AerynRavanna

I recommend hitting up the Arcane University discord, https://beyondskyrim.org/au They specialize in plugin and mesh tutoring. I'm sure would be down to help you out with this. Best of luck 100% on everything 3d/texture related, and mostly CK. Its just manpower Im in need of, this is a huge venture for my free time. I have access to the most talented skywinders but free time is a precious resource for all of us.

I recently made more progress in a short space of time. But due to terrible health issues and struggling with paid work, I really need help from someone who can re-teach me ingame testing. I learned how to do hair, but specifically for skyrim engine/SE (true planes dont work) Not sure if I should make a new topic though, i'll just post these here for now. PEW section: Phonemes/Expressions(emotions)/Wrinkles. This sets the universal loops/topology for skin folds. Each race/gender/age-range must use the same. Most visible on old people. (This also creates the detail overlay, ie, 40s/50s skin, roughness) High res emotional morph targets (would work better for another game engine, but can still extract details from this to combine with low poly ingame targets) Already did the orc teeth and horns for the face. Finished the human teeth for now. (British is a joke, a self-depricating one, my teeth are horrible) Teeth detail will depend on the Race subtype. (Ie, Nord player, Nord hero, realistic teeth, or peasant/begger teeth.) Nothing worse than a desperate beggar with teeth like a hollywood actor. What the hell bethesda? Ive also set up 20 hair styles that replace the orginals. There will be slightly less options per race, but more variety. [EDIT: This work was originally for another game I was working on, so the highest quality/detail versions go to them, but the stuff I can extract from this modular system is what I'm using for ArT, Advanced/additional races of Tamriel.] Oh yeah I also discovered that if you FORCE tri-sorting on vanilla skyrim hair, true opacity planes of hair work. Usually, it doesnt, which is why bethesda used 4844 (1 bit transparency that mip-maps horriblly) But the lighting system doesnt allow for error-free rendering

For more work check out Ravanna3D on facebook should be easy to find.

Ok so 30 million players who play once a month at least, am I reading that right? Only 20k hardcore players left? Yeah this sounds worth while. Ok paid work will take 80% of my time, but I start taking a look at the character overhaul mod, perhaps release a simple version in a few months. Heres what I got to last time, was testing Orc species:

I withdrew from skywind and skyrim character modding since last summer. Is skyrim still played by enough people to make this character overhaul even desired? Its a crap load of work.

I've been too busy with paid work to do any of this mod/skywind. If enough people are interested I'll release a test version in the autumn and hope that someone can convert it to SSE.

This is still happening, almost all the tech is working, I do need another CK helper though. Im very busy with work and skywind, so hopefuly another update at end of month

UPDATE again: Heres whats possible in recent tests: Each race can have its own body, and slightly different builds. different musculator. different skin sheen When you change the weight of the character, the TEXTURES CHANGE (snaps to other set at the half way point) Using extra data I think I can add a lot more variation such as teeth and jewellery. Heres the alpha body that has much better rigging than skyrims vanilla body, and the uvs are much more compressed. http://i.imgur.com/UBfgFeX.jpg Uvs: http://i.imgur.com/3Q4Oz7z.jpg Having problems with crashes due to CK ids. So many variables, I need someone who is more confident with the C Kit and has created other races before. The longer I go without any help the longer this will take. Not even starting females yet, using the males as a pipeline and learning experience.

Just an update to say things are working. The facial animations work. I am experimenting with CK to see if morphing 0_1 textures work. Regardless, each race has its own body and textures. Nords are massive and hairy. The only limit so far is that I cant do variation in teeth. I will be looking for a helping in some of this stuff.

ok update time. I had a tech guy from skywind to help me but he's gone on a long holiday. He set me up with most files i needed to get started. It began well, got the eyes, head, brows, working: (very very alpha not even close to final quality/look) Then i moved onto left and right mask, and thats where it started to crash. Crashes usually mean something wrong with tri file. I improved the eyes and created new tris for them, and yep, crash. So basically my file system is corrupting the tris somehow and I cant fix it. Tried for 4 days. This is currently the only thing ceasing development. Once I have all the major nifs ingame with their blank tris, i import the nifs back into max, and set it up for morphing in zbrush. So yeah I need help still. I will need help with tri files: http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Working_with_Skyrim_head_TRIs Would also like to use new morphs such as ears etc. And CK stuff. ie, setting up new races. If any of you have experience in race overhauls, tris, or are good with learning tech, and have lots of time to spare, please contact me here or aeryn.davies on skype. Replacing beth's old character system with new contemporary graphics is my main portfolio piece but I'm stuck :'(

I'm redoing the bodies too. The hands, the feet. thats easier than the heads tbh.

http://forums.nexusmods.com/uploads//monthly_01_2016/post-4216862-0-35391800-1453328529_thumb.jpg Is all rendered in nifskope, and the eyes were tested ingame and came out just as good as in nifskope, so Im not anticipating much problem, other than skyrims VERY flat ambient lighting, which is why I baked effects into the diffuse.

Thanks for the encouragement people, I'm keeping this on the backburner until theres a solid pipeline working and tested in game. Walldough/others, my skype name is aeryn.davies, you want to talk about working together. Thanks akir I will give him a shout too. Once pipeline is sorted and we're ready to roll with final models/textures/morphs/hair, I may try taking a poll of what art style the majority prefer. I prefer a realistic, sometimes ugly, rougher, style of human, and more alien Mer. But some people prefer younger and beautiful. The overlays are crap for making "aged look"

Before exporting the model to nifskope, always fix the normals in max by applying a Xresetform and 2 normal modifers and a smooth. Or maya it requires "unlock" normals. Make sure you're using the most recent Nifskope, set BSUV to 4097 THEN Update all tangent spaces. I assume the normal map is correct?

I should probably start using imgur for images.... These are the zbrush renders I bake down into shader information.

*UPDATE* Ok so it looks almost everything I want to do is possible. This Mod will be called "Races of Nirn" the more help i get the less bugs there will be and the faster i can get it done. I really need some experienced CK users who have messed with playable custom races before. Check the last post on this thread for recent work. Found out some new things #------------------------------------------------------- Ive been working on something for a while, and only just showing it outside my little group now. Realistic Character overhaul. Its something I still need help with. I understand morph targets, I can create everything needed, the models, the textures, the morph objs, but its the 2nd half that vexes me. The tri file conversion, and the CK work, I simply dont have time for, and if i'm honest, the brain power. I currently have 1 person trying to help, but if I can get this done faster, all the better. Fallout 4 didnt have very nice characters despite the tech advance, so lets give skyrim a massive overhaul in believable realistic characters.* In the future I can create similar models for fallout 4, at least that has nicer specular. Ive sorted the beard/brow/eye effects using polygroups and edit UV from zbrush. Hairstyles will be remade or at least re positioned. [edit: cant control the attachment placement so heres just a mash of info] Races replaced by overhauler. (M+F) altmer, dunmer, bosmer, Orsimer, Imperial, Nord, Breton. (akaviri Men?) EXPANDED Races (M+F): Falmer, Dwemer. Redguard [Crowns, Forebears], TangMo? Children: Human/Dunmer. [beast races not currently being attempted] All eye colours, hair types, brows, masks, to be replaced/enhanced, then additionals added for new models/personal characters. Done so far: Main head mesh, facial animation tests, UVS final, shaders, Head race WIPS, 12 eye colours, 3 beards, 1 hair cap. Heres the important part. I NEED HELP. At least 1 tech savvy modder who can convert objs from max/blender into tri files, and the required ck edits. CUrrently only wanting the test of the model of head. Larger polycounts for morphs may result in an issue with memory. If I had another competent character artist it would also help, that would help khajitti and argonian. Even better if you're both art and tech savvy, I can help you in character art and texture methods as we go along.

awesome. any info on how this works?

well, lets get the visuals up 1st: Beardless dwemer. I work on various projects, some of them skyrim, and I need some help. I can create all the art work required and rigging needed to make a working character, and another modder can help with adding it to the game, but I lack some important knowledge and programs. The pic above is a zbrush model, I can transfer normal/spec/diffuse layers to a UVd model later, no problem. And I understand how the races are made in skyrim, more or less. the issue is: file formats. I am familiar with morph targets in 3dsmax and zbrush, but I do not have blender. I have no access to tri editing (the morph target in txt format it seems). http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Working_with_Skyrim_head_TRIs I am asking for another modder with experience and knowledge of blender and tri shapes (and other abilities wouldn't hurt) to help me transfer an OBJ morph from zbrush into a blender tri shape. Will discuss more if theres a response, though I fear thats unlikely. As for the visuals, its a walk in the park, I just dont have time/brain juice for the bits inbetween. And dont worry, I got the beard covered: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33409411/imagehosting/GimliLarge.jpg

well it may be my model/texture but you should direct your request to the skywind team to ask if you can use it/some else use it. The technical side of animations and implementation is the hard part.

well i'm still alive, but the tools for modding skyrim just aren't sufficient for what I/others need. Or those who know better aren't saying anything. The videos below are about re-applying skinning information on almost identical models. Its buggy at best, but doesnt even include creating new animations/skin sets. Use my models how you want really, just credit me in some way: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/33409411/Baquin.zip I got bigger fish to fry, need a job.

Once in a blue moon, sure, modders could get some doe if the demand is great enough, but expecting relatively inexperienced artists/coders to get paid is perhaps a bit of an insult considering those of us who took out loans and went to uni and worked their arses off for 5 years and are still paid peanuts/nothing. /rant I've yet to see good editors that require no programming knowledge. Considering the fact that these mod tools are FREE, I think we've done pretty well.

I started modelling in 3dsmax just over 3 years ago, and Zbrush 2 years ago, and been an artist since i could walk. You would need 3-5 years, practising every day, for at least 2 hours, to get near professional levels. If it is true that the engine will not allow new animations for new creatures, then the whales will be made static meshes as beached whales/hunted dead whales. Already had discussions with a modder on this. I will email monster mod maker.

Wow this thread is still alive. Ok well a few weeks back I managed to get a model to import where the skeleton worked, so that's something at least. The bit that didn't work was the havoc tool converting animation files to 3dsmax friendly formats. My Cmd ms dos program refuses to work (wtf windows?) I have a contact who worked with mods who i haven't bothered in a while, so I'll bug her again. As i said before, I can rig and animate, but its the implementation I have neither the time nor ability to attempt. Been busy trying to sort paid freelance so don't have much time atm. The whole buggy lag thing with the fish in oceans, the LOD system in skyrim seems odd. Dragons have LOD models, but slaughter fish just fade in and out with opacity, maybe thats the issue? If you scale up a slaughter fish into a big creature, you would need LODs perhaps. /epic shrug

yeah I model anything, graduated from 3d art degree last year. Just wanted to create a living Sea of ghosts, i find it the most beautiful part of skyrim. Sadly, 4 attempts to get nif tools working with my 3dsmax 2011, and hkxcd converting animation files, has failed each time. Not impressed with the mod tools so far, too many versions with conflicting installation methods.