has some nice gold linings that could benefit some exposure. For that, go to the left-hand side toolbar and select the Dodge tool. With this, everything you'll click or pass on will become brighter.
Here again, selecting the size of the brush is important. For Isako I wanted something not too large and not too small. I've selected Soft Round 35 pixels.
Step 15: Here's what my image looks like right now. Notice how Isako's armor has become brighter?
Step 16: We're almost done. Some areas need to be darker. Not too much, just a bit. For that, right-click on the Dodge Tool again and select the one right under: the Burn Tool.
This one is the opposite of the dodge tool. Everything you'll click or pass on will become darker. Don't overdo it unless you want to set a special tone. If you go back to my first post, check the last image depicting my ranger Noa. Notice how much I've used the Burn Tool in order to achieve the incoming thunderstorm. By using the burn tool properly, you can provide with some nice dramatic effect.
We're done. Easy huh? Now let's look at my result by comparing the original and the end result: ...

AGAIN: These are not my instructions. I don't like taking credit for other people's work, so all credit goes to Bethany. I'm just copy and pasting and linking here because she's from a different forum (which is laggy at times).
Thanks for the instructions, Floydian1. I'll give it a try after the holidays. Gonna go out of town and won't be able to mess with Oblivion until I get back.
Thank you, S373N. If you see those blue penguins again, tell them they still owe me $5.
And as greatfool1 said, "She looks much better!". Nice job.

Highpressure
Post #185: So, that is what that pose is for, I never figured that one out before
Post #191: Really nice, although i think you are looking the wrong way
Suggestions/answers to questions/questions: How do you add that gun smoke in pictures like this one?

Well, here goes nothing. I'm going to try to explain the best I can on how to add smoke.

ADDING SMOKE TO ANY PICTURE USING PHOTOSHOP:

1. Create a new layer by clicking the create new layer button in the bottom right panel. [layer should appear above your background].
2. Choose white/black as your foreground & background. (You can do this in the left tool bar if you wish).
3. Making sure the new layer is selected, now select the following: filter/render/clouds. Your new layer will now be filled with smoke or clouds. White in the foreground and black in the background.
4. Now double click your new layer. (make sure to click to the far right and not on the name) This will open up your Blending Options for the new layer.
5. With the blending options window open, we are not going to check any of the boxes. What we want to look at, are the two bars at the bottom of this window. The bar we are interested in has the words This Layer written above it. Notice that the bar goes from black to white, and that there is a little button underneath this bar. That little button has what looks like a dot, or a tiny line in the middle of it. This means that we can separate it!

Holding down your alt key, place your mouse pointer on the button. Now click and drag it to the right. You will notice that the dark ugly smoke/clouds are beginning to blend very smoothly with your picture. Not separating that little button would have given us some ugly hard edge effects. You can drag the separated button all the way to the right if you wish, or until you like the effect. Click O.K. to close the Blending Options window. If you feel that the smoke is still to heavy, simply adjust the opacity to a satisfactory percentage.

6. Now lets remove some of this smoke from our layer/picture. (unless you want it all over the picture that is) We are going to do this by selecting to edit the layer using Quick Mask. The quick mask button is found in the left tool bar near the bottom. It looks like a square with a circle inside of it, and it sits to the right of a button that looks just like it. (the other button to the left is Standard edit mode).

Once clicking on the quick mask button, we are going to select the Gradient Tool from the left tool bar. (once selected, make sure it is black/white) Now choose any edge of the picture and draw a line from that edge up to where you want the smoke to be removed. The screen will turn red in the area that is about to be edited. (the area where you just made that line) Now select the Standard edit button. Remember it's the button that looks just like the quick mask button, and sits to the left of it. After you select standard edit, you will notice that a large portion of your picture has been selected for removal. Well, we don't want to delete that, because then you wouldn't have much picture left.

7. What we want to do now is Invert the selection by pressing Ctrl/Shift/I. Now you will notice that the area selected for removal is the same area that turned red while we were in quick mask mode. Click delete to remove the unwanted smoke/clouds. Repeat the quick mask edits as needed to get the right blend of smoke for your taste. After you're done, just merge your layers, and save your picture.

I hope this helps. This is the first lengthy explanation I have given on anything, and I hope it is not too confusing.

Edited by greatfool1, 04 September 2007 - 07:10 AM.

[greatfool1]

A warning regarding saving your bmp files fairly often:

I spent a few hours setting up shots, shooting, etc. when OB crashed back to the desktop (CTD). No biggie, I thought, and restarted OB. Another few hours of shooting more screenies, and I was done. Well, when I went to retrieve my first few hours of screenies (pre-CrashToDesktop), they were all overwritten by the second batch (post-CrashToDesktop)! Apparently the bmp unique # generator got reset when I crashed the first time and so the second batch just overwrote the first ones with the same "unique" bmp#.

I ran this by a friend, who confirmed this has happened to him. So do periodic copies of your pending bmp files!

Question: which one format is better to take screenshots? bmp or png?

If you want to post your screenies on the internet later then none of these formats is good. Use jpgs instead - it has best quality/file size ratio.

I change them to jpg to use in the internet I just wanted to know which is better for just taking the shots or would jpg still the option?

As for me, I use bmps as base then convert them to jpgs then delete those bmps - I don't bother with png at all. If you want to make some post-processing before release of such images then choose bmps otherwise jpgs should suffice.

For whatever it is worth, I shoot using the default bmp file setting at the highest possible settings (1600x1200; Video at HDR/highest setting) - This generates a 5.5 MB screenie in bmp file format.

Then I bring that into Photoshop and use the Save for Web function at 100% to generate a new jpg. This reduces the shot down to 1MB to 1.5 MB usually. Then for the dialup version, I "image size" the original bmp to 1024x768, and decrease its quality to come in around 110K, using the Save for Web function again. Checking my website on occasion, most peeps still access the broadband version, so there doesn't seem to be an issue about this approach and the large size of the broadband jpg. Though it takes a bit longer to include the Dialup version, enough people access it, so I always include it too.

Regarding converting png type files to jpg files:

...use irfanview instead to convert your images to .jpg format (compression 90-95% is optimal).

open your png or bmp image in irfanview then click on the diskette icon - 'save picture as' window should appear - there you must chose 'JPG-JPEG file' option from the 'save as type' list - in small sticked window set quality slider to 90/95 - chose destination folder and click 'save' button - that's all... ;-]

In fact, there is no noticeable difference between 100 and 95 - in most cases you don't even notice the difference in 90% compressed images.
Try to discover yourself what quality is the best for you. Save some png/bmp images as jpgs with 90 and 95% compression and compare them with the original - if you couldn't spot the difference then stick with 90% images.

Ok, I think it has been said around 1000 times, best FREEWARE program around for fast manipulation of pictures is IRFAN VIEW.
It is free, fast and supports even .dds files ( download plugin for that ).
It can convert your 2MB ( 1024x768 ) .BMP file into nice max. 200Kb ( 1024x768 ) .JPG file
Simple and it needs to be pinned somewhere. All who post in .bmp, .png and .gif please convert your files!

[greatfool1]

What consol command do I use to bring up the race editor? I ask in here because its not really spam, and if I ever do get my screens working I would like to not have my characters face paste green. Thanks in advance, and is there anything I should know before I use the command? Does it cause the game to crash?

showracemenu - but do NOT hit "DONE" when you are done editing. Hit ESC and then save your game, then exit and reload OB and your game. This will retain your Stats properly. If you hit DONE, it will screw your stats up. Also, make sure you save your game before doing the showracemenu command just to be safe.

You know, whenever I try that the save option is greyed out. What am I doing wrong?

From Night Stryke's Console Commands Guide - See End of First Post (#61):
"Some people can't save from the menu; if this happens to you then you can make a save through the console with the command Save SaveName 1.

You have to make sure you do NOT have the menu open when you open the "showracemenu" in the console.

[greatfool1]

Here is a post from the Mods Pictures of Oblivion Characters thread and some instructions on screenshot presentation:

Oblivion Hell Clickable Images ..good for (all), best for dial-up users

Oblivion Hell Slide Show Reel .. works best for cable users

Here is an example of merging two peep's characters into one shot:
Hot, Cool, Vicious...greatfool1's Layla & HP's Erianna!

highpressure, your Flash file (Slide Show Reel) is timed perfectly now in terms of paging, imo. Also the Clickable Images - that is a very cool format too. And as always, both are excellent in terms of content!

Well, I know this may be a lot to ask, but if and when you get time, could you write up a few instructions on:
(1) How you do the "Clickable Images" format.

(2) What presentation package you are using for your Slide Show Reel (Flash movie) and anything else you care to divulge.

(3) How did you kidnap Layla - twice? That is a very cool shot. Is that an extract in PhotoShop CS or CS2? I know that it is not easy in PhotoShop 7, so again, any secrets you may be willing to share about this?

Here is the response I got from highpressure:
Well to start I don't use PS7 (Photo-shop) to merge characters into one shot. What I found most useful is a software called Photo Impressions (much cheaper!). This is a very user friendly photo software (and much cheaper) that allows me to make very quick enhancements to my screens, (equalization, sharpening, etc) as well as touching them up, or cropping them to the desired size. This is where I also place captions on any screen.

I also use this software to layer different screens IE..Layla & Erianna. This can be time consuming, because I have to erase one background to get the desired one. The time consumption comes when I get to the character (in this case Layla) when erasing the background closest to her body, revealing Erianna's background. The Erianna pic was simply the first layer, and nothing had to be done with it afterwards.

Then I just positioned Layla where I wanted her to appear in Erianna's pic, now duplicate her, then flip the duplicate, and slide it to the opposite side. Now I have 2 Layla pics on top of Erianna. Add a few effects to each, and save. Hope that makes sense!

As far as making images click-able, this is very simple. All you need to do is link the smaller screen to the same screen of a larger size. Homestead which host my little site, has web building software that makes this very quick and easy, but it can be done on any web space that allows you to add links, and as long as you have the photo software to crop your images.

Example: In my photo software, I would crop (cut) an image from 1280 x 1024 to 800 x 640. Now I upload them both to my web space, and link the smaller image to the larger one. Now when anyone views my page, or if I link someone to my screen, they will see the smaller image, and by hovering the mouse over the image they will be able to click it and see the same image in a larger size.

For the slide shows I use software called Flash Slider. This is a very simple and user friendly software. It is extremely easy to use. You can load a single image, or multiple images at one time. Now just set the amount of seconds for the images and the transitions. Adding music, or a preloader are options. Save and create the slide presentation in SWf or HTML etc. Now just load the media to your web space.

Additional Notes from greatfool1:
A few caveats about the Slide Show Reel (Flash presenter) - unless you have Cable, it can take a while to download. Even with cable, it may take a bit (30+ secs), though it does then just run after that, with music and captions; so this is worth it, imo. It is also more immersive because you can then just sit back and enjoy it once it is downloaded.

Also, the pics are not full-screen - highpressure - is there a way to get the pics full-screen with the Slide Show Reel (Flash presenter)?

...more to follow...

Here is a Flash Slide Show using a freeware package that works well for bundling sound with pictures, imo:
(Warning - scantily-clad female character included in the following content.)

:headphones: Layla Confesses Her Biggest Addiction (Mostly new screenies with music - for broadbanders only. Then hit F11 to go full screen.)

This is a slide presentation using the same presenter that highpressure introduced on the Mods Pictures of Oblivion Characters thread the other day. Here is the software: Free Flash Slide Show Maker

Please let me know if you see any problems, too slow to download, etc.

Other notes: The actual size of the above content is about 4.5MB and should not be a problem for broadband users. It is 16 pics (about 110K each @ 800x600) and a 3 minute mp3 file. But dial-up users beware.

The software is also extremely easy to use and does a good job compressing; and as highpressure pointed out the other day, it is free. I like how much sound adds to a presentation. I do notice some loss in picture quality, but it still looks fairly good, imo.

[greatfool1]

On how to make text bubbles in Photoshop:

In photoshop I use the elipse tool to make the bubble, text tool for the text, either I adjust the text size or bubble. For the talk I use the polygonal lasso tool and make a triangle having the top point to the character and paint it white, I merge the bubble and triangle together and have the text merge into the bubble. The thought bubble is basically the same thing but just don't use the triangle and use the elipse tool and make smaller bubbles. To make them abit more nice I usually double click the bubble or right-click and goto blending options and use the stroke effect, I set the size to 1 or 2 and for the colour it can be black (basic) or my last speech coversation pictures I used a dark purple for the dark seducer and dark red for the dremora.

My older shots used different speech bubbles because photoshop wasn't working for me at the time so I used paint shop pro. For that I used the preset shape tool and the text tool to make my text bubbles and the elipse tool to make the thought bubbles.

[greatfool1]

For all of those 360 users out there here's something for you taht I made a while ago. How to take screens on a 360! Yes that's right, it's possible.

greatfool1, this thread is great! Keep up the good work.

New Link:
http://z6.invisionfr...hp?showtopic=17

colas has kindly given me permission to post his 360 Screenshooter's Guide on this thread too. I will look to integrate this into the main Guides index at some point. His source link is here: Link

Taking Oblivion Screenshots 102: From Console to PC
-colas

Yes, that's right. I'm going to show you how to take screenshots or make movies from your 360 (Or any other console for that matter). W00t for me! Anyway, just to clarify, I WILL NOT be using a digital camera. Taking screenshots/movie footage through a digital camera is just a bad idea. The quality is crap at best (unless you're a professional and really know your stuff) and it?s very unreliable. Just be warned, you will need to spend some money to take decent screenshots/footage from a console. You can't expect everything to be free.

So here I am going to show you the best way, so far, to take screenshots/footage from a console. Also, you may need to enlarge the shots in this guide to see them clearly.

To start things of here's what you'll need:

1. A decent computer (You'll need something fast and sturdy, plus a medium/large HDD).

2. A capture card (This can be either external or internal).

3. Capture and video editing software (Windows Movie Maker will do for beginners).

4. A dual MALE AV cable (These have a RED, WHITE, and YELLOW points at both ends, much like the cables you plug into the TV.

5. A TV with both AV-In and AV-Out ports.

The setup.

[1] Connect your console to your TV. Making sure the AV-Out ports are free.

[2] Turn on your computer and open up WMM.

[3] Plug the AV cable into the AV-Out port on the TV and the AV-In port of your capture device.

[4] Turn on your console.

[5] In WMM, on the left of the screen, under "Movie Tasks", click "Capture from video device" (If you can't see it you've probably got "Collections" activated, if so, click on the "Tasks" button on the bar near the top of the screen. {Pic}

[6] A screen should appear, select your capture device from the list. Click "Next". {Pic}

[7] Now name your movie and select the location where it is to be saved. Click "Next". {Pic}

[8] Another screen will come up, for now, leave the settings as they are. Once you've gotten the hang of things, then you can mess around with the settings. Click "Next". {Pic}

[9] On this new screen you will be given a few options, again ignore them. Focus on the two buttons "Start Capture" and "Stop Capture". For now they are the only things you need to worry about. {Pic}

[10] When you are ready click "Start Capture" (It's always better to start recording for a few seconds before you start the action, that way you know you've captured everything you want). And when you are ready click "Stop Capture".

[11] You've now recorded your first movie. Click "Finish".

[12] You can now edit your raw footage however you like. Have fun.


How to take a screenshot (From your movie).

:NOTE: This is for beginners using WMM. More advanced programs use different techniques. :NOTE:

1. Open up the movie you want to take a still from. {Pic}

2. Locate the scene you wish a shot of. {Pic}

3. In the bottom right hand corner of the preview window there is a small button with a camera on it, that is the screenshot button. Click it. {Pic}

4. Now select the location to save your screenshot. {Pic}

5. Well done, you've taken your first screenshot.



So there you have it. The basics on how to take screen shots from your console. Remember, there are many different kinds of editing software, and they don't all work the same, I used Windows Movie Maker for this because most people would have it, it's free, and its relatively easy to use (Normally I'd use Sony Vegas 6, but that's a bit too advanced for beginners).



F.A.Q.

Q. Why are the colours all screwed up?
A. You might have dust in the connections. It's also possible that you've changed a setting not realising what you were doing. Reset everything back to the default. If that doesn't work there may be something more serious going on with your hardware. Oh, and for the PAL 360 users. If your console is set to PAL-60, it may not work. Change it back to PAL-50 and see if it helps.

Q. PAL what?
A. Lol, these are the PAL settings for your XBOX 360. They can be accessed from the XBOX 360 Dashboard in System->Console Settings->Display->PAL Settings. Most TV's support PAL-60 but most computers don't.

Q. Why can't I hear anything when I record.
A. This can be due to many reasons. The connections are loose at the TV/Capture Card end. The correct setting has not been selected when recording (Normally it will be "Line-In" or "Auxiliary", try a few different ones out and see what works). Your speakers aren't turned on (simple I know, but I've forgotten once or twice).

Q. Why aren't my screenshots as good as ***'s.
A. That's because on the PC you can save directly to the hard drive. This gives you better pictures because, 1. There is no loss of quality as data is transferred. It's like photocopying a page, then photocopying the photocopy. If you kept doing it you'd eventually end up with a black page. It's the same with this, you're going from a TV, to your computer, to a movie (compression results in a loss of quality) to a screenshot, 2. He can save at a much higher resolution. Essentially just dumping (copying) their screen into a jpeg, while almost every step of taking a screenshot from a console results in compression, so more and more pixels are discarded and quality drops. Oh yeh, they've also got more pretty things to take pictures of.

[greatfool1]

I have another useful tutorial in the form of a video here that deals with the 'tai' command, allowing you to freeze baddies mid-swing and such.

"Go into God Mode via TGM in the console, then TCL, then walk through to wherever you want."
If you are going to do that, then the first console command you should use is tai to freeze all the NPCs in place. I have done this a few times and I can tell you that there is a good chance you will mess up the beginning of the main quest for your character. You can put it back on track by using the setstage command and going through the motions. It is actually a fun thing to do and it will teach you how to work your way through other glitches.

[greatfool1]

Your life ends here !
Oh [censored]

Very cool capture! Is this the Star throwing mod trollf mentioned a few days back? It also lets you throw blades too?

Someone already asked and Treetop posted before that that is just TCL with the dagger in the air and it looks like a casting animation for the throwing look.

I saw that post now that you mention it and all I remember was something about using TCL.

Even so, I still don't get how it was made with a dagger. I know you can use TCL to move your chars anywhere, but he did this with the dagger?

I would like to put the answer into the Guides thread too, unless I am just being thick-headed and not getting something really obvious.

Just pick up the dagger with Z key and hold it in the air where you want it then use TCL and it will stay there.

You drop the dagger, pick it up with the Z key (grab) move it into position, now holding the z key still to keep the dagger in position bring down the console (make sure nothing is selected) and type tcl. When you let go of the z key the dagger will be frozen in position.

More examples: One, Two

I have tried using the Z key and it never seems to work for me at least when I tried it with Realistic Ragdolls and Force V3 on NPCs. I am sure I was doing something wrong.

I assume what you are saying above does not involve this mod or any other mod, right?

EDIT: Ok, now I see what you are saying. Man, that will come in handy for certain action shots especially.

EDIT2: Thanks Floydian1 and Spike4072. Off to the Guides thread with this...

No mods needed

Repost:

Volley

Edit: To answer you Greatfool1: The arrows are done by simply dropping them one at a time with TCL on. Simple as that. Its a bit time consuming but the results look quite pleasing.

[greatfool1]

Using Texture Replacer is quite easy actually.

Click on Texture Replacer to open it up. Now you want to navigate it to your default OB installation. Usually C:\Program files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\ ... Click on the Data folder, then the Meshes folder. Now locate the folder that contains the mesh for the item whose texture you wish to replace. Once you locate the desired mesh, click on it. Texture Replacer will now show the Texture used by the mesh you just clicked.

Now just click on that line which shows you the texture used. This will open up a small window still displaying the current texture. To the right you will see an [X] at top, [...] in the middle, and [V] at the bottom. Click the middle [...]. A new window opens. Now you want to navigate to your Texture Folder. Click the down arrow at the top of the window, and select the Data folder. You will see all the folders that reside inside the data folder. Go down to the textures folder and click it, to open it.

Now all that is left is for you to locate the folder that has the (new) texture you wish to use for the mesh you selected at the beginning. Once you do so the utility will close.

Note: Some meshes have more that one part. In this case, you made need to have all parts changed to use the new texture. In the case of a sheathed blade for instance. When clicking on the mesh for the blade you will notice that it has 2 textures. The first one is usually for the blade itself, while the second one is for the sheath.

In a case where I want the sheath to match my PC's clothing, I would replace the second texture (sheath) in this case, with the texture that is use by the outfit (mesh) my PC is wearing... using the procedure explained above.

Hope this makes a little sense. After you do it once, it gets extremely easy to do over and over again. B)

The following tutorial is based on Sahardoom's Sky Mod which I highly recommend.

I really enjoy your futuristic shots, and also your sky mod, btw. Is there a simple method of changing the red moon to blue or some purplish hue?

Simple...
Download DXTBmp and open textures you wish to change, save alpha.
Open texture in IrfanView, swap colors ( image toolbar, scroll down down to swap collors and play around ), save what you like as BMP

Open DXTBmp, drag you BMP into it, add alpha that you saved one moment ago, save as DDS5 with alpha, and you have it ( names must be same as original )

This is a noob comment to be sure - but I assume this procedure will keep the moon that color for future shots (until I reinstall the defaults from your mod).

Much appreciated, and I will put your posts into the Screenshooter's Guides thread for later reference.

Edit: I just installed the DXTBmp program and now see what you are saying above. Thanks for the clear instructions!

You need to change all textures ( full, half_wan, half_wax.... ) after that take your pictures...

I made in 25 minutes this changes so that you can see some texture playing...

ORIGINAL, nothing special

SIMPLE SWAP ( RGB -> GRB ), changed color to blue, no fun

COMPLEX SWAP ( SIMPLE SWAP + ADOBE 8BF FILTER PLUGIN ), now this is nice, fun, fun, fun!

Works nice, all free, all IrfanView and DXTBmp
Original Screenshots data: 1088x612----->1.914 KB BMP
Saved in IrfanView ( batch conversion, 3 pictures, resize width 1024, canvas size +96 top/bottom, 90% JPG ): 1024x768----->120KB JPG