SSE How to remove sleeves in Outfit Studio

[sehnsucht54]

Hey all,
Apologies for what is likely a question that has been answered across previous posts, but the language of modding --meshes, vertices, etc.-- is all foreign to me. I am literally brand new.

Anyway, I'm trying to remove the sleeves from a 3BA Shrouded Armor mod I have using Outfit Studio. Can anybody provide a "for dummies" walkthrough for how I can do this while preserving slider integrity? My youtube/google sleuthing has generated more questions and confusion than answers.

Thanks!

[scorrp10]

In a nutshell, what you need to do is:

1.Mask out everything but the sleeves.

2.Add a zap slider.

 

So, in outfit studio, you load the outfit you want to edit. It will have a list of meshes on the right. The eye icons next to meshes let you toggle meshes between visible-invisible-wireframe. Determine which mesh contains parts you want to remove (the sleeves)

Now, in more complex outfits different materials can be covered by different meshes. I.e. leather portions and metal portions. More on that later.

 

You really got to get a grip on how to navigate around the 3D area. mouse wheel to zoom, right-click-drag to orbit, Shift+right-click-drag to pan etc. It takes some practice.

Learn keyboard shortcuts: https://github.com/ousnius/BodySlide-and-Outfit-Studio/wiki/Keyboard-Shortcuts

 

Select the mesh you will work on. Toggle all other meshes invisible. Press T to turn off textures - it really helps, especially with darker textures.

Select mask tool. Turn on vertex display (Q or pushpin icon on left) which shows all vertices green. By default, you will have 'symmetry' also on, which mirrors your actions left-right. For non-symmetrical outfits and precise masking, I prefer to turn it off. (X)

Depending on what feels easier, you can try masking all but sleeves, or you can mask sleeves and then invert - which is what I would normally do, so rest of this post assumes we are masking sleeves. As you start painting with the brush, vertices start turning red. Adjust brush size by holding S and using mouse wheel. If you mask out something you didn't want, you can use Ctrl-Z to undo, or you can use brush while holding Alt to un-mask vertices. Generally, sleeves should be easy to mask, except maybe armpit areas.

 

Vertex - a dot in space. Basic building unit of a mesh.

Edge - a line connecting two vertices.

Three vertices connected by 3 edges form a triangle, and that triangle can contain a face - an actual surface to which texture can be applied so it is rendered in the game.

Two vertices are considered 'connected' if you can find a path along a set of edges between them.

Important concept: let's call it a 'shape' - is a set of all connected vertices, along with edges/faces formed by them, within a mesh. A mesh can be a single shape, or it can contain a whole lot of shapes.

In most armors, sleeves are often separate shapes from torso, which makes masking them real easy. Normally, when you paint a mask, any vertices within brush circle are affected. But when you turn on connected only mode ©, it will only mask vertices within brush circle which are connected to the vertex selected under center of brush.

What this means, you can make the brush real large, but as long as center of brush is over a sleeve vertex, you will be masking only sleeve vertices. Note: when using connected mode, it is best to turn off mirror (X) mode.

 

If sleeves and torso are in fact same connected shape, it makes things harder. You can use a large brush to mask most of the sleeve, then make the brush real small and carefully go around the border. Remember, when you zap out a vertex, it zaps any faces to which that vertex belongs. So you don't want to mask vertices directly on sleeve/torso border.

 

When you think your mask is done, you can toggle vertices off (Q) to check. Masked areas will be dark. If sleeves are separate shape, there will be a very sharp border between masked and unmasked. If not, it will be a bit of gradient along the border. Remember, any face that has such gradient will be zapped away, so make sure any faces you want to remain are solid color. Once you are happy with your mask, you can do Ctrl+I to invert it. You want the sleeves to be the unmasked (light) portion.

 

Now, suppose outfit consists of several meshes. Say one mesh has the leather of the sleeves, and other mesh has metal bits at wrists and elbows. Once you did masking on one mesh, toggle it invisible, select another mesh, and do the masking there.

Now, in the meshes list, highlight all the meshes where you did the masking. From Slider menu, select 'add new Zap slider'. Give the slider a name (i.e. 'zap sleeves'), and Save the project, but keep outfit studio open.

 

Now, open this outfit in Bodyslide. you might need to close and restart Bodyslide for your change to show. You will now have a 'zap sleeves' checkbox. Check it and carefully examine the result in the preview, making sure you don't have any leftover sleeve bits, and that you are not zapping any extras.

If needed, you can go back to outfit studio, delete the zap slider, adjust your masks, and re-add the zap slider.

[sehnsucht54]

Thank you! This is exactly the info I needed, and I appreciate the detail. I was able to get it to work perfectly on the armor set I was building off of, but have already encountered the frustration you alluded to in other sets where the arms and body vertices are connected and the faces mess everything up upon deletion/zapping. Still -- one success down, and my foot is now happily through the door.