Joining a mod group vs releasing content packs

[Gabbemaster]

So, im actually a 3D rigger, at a Swedish 3D company and me and some of my coworkers want to get together and do some wicked content for the game. What is required in terms of applications and plugins? And what formats are we supposed to use, is there any information about what the engine wants in terms of joint limits etc?

Max, blender and maya have some support for models and skinning too. XSI, max and maya have support for animantions, but I haven't verified the workflow.

 

And nifskope is the an essential nif block editor to manipulate the data in the model format.

 

joint limits is probably quite high, at least 80. supports 4 bone weights per vertex.

 

Thanks for that Ghogiel! Glad to hear that Maya has support for animation since it is our native software. We will hopefully get some detailed info from Bethesda when they release their wiki :)

[DiGiTALZOMBiE]

So, im actually a 3D rigger, at a Swedish 3D company and me and some of my coworkers want to get together and do some wicked content for the game. What is required in terms of applications and plugins? And what formats are we supposed to use, is there any information about what the engine wants in terms of joint limits etc?

 

Are you thinking about approaching this content creation commercially? or for fun?

[Gabbemaster]

So, im actually a 3D rigger, at a Swedish 3D company and me and some of my coworkers want to get together and do some wicked content for the game. What is required in terms of applications and plugins? And what formats are we supposed to use, is there any information about what the engine wants in terms of joint limits etc?

 

Are you thinking about approaching this content creation commercially? or for fun?

 

For fun :)

[Ghogiel]

So, im actually a 3D rigger, at a Swedish 3D company and me and some of my coworkers want to get together and do some wicked content for the game. What is required in terms of applications and plugins? And what formats are we supposed to use, is there any information about what the engine wants in terms of joint limits etc?

Max, blender and maya have some support for models and skinning too. XSI, max and maya have support for animantions, but I haven't verified the workflow.

 

And nifskope is the an essential nif block editor to manipulate the data in the model format.

 

joint limits is probably quite high, at least 80. supports 4 bone weights per vertex.

 

Thanks for that Ghogiel! Glad to hear that Maya has support for animation since it is our native software. We will hopefully get some detailed info from Bethesda when they release their wiki :)

I bet virtually ziltch from bethesda like always regarding their asset file formats. If you want to know what formlists are or how to set up pathgrids, or any world building in their editor then you are in luck. For the asset creation pipline you will stay tuned to the modders themselves, though the Havok documentation for the animation export is pretty good to get you started, though you will still need to know a lot of the nuances of the engine and how to jerry rig the things to play in Skyrim.

[DiGiTALZOMBiE]

So, im actually a 3D rigger, at a Swedish 3D company and me and some of my coworkers want to get together and do some wicked content for the game. What is required in terms of applications and plugins? And what formats are we supposed to use, is there any information about what the engine wants in terms of joint limits etc?

 

Are you thinking about approaching this content creation commercially? or for fun?

 

For fun :)

 

If your more familiar with Maya stick with that as your 3D package, It has great animation tools also. For your asset workflow If your going to go high poly and bake down then you either have the option of sub division modeling in Maya or taking your work into something like Zbrush or Mudbox. Download sculptress, its free and will give you an excellent idea of how such packages work.

 

To bake my normal maps i use an excellent utility called Xnormal, ambient occlusion I bake using mental ray within 3DS max. Then to further tool the normal/ambient and create the diffuse/specular, Photoshop. I constantly have my work loaded up in engine, its important as the end result can often look quite different and you need to know how to compensate for this as an artist. I personally love unreal and have also seen some nice results using Marmoset. For presentation renders I use Xoliul Shader 2

Edited November 24, 2011 by DiGiTALZOMBiE

[Werne]

@DiGiTALZOMBiE I tried using XNormal to make UV's and Normal maps, but I found it's better to unwrap the UV Map in blender. XNormal is too complicated for me to work with, so I stick to blender. Also, if you work in Maya 2012 you won't be able to export animations to nif, the plugin doesn't support that.

[Gabbemaster]

@DiGiTALZOMBiE I tried using XNormal to make UV's and Normal maps, but I found it's better to unwrap the UV Map in blender. XNormal is too complicated for me to work with, so I stick to blender. Also, if you work in Maya 2012 you won't be able to export animations to nif, the plugin doesn't support that.

 

Is the plugin open source? I might be able to modify it to support Maya 2012.

[DiGiTALZOMBiE]

@DiGiTALZOMBiE I tried using XNormal to make UV's and Normal maps, but I found it's better to unwrap the UV Map in blender. XNormal is too complicated for me to work with, so I stick to blender. Also, if you work in Maya 2012 you won't be able to export animations to nif, the plugin doesn't support that.

 

I unwrap as I model its much quicker, I create the cage using max or maya then bake using Xnormal. Sorry to hear your having issues as it gives some excellent results

[Ghogiel]

Yeah the niftools code is open for developers and contributors, however the Maya plugin and the Blender plugin are separate plugins pretty much entirely, you will have to develope animation support for the Maya plugin yourself. It is getting some work done on it, you would be wise to visit the niftools forums in the maya development section to see the current status and ask any questions there.

 

 

@DiGiTALZOMBiE I tried using XNormal to make UV's and Normal maps, but I found it's better to unwrap the UV Map in blender. XNormal is too complicated for me to work with, so I stick to blender. Also, if you work in Maya 2012 you won't be able to export animations to nif, the plugin doesn't support that.

FYI, animations are in hkx. Which Maya can export with the Havok content tools. v 2010.2.0 is about the only tip I can give atm asI have not verified the workflow.

[DiGiTALZOMBiE]

Thanks for the useful contribution Ghogiel :)