Which nif editor should I use?

[gyashaa]

I am trying to make this http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/43732/? to look like these http://geekshotphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/SPG19p.jpg

I'm going to have to edit the nif but I'm not sure which program to use. (nifskope, blender, gimp) What concerns me most is the glowing eyes. I want to keep the glow but in the shape of human eyes. I also want to be able to remove and create glow. Do these programs all do the same thing?

 

This is Steam Powered Giraffe btw. A band/vaudeville show thingy. Lol They're awesome.

Edited September 22, 2015 by gyashaa

[madmongo]

Nifscope allows you to edit nifs, but it is somewhat limited in what it can edit. You can delete nif branches, copy nif branches from another nif, and that sort of thing, and you can easily change some things like what texture is used by a particular nif branch. As far as actually editing meshes though, you are limited to mostly scaling and rotation.

 

Blender is a full-blown 3d modeling program, so it can edit and create meshes, edit and create animation, all sorts of things. Blender does not create or edit textures though (well, it does have some limited texture editing capabilities, but you really don't want to use it for that).

 

GIMP is just an image editor. You can use it to fiddle with textures. It does absolutely nothing with meshes.

 

A relative newbie can fiddle with textures using GIMP, and can change certain things around with nifscope fairly easily. Blender has a much steeper learning curve, though. Generally speaking, someone who doesn't even know the purpose of these programs has nowhere near the skills and experience required to edit meshes with Blender.

[ryanjp89]

You would need to have pretty extensive modeling experience to do this. assuming you want to edit and redesign it to look like those in your image.

You're wanting to remodel their faces to look like the ones in your images? If so it means you need to know how to use 3D modeling programs. Nif editing programs won't do that. There are NIF plugins for 3D programs like blender as madmongo mentioned, as well as 3D Studio Max. (3ds max is quite expensive)

The glow part you mentioned would be the easiest part, as creating glow maps in gimp, or photoshop is quite easy.

[gyashaa]

Generally speaking, someone who doesn't even know the purpose of these programs has nowhere near the skills and experience required to edit meshes with Blender.

Yeah lol. This is going to be a long project and learning is part of the plan. ;)

Thanks for the info. :)

 

 

You would need to have pretty extensive modeling experience to do this. assuming you want to edit and redesign it to look like those in your image.

 

You're wanting to remodel their faces to look like the ones in your images? If so it means you need to know how to use 3D modeling programs. Nif editing programs won't do that. There are NIF plugins for 3D programs like blender as madmongo mentioned, as well as 3D Studio Max. (3ds max is quite expensive)

 

The glow part you mentioned would be the easiest part, as creating glow maps in gimp, or photoshop is quite easy.

Thanks for the info. :)

[madmongo]

If you are willing to dive in and learn, the first thing you'll want to do is find Blender 2.49 plus all of the nif tools here on the nexus. I don't remember if it's under FNV or FO3, but somewhere here there's a package with all of the correct versions that all work properly together. It's an older version of Blender, but it does the job.

 

I've heard of people trying to get the nif import/export tools to work with newer versions of Blender. It's been a long time since I've looked, but the last I heard there were still a lot of issues. Until someone can point you to a working set of tools, stick with Blender 2.49 from the nexus.

 

Also do a search for Blender from Noob to Pro. It's a free online resource and it's a good place to start.