Blender, Nifskope and What Now?

[ghosu]

Check out the tutorial stickies in the mod talk section, check google and YT for modeling basics of Blender - solely that that should keep you busy for a few days or weeks.

 

Or wait a few hours and post again that you have no idea what to do - your choice if you are a shark or a sheep :D

[BlueSteelRanger]

 

Just out of curiousity, what is the nature of the impairment as that would also have a bearing on what workflow may suit you better as you said you had previous difficulty with blender?

 

Sorry I missed your query there, Neomonkeus. My reader isn't entirely up to date (Who has $1000 for each update?) and thus, it fritzes out and can miss things.

 

To answer uour query, if you mean "impairment" as in my eyes? Well. One eye doesn't work at all. The other semi-works in dim light at 3 inches' distance, no more, no less. My first experience with Blender was an older version that was 1.) incompatible with my reader tech and 2.) so low-contrast that even my beau, whose eyes work perfectly, couldn't make heads or tails of. (This might have been due to the resolution I had my screen on at the time, I'm unsure. This was a while ago.)

[BlueSteelRanger]

Check out the tutorial stickies in the mod talk section, check google and YT for modeling basics of Blender - solely that that should keep you busy for a few days or weeks.

 

Or wait a few hours and post again that you have no idea what to do - your choice if you are a shark or a sheep :D

 

LOL! To be honest, I'm new at all of this. I found mods through a friend of mine offline, then ran across this gent on YT called "Gopher". And really, I have a good few mods he recommends, heh.

And then well. The idea came. People do this...I'd like to try it too, to create a few things...namely for a project I'm doing.

[Terra Nova]

Blender's UI and viewport are bright, so you should be ok.

 

Also - this should help greatly: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Manual

Edited November 21, 2013 by Terra Nova

[neomonkeus]

The reason I ask is that no matter what version of Blender you use to do the modelling you will need to export the data in a format that NifSkope will be able to read.

 

Usually the concern is about ease of use i.e interchange formats export basic model data fine but don't contain nearly the same amount of data as using the official nif exporter. But in-turn the nif exporter is only compatible with Blender 2.49b. Although you haven't explicitly said it, I assume this is the version you are talking about having tried previously.

 

LIke I said previously and alot of people have laughed at me when I say it but you should try to get the simpliest model into NifSkope. Anyone I have thought, I get them to create a basic cube. Get a material on it, get a texture on it, uv-unwrap it and export it for the next stage. If there are terms there that you do not understand then learn Blender first, then worry about getting to the export part.

 

The main reason most people fail is that they try to do too complex a project. You have the right idea about knowing what tools are needed as part of the workflow/pipeline, but at the same time its about learning to use these tools. Learn one thing at a time, or at least enough to get you from step one in the workflow to then next.

 

Sorry if I am not giving more specifics. I think you should have enough to work towards given the link about how to use blender as you are bound to hit some issues with learning to model. If you learn to get through these obstacles then you will have learnt the most important lesson, how to problem solve, this separates the good from the great.

[BlueSteelRanger]

Ohh. ::nodnod:: I will definitely make use of that link, Terra.

 

Neo: I currently have Blender 2.69, if that means anything. So, start with something simple, like a box or a sphere? Because indeed, you're right. I have absolutely no clue as to the vocabulary either, so I'll be doing some reading/listening. Is there a file type I should look for or stay away from when going from Blender to Nif(?) to Skyrim?

 

I apologise if I'm a touch slow -- I have a class of a different sort for a good few hours. (Long tale short, I'll be getting my behind-us thrashed in class. ::small grin:: )

 

You two are an amazing help so, I again apologise if I'm a larger "dunce" so to speak, than usual. This is my first go of trying anything like this. My usual medium is clay, heh.

 

--BlueSteelRanger

[nathanbo]

The common workflow order is:

 

3D editor => sculpting/texturing software in combination with image edior

=> NifSkope => Creation Kit

 

3D editor: Blender,3DsMax,Cinema4D,Maya,SketchUP

sculpting/texturing: Mudbox, zBrush, Sculptris

image editor: Photoshop, GIMP

 

Blender is used to create a rough low polyogn 3D model, afterwards you load it into sculpting/texturing software (like Mudbox, zBrush or Sculptris) to subdivide your model to become a high polygon model.

 

You sculpt more details and adjust the shape, create a normal map (a texture that simulates the sculpted details) of this high polygon model and transfer it to your low polygon model. Afterwards your texture, using the software mentioned before you can paint directly on the 3D model - and fine tune the texture using an image editor like GIMP or Photoshop.

 

If you create weighted stuff like armor you have to export your final low polygon 3D model back to Blender to skin it (attach the mesh to the skeleton/bones so it stays in position when the character moves), if its a static object like a weapon you can directly export the low poly model to NifSkope.

 

In Nifskope you can use an original vanilla object .nif (= a container format that contains 3D model and various other settings) as reference and replace it with your model, you can adjust other stuff like texture paths and shader settings, scaling and whatever as well. Then you save the whole thing as a new .nif and place it in Skyrim\data\meshes\blabla\

 

Finally you use the Creation Kit to import the .nif to the game, when it comes to a weapon you simply copy vanilla armor forms as reference and link them to your new files, adjust values like armor rating, damage whatever, make it craftable or place it in the world - save the whole thing to become standalone and you're done.

 

To extract the game's original files (.nif container and .dds textures) as reference you need a tool named FO3 Archive Utility to open the game's archives in Skyrim\data\ ARCHIVENAME.bsa - and to save the textures as .dds you need NVIDIA DDS PLUGIN for Gimp or Photoshop.

 

As mentioned before i'm using different software but you can check out my tutorial in my signature - explains the whole process of weapon creation/import - to get a rough idea, works similar with other object types. And i'm pretty sure you find quite all necessary tutorials in both tutorial stickies on the first page of the MOD TALK section.

This guy gave you a really good how to... if you can't read it, follow it, and use google... you aren't putting enough of your own effort into it. YouTube + Google + Keywords all given to you is a wealth of information and tutorials... get cracking young man.