Fun with Filters

Meresine_DynamicBoostCool

Adobe Photoshop CS6’s filter gallery is a popular technique for making your screenshots look artsy, but it’s not quite as effective when dealing with NPCs because it mostly just blurs their faces. Still, I’ve found it’s remarkable how much mileage you can get out of ordinary screenshots when you apply the right filter.

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This is just done with the standard CS6 oil paint filter. I just played around with the sliders until I got the desired result. I also noticed if you raise the SHINE slider you get pure nightmare fuel, so I’d advise against doing that.

Of course, rather than mess around with the filters, it’s always easier to just install a plugin. Right now I’m trying out Topaz Simplify, and it’s pretty fucking boss.  For instance, the picture at the top of the post is Meresine approaching a Giant Camp, done with Dynamic Boost plus some additional saturation to bring out the colors.

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However, I think it’s with these pictures that the plugin really shines, and best of all, they require little to no adjustment. This shot of Anum-La‘s tree is just a standard PAINTING IV setting. The picture below is the same with added brightness.

Talos_Topaz_Meresine

Lurgok_Topaz

The Talos Shrine where you meet Meresine is above. Given it was night it required raising the brightness slider a ton, but the plugin really brings out the colors when you do. Riften’s fairly bright so there was no need to brighten or saturate the other one. It’s a shot of Lurgok watching over the bones of his offering to Malacath.

Viranya_Watercolor

Topaz also has a watercolor filter, but it requires some additional brightness and saturation to get it to look right. I still prefer the PAINTING II and PAINTING IV settings overall, but it’s always good to experiment and see what comes out. This shot of Viranya was done with the WATERCOLOR II setting.

In any event, if you have Adobe Photoshop CS6, it’s a pretty cool plugin to have. Works well with Skyrim screenshots anyway. It’d be interesting to see how it does with real life photos, but that would require going outside.

Blood and Silver

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Welcome to another episode of screenshots. Today, I ditched Daenlyn in favor of one of the newest followers, Bear-Foot Froa, and continued gallivanting around Skyrim. Don’t worry Oakhollow fans, I’ll pick him up again if and when his new lines are recorded, but as of now I don’t want to add any more to his queue with quests lines being a priority.

After doing a speed run through The Immortal Coil, the first thing I needed to check was whether the roaming Thalmor I added was disabled, and to do that, we needed to return to Markarth.

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Serana was quite pleased, because it gave her a chance to relax and dip her feet into this bear. Can’t say I blame her. Looks comfy.

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For those who don’t know, blood and silver are what flow through Markarth. If you didn’t know you must not play a lot of Skyrim, because they say it a lot. The blood and silver thing. Of course, if Markarth is known as the City of Stone, then it also stands to reason that you can’t draw blood from it. This is a terrible joke I made up, not only because it is unfunny but because using idioms in the presence of Serana is never a good thing. She tends to take them literally.

2014-04-03_00008Little Cosnach has waited his entire life to sit at the big kid table. No more holiday dinners sitting with his toddler cousins who can barely eat solid foods, let alone hold an intelligent conversation on why girls are gross and whether it’s better to be Kolb or the dragon. No, Cosnach is a big boy now, and he’s welcome to all the perks that come with.

Still no shipments coming in though.

Look, the effects of solitary confinement on the mind are well documented, so I don’t mean to make light of Serana’s array of mental illnesses, but man, not a day goes by where I don’t turn my head around and find her doing something positively crazy.

Of course this is my fault for saying you can’t draw blood from a stone. Tell Serana she can’t do something, and she will break the rules of the universe to prove you wrong. Well, not this time, nutto. Maybe unwavering belief will work in your Chinese cartoons, but out here in the western fantasy world, logic and reason rule the day.

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While the blood never came, what Serana did manage to draw was the attention of the guards. Although I suppose they would’ve come anyway given I refused to surrender. Fortunately the more bodies pile up the greater the effect of the Ritual Stone. Yesterday’s foe is today’s friend. And with a small army at my back, I decided to capture the city.

No one has ever broken out of Cidhna Mine, but has anyone broken in? Now I was thinking with Seranas. Unfortunately, an invisible wall thwarted our attempt, although I did try consoling my way to Madanach and slaughtering everyone inside. Also, this happened.

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Ultimately it didn’t matter, as Froa and Serana alone were enough to take down Madanach’s crew. Well, all except for Grisvar the Unlucky, who briefly ran out, took one look at Froa and trotted back to his hole.

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At this point I decided to Oblivion with this city and went after all the remaining guardsman in Markarth. Froa got to kill Ondolemar, which must’ve felt good, and Serana got to run around and shoot sparkly lights out of her hands, which is always a treat for her. All in all another successful adventure, although I only managed to write a handful of lines.