Animal head bases and target weights (.Tri files) built from scratch.

[luckarusky911]

Thanks for viewing this facial project post. My name is Jordan, a modeler and rigger setting up to build game engine content. For the past few days I’ve been adjusting my program pallet to bring non-human fantasy characters into the Oblivion engine. Preparations for custom bodies, clothing and accessories in Max 8.0 have gone smoothly enough. Most are modifications to existing content, while others are “Clothing skin” and outfit meshes. I’ve also lined up and tested the Civilization exporter for Max to work very well for my needs.

 

Basically I’m locking down the pipeline before committing to a lot of models. Then came the head, and am a little “over my head” with this one.

 

As the title suggests, I’ve done my homework and learned what Oblivion is drawing on for its face generator. How the TRI and EGM shift the face shape is clear enough. In my case, I only need a base shape and the ability to create/edit my one TRI and EGM. These are custom, animal inspired heads such as dogs and horses. Simply pulling and stretching an existing mesh won’t get satisfactory results. (I’ve already looked at the existing animals.) Resources like the EGT texture aren’t nessisary. Said EGM might not be necessary either.

 

Finding a TRI tool is the stumbling block. I’ve checked out the Construction Set, FaceGen, NifSkope, The Conformer and Wrye Bash. None can convert a new base shape from what I have discovered (Most are currently on my computer). An existing forum can be stretched and shaped, but the designs I have been asked for really do call for from-scratch head models. (I will build them once I line up the ability to use them.) Totally from scratch heads are a lot of work, but time for that part is well laid out. And it helps that I’ve done it before too. Now if only I could find the tools to build that stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. The hunt for such a tool has now shifted to Maya or Max plug-ins. Both programs export in .obj without question, so that might help. (It’s what Conformer uses anyway ala NifSkope).