Looking for tutorial: How to create new armor

[Cycrone]

Hello!

 

As the discription stated, I'm a pretty 'newb' modder, if you could call me a modder at all.

I've played most of the games the nexus has sites about, from the Fallouts to the Elder Scroll games.

Obviously, I've also downloaded a heckload of mods for those games, some awesome, some... less then awesome.

Now it has come to my attention that there's some people who just replace textures for 'Armor mods' and some who create entirely new armor.

Because a friend of mine and I are going to start working on a mod for Skyrim as soon as the modding tool gets released, I was looking for a tutorial, or atleast some basic tips on how to make my own models for armor and/or weapons.

 

Any help?

 

Thanks,

Cycrone.

[Matth85]

Eh, are you asking how to make armor and weapons? Slightly hard to tell, since you.. well.. model it?

 

A weapon is straight forward. Get a picture and model. No tips needed really.

Armor is a lot more complicated. Here you can either:

 

A) Make your own body mesh and model on top of that, then fit it to whatever body mesh you want.

or

B) Take the Skyrim body mesh and model on top of that.

 

If you look for tutorial, google "*your 3d software* character creation". Do not type anything related to TES games - as it is really not relevant.

 

I would need more information to help further. What tools do you use?

[Cycrone]

Eh, are you asking how to make armor and weapons? Slightly hard to tell, since you.. well.. model it?

 

A weapon is straight forward. Get a picture and model. No tips needed really.

Armor is a lot more complicated. Here you can either:

 

A) Make your own body mesh and model on top of that, then fit it to whatever body mesh you want.

or

B) Take the Skyrim body mesh and model on top of that.

 

If you look for tutorial, google "*your 3d software* character creation". Do not type anything related to TES games - as it is really not relevant.

 

I would need more information to help further. What tools do you use?

 

Well, I don't really use any 'tools' yet, I'm looking to get started with it, so what tools would you reccommend?

[CampanaAliquanta]

List of tutorials, check out the instructions for extracting meshes and textures here. If you want to make armour you will need to use a body mesh as a reference.

http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/471428-modding-faq-how-to

(edit: current amours in game have 2 versions with the file names ending in _1 and _0, which is how they accomodate the different weights the characters can have)

 

Blender is free modelling software. I'd spend quite a bit of time following some simple low poly modelling tutorials just to get the hang of the UI and how 3d meshes work. You also want gimp or photoshop for texturing.

 

The basic workflow for creating 3d assets is:

1) draw a reference to copy from - this would be a simple line drawing that helps you align your vertices

2) create a high poly (i.e. detailed) mesh for your item

3) mark seams in the mesh (UV map) and unwrap it (this is the 3d equivalent of cutting up a 3d object and laying it flat on a 2d surface)

4) bake your mesh to get the high poly detail

5) duplicate your mesh and reduce the poly count (make it less detailed)

6) apply the high poly textures to the low poly mesh

 

I've left out a lot of information, here this is just a very basic overview. Make sure you're confident with all of the steps before you attempt anything too complicated.

 

Some armour tutorials:

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Fallout._Part_1

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Unique_armor_and_texture_sets_in_easy_steps

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_basic_clothes_in_5_minutes_using_Blender

Edited December 18, 2011 by CampanaAliquanta

[Cycrone]

List of tutorials, check out the instructions for extracting meshes and textures here. If you want to make armour you will need to use a body mesh as a reference.

http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/471428-modding-faq-how-to

(edit: current amours in game have 2 versions with the file names ending in _1 and _0, which is how they accomodate the different weights the characters can have)

 

Blender is free modelling software. I'd spend quite a bit of time following some simple low poly modelling tutorials just to get the hang of the UI and how 3d meshes work. You also want gimp or photoshop for texturing.

 

The basic workflow for creating 3d assets is:

1) draw a reference to copy from - this would be a simple line drawing that helps you align your vertices

2) create a high poly (i.e. detailed) mesh for your item

3) mark seams in the mesh (UV map) and unwrap it (this is the 3d equivalent of cutting up a 3d object and laying it flat on a 2d surface)

4) bake your mesh to get the high poly detail

5) duplicate your mesh and reduce the poly count (make it less detailed)

6) apply the high poly textures to the low poly mesh

 

I've left out a lot of information, here this is just a very basic overview. Make sure you're confident with all of the steps before you attempt anything too complicated.

 

Some armour tutorials:

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Fallout._Part_1

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Unique_armor_and_texture_sets_in_easy_steps

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_basic_clothes_in_5_minutes_using_Blender

 

Thanks, I'll be sure to check that all out first when I have some spare time, first need to get through my chirstmas exams.

[kenzo47]

List of tutorials, check out the instructions for extracting meshes and textures here. If you want to make armour you will need to use a body mesh as a reference.

http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/471428-modding-faq-how-to

(edit: current amours in game have 2 versions with the file names ending in _1 and _0, which is how they accomodate the different weights the characters can have)

 

Blender is free modelling software. I'd spend quite a bit of time following some simple low poly modelling tutorials just to get the hang of the UI and how 3d meshes work. You also want gimp or photoshop for texturing.

 

The basic workflow for creating 3d assets is:

1) draw a reference to copy from - this would be a simple line drawing that helps you align your vertices

2) create a high poly (i.e. detailed) mesh for your item

3) mark seams in the mesh (UV map) and unwrap it (this is the 3d equivalent of cutting up a 3d object and laying it flat on a 2d surface)

4) bake your mesh to get the high poly detail

5) duplicate your mesh and reduce the poly count (make it less detailed)

6) apply the high poly textures to the low poly mesh

 

I've left out a lot of information, here this is just a very basic overview. Make sure you're confident with all of the steps before you attempt anything too complicated.

 

Some armour tutorials:

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Fallout._Part_1

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Unique_armor_and_texture_sets_in_easy_steps

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_basic_clothes_in_5_minutes_using_Blender

 

Thanks for the links and tips. Kudos + :)

[Ghogiel]

 

 

The basic workflow for creating 3d assets is:

1) draw a reference to copy from - this would be a simple line drawing that helps you align your vertices

2) create a high poly (i.e. detailed) mesh for your item

3) mark seams in the mesh (UV map) and unwrap it (this is the 3d equivalent of cutting up a 3d object and laying it flat on a 2d surface)

4) bake your mesh to get the high poly detail

5) duplicate your mesh and reduce the poly count (make it less detailed)

6) apply the high poly textures to the low poly mesh

 

that order is a bit weird... it seems to suggest you bake before you even have your low poly model :unsure:

[teklanika]

A word of caution to the OP---I'm sure you're very excited to get started making your own armor, but honestly... it's no where NEAR that easy. :/ Many people on the Nexus make it look easy with their beautiful work, but the truth is that it takes many hours; you must be highly dedicated to figuring everything out!

 

I recommend heading over to the Construction Set Wiki site (http://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php/Main_Page) to get yourself started. There are many guides on this site dedicated to teaching the basics of TES modding. You will need: Photoshop/GIMP, a 3D modeling program (3ds Max, 3D Coat, etc), and Nifskope. These are just a few programs that can be used to make your armor. I would recommend Photoshop and 3D Coat in your case, because 3ds Max costs a huge lump sum to even obtain the product legally. If you're strapped for cash, you can swap Photoshop with GIMP as well; it's just personal preference.

 

Like another poster here said, you will need to create a high and low poly version of your armor, then bake your normal maps using the low poly version. You can find tutorials on the websites associated with whatever 3D modeling program you use; these tutorials will help teach you how to bake textures and maps, and so on.

 

Any work you create will take a lot of refining and tweaking, since you don't know exactly how everything is supposed to look. I myself am still learning all of these things, and it takes many hours to be satisfied with my work.

 

I wish you luck on your armor endeavors, and look forward to seeing some mods released by you!