Need for advanced tutorials

[ra5946]

Hello all

I'm sure most of you noticed that there all several modders out there that are way ahead of the curve. I've seen new animations, morphing and even a cloak that changes it's camouflage color depending on it's background. I know there there are several decent tutorials on the wiki and scattered across websites, but nothing to the extent of the articles mentioned above. I contacted every person who has gotten something in game that I consider unique. They either don't respond or they are too busy to explain anything that in depth. I understand completely that people have better things to do than write out some tutorial for the masses. That's why I have even offered to pay for their time. This may seem a bit extreme to some of you, but if thats what it takes to get this knowledge to the public, so be it. If anyone reading this can, or knows somebody willing to help with the areas listed below please post here.
I consider myself fairly knowledgeable at 3d max, decent at nifskope and okay at blender. I would prefer tutorials dealing with 3d max, but I'll take what I can get. I would like tutorials done out of the kindness of your heart, but if pay is the incentive, pm me and we'll discuss price. These are the areas I would like to know about.

1. Rigging!- Detailed with screenshots. From the second you start up max to the finish where you're putting the piece in game.

2. Animated textures- I've gotten some help on this and there are some semi-decent tuts. but I'm missing something in Nifskope. A nice screenshot tutorial of this process in NifSkope would be awesome

3. New Animation- I would also like the confirmation if new animations have to replace existing ones, or they can be added. Also do they still need to be "forced" to take affect. I think this involves the CIV exporter and I've seen a decent tutorial at Nifskope, but I need more detail, sorry . Would'nt you guys like to see your samurai kneel on a tatami floor instead of sitting in a chair?

4. This changing of existing models- Not sure what to call it. People import Oblivions creatures, faces, hair etc into 3dmax and move the vertices around turning it into something different than the original. I think the Nifskope process is messing me up here as well. This is how there are now spiders in the game. There is a guy on the official forums who is currently changing the wolf model to a fox. I've gotten some help from him, but he is very busy.

A video of any these above processe would be the best, but step by step description with screenshots will work just as well. Please note that these will be posted on the WIKI and not just for my use. I'm not sure where we would host a video tutorial, but we'll figure something out.

Thank you for your time

[Corthian]

I will work on showing you how to rig and edit existing nifs. Let me get back to you.

[Corthian]

Here is a tutorial for rigging, this assumes a lot about you skill level and you have the newest Nif Importer. I hope it works for you.


Here is some armour I modeled quite a while ago. I have already rigged the torso so I felt I would kill two birds if I used the pants as an example.
Pic 1

I delete all but the Item I am rigging. Be sure to save often and under different names to avoid deleting stuff you want to save
Pic 2

I now import a riggable body in here is a link so you can down load it Riggable
Pic 3

When importing try to duplicate this
Pic 4

Ignore the textures...
Pic 5

Delete away the model parts but keep the skeleton intact
Pic 6

Now select the "Skin" modifier
Pic 7

Select the skin modifier and select edit envelope
Pic 8

Add the bones to which the model will be rigged
Pic 9

After weighing the verticies, For direct tutorial to weighing verticies see 3ds Animation Tutorial, export the entire scene
Pic 10

Load the riggable body from before in Nifscope
Pic 11

Load your newly rigged nif into a seperate Nifscope, Having two Nifscopes open tends to really slow my machine down so beware.
Pic 12

One by one copy all of the branches from your model to the riggible body then delete the models that don't belong to your model leaving the bones intact
Pic 13

Then use the spell obtimize to remove bogus nodes. Save the Nif as something different upload it in to CS and fire up you game. It should work. Just keep trying. I am not sure if that bit about Nifscope is completely necessary but I do it anyway. I only posted the stuff I felt I couldn't get anywhere, but if enough people whine I guess I can post how to weigh verts. Hope this helps. The Riskbreaker uniform is in game and looks freakin' fantastic I wonder if it will fit somewhere in Akavir.

[mirrored]

My first try with this was a failure. I wanted to rig a kabuto model, my character ended up without a head when equiping the kabuto. :lmao:
I'm sure I did something wrong.

[Corthian]

Masks are hard becuase they can't replace the head or hair. They usually replace the tail, but that removes the tails froms the beast races.

[mirrored]

Well my kabuto is without a mask, but what do you mean it's hard? And what could I make wrong so the head dissapears (the kabuto isn't showing either)?
Sorry for noobish questions.

[Corthian]

When you create armor in game you have to choose which part of the anatomy it changes, there is no slot for something like a mask or headband. Plus it is hard to avoid facial clipping due to the facegen. That is why masks are hard. About your problem, do have both the DDS textures for the Kabuto? That sometimes causes trouble. Also does the mesh appear correct in Nifscope? When the model appears in Nifscope but the model fails to appear ingame it usually means the mesh is trying to load a texture file that is not a DDS. Open it up in Nif and select the texture and make sure it isn't a TGA or something. When using it with the CS have it replace the hair not head, that way you should see your head ingame.

[mirrored]

Hey Corthian I exported the nif hat using your tutorial but without any messing with nifskope. Guess what - it works in game, but the biped model (I selected Hair in CS) is gone. ;( I think that is the way it works. Are there any hats that don't remplace hair?
I guess kabuto will aslo work fine now, since it's a helmet and covers the hair. Yay! :banana:

[Corthian]

I don't think there is a way to make a hat that doesn't replace the hair, you could place the hat in a Nif which contains another part EX: Place the hat in the same Nif as a pair of gloves, the hair would remain but may clip through hat, also the player could equip a helmet, this would cause monterous clipping.

[Kodama]

Originally posted by mirrored
Hey Corthian I exported the nif hat using your tutorial but without any messing with nifskope. Guess what - it works in game, but the biped model (I selected Hair in CS) is gone. ;( I think that is the way it works. Are there any hats that don't remplace hair?
I guess kabuto will aslo work fine now, since it's a helmet and covers the hair. Yay! :banana:

Yeah, this is a well known problem, the hair is simply replaced by the hat.
However, you could model a cloth flap that covers the back/sides of the head, that way it would look as if the hair is covered by the flap.
Jin-gasa (war hats) are known to have those flaps, and these war hats look just like the normal japanese hats, you can see jingasa here: http://www.artsofthesamurai.com/jingasa/...%20gasa%20(Flat%20Jingasa)
I believe that Marco's samurai armor mod also had jingasa with cloth flaps, but i'm not sure about that... i could be wrong hrug: