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Which tools would you most recommend for editing Fallout 4's 3D models and textures?


livipup

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So I suddenly got the urge to completely retexture the game as well as altering the base head mesh(es) to make the game look more like an anime. I mean, I might end up just doing the human models and textures, but if it turns out to not be too difficult I might just do a lot more as practice. I'm sure a pretty good result could be achieved with a custom head mesh, CBBE preset, and ENB, but I feel custom textures and models would be more fun and could give better results. Also more likely to be useful for a portfolio.

 

What I'll need to do includes at least the following:

  • Unpack and possibly repack BSA files
  • Alter the head mesh(es) of the human models (do male and female humans use different head meshes? I assume they do)
  • Alter the eyes and nose meshes (I assume that the game uses separate meshes for "face parts" the way Skyrim did)
  • Alter the body meshes (not including hands and feet. I'll probably make a CBBE preset for the female body, but I don't know what to do for the male body)
  • Create textures for all NPC types in the game (robots, human, ghouls, animals, etc.)
  • Create textures for all objects
  • Create normal maps for all objects (I have a plug-in for paint.NET that automatically generates normal maps for images, but I feel like that's probably too basic. I also may choose to keep original normal maps when I see how they look in game. I used it for a Skyrim mod and the specular ended up being awful, but that could be due to issues in the Creation Kit as well, so idk)

I'm going to look up some stuff on my own, but I would appreciate any opinions or advice that people could give me. I remember once I tried to add a custom helmet to the game and that proved incredibly difficult and I was never even able to get it to load in Creation Kit. I don't think I'll need Creation Kit to do this, so hopefully it shouldn't be so difficult. I figure that I'll probably do things in the order that I listed above. If I can get all of this stuff working and looking good I guess I'll release updates as each step is finished. If I ever actually finish everything I might even make replace the vanilla hairstyles rather than just retexturing them. Also, can ENB for Fallout 4 create lines around objects and do depth of field? I might install ENB and make a preset if it can.

 

I did some research to describe the style I'm going for better and it turns out the style I like is called "josei", but looking at the examples they listed it still seems kind of vague. I've attached a screenshot showing the style from an anime, which I think has beautiful animation, that I'll be attempting to recreate. I understand that there will inherently be some differences between 2D animation and 3D graphics, so it's definitely not going to look just like that. I'm probably just going to base things like proportions and environment textures on it.

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If you want to go 100% free and un-pirated here's what I use.

 

Blender (I still use 2.49b, because I also make stuff for Oblivion, F3, and FNV, and it has better support for their file format, and I'm more familiar with the interface. You, however, should use 2.79 or 2.8 .

Bodyslide and Outfit Studio

Nifskope

Bethesda Archive Extractor

Fallout 4 Creation Kit

Gimp + Normal Map Plugin and .dds Plugin.

 

If you want the best possible tools replace Blender with 3dsMax, although I believe an older version works best for FO4, 2016 iirc.

Replace GIMP with Substance Painter and Photoshop. I think you also need a .dds plugin for PS.

 

I get textures to make...textures from textures.com, I believe they also have files for use in Substance Painter, but they usually cost money.

 

From there it's tutorials and asking for help and trial and error. The forums here are okay, but there is also a help discord server up now.

 

For Normal maps without just generating them in an image editor you would have to build high-poly models of everything you want to make one for.

Edited by jkruse05
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If you want to go 100% free and un-pirated here's what I use.

 

Blender (I still use 2.49b, because I also make stuff for Oblivion, F3, and FNV, and it has better support for their file format, and I'm more familiar with the interface. You, however, should use 2.79 or 2.8 .

Bodyslide and Outfit Studio

Nifskope

Bethesda Archive Extractor

Fallout 4 Creation Kit

Gimp + Normal Map Plugin and .dds Plugin.

 

If you want the best possible tools replace Blender with 3dsMax, although I believe an older version works best for FO4, 2016 iirc.

Replace GIMP with Substance Painter and Photoshop. I think you also need a .dds plugin for PS.

 

I get textures to make...textures from textures.com, I believe they also have files for use in Substance Painter, but they usually cost money.

 

From there it's tutorials and asking for help and trial and error. The forums here are okay, but there is also a help discord server up now.

 

For Normal maps without just generating them in an image editor you would have to build high-poly models of everything you want to make one for.

 

I think I actually get 3DSMax for free from my college, so I might use that. Thanks for the other recommendations :)

 

Btw, I actually found a really good normal map generator on my own. It's called Crazybump. Totally free. You should check it out if you do stuff with normal maps.

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