Making New Things: New and Very Lost

[BlueSteelRanger]

Salutations,

 

So, I've been searching around for a tutorial that actually makes sense to those who have never, ever modded anything in Skyrim or previous games. I seek to learn how to do the following:

 

1. Create or modify character clothing and armour. (For the playable character)

2. Modify the face and body of a given playable character in the same spirit of modifying a Khajiit into another creature.

 

I have the following tools:

 

1. GIMP

2. Nifskope

3. GIMP DDS

4. Skyrim Creation Kit

 

Does anyone know of any tutorials out there fit for beginning modders / wannabe modders so that I can learn how to do this (and have it make some actual sense)? I have some ideas I'd like to be able to reproduce into my Skyrim experience.

 

....And perhaps later on, when I get good enough, create a thing or two for fellow Skyrim players, modders and mod-users.

 

Regards,

--BlueSteelRanger

[Bonehead325]

I second this. I'd love to be able to make my own weapons and armor, but have no previous experience when it comes to modeling and whatnot, but I'd love to have a tutorial that doesnt make me feel completely dense when reading it :\

[Xander9009]

Try YouTube. Video tutorials are probably a lot easier to follow when you're actually working with images and graphics. It's my best guess at finding the easiest to follow tutorials. I've seen quite a few people have trouble with written tutorials, but have videos work well for them.

[BlueSteelRanger]

Hmm. Xander, may I ask if you know any good ones? I don't have any other tools except those I listed above and...well, I'll admit, being a blind PC user? It gets tough trying to figure out some of this, heh.

[Arimikami]

I can tell you right now that if you want to make all new armors that you're going to need a 3D rendering program to make the meshes. Blender 3D and 3DSMax are the two most popular from what I can tell. If you go to youtune and do a search for skyrim nightasy, you'll come across some very helpful videos. He kinda operates on the assumption that the viewer has never done anything like this in his tutorials and takes the time to explain things fairly in depth instead of glossing over details.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Arimikami

[Fistandilius]

I can point you in the right direction, but you're going to have to make a choice. As the above have stated, you're going to need a 3d rendering program. This is where you have to make a choice. The two most popular ones are Blender, which is freeware, and 3Ds Max, which is quite expensive. However, 3ds Max does have a provision for downloading the program for "educational use", meaning if you're a college student, or if you're downloading it for educational use, i.e. not using it to make a profit, then you can go that route. I'm not a lawyer, so don't take my word as law on this, and use your own judgement.

 

If you choose to go with 3ds max, you can look for Nightasay's tutorials, which are on Youtube (he also has his own website, www.nightasy.com). There are good and bad things about these videos. The good thing is he does a fantastic job of teaching the basics of 3d modeling, including downloading the educational version of 3ds max and setting up the different programs, gimp, nifskope, etc. It's pretty much geared towards people who have never modded before at all, which is what you're looking for. The bad news is, his videos are specifically geared towards custom armors, and the last I checked he hasn't touched on things like weapons, static items, or creatures at all at this point. There are some specific differences between doing an armor and these other things that he doesn't teach, like collision fields, complex rigging, blood spatter meshes, etc.

 

If you choose to go with Blender, the bad news is, the tutorials for Blender seem to be fewer and less detailed, however I do know there are some tutorials for weapons out there.

 

Either program will work, IF you learn how to use them. The popular Monster Mod that adds an absolute TON of new creatures to Skyrim was done with Blender, and the Super Mario Bros conversion mod was done with 3ds Max, so doing creatures is obviously possible with both. There is a tutorial on skinning monsters on youtube, but I couldn't get the process to work for myself.

 

There's also a question on how you want to approach 3d modeling. The quote/unquote "correct" way to do it would be to learn 3d modeling first, and then learn how to apply it to Skyrim second. That way you understand the fundamentals and you'll be ahead of the game when it comes to skinning, rigging, and animating and you'll automatically know what the heck people are talking about when they're throwing out all kinds of technical jargon on the nifskope forums. Having said that, it IS possible to start with Nightasay's tutorials and learn to 3d model for Skyrim only. The downside, and I'm telling you from experience is you get lost a lot when it comes to things besides armors and you're going to spend a lot of time trying to play catch up to learn how to do things.

 

There is another step that is optional. If you want to make REALLY detailed creations, a lot of people use Sculptris, ZBrush, or Mudbox to creature their textures. These programs allow you to creature your textures in a 3d environment so that your normal maps come out looking very good. If you don't know what a normal map is, it's something you'll learn as you start the process, but basically it's very important to 3d objects in gaming because you can't create a super high detailed 3d model and put it in game without framerate loss.

 

But, if you don't want to learn an extra program, pay for it, etc. you can still make some really nice armors working with the textures in 2d, it's just a little harder and depends on how detailed you want them to be. Two more things I want to add on the subject....

 

3ds max has a tool in the program that allows you to work with textures in 3d, right from scratch. Nightasay covers it in his videos. For me personally, I like to start with that tool just to get the outline for my skin wrap and then finish it up in Photoshop, but I'm not a great texture artist.

 

The second thing is that most people don't know that you can get an absolutely free, legal copy of photoshop. Adobe is now up to Creative Suite 6, I believe as the most current version of Photoshop, and within the last year, they decided to allow people to download the older CS2 for free. I don't have a link for you, but I'm sure you can find it on google.

 

Hope I was helpful in some way.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Fistandilius

[BlueSteelRanger]

Hm. Question. As a blind user, I tried using / learning to use Blender at one time but I could not navigate it to save my life. My adaptive tech couldn't read off anything in the program, so I was....left floundering. Is there any way to make the menus and command choices in Blender adapted for blind / visually impaired use?

 

ETA: The newest version of Blender so far seems more compatible than earlier versions. So far, so good!

Edited November 7, 2013 by BlueSteelRanger

[BlueSteelRanger]

Update again. Blender is turning out to be an unresponsive piece of junk. I tell it to rotate....it does nothing. Absolute waste of time.

 

Looks like I'll not get to learn the things I want to learn. NOT. Happy.