Any good creature tutorials for blender?

[uhmattbravo]

I have a few static meshes I want to make creature versions of, and I had a blender specific tutorial I'd tried a quite few times, even tried comparing it to Bringing Life to the Mojave, but every time I try I fail hard.

 

I've gotten pretty good at animating statics using empties, but for the life of me I can't seem to make a working creature.

 

Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

[RoyBatterian]

Creatures need a skeleton and animations for them. They are one of the more difficult things to create.

 

Perhaps mindboggles can give you some advice.

[uhmattbravo]

Yeah. I know it's different. See, I'd make the skeleton and set everything up as best as I could conforming to this guide:

 

http://z9.invisionfree.com/industrialpolygons/ar/t544.htm

 

And later started checking it over as I went with Bringing Life to the Mojave (mindboggles' guide for 3ds max) which were the only 2 guides I've been able to find, but every time I try to get it in the geck, it fails.

[mindboggles]

I managed to find the original tutorial that he mentions his was based off http://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php?title=Blender/Custom_Creature

 

It's a pity my knowledge of Blender is so limited. Eventually I'd like to team up with a knowledgeable Blender user and write a 2nd version for it.

 

Without knowing the details I can give you a few pointers. The process is pretty much the same as rigging a new armour with the exception you are supplying the skeleton. You could try to just create the skeleton on it's own as practice and keep checking in Nifskope until you see something that think you should be getting. You can also make sure you're able to export working character armours that the Geck will accept.

 

When I'm in a hurry to get a creature into the game I won't bother to create a ragdoll for the skeleton or create a new body part data entry. I'll also not bother with an mtidle.kf, if you have Geck PU it will complain about the missing animation file but if your creature has been rigged right and your skeleton is right then it should at least appear.

 

McPaddington might be kind enough to also offer some assistance, he created TARS http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/59315/ using Blender.

[uhmattbravo]

So I can skip the constraints till I'm sure I'm doing the rest right?

 

I'll see what I can get out of the Oblivion tutorial and a little more experimenting with the export settings. It looks like it's got a lot of the same information, but at least it looks easier to follow.

 

Thanks for the tips. I've been spending the better part of a day or two about every other week or so making attempts at it for months now so every little bit helps at this point.

[mindboggles]

Exactly, the collision and constraints only become an issue when you want to start shooting at the thing.

[uhmattbravo]

Ok so, with the help of this:

 

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3092759-fallout-new-vegas-exporting-a-creature-from-blender/

 

I managed to semi successfully get the creature into the game. I can see it, I can shoot it and I can't run through it. (I didn't add constraints yet though. Does it need them if it's just going to blow up anyway?)

 

The problem is it won't accept my animations. Geck(pu) says it's missing an idle, and ignoring that, my kf's show up in the animation window, but the start and end from my anim text don't show up in the one box (like they do for vanilla creatures) and the animation groups box doesn't show anything on any groups. I've been searching, but I can't figure out how to add the information anywhere. Is this more export settings? Or am I still missing something?

[mindboggles]

Well you're going good so far. :thumbsup:

 

You need your collision bodies for it to take hits and your body part data entered in the GECK. If you skin across one or more bones that each have a collision body on them then you will need a constraint for them to have a proper ragdoll. Otherwise when the creature dies those collision bodies will go their own seperate ways and you will end up with a spaghetti corpse. In your case if you're using destruction data you won't need to worry about it.

 

For 3DS Max I have to add a note track to the Bip01 bone and insert a couple of notes, for an idle it needs "start -name Idle -loop -at y" and "end", I assume you need to do something similar in blender. Also when I export in 3DS I use single kf only with a priority of 1 for the mtidle. Every kf file I export I have to check and alter in Nifskope.

 

Oh and if you have collision and no mtidle don't try killing it or the game will CTD.

[uhmattbravo]

I'll have to see if I can find the proper syntax(?) To see if it'll let me enter it in the text editor. If I recall, I did notice a "fullnames" text on one of the vanilla animations I was looking at, but I think it was blank. I don't think I'll have time today, but it's looking like I have a bit of digging and/or experimenting to do.

[uhmattbravo]

I don't know if it was the correct way to do it, but using "1\Start Name: Idle" for the first line of the anim text worked.

 

My idle, forward, fastforward, and backward kf's now show the correct groups in the animation groups box in geck and play in the preview window. Turnleft and turnright don't work on either, nor have I successfully been able to loop part of an animation.

 

The good news is that with the exception of the turns, it also works in game (it still turns, it just doesn't use the animations) I put it on a basic patrol package, and have been following it around in awe. Lol

 

Still more to do, but I think I'm a lot closer now.