Hi everyone

[Xander2177]

Some of you may remember me from long ago, when i was xander 2077. Unfortunately i cannot seem to remember my login so I had to create a new profile from scratch and really wanted to resume modding.

 

Some of my stuff has been featured in Tamriel rebuilt. Like the "More Realistric Dwemer Armor" Mod. And few other mentionables from long ago.

 

Well, I have been busy really upping my game in modeling. Several years later and several setbacks later, here I am again trying to do something with what I have learned.

 

My last attempt at Dwemer Armor was the New Dwemer Armor which was sort of an attempt (and admittedly not the best) at making a Skyrim style set for morrowind. It turned out just OK, but the textures to me are really cringe. I blame it on my transititon from 3DS max to blender and the learning curve there, but some of it was just bad workflow and learning how to use the program

 

So i started recently to make something I think is really lacking in Morrowind mods. Better Armor. And not just a smoothing of the mesh with the same textures, but something much better in mind.

 

So as a proof of concept, I have decided to make another set of Dwemer Armor based on the concept art. And I realized one thing about it. It really fits the lore better than the shipped game model does. It shows a direct link between the local elves sense of style and the Dwemer and how they sort of influenced each other. It also fits the overall eastern influence of the game, such as clothing and armor heavily influenced by Thai or Laosian Ceremonial Garb ( just look at Almalexia)

 

So here is a sneak peek at what this armor is going to look like. This is only a preliminary render of the applied material in blender and not the finished product. I still have to relearn how to do Ambient Occlusion textures in the newest version of blender because everything changed.

[Xander2177]

Here is a third render. This Armor is also fitted to Better Bodies. One of the frustrating things about modding armor in Morrowind is fitment. So I am sure this wont be the last time the armor changes size or shape because it still has to be pieced out and then put through Nifskope

[Xander2177]

For comparison here is a picture of the concept art for the dwemer armor. I have taken a little creative license but not much as it was my intent to keep as close to the concept art as possible

[Xander2177]

Just playing around with the materials which will eventually be rendered to texture and then finished in Gimp. The helmet is a modular design so i will probably package several alternate versions. It is also probably not even close to finished. I am also toying with the idea of adding gems to the armor from the better gems mod but not sure yet. The concept art seems to show blurred out gems on the knees and helmet, but the helmet in vanilla morrowind seems to have ornaments in an attempt to accommodate this in some way.

[Xander2177]

While i was doing the materials render i realized i forgot to show the back side, so here are a couple of shots of that.

 

I have also been working on other models too so there will definitely be a comprehensive mod for dwemer armor to unify the testures and models, updating them in form, as well as redoing the dwemer spider, centurions etc.

 

And eventually i really would like to tackle more armor because some of the textures still seem flat in many ways, unless its just my game setting and texture files being out of whack. which wouldn't surprise me either since i havent been able to run it successfully.

 

It will probably be best to use materials to render textures since this will eliminate some of the problems I had before in variuous mods of consistency. so with the same materials i can definitely have continuity between this and the steam centurion, etc...

[Xander2177]

last picture for tonight, the second back side pic becuase it was too big to upload on the last post

 

And maybe later i will add materials to the redone steam centurion model and the spider, which will be very fun and interesting to work on considering its going to take a lot of ingenuity rigging them and making them work. but for now this armor will be the focus

[Xander2177]

well, its been just a day or two since my last update. I have been refining the model and getting everything ready for rendering these to a preliminary texture.

 

and we're not quite there yet but this is getting somewhere nice.

 

the next step is to painstakingly manually mark all the seams and then unwrap everything. i could just do a smart unwrap for everything but thats going to leave me with a lot of small weird islands for no reason.

 

i also have to put a plain material on everything just for an ambient occlusion bake so each part has its own basic map with shadows for adding to the final texture and eventually this will help make the normal maps really pop.

 

since the arms and legs are just showing a placeholder texture on the body model for now, i will have to find a suitable pair of pants and a shirt for the mail portions and those will be included as dwemer mail pants and shirt.which can be worn with the armor instead of plain clothing.

 

the picture here is a representation of an enclosed version of the helmet, which will also have an open face version as well as some variations on the "beard protector"

 

yes, it is a beard protector.

 

i was going to try modeling a dwemer beard, which i still might do for a funny "sub-mod" complete with a quest and a specially modded in town, but that might be for another time.

 

the helmet is also featuring elements that tie it into the original game model such as the eye protection, and ear protectors in two flavors. one will be fake pointy ears and the other will be sort of a knockoff of the ear protectors from the original game model

 

something else i wanted to do is make a symbol similar to the one seen all over skyrim that represents the regional dwemer houses, which is shown behind the dwemer in the concept art. its going to be distinct from the skyrim one.

 

anyway it will be featured on the cape and maybe on the loincloth, maybe not. but theres going to be some dwemer metal trim on both.

 

i still dont remember if reflection can be set on these models in nifskope, which is something that was lacking on the "New Dwemer Armor" mod, but i think it is possible