Will Model for Mod-Processing

[AurelTristen]

Jimhsu: I can 'rig' too. Skin weighting and rigging are in the same general area, but rigging normally means creating the 'rig' that is additional to the skeleton to aid the animator, (such as knee controllers, handles, internal IK, ect). For any Skyrim mod using the existing skeleton, it would still just be skin weighting, or skinning. The term skinning is not common in the modding scene because people have been calling their re-texturing efforts skinning for years.

 

Sounds like you're just the person I was looking for though, should you find the time.

 

Urwy: I appreciate the offer, but I can't see myself joining a modding team unless the subject of said mod was something that really interests me. I think your choice of subject is a good one for Skyrim, considering the look and feel is close to begin with, but it isn't something that interests me enough to hold my attention. That said, if your team wanted a few models done in exchange for loading mine up (as explained above) I'd be open to that.

 

I'm probably going to start my own team, or join another that is closest to my goals. But I can't even get that ball rolling until this CK comes out. I'm a quick learner when it comes to scripting languages, and I'm hoping I can learn this new one as fast as I did GlovePIE and AutoHotKey. Who knows, I might turn into a one-man-modding machine ^_^

[Urwy]

That's okay :) Best o' luck. i'm eager to see the results :)

[ghosu]

Just wait until Tuesday, the CK should make the import process much easier...i never imported a bow yet but have no problems with other static weapons and that stuff so i could help out with that...i need no models in exchange, i do 'em myself :D Edited February 5, 2012 by ghosu

[Adolon]

Adolon: Actually, organic things are kina' my weakness. I've been doing robots (Macross, Evangelion, ECT) for years, as well as structures, weapons, space ships and so forth. Be it, I CAN do organic modeling, but it isn't my best area.

If you go to the link in my signature, you can read what I need to see if it is within your expertise. Maybe you could consider this as a learning experience for organic modeling? Thanks for your reply!

[jimhsu]

Cool. I might contact you when I have something in mind. Not right now though; more interested in scripting now that the CK is coming out.

[AurelTristen]

This is the best kind of update: I was phsyching myself out I guess. I finally found a decent tutorial, and discovered that it is EASY as pie to get swords and such in. There are many katana models out there, so for the hell of it, I decided to add the Tetsigua from InuYasha (Yes, I'm aware of how people feel about Anime mods in this community. Sorry, I'm a fan). Since this anime happens to be set in Japan in the time period I want to mod for, it wasn't a bad choice.

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b55/AnimeNanashi/Tetsigua_In_Skyrim.jpg

 

Currently its a replacement for the Dadric GreatSword, and there are some problems, but its in! It needs to be scaled down a little (Just a little, its actually that big). I also learned the hard way that, at least via the process I was following, I can only use one texture per mesh. That is why the fuzzy bit is all kinds of scary looking. Its also got the wrong / no normals, reflections and so on.

 

With all that said, I still want to do bows, so lets get on that once the kit comes out tomorrow. :)

[ghosu]

You can split up the item like: Blade,hilt,handle and so and each one gets a seperate texture path...never tried it but since you can add an own path for the scabbard for sure why shouldn't it be possible for parts as well. And even if it doesn't work you can use a 4096 texture and this for really good details, the original weapons use 512 and already look good...with 4096 you can make muuuuch better stuff. You just have to rightclick onto the shapedata of the sword, mesh=>face normals, set its UV value from 1 to 4097 and in the menu spells=>batch=>update. And have fun with those reflection maps, that looks so simple but needs good fine tuning...i really hate it :D

[AurelTristen]

You can split up the item like: Blade,hilt,handle and so and each one gets a seperate texture path...never tried it but since you can add an own path for the scabbard for sure why shouldn't it be possible for parts as well. And even if it doesn't work you can use a 4096 texture and this for really good details, the original weapons use 512 and already look good...with 4096 you can make muuuuch better stuff. You just have to rightclick onto the shapedata of the sword, mesh=>face normals, set its UV value from 1 to 4097 and in the menu spells=>batch=>update. And have fun with those reflection maps, that looks so simple but needs good fine tuning...i really hate it :D

Thanks, I'll try it next time I make a new item.

 

Now that the CK is out (And god is it easy to use!) I've got this sword in game on its own. Next challenge: I need to find a way to make it cast a spell, or trigger a shout when one specific swing is used (Power top down swing with two handed). If I enchant the weapon, every time it cuts, it'll have its effect, but if I'm to follow the source material, it needs to fire a 'magic' projectile, and only when it is swung this specific way. I'm thinking it can be done via a script, but I might be wrong.

 

I'm going to start looking through the Staffs and see if I can copy one of their effects over, but I'm open for ideas!

[AurelTristen]

UPDATE ON BOW SITUATION:

 

So I finally found the nif importer plugins for MAX 2012, I CAN'T be the only person working on this bow problem, but here is what I've figured out:

If I import any bow NIF from the game, I get its skeleton and skin modifier too. If I was going to do a normal bow replacement, I could probably pull it off with this step. Just re-map my own bow to the skeleton and export again. But as you can see from the image below, my Japanese long bow is quite a bit taller than the standard bow in Skyrim.

 

If I move the bones to match my mesh, the animations will no-longer match, and it'll turn into a pile of vertexes in game when it animates. The bones are set up so that each end of the bow has an end bone. These end bones point toward one another, and can be rotated outward to make the string look as if it is being pulled back (The grayed out bow is correct). Without moving these bones, I cannot make the rotation points match the end of my own bow, and thus, my string moves forward, or not at all when the bow deforms from a pull.

 

I could (Easily) do my own animations with my own skeleton, but this also means new player model animations. I'd be happy to do this still (Japanese stances for archery differ from most), but I don't yet know how I could include my own bow and it's own animations within skyrim without replacing the standard ones.

 

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this, but its doubtful. At least this thread might be useful for anyone trying to make a custom bow with a new model. It looks as though it is very straight forward.

 

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b55/AnimeNanashi/SkyrimBow.jpg