mbass Blender Tutorial

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Article link: mbass Blender Tutorial

 

Download Blender, Python, Skeleton.nif (this is an older version of Blender, however it matches this tutorial):

 

The version of Blender I use can be downloaded here:

http://www.4shared.com/file/hAbQ5FR4/Blender__Python.html

 

*Install in the order as the text file indicates, this text file comes with the download*

 

Download whatever body you prefer. In this tutorial, I used HGEC c-cup, m-lowerbody

 

 

Table of Contents

1.0 || Blender Setup

1.1 || Setup Nude Mesh

1.2 || Creating a New Mesh

1.3 || Setting up a UV

1.4 || Setting up the texture reference

1.5 || Weighing an outfit

1.6 || Normals to a Mesh

1.7 || Final prep work

 

 

1.0 Blender Setup

=================

 

*This part will be true only if you are using the factory settings*

*The following are my preferences in using Blender*

 

1. Open Blender

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/7920/0001co.jpg

 

2. Press 'a' on the keyboard till all a objects are highlighted

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/6928/0002ss.jpg

 

3. Press delete, and press enter (or click 'Erase selected Object(s)')

4. Move the mouse to the lowest part of the top title bar, a double arrow will appear. Left click, and drag down the bar

 

menu to reveal the view & controls menu.

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/6839/0003af.jpg

 

5. Click on 'turntable' and 'pan view'

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/7537/0004jp.jpg

 

6. Hide the view & controls bar

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8628/0005sw.jpg

 

7. In between the lower window and middle window, move the courser in between, and right click once the courser turns to a double arrow.

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/7149/0006ll.jpg

 

8. Click on 'split area', and divide the main window into two.

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/9886/0007y.jpg

 

9. Change the right window to UV/Image Editor

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9275/0008lx.jpg

 

10. Click on file, and save default setting

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/200/0009o.jpg

 

*Setup complete, this new configuration will start-up each time you start up blender*

 

 

1.1 Setup Nude Mesh

===================

 

*I prefer to make my outfits as one nif file, this is due to the fact that you can hide more body seams*

 

1. File > Import > NetImmerse/Gamebryo <== I will refer to this as "import nif"

http://img159.imageshack.us/img159/2449/0101v.jpg

 

2. Locate the nif files which you downloaded. You might need to move one of the windows to make navigation easier.

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/8923/0102v.jpg

 

3. For each nif file imported in this section, highlight only "Realign Bone Tail + Roll" and "Send Bones To Blind Position".

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/7106/0103qy.jpg

 

!!!very important!!!

*anytime you have an existing mesh already imported into blender, you MUST have all meshes highlighted (by pressing 'a' on

 

the keyboard) before importing the next mesh*

 

4. Import all hand, foot, upperbody, and lowerbody.

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/277/0104r.jpg

 

*to change views, hold shift, then press in the mouse wheel...them move the mouse*

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7766/0105m.jpg

 

5. Highlight, and delete all 'bones' (aka armature). Make sure to delete all 4 sets.

*the armature looks like the black dots, some of which are connected by a line*

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/3372/0106.jpg

 

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/511/0107qg.jpg

 

6. Save your file

*blender does NOT automatically save, even when the program is closed*

 

*we want to eliminate some seams*

 

7. Highlight all meshes, by either holding shift and right clicking on each mesh, or press 'a'

 

8. Object > Join Objects

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5544/0108p.jpg

 

9. Switch to Edit Mode, press 'a' to deselect the vertcies

http://img697.imageshack.us/img697/203/0109s.jpg

 

10. Zoom in to the waist (rotate the mouse wheel) *we are going to eliminate that seam*

http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/5167/0110b.jpg

 

11. We want to find a duplicate vertcie, to find it, right click once.....then right click a second time. If the same

 

vertcie appears to reference two difference meshes, that is the one we need to join together.

http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3540/0111ua.jpg

 

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/2606/0112j.jpg

 

12. Once you have located it, hold shift, right click twice (to highlight both vertcies), then press 'w', then click on

 

merge.

*in this case, you can select either first, last, or center*

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/5140/0113o.jpg

 

13. Work your way around the whole body to eliminate the waist seem.

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/108/0114sz.jpg

 

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/8503/0115w.jpg

 

14. Do the same for the wrists and ankles.

 

15. Save your file.

 

 

1.2 Creating a New Mesh

=======================

*In Object Mode*

1. Add > Mesh > Cube

http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/2084/0201l.jpg

 

2. move the cube to approximately where you want the new mesh to be located

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/5522/0202d.jpg

 

3. Switch to Edit Mode, hold shift, right click on the top two vertcies, and move them back a bit

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/9814/0203c.jpg

 

4. press 's' on the keyboard to scale the vertcies in a bit

http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/9405/0204sa.jpg

 

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/4589/0205u.jpg

 

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/981/0206.jpg

 

5. Press 'a' to highlight all vertcies, press 'w' and click Subdivide

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/7877/0207k.jpg

 

6. Move vertcies out to hide the nude mesh

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/1151/0208.jpg

 

7. Click on the top and bottom vertcie, then press delete.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/3776/0209z.jpg

 

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/5063/0210z.jpg

 

8. Press 'a' to highlight all, press 'w' and Subdivide again

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/5504/0211q.jpg

 

9. Move vertcies out again to cover nude mesh

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/7426/0212z.jpg

 

10. Go to object mode. Notice how the mesh looks like segments of squares. To fix this, make sure you are in editing mode

 

as shown in the bottom panel, and click set smooth.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/1562/0213j.jpg

 

http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2744/0214l.jpg

 

11. fine tune the mesh so that the skirt does not let the nude mesh show.

http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/5324/0215k.jpg

 

12. Save your file

 

 

1.3 Setting up a UV

===================

*setting up a good uv takes practice, It is good to understand how texture files work for this section*

 

1. Highlight the top row of vertcies. I used the border select (locate the mouse to the bottom left of where you want to

 

highlight vertcies, press 'b' , left click on the mouse, and make the dotted box enclose the vertcies you want to highlight.

 

Highlight all the vertcies as shown in the second figure.

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/3116/0301up.jpg

 

http://img57.imageshack.us/img57/4083/0302v.jpg

 

2. Press ctrl+e, click mark seam

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/1621/0303o.jpg

 

3. Highlight all pressing 'a', type 'u' and click unwrap. On the right window, a UV will show. You will need to zoom in to

 

get the view I have as shown

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/2744/0304hr.jpg

 

*An alternate version to a UV is show with a single seam down the back side of the skirt*

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/5606/0305hp.jpg

 

 

1.4 Setting up the texture reference

====================================

1. Select object mode, select the shading panel, and select the material buttons mode, click on add new

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/9963/0401s.jpg

 

2. In the texture menu, click 'add new'

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/7805/0402r.jpg

 

3. Map input to UV

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7040/0403.jpg

 

4. Click on the texture Button

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/5416/0404b.jpg

 

5. Select texture type to image, and load image (this is a texture reference)

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/5474/0405xl.jpg

 

*a preview of the texture will show once selected*

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/2710/0406f.jpg

 

1.5 Weighing an outfit

======================

*It is best to weigh an outfit to a separated body mesh (femalehand.nif, femalefoot.nif, femaleupperbody.nif, femalelowerbody.nif) rather than the combined mesh from before.

 

1. go into object mode

 

2. highlight the nude mesh, then go into edit mode, highlight all vertcies with 'a', go back into object mode

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/1489/0501l.jpg

 

3. Click on the un-weighted mesh. Switch to edit mode, press 'a' to select all vertcies.

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/8830/0502n.jpg

 

*Next steps are very important in sequence*

 

4. highlight the un-weighted mesh

 

5. Hold shift, and Highlight the body mesh

 

6. object > Scripts > bone weight copy

http://img104.imageshack.us/img104/2106/0503q.jpg

 

7. Quality 3, update selected

http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7154/0504.jpg

 

*these are the typical settings, in some cases, quality 4 will crash Blender*

 

8. Save your file.

 

 

1.6 Normals to a Mesh

=====================

I am not going too much in depth, to recalculate normals:

1) go into edit mode

2) highlight all the vertcies 'a'

3) press ctrl+n, then press enter for outside normals (ctrl+shift+n for inside normals)

 

*the tricky part of this is to make sure that all surfaces are facing a particular direction, watch out for connected vertcies across a mesh*

 

*for those who understand engineering terminology, let all normals to the surface face similar direction with respect to each-other.*

 

1.7 Final prep work

===================

1. Highlight all meshes 'a', press ctrl+a and click 'Scale and Rotation to ObData

2. Highlight all meshes 'a', File > Import > nif , select skeleton.nif from my uploaded folder. Highlight 'Realign Bone Tail + Roll' and 'Import Skeleton Only + Parent Selected'

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/2893/0601q.jpg

 

*if done correctly, you should be able to drag the armature, and the other meshes will follow*

 

3. Export by file > export > nif

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/8499/0602c.jpg

 

 

happy modding :)

 

[anb2004]

ha love this..simple, fully detail and well explained with pics..really helpfull for newbie modders like me... :thumbsup:

 

got a question tho, about polygon thing, well i'm kinda guy who loves smooth shape so subsurf modifier is something that i always use but sometimes it gave me to much vertex on the mesh, i try to lowered it with decimate modifier, awfull result tho, do you have any solution how to reducing vertices without completely alter the shape ....

 

thanks and great tutorial, kudos to you :D