Help w/ Blender & high heel shoes?

[Richard123]

Hello Nexus forums. I'm hoping to get some help with a project I'd like to do for my game.

 

I've downloaded several high heels mods, and found that only those that follow Vipcxj's scripting system actually add height to the NPC wearing the shoe. Most of the shoe mods that exist seem to clip the length of the calf to make room for the heel. IMO, this defeats the whole purpose of wearing a high heel, which is to make the leg and foot of the wearer look sexier via two illusions: 1, the foot itself seems smaller, due to distance of the toe from the shin being foreshortened, and 2, the leg looks longer.

 

Now, most of the mods I've found do a good job with number 1, but by shortening the calf, #2 is completely defeated.

 

What I'd like to do, is figure out how to edit the NIF's of the shoes that have shortened the calf so that they are placed properly on the heel of the NPC and the calf is not shortened. I understand that this will take a fair amount of work in Blender (which terrifies me o_O), and I think I have a fair understanding of how I would do it in Blender once I have the NIF open in it. However, opening the file in Blender is what's blocking me at the moment.

 

It seems that I can't simply blindly import a NIF into Blender. It would appear that I need some kind of base construct loaded first to import the NIF onto. And that's where I don't know what to do. Exporting concerns me too, but let's tackle this one thing at a time, yes?

 

Thanks in advance!

[LHammonds]

Well, you can import the NIF 1st. But before you export, you must import an armature (a.k.a. skeleton) and attach it to your model...and if you added any geometry, you will need to weight paint the model (a.k.a. skinning / rigging).

 

These tutorials may prove useful but I don't know of any specifically designed for exactly what you are wanting to accomplish.

 

Installation of Blender - If you don't have problems with Import / Export of nif format, don't worry about this one.

Import and Export Armor for Oblivion - This should be VERY similar to the process for armor / clothing in Oblivion / FO3 / New Vegas...however, FO3 has to handle meatcaps and shaders.

Rigging and Skinning

Blender shortcut tips

 

And if you have specific Blender questions, we have a dedicated Blender forum for that.

 

LHammonds

[ziitch]

Don't forget to read the tutorial I made to properly prepare shoes for the vipcxj system; even though it's more towards conversions there's a few steps in there you have to take for the shoes to work correctly.

[Richard123]

LHammonds, thanks for the walkthrough links.

 

ziitch, I couldn't find your tutorial. Can you send me a link? Converting existing shoes is exactly what I want to do. :thumbsup:

 

Thanks!

[ziitch]

It's with the download page, right here with the files.

[Richard123]

LHammonds, your Blender Shortcuts is gold! Block Edit and scale are exactly what I needed!!

 

Now, is there anyway to copy & mirror a set of vertex co-ords onto another set of existing vertices? That way, I only have to edit a heel once, then I can just copy the left shoe onto the right shoe (for instance).

 

Also, is there any type of... how to describe this... A function that would automatically place a selected vertex at the midpoint between the vertices around it? Or something like that? It would make smoothing out irregularities a lot easier.

 

Thanks!

Edited March 29, 2011 by Richard123

[LHammonds]

Now, is there anyway to copy & mirror a set of vertex co-ords onto another set of existing vertices? That way, I only have to edit a heel once, then I can just copy the left shoe onto the right shoe (for instance).

Yes, you need to use the mirror modifier. You typically make sure the "center" of the objects is as 0,0,0. Then you edit the object and delete the side you don't want. Then exit EDIT mode and add a mirror modifier. Depending on how the model is placed, you may have to adjust what axis the mirror should be applied but typically the default works. I also like to enable the "do clipping" option to prevent verticies from crossing the axis threshold. Once you have a good-working mirror and are happy with the results, you then apply the mirror. Then you may need to update the rigging to make sure the mirrored part of the model is weighted to the correct foot instead of both being weighted to the same foot. If the UV map shared the same part of the texture, you shouldn't need to update it...however, if the original UV map allowed unique textures for both feet, you may need to adjust the UV so that the mirrored model covers a unique part of the texture.

 

Also, is there any type of... how to describe this... A function that would automatically place a selected vertex at the midpoint between the vertices around it? Or something like that? It would make smoothing out irregularities a lot easier.

I think you are talking about alignment. I have not used it but you may be able to select 3 verts and tell it to align. Since you said "smooth," that made me think you might be interested in the sculpt mode which has a smoothing option and you can adjust the amount of area the brush affects.

 

LHammonds

[Richard123]

Thank-you LHammonds! I'll play around with those options. I'm going to have to re-read what you wrote several times while poking at Blender. A lot of what you said came across as "whah-whah, wha-wha-whah" (Charlie Brown teacher voice); no fault of yours, I just really don't have any idea what I'm doing yet! :whistling: But I'll get there!

 

ziitch, I just saw your link, thank-you for that. I had gone through your profile page looking for a unique upload, it never occurred to me to go back to Vipcxj's mod. I think that (just like with LHammonds) if I go through it while poking at Blender, I should be able to make sense of it.

 

Thanks a lot guys!

 

Oh, on a (somewhat) related note: You know how in NifSkope you can select a bone and change its scale, and NifSkope automatically makes a nice smooth transition between the changed node and the nodes around it? Is there any tool like that in Blender? I ask because another project I'd like to do for myself is to slim the waists of the female NPC's, just a touch. I took one try in Blender, and realized that the effort would not be worth the return. Even with alignment, it would be a nightmare project. Thanks again.

[LHammonds]

I'm going to have to re-read what you wrote several times while poking at Blender.

Yes, that was somewhat intentional. I covered the main points and anything that is unfamiliar, you can easily find tutorial topics for greater detail. It was already a full paragraph of text...just imagine if I tried to make it a step-by-step tutorial. hehehe.

 

Oh, on a (somewhat) related note: You know how in NifSkope you can select a bone and change its scale

Nope, never knew that. Then again, there are many things NifSkope can do that I have no clue about. ;)

 

I ask because another project I'd like to do for myself is to slim the waists of the female NPC's, just a touch. I took one try in Blender, and realized that the effort would not be worth the return. Even with alignment, it would be a nightmare project. Thanks again.

You might want to look up some tutorials on the Lattice modifier.

 

Have fun,

LHammonds