How do I align a ported headmodel into the body properly?

[rexdemax00]

Please someone help me!
So, I've really wanted to port a headmodel from my favorite videogame character to Oblivion.
(I won't distribute or share it, only for personal use.)

I have researched about it in different forums and actually managed to import it into the game.
The blender to nifscope process was actually hard(for me), I encountered many errors and things like missing meshes and textures but finally succeded in importing it;

I know that this will happen because I didn't add any skeletons/NiNodes(not quite sure) or any of that sort into the .nif file so this is to be expected:

 

http://i.imgur.com/mCq3RL4.png
(http://imgur.com/a/kLmfc)

 

The problem is that I don't know about bones and how to properly align the headmodel to the body.
I hope I'm making sense to you guys out there.

So...please help me! How do I bind the headmesh to the body?

Here's a screenshot of the nif:

http://i.imgur.com/fnhOjId.png

Edited July 30, 2017 by rexdemax00

[Striker879]

Did you look through Avoiding Blender Pitfalls on the Nexus Wiki?

[rexdemax00]

I looked through that from the nexus wiki, but I don't think it will help me because I'm not doing an animation just a head/helmet model.
Do you have any more solution? I think its more of nifskope rather than blender.

[Striker879]

You need to use the skeleton.nif bones ... the head mesh needs to be rigged to the correct bone.

 

I don't know much about this myself ... maybe Drake will see the thread and help.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Why's it always me being summoned when I'm hardly the only one knowing the answer? Where's all the people I learned these from myself gone to? Ah, well.

 

Head meshes in Oblivion are somewhat really special. Similar, but not the same, goes for helmets. You're planning to make this a helmet rather than an actual head, so things will be multitudes more simple.

 

In fact there's 2 different ways how helmets are done, even when you look into the original game's files.

Some helmets are in NIF files with only the head bone node in the center and even tilted sideways 90° as well.

Some others, the way I prefer myself for obvious reasons, are using a full skeleton of reference bone nodes (the unused ones can be removed again so only the neck and head nodes will remain, but at their proper location still, as if the full skeleton was still there) and the helmet is sitting 1:1 the way it'll be inside the game.

 

Maybe the previous ones are only used when the helmet's only rigged to the head bone, so no bending parts down the neck or something. It would make sense, but I'm avoiding using this approach, so how would I ever know?

 

I'm marking unimportant, only nice to know, points in red and with an (X). You can safely ignore these, if you aren't interested in it for future reference.

 

 

You now used the first approach, from what I can see, and not even correctly in that. There's not a single skeleton bone reference node to be seen in your NIF screenshot, so it's likely your head mesh isn't yet rigged at all but to the "Scene Root" perhaps, don't know.

 

(X) Your "helmet" is consisting of multiple separate parts also, so "conformulation", that is making it so it deforms along with the head geometry sliders in CharGen and facial animations, isn't possible either right now. That's another thing less to worry about. There likely won't be another head shown underneath anyways, as would be the case with certain kinds of open helmets and the like.

 

Then let's just see to get it rigged to the head and neck correctly for now.

 

 

(-) To start off import your "meshes/characters/_male/skeleton.nif" into Blender first, using the import options "import skeleton only, parent selected" without having anything selected for now though. That will give you a nice full armature skeleton of reference bone nodes for you to rig your meshes to.

 

(-) Next import your "meshes/characters/Imperial/headhuman.nif", or whatever existing head mesh else you'd prefer, using the import options "import geometry only, parent to selected armature" and having your previously imported skeleton armature selected. That should give you all geometry you'll need to align and rig your helmet mesh to.

 

(-) Sometimes it'll leave you with multiple (3) objects of one and the same head. You can safely remove the duplicates so only the first one (with lowest enumeration) remains.

 

(X) We also won't need to use the trick with the "non-applied" translation modifiers to have the head mesh sit at its proper place ingame but its internal vertex coordinate system still being centered around the 0,0,0 Scene Root for the deform modifiers from EGM and TRI files to work.

 

(-) Now move your head/helmet mesh up to where it belongs, but in Edit Mode, not Object Mode, and find some way to make the neck's borderline of your head line up with the existing head's, or you'll experience serious mesh gaps/neck seams later on. And don't forget to also "Parent" it to your armature as well at one point (with "Don't create groups").

 

(-) Once this is done, the easiest way to start your rigging would be to just select your mesh (or one of them), then shift-select the original head, go to Scripts and "Copy Bone Weight" over the rigging from the original to your's.

 

(-) You can then check if everything's working and bending as expected, by going into Pose Mode on the armature and rotating the neck/head bones around without finishing the change.

 

(-) Last but not least delete the original head, select your armature and export. It should export both, the reference bone nodes as well as your head, if everything was done correctly. Use "Flatten hierarchy" on that one, as you won't need a hierarchical skeleton in your result.

 

Later in NifSkope you can use "Optimize > Remove bogus nodes" to also get rid of the unused ones.

 

I hope that helps at least a little for the start.

[Striker879]

Thanks Drake. I always defer to you as you're the only one I know who is still active that knows this stuff. Fore has retired from modding last I heard. Don't know of any others on the subject.

[rexdemax00]

Thank you kind sir!
I have some questions, what version of Blender do you recommend? Because I searched about this Bone Weight Copy and it says that it got removed in Blender 2.66, I understood the tutorial until the 4th part; that "parent" part (like with "armature" did you meant the skeleton.nif or the headnif) and also the whole bone weight copying part (can't seem to find it in the version of my Blender.)

I think this really works, it's just on me I guess. I only got a very simple and basic knowledge in Blender but I'm really determined to finish this.

and btw sorry i replied 1 week late, been busy in school
anyways thank you Drake and Striker :)

[DrakeTheDragon]

Tell me about being busy. I wasn't even able to check this forum now for 5 days straight due to the current work load at my job becoming even heavier than before. :sweat: I can relate.

 

Well, last time I checked, which I admit already has been quite a while, the last/only version compatible/working with the Blender NifScripts from NifTools.org was v2.49b. I haven't yet myself used any newer version than that due to it.

 

(That is I did try a more recent one once a year ago or so, but it was an utter disaster, because it refused to run correctly in my current environment, windows overlapping, scrolling going haywire, mouse cursor not responding in a proper speed, GUI rendering failing regularly, etc. etc., the NifTools scripts weren't even a consideration yet at the point back then.)

 

I think I heard rumors of there being a more recent version which does indeed work with the scripts again, but I can't even remember their source anymore right now.

 

And yes, by Armature I mean the Skeleton, the collection of Bones. Armature is what (my) Blender calls it, so I sticked to that name.