Tutorials on Making Bows with Blender

[LHammonds]

Mirror Topic @ BethSoft

 

This topic will serve as my work-in-progress notes for this tutorial (end result will be the CS Wiki and various forums). If anyone would like to make suggestions, point out mistakes or things that I missed, please feel free to do so.

 

I have been thinking how to go about presenting a tutorial on making bows but there are too many bunny trails I could go down and get lost on. So I think the best way to accomplish this is to cover the basic methods that can be used no matter what kind of bow is going to be made.

 

I think the best way to do this is to handle it in a series of tutorials which cover specific areas and processes. This should allow those that only have certain skill sets to pick the method that best suits them and accomplish what they want (such as someone that does not know how to model but can copy/paste things together).

 

Tools used in these tutorials:

- Blender 2.49b

- NifSkope 1.0.22

 

Bow-Making Tutorials

 

• Part 1: Importing and exporting a bow (basic workflow)
  
• Part 2: Modifying an existing bow (moving verts)
  
• Part 3: Import existing objects onto a bow (merging objects, morph)
  
• Part 4: Create new objects on an existing bow (add verts, UVMap, morph)
  
• Part 5: New bow (add verts, UVMap, morph)
  

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Part 1: Importing and exporting a bow

 

Move to Wiki: Blender bow import and export

 

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Part 2: Modifying an existing bow

 

Move to Wiki: Blender bows with modified geometry

 

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Part 3: Import existing objects onto a bow

 

In this section, I want to show how you can import a dagger and attach it to the bow.

 

In Blender 2.49b, you cannot join objects when one or more have shape keys and I have tried but cannot find any way around this and still end up with a working bow NIF.

 

Once Blender 2.5 is released along with a compatible version of PyFFI and NIF Scripts, I think it will be possible to do this. However, we cannot use Blender 2.5x to modify the model and then use 2.49b to export because 2.5x is incompatible with the animation information between older versions.

 

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Part 4: Create new objects on an existing bow

 

Move to Wiki: Blender bows with new geometry

 

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Part 5: New bow

 

>> Not Started <<

 

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[LHammonds]

Finished tutorials:

 

• Blender bow import and export
  
• Blender bows with modified geometry
  
• Blender bows with new geometry
  

[buzzbomb]

As a (very) new modder, I believe I could follow the instructions and that the tuts would be helpful. For the sake of us readers who tend to skip to the subject they are looking for, I would also include a link to the related tut within the text.

 

For instance, in the "Import and Export" tut, a line between steps three and four that says "Make your changes" with a link to the "Modified Geometry" and/or "New Geometry" tut would be helpful. Of course the same at the end of the other two tuts, linking to the "Import and Export" tut where they say "put it in the game."

 

Nothing serious, just saving an (probably) already confused and overwhelmed new modder a little brain work, so as to keep the frustration level with learning to mod as low as possible. I can say with conviction and current experience how amazingly frustrating and brain-burning it is to go through umpteen tutorials over the span of hours at a time, just trying to find the answer to what is usually a very simple question, but it has your project stopped cold. Anything that can be done to lessen that curve and let us new modders concentrate on being creative is good in my book. :)

[LHammonds]

I thought that was what the "prerequisites" and "related pages" covered.

[buzzbomb]

Indeed they do. It's not that you haven't provided links, I was simply suggesting an addition to them, to make them more obvious for rocks for brains such as myself. When I was reading the Import and Export tut, I got to the end and realized that I had imported a file, changed the layer, and exported the nif without really accomplishing anything. It's true the tutorial was about importing and exporting and that's what it did. All depends on how you look at it, I guess. Just trying to be helpful. I'll be quiet now.

[LHammonds]

If I had made this into a single tutorial, it would be quite long. That is why I break it up into pieces. The Import/Export would probably only need to be read one time or referenced for button settings once in a great while but the others may need to be looked-over more often, even by those very familiar with the tools and just need to know the steps on how to make it work for Oblivion. Also, all other bow tutorials list the "import/export" as a prerequisite so the text does not have to be duplicated over and over.

 

Most of my tutorials are modular this way so that those that are utterly new to the material have places they can read-up on to get the basics and those that have been around the block can quickly get the info they need without having to wade through a 10-page tutorial. ;)

 

So many of my tutorials can be seen as "this is just too simple" because it is there for those who have never done it...and all I have to do is reference that tutorial if needed.

 

Once a large enough collection of these modular tutorials are made, a comprehensive "book" can be compiled. The closest example I have of this so far is the How to make mods article. That reminds me...need to convert that one to a wiki as well once all the sub-articles are wiki-tized.

 

LHammonds