Looking to start making custom armor for Skyrim

[DudeitzChronic]

I'm looking to make some armor for a certain faction I'm working on, and I'm not quite sure where to go. I have cinema 4D and blender, so I'm looking for tutorials on making armor, although I haven't found any for either program. Can someone point me in the right direction where I can learn about making armor? I prefer video tutorials although I don't mind reading. I've looked for quite sometime myself and haven't found anything.

[ghosu]

Hello

 

Well i cant help out with armor, i've only made a weapon tutorial yet...but i use C4D and tbh i don't think that there are tutorials available for armor creation in C4D because most people use other programs. But compared to Blender it is much easier to handle so i would stay with C4D for the creation process. I would recommend:

 

- download FO3ArchiveUtility and extract the malebody_0 model from the Skyrim meshes.bsa (when you opened the archive it's located in: meshes\character\character assets\malebody_0), you can extract the other body parts as well (malehead,malefeet,malehands).

 

- These are NIF files so you have to download NifSkope as well to extract the mesh from the NIF. Open each NIF with NifSkope, click on the model of the body part, select the entry that is now highlighted on the left side and click FILE=>EXPORT=>obj to save this part as obj.

 

- Now load these parts into C4D, this will be your reference body. You can create the armor around this body...the easiest way is to change to polygon/face mode and select areas like the whole upper body. Now rightclick and select EXTRUDE, click on the faces and drag them out a bit. This would be a shirt then, if you want armor plating you just have to select polygons on the breast and extrude them or gloves...select the polygons of the hands and extrude them. I would recommend to make a copy of each bodypart before you edit them so the reference body stays in position.

 

Hard to explain it with words but just check out Youtube for tutorial on the extrude command - this is your best friend when creating armor. Or Loft-Nurbs...check out pt1 of the tutorial in my signature - it's a weapon but the process with helmets or whatever is quite the same.

 

I explain FO3ArchiveUtility in pt3 of my tutorial in my signature.

 

You can extract original armor parts as well with FO3ArchiveUtility and edit or combine them. Same process...extract with FO3, open the NIF with NifSkope, export the mesh as obj, open in C4D.

 

Finally you have to attach your armor to bones/skeleton...that only works with 3DsMax or Blender - but i can't help you on that because i use Max. Maybe i'll do an tutorial for armor creation in C4D as well - the basics but as said before, the demand for C4D tutorials is not soooo big :(

 

Here are 2 example for each technique:

 

 

http://666kb.com/i/c1i2zmhdiazii6e0n.jpg

Done with extrude command.

 

http://f.666kb.com/i/c1em1xroxjiicj620.jpg

Original armor parts from the game, edited of course but when you combine several armors, cut out and alter parts - works quite fine.

 

greetings

Edited March 15, 2012 by ghosu

[DudeitzChronic]

Cool, thank you very much. I'll watch your tutorials for sure, just when I'm not so tired. Thanks again : )

[Squizzo]

A good tutorial covering the process from start to finish >>> Part 1 - Part 2

Also >>> Several other tutorials