Creating Tattoos

The "TatGuide" file is a 4000 x 4000 pixel PNG image with a transparent background. It shows nearly all the skin regions you can apply tattoos on.

Tattoos are image files that are applied over your orc character. Image editing capabilities are not included in Bonfire. You will need your own image editing program to create your tattoo files.

Getting Started

To start creating tattoos, open the console by pushing the <F1> key and enter the tatguide command. This command will create the tattoos folder in your Bonfire mods directory, save a copy of TatGuide.png in that folder, and open the folder in your file explorer.

Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 12.5 MP

"BlackWolfBattle2" is a completed tattoo image. Note that the "TatGuide" image content is not included in the finished tattoo.

Celtic-style tattoos applied to "Gunnar." It's not terribly obvious in this image, but body hair does obscure tattoos. Always consider body hair in tattoo placement and design.

A seamless back tattoo applied to "Gunnar." Tattoos like this are difficult, because the torso template has a seam at the center back that is not a straight line. Finesse is required to match the seam precisely.

Creating your Tattoo

You will need a raster image (photo) editing program and some familiarity with it to create your own tattoo. Common image editing programs include Adobe Photoshop, Corel Photo Paint, and GIMP. There are many other photo editing programs available at different prices. If you're already familiar with vector editing tools (like Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw) you can use those tools, but the learning curve is a little higher.

There are two important features your image editing program needs to help you create tattoos:

• Export as PNG
• Layers

"Export as PNG" is important because tattoo files use the PNG file format. Attempting to apply other file formats as tattoos will fail.

"Layers" are just what the word implies: sections of image stacked on top of other sections of image. Adobe's help library does a pretty good job of explaining how layers work. Any good photo editing program will support layers in some way.

Layers let you build your tattoo image on top of the TatGuide content, and then just hide the guide layer when it's time to export your tattoo. Layers let you build your tattoo image in sections, protecting the work you're satisfied with from damage you may inadvertently cause. Learn to use layers well, and you can easily fine-tune your tattoos and save yourself from using "undo" a lot more than you need to.

Graphics editor resources

Many of these programs are very powerful. You're going to want to find places to get training on them.

• There are a lot of YouTube channels where people offer video training on graphics program features. Some are good. Some are not.
• Lynda.com is Microsoft's online training division. It offers training by industry-leading instructors. It's expensive, but there are ways to get free access. Many USA public libraries offer free Lynda.com access to their patrons. Many colleges and universities offer LinkedIn Learning (the business rebranding) to their students, faculty and staff. Some businesses also offer LinkedIn Learning to their employees as a professional development service.

Finding training on the image editor you're using will make the concepts described in this article much easier to implement.

The Basics (using Photoshop)

The examples here use Adobe Photoshop, but the concepts can be translated to any layers-based graphics program.

For this example, we will place a tattoo image on an orc's right pectoral muscle.