Open jobs for texturers

[Razorwing]

This is a list of open texture jobs in the Silgrad Tower team. The jobs come in two broad categories where one is replacing TES3 textures and the other creating wholly original texture designs for our mod. It's a good idea if you have extensive, previous experience with creating game textures before taking on a job listed here, but you don't really need to have any experience creating textures specifically for Oblivion as I'm happy to offer technical help whenever necessary. Likewise if you have any questions about a job just send me a PM or post a reply in the thread.

---

black[/hr]
Replacing TES3 textures

---

black[/hr]

[title]Ash Grass[/title]

-download-
Priority: 3
Specs: 256x1024
The ash grass texture looks like a blade of grass that has a red-brown hue to it. It doesn't need transparancy, which means your texture will fill the whole canvas. It doesn't need to tile in any direction. The grass models using this texture are fairly large, that's why the size specs is high. The models are used as decoration, not as in-game Oblivion grass.

[title]Ash Yam[/title]

-download-
Priority: 3
Specs: 256x512, tile seamlessly left-to-right
This is a texture for "Morrowind potatoes". They were a fairly common sight in the old game, especially on farms, and are counted as one of the staple foods of Dunmer cuisine.

[title]Bittergreen Clover[/title]

-download-
Priority: 2
Specs: 256x256 and 64x256
Please study the original texture intently. In the background you'll see three leaves, and in the foreground are five very large stamen (or stamen-like growths). Because Morrowind operated on a different facecount level than we do today, the company had to make a composite image like Tx_bittergreen_02. Today the facecount level is higher, so we can afford to make plants a bit more realistic. So I would like one green-gray leaf texture (size: 256x256) and one turqoise-green stamen texture (size: 64x256) that mimic the appearance of the old texture. Neither texture needs to be seamless, but they do need transparancy. I can make the transparancy myself, though it helps if your textures have a clearly definied outline.

[title]Black Anther[/title]

-download-
Priority: 3
Specs: 64x128 seamless in all directions; 256x256 seamless left-to-right
This is the petal texture for a common, beautiful flower found throughout Morrowind. The texture doesn't need to be seamless but it does need transparancy. I can make the transparancy myself, though it helps if your textures have a clearly definied outline. -This screenshot- shows the textures we currently use.
[indent][/indent]The problem with the petal texture is that it looks too close to the TES3 texture but at the same time looks different in the wrong way. The problem with the stem texture is, well, that it looks bad and unlike the stem texture should look like. To make things interesting the Black Anther never had a specific stem texture; like many other plants it just used the bittergreen stem texture. But - yep, you guessed it - our bittergreen stem texture looks too close to the original while at the same time looking different in the wrong way.
[indent][/indent]The stem texture should be 64x128. Please make twice as tall as it is wide. It should be midway between light grey and light brown in hue and preferrably as bland and general as possible without looking bad -- like a real-world stem is.
[indent][/indent]The petal texture should be 256x256. Please use the original texture as blueprint for how your texture looks, except make it better in cases where you can.

[title]Ceramic bowl[/title]

-download #1 download #2-
Priority: 4
Specs: 1024x256 and 256x256, tile seamlessly left-to-right
These textures are used on a commonly occuring type of bowl found in many Dunmer homes. Your 'large' texture should look like the side of a clay bowl with an ornate, swirly pattern on it. Your 'side' texture should look the same, but instead of the ornate, swirly pattern it should look generalistic. The 'large' texture is used on the outside of the bowl while the 'side' texture is used on the inside and on the bottom. If you check out the old 'large' texture you'll see that it looks more like it's made out of metal, which is strange. Your textures should look like clay. The old 'large' texture also has fake shadows in the grooves of the pattern, which made sense in Morrowind but not in Oblivion where we can use normal maps to achieve that effect much more realistically. So, skip the metal look and skip the fake shadows, but do please use the pattern as a guide when you make your own pattern. (On a sidenote: it should not look like redware)

[title]Corkbulb[/title]

-download #1 download #2-
Priority: 4
Specs: 512x512, seamless [for 01] and 256x1024 [for 02]
The Corkbulb is a bulbous plant that looks almost like a miniature palm tree, and was a farily common sight in the old game. We need a texture for the fat stem and another for the leaf. The stem texture needs to be seamless in all four directions, but the leaf texture won't, but it does need transparancy. I can make the transparancy myself, though it helps if your texture has a clearly definied outline. Just like on the old 02 texture, your leaf texture has to be anchored to the base of the canvas.

[title]Dunmer Lute[/title]

-download-
Priority: 3
Specs: 1024x2048
The lute is a misc item found here and there. If you check out the old texture you'll see a weird line going left-to-right near the top; this is actually the texture for the strings of the lute. You don't have to mimic that exactly, but it's nice if you do include a small, seamless texture for the string composited directly into the lute texture. Feel free to be creative when making your lute texture and I'll then recreate the lute model according to your work.

[title]Fire fern[/title]

-download-
Priority: 3
Specs: varies
These are textures for a fern seen here and there throughout Morrowind. It gets its name from having a red hue. The 01 texture is for the branch clovers, the 02 is for the leaves behind the petals, and the 03 texture is for the petals themselves. To get a better sense of how the textures were applied on the old model, you can check out the Morrowind nifs in Nifskope: #1 #2 #3
[indent][/indent]The 01 texture should be 1024x2048, the 02 should be 128x256 and the 03 should be 256x256. The 01 needs transparancy, which I can make myself though it helps if your texture has a clearly definied outline. Neither texture needs to be seamless.

[title]Willow flower stamen[/title]

-download-
Priority: 4
Specs: 256x256, seamless left-to-right
The willow flower is a commonly occuring flower in Morrowind. I've been able to use textures for all parts except for the stamen, which are rather distinct. It needs seamless left-to-right, and it needs transparancy. I can make the transparancy myself, though it helps if your texture has a clearly definied outline.

[title]Gold Kanet Petal[/title]

-download-
Priority: 4
Specs: 512x512
The gold kanet is an extremely common flower in Morrowind. This texture is for a cluster of small flower heads which grow on branches in a clover formation. It doesn't need to be seamless, but it needs transparancy. I can make the transparancy myself, though it helps if your texture has a clearly definied outline. The stem has to start at the base of the texture, else the clusters will look like they're floating. Apart from the main flowercluster texture please also supply an additional texture with just a single flower, which could be very useful.

[title]Item pot textures[/title]

-download- #1 #2 #3 #4
Priority: 4
Specs: 1024x1024
These are textures used on Dunmer pots. All of them need to be seamless left-to-right. The glass textures need some technical work on them to look like glass in-game, but I can make those changes without much trouble.

[title]Kreshweed leaf[/title]

-download-
Priority: 4
Specs: 512x1024
The kreshweed is an extremely common plant in the north part of our lands and mainly consists of large leaves, which this texture is meant for. It doesn't need transparancy, so your texture will fill the whole canvas. It doesn't need to be seamless.

[title]Marshmerrow[/title]

-download #1 download #2-
Priority: 4
Specs: 128x1024, seamless [for 02] and 512x512 [for 03]
Marshmerrow is a common weed that grows in water throughout Morrowind, and looks not unlike a diminutive bamboo tree. The 02 texture is the stem, which as you can guess by the size specs is thin and long. It needs to be seamless in all four directions. The 03 is a leaf cluster, which doesn't need to be seamless but it does need transparancy. I can make the transparancy myself, though it helps if your texture has a clearly definied outline.

[title]Rusty metal border strips[/title]

-download #1 download #2-
Priority: 4
Specs: 512x128, seamless
These are border textures that look like rusty metal with a repeating pattern on them. They are used a lot on our models, especially on lowerclass clutter items, like on the rim of a goblet for instance. The idea is to make the borders look decorative but at the same time not look ornate nor expensive.

[title]Redoran leaf border[/title]

-download-
Priority: 4
Specs: 2048x1024, seamless
This is a slab of primitive concrete which has a large indentation, and in the indentation is a weird painting that I personally think resembles a mutated leaf. It's used a lot in Redoran architecture.

[title]Redoran brown border[/title]

-download-
Priority: 4
Specs: 1024x128
A rather common border texture in Redoran architecture.

[title]Redoran Door[/title]

-download #1 download #2-
Priority: 4
Specs: 256x512
As you can probably guess the doors that use these textures are very common in our, mod and occur in the hundreds. There's two of them because there's two types of door in Redoran architecture, one that's arched [01] and one that has a rounder top [02]. Please do use the old textures as a template because our door models are made to fit the textures and the rest of our architecture made to fit the doors.

[title]Redoran roundpattern border[/title]

-download-
Priority: 4
Specs: 2048x1024, seamless
This border is fairly common in the upperclass Redoran tilesets. As you can see, it's a primitive conrete slab which has a very large indentation, and in the indentation is a painted pattern.

[title]The bug rug[/title]

-download-
Priority: 4
Specs: 2048x1024
The texture forms the base of a very common rug in our mod, with it's most distinguishable feature being the woven pattern of a large beetle in the center.

[title]Roundpattern rug[/title]

-download #1 download #2-
Priority: 3
Specs: 512x512, seamless; 512x64, seamless
This texture is tiled several times on one of our common rugs. It also has a border texture, used on the slim sides of the rug.

[title]Velothi borders[/title]

-download- #1 #2 #3 #4 #5
Priority: 4
Specs: varies, all seamless
These are five border textures commonly used in Velothi architecture. Feel free to be creative. Your version of Tx_V_strip_01 should be 2048x512, Tx_V_strip_02 2048x1024, Tx_V_strip_03 2048x512, Tx_V_strip_04 2048x1024, Tx_V_strip_05 2048x1024, and Tx_V_strip_06 2048x512. You don't have to commit to making all of them in one go.

---

black[/hr]
New, original Silgrad textures

---

black[/hr]

[title]Morag Tong Tapestry[/title]
Priority: 4
Specs: 1024x2048
We need a tapestry for the Morag Tong, which Seniosh is modding. In texture terms we need a sheet of cloth that looks like it has the guild symbol woven or painted onto it. If you can't or would rather not create the base cloth texture then there are zillions of cloth textures on the net you can use as base for your texture. The important thing is the symbol, which of course can't be found through any other means than creating it. For reference, here- is how the Morrowind symbol looked. Note that the image shows the symbol stamped in wax, as TES3 used it for bookart. In this post VABG attached an outline of the symbol that might be very helpful to someone who wants to create the symbol.
[indent][/indent]While being featured on a tapestry is one of the symbol's uses, it also has several others - perhaps most importantly as a faction icon, but it also has the potential of being used as bookart or grafitti. So please supply the .psd files you developed so that I (Razorwing) can potentially tweak it for additional applications. The texture should be twice as tall as it is wide.

[title]Mip-map modification of RedoranWallZarf01.dds[/title]
Priority: 2
Specs: 2048x2048, seamless in all directions
I'm using RedoranWallZarf01.dds as the main wall texture for Soluthis' city walls. I like the texture itself, but it really needs some mipmap work done to it because if you tile it several times and then look at it from a distance you can see repeating patterns in it. Perhaps all that's needed is to make the mipmaps fuzzier. I don't have the competence to work on mipmaps myself though, so I'd like to request someone more skilled in texturing help me with that.
[indent][/indent]While I do like the texture itself, I like it from an intrinsic perspective and perhaps not as much from the perspective of it being used as a Redoran wall texture. It looks like stone, and although stone features heavily in Redoran architecture you don't make walls out of single pieces of stone like that. I would rather use a texture that looks closer to primitive concrete. It's hard to explain how I would like it to look, so I'll refer to -this Redoran TES3 texture- which perfectly captures the kind of primitive concrete I'm thinking of.

[title]Sixth House textures[/title]
Priority: 3
Specs: varies
This request was originally added because mmmpld started working on Sixth House models, but he ceased working after awhile and we haven't heard from him since. However I'll most definitely create Sixth House paraphernalia in the future, but it's a catch-22 since I don't have any useable textures for them. Morrowind retexture packs haven't yielded any appropriate replacements. If I get the textures I'll commit to start work on the models promptly.
[indent][/indent]If you're not familiar with what Sixth House is, then a brief explanation is that they are an evil Dunmer cult whom are hated by everyone else because they betrayed the other Houses (~clans) long ago. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind saw the player defeating the cult's uprising and thus saving Morrowind from being thrown into a fascist, xenophobic dark age.
[indent][/indent]As far as I know there's 23 textures, which can be found in the reference archive linked above. Making the new textures twice as large as the originals should work wonderfully; when in doubt, go for the larger alternative. Sixth House textures feels (at least to me) like a blend between influences of Dunmeric, evil, and gothic. There's the iconography from the Dunmer culture, like on the dagoth symbol and Tx_metal_6th_bells.tga, glowing red details from 'evil' influence, and gothic from the heavy iron and wealth of details.

Download reference files
Screenshot of Sixth House Base In TES3

[title]Swirlwood replacements[/title]
Priority: 2
Specs: varies
The"swirlwood" textures from TES3 resemble ornate, carved wood. We use replacements for them already but the replacements look more like wood with precious metal inlay, which isn't close to the carved-wood effect they're meant to have nor does it resemble the original design. Swirlwood is used frequently on rich-style furniture and other extravagant items.
Download reference files

[title]Redoran Faction icons[/title]
Priority: 1
Specs: 128x128
We need faction rank icons for House Redoran, similar to the icons found in textures\menus\stats\ fighters_guild_ranks_icons. Use your discretion when creating them. House Redoran has eleven ranks; Hireling, Retainer, Oathman, Lawman, Kinsman, House Cousin, House Brother, House Father, Councilman, Master, Arch-master.

[title]The Weekly Cuttle book art[/title]
Priority: 1
Specs: 512x128
We have a custom model texture for Soluthis' broadsheet edition, but - we don't have any custom book art for it. So as a player you'll see our broadsheet lying around a home, open it, and the top of it reads "The Black Horse Courier". The original broadsheet uses "textures\menus\book\broadsheetheader01.dds", which you'll use as reference. Book art textures aren't much different than model textures.

[title]Plank[/title]
Priority: 1
Specs: 512x2048
We don't have a proper plank texture in our collection, which is at times rather constrictive. We have oodles of wood textures, and even those that look like the top and bottom of a plank, but they don't come out looking right on the short sides. The short sides should look sawed-off, not smooth as the top/bottom sides as our current selection has. A good Oblivion example is the lowerclass chair type-1, where textures\clutter\lowerclass\plankstain.dds serves as the plank and textures\wood\WoodPostend03.dds serves as the sawed-off short side.
[indent][/indent]The more inconspicious it is the better, so that we can use it in most situations. I would go back and update a lot of the wood mapping if a plank texture like that is created. Please make two versions of the texture, where the second version has nails painted onto it. The painted nails should have a fake shadow effect like the nails on Oblivion's textures do; an example is textures\wood\woodfloor03old.dds. (Don't use highlights on the nails, the highlights are added in-game via the normal map's specular channel)

[title]Bookart request: Fancy letters[/title]
Priority: 1
Specs: varies
I was fiddling around with a book I wrote years ago for the TES3 mod, and while working on it decided to try and bring in a special set of fancy letters for Silgrad Tower books. It went well from a technical viewpoint, as you can see in the screenshot-. The letter textures display just fine, being a DXT3-type dds with alpha transparancy without no mip-maps. But they look bad, since their size and opacity was intended to work on a website rather than a game.

So I would like to kindly request a new set be made. Please use the font Magic Medieval, but other than that you're free to decide the style. We need A-Z (capitals only), 0-9, and ideally also a few special characters that are very likely to be used in the beginning of sentences like hypens and quotation marks. If a book contains dialogue for instance it's likely it'll use either hyphens or quotation marks, so those will be very useful, but you'll never use for instance a comma.

Like with Bethesda's letters the textures should be 64x64 pixels large, but it's okay to extent to 128x64 if you have to. The texture has to be anchored to the center left corner of the dds texture. It seems that it doesn't matter if the letter fills out the whole dds template horisontally, but it should fill out most of it vertically. It has to do with how the game displays book text. As you can see in the screenshot I anchored the letter to the top left corner when I expanded the template to 64x64. Because the letters weren't designed for this use there was empty room below them, so in-game it looks like the letter has 'hopped up' and become misaligned. So; expand the template to 128 pixels horisontally if you need to, it doesn't seem to matter, but make sure you fill it up vertically.

If you want to check them out then Bethesda's are located in Oblivion\Data\textures\menus\book\fancy_font. Especially note the way they made their opacity maps; the outer edges of the visible opacity is grayish, and yours should have that too because it'll look smoother ingame.

Please name the files "letter_widthxheight.dds", or in other words "a_68x61.dds" and so on. The width and height should be the dimensions of the real graphic, not the dimensions of the dds template. It's a good reminder when a modder is specifying their size in the book text.

Since I started experimenting with bookart only recently it's possible I misunderstood something about their use. If you reach a different conclusion on something than I did then by all means go with your conclusion. I think it would be a good idea if you made a single letter to start with, so I can test it out and make sure it displays like anticipated in-game.

(A nice extra would be any kind of fantasy-like graphic that can be used to separate text, the kind of graphic like on this website but naturally one that makes sense for a book. It's not very important though.)

[n00biepl0x]

Originally posted by Razorwing
Cushion trim texture
I recently modelled a Dunmer cushion because I wanted to use it in an interior I modded, but I noticed we didn't have a good alternative for the trim texture which goes along the sides of it. So, I would like to request a recreation of the TES3 texture "TX_cushion_trim_01.tga" (can be downloaded here).

The texture looks like a leather texture with two rows of strong, horisontal stitches going across it. It needs to tile left to right, but not up to down. Please make it 1024 pixels wide and 128 pixels tall. TIA

This was the best I could do.

[AndySlayer]

My rendition of the required tapestry:

[VABG]

I just remembered that I've got a useable version of the Morag Tong symbol in photoshop format. I can send it to those who need it... If you don't have photoshop this picture could perhaps do fine(is is just me or does it looks like some kind of strange bug/animal?).

[Razorwing]

Thanks n00biepl0x and AndySlayer, they look great! :goodjob:

I'll try them out as soon as I get the chance. In the meantime could you guys send me zipped bitmap versions of the textures? It's always handy to have uncompressed versions of them.

Nice work VABG! I'd like to have a copy of the psd file if I may

[n00biepl0x]

Razorwing, I e-mailed you the file.

Tx_Ashl_banner_06.tga
I'd like to request a recreation of the texture "Tx_Ashl_banner_06.tga" from Morrowind. It was one of the textures Bethesda used for TES3's square cushions, which I'm recreating. A width of 512 and a height of 1024 would be great.

Here's the TES3 texture on my square cushion mesh:

what's wrong with the old one?

I can sharpen it a bit and make it oblivion quality of it isn't already...

[Ghogiel]

the old one is from the game Morrowind and the copyright is own by Bethesda. modifying someone elses work, especially by applying photoshop filters doesn't qualify a new work of art

Make all your own pixels.

[n00biepl0x]

Ok, this was what i could do fast with the cushion, Tell me if you like the stitching and tell me if you like the fabric, then I'll make a version with straight stitches and a bit sharper fabric.

these are "my own pixels" but I used the shape of the old one, is that ok?

[Razorwing]

n00biepl0x: No, that texture won't work. The cushion trim texture is a border texture that goes on the side of a cylindrical object. It needs to work with different kinds of textures on the top and bottom of the cylinder - so it needs a solid graphical border on the top and bottom - and it needs to tile with itself horisontally. I'm sure it's not the easiest of texturing jobs.

[n00biepl0x]

Is it about Tx_Ashl_banner_06.tga
or about:

Originally posted by Razorwing
Cushion trim texture
I recently modelled a Dunmer cushion because I wanted to use it in an interior I modded, but I noticed we didn't have a good alternative for the trim texture which goes along the sides of it. So, I would like to request a recreation of the TES3 texture "TX_cushion_trim_01.tga" (can be downloaded here).

The texture looks like a leather texture with two rows of strong, horisontal stitches going across it. It needs to tile left to right, but not up to down. Please make it 1024 pixels wide and 128 pixels tall. TIA

also, please draw me a five-second sketch of what you have in mind with paint or so because I don't really understand what you mean. I remade the old texture with other sizes.