Help with body mesh in 3ds Max

[Asaang]

Hi guys,

 

I've searched all over the place for this for several months, but I just can't seem to find anything specific on modifying body parts in 3ds Max. That may very well be because this is a noob question to the extreme (Yes, I am aware, so please don't flame me ;P). I've followed endless 3ds Max tutorials, Skyrim custom armour tutorials and everything, but I just can't find anything on what to do with body models (so no weapons or elaborate armours) in the program itself. I don't know if it's harder than in Oblivion, but back then I didn't have such huge problems with editing models.

 

So, I'm trying to edit a body mesh in 3ds Max. The femalehands, to be specific. The only thing I really want to do at this point (for starters, so I know how-to) is make the nails a bit longer. I know how to import/export, how to clean up in Nifskope and I have all the necessary plug-ins.

 

I just don't know how to edit the mesh in 3ds Max so that it works in game. Whenever I import the mesh and go into modify mode, I get three separate components in the modifier window: BSDismemberSkin Modifier, Skin and Editable Mesh. Now, when I open the file, the Dismember Modifier is always selected, and selecting any other thing results in a topology warning. I've tried to ignore that and worked on the Editable Mesh and the Skin, but it doesn't work in game and the mesh comes out all warped. Adding Edit Poly also doesn't seem to work. Maybe because I only know how to work in vertex mode, which doesn't work in the Dismember Modifier.

 

I've tried and searched for months now without asking for any help, but some help or advice now would be really, really appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Gary3]

Hi,

 

maybe this can help you.

It's about the horse mesh and explains some things about the BSDismemberSkin and Skin modifier for editing:

 

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/562202-tutorial-editing-the-horse-mesh/

 

Best regards,

Gary

[galy3]

You can't edit mesh with BSDismemberSkin and skin apply. You have to delete those modifier or collapse everything. When you are done with mesh edit or poly edit, put back skin using skin warp with an import vanilla model, and put back BSDismemberSkin.

[galy3]

Gary is right, you can work this way, but you can get some mess if you add new poly.

[Gary3]

Hi,

 

you can attach new polys to the original mesh, but it goes like this:

 

Original mesh:

Delete BSDismemberSkin modifier

 

New Mesh:

Edit & Convert to editable mesh (you can edit it as an editable poly, but after that you have to convert it to an editable mesh. Make a backup copy of the poly, if you want to edit further).

 

Original mesh:

Klick on the Editable Mesh (modifier) and attach the new mesh.

Add a new BSDismemberSkin modifier, open it, click on its subpart and select all faces of the mesh by dragging a box around it.

 

If you want to texture it, please take note of this:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/562202-tutorial-editing-the-horse-mesh/page__view__findpost__p__4560810

 

Best regards,

Gary

[jimhsu]

I like to use the following workflow:

 

BSDismember

Skin (generated from skin wrap)

Skin Wrap

(other geometry modifiers - sometimes I'll have things like FFD 4x4x4 here, or collapse to Edit Poly)

Edit Poly

Editable Mesh or Poly

 

If it doesn't work after NIFskope, I typically will import it back into 3ds max and export it out again.

 

Haven't run into any problems with that.

[Asaang]

Wow, thanks for all the replies!

 

While both the tutorial and all your comments were very useful, I still can't seem to get what I want in the game. The thing is that, at this point, I only want to make minimal changes to the mesh of one loose body part (the hands). I started working with the info you guys gave me/pointed out to me, but it got all messed up because it mostly pertains to whole bodies. For instance, deleting the DismemberSkin Modifier and making a new one only ends up making the hands one part named "torso", which seemed a bit odd (Nifskope thought so too ;)).

I tried applying the information from the tut in the context of what I was trying to do, of course, but that didn't work either.

 

I know that Skyrim meshes work different from those in Oblivion and Fallout, but I was wondering if it's really necessary to make such rigorous changes to Skin and DismemberSkin and whatnot, just to make the teensie little changes on one body part. Please understand me: I'm not questioning anyone here, and if you say that it's necessary then it is. I just want to express exactly what I want to do here as clearly as possible.

 

Thanks (in advance) again!

[Gary3]

Hello Asaang,

 

as soon as you make the smallest change to only a single vertex, the BSDismemberSkinInstance gets invalid and has to be rebuilt.

The name of its subpart is irrelevant (at least I never had problems using the default and I never had to change it).

 

It's important, that after you copy your modded NiStriShapeData and BSDismemberSkinInstance to the original NIF, you change

BSDismemberSkinInstance -> Partitions -> Partitions -> Body Flag to the correct value again (look in the original file what it was before).

 

Unfortunately, I'm not really used to work with the human mesh (horse mesh specialist :laugh: ) so perhaps someone else can give a few tips?

 

Best regards,

Gary