making a centaur?

[_Oceanus_]

I'm wondering if anyone out there could give me some help with such a mod. Possibly by creating it themselves;) I'm not very good at modding yet, I've been playing for ages, and finally decided to do something about the lack of half-fae on Oblivion. I'm not completely new to modding, I've done some on the sims 2, but not on Oblivion. (except for a race I'm still working on, that likes to turn purple on me.) If anyone has done something like this before. Could you give me pointers?

[_Oceanus_]

Just to let everyone know, this may not ever get off the ground as a mod. I have no idea how to even begin, (Other than creating the actual shape, which is a work in progress right now.) So, if you feel like telling me to *censored* off and figure it all out by myself, that's cool. :) I will be working on this for awhile though, so feel free to help, make suggestions, whatever.

I don't think this will be a character that you can change. So, no climbing, and I havn't figured out how to get a centaur into town. (Thinking about splicing the horse body with an elf race. Which would create problems when entering and leaving town.)

[Vagrant0]

I'll be back later to check the thread, so in that time. (A few hours.) I expect lots of comments. From WTH to "Well you could...." lol. thanks for any and all comments/help.

First, don't go posting updates in seperate posts if nobody has responded to any of them. There is an edit button, you should use that and modify your posts so that if you have anything to add to the main post, it's all there within a single post. Only after someone has responded to your post should you really make another post.

 

That said, making anything that requires new models is usually difficult. This can be even more so when you do not have the software or the know-how to use that software. Unless you are already well versed in modeling from scratch, weighting, and animating, attempting anything like this is foolhardy. The main reason is due to this needing a new skeleton if you want the backlegs to look anything close to correct. Without a new skeleton, you're either limited to goofy back legs, or having no movement on the torso section. Even though there are skeletons you might be able to use as a base, they would require significant reworking to have the proper joint arrangements.

 

New skeletons mean more complications when trying to implement them, and right away disqualifies the player from being able. They also mean having to recreate new animations... Which means that usage for any NPC is pretty much out due to many of the hard coded limitations in this area. NPCs would also be nearly impossible due to how the game treats body meshes. This is all ignoring the work involved with just making a non-animated model for the centaur.

 

Even a professional within the business, not having to work around all the problems with the hard coded elements in Oblivion would need months to pull something like this off. Even something as simple as making a piece of leg/boot equipment which was just a clipped portion of the horse body would be difficult since that would have to be weighted to the NPC skeleton (which may not work too well with the front legs when walking, let alone the back, or durring any other animation), and would have some issues with height and proportions. Even if you weren't particularly concerned with how it looked, with a fair capacity for modeling and working with Oblivion, you's still be looking significant effort.

 

Personally, even if you paid me enough to buy a small island, I wouldn't want to touch this for Oblivion modding. Within any other world that isn't as limited I could probably do it with enough time and interest, but it really just doesn't work here.

[_Oceanus_]

Thank you for the advice Vagrant, very kind of you.

However, I have done some modding. Which I think I posted? Or not, whatever.

I've done (but never uploaded) stuff for morrowind. I have about 20 different programs for graphics editing, texture/mesh making and animation.

I'm working on a major in video game design. This ais just for a little 'extra curriculum.'

Anyway, I think I said this project may never get off the ground. It's just something I'm seeing if I can do or not. Again, thanks for the advice,

I'll let you know whether I crash and burn. Which is far more likely than success.