[LE] Project: Making my character look like Jessica Biel

[Anvindel]

Hello, the purpose of this post is that I could use some help with my project. I am new to modding so I don’t fully know what it is that I am doing yet. I also am not all that great with computers either so bear with me. My project is that I am trying to make my character look like Jessica Biel. I am not asking for someone to do this for me, I want to learn how to do this. The route that I have been going at so far is to make a custom race using her face, there may be a better way to go at this if so please let me know. I know this is a very ambitious goal at my level but if you have the patience for it I really want to learn.

 

I have been looking at tutorials as to what I’ll have to do. The biggest problem I am having with these tutorials is that most of them are about making weapons for Skyrim or use 3dsmax. One specific area that I am kind of struggling to figure out how to do is normal mapping and what other textures I need. I know I need the .dds file but I’m not sure what other ones I need. I have Nifskope but I’m still figuring out how to use it.

 

The software that I have is Blender and Gimp. I already have a model created in Blender and some texture files for the face and eyes. My starting mesh file is a .blend file and I have attached my starting texture files. I already have the .dds and normal map plugins for Gimp. I have already converted the texture into a .dds file.

 

Thank you for your time and assistance.

 

[Anvindel]

When making the normal map do you need to make a low poly version to be able to bake in xnormal? I made the UV map in Blender and saved the layout but I'm not quite sure on how to make the normal map.

[Anvindel]

Okay, I made a low poly mesh of head to bake in xnormal. Do I need to remake a UV map for the low poly head as well? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I saw things that said blender can bake normal maps, would that work for Skyrim?

Edited March 4, 2018 by Anvindel

[Levionte]

If you've already acquired the textures, I wouldn't imagine you'd want to change the UV map or you'll have to redo them because they obviously won't match the new UV map. On that note, while it is possible to create your own head mesh and use it in Skyrim, unless you're prepared to make the .tri files it's not going to do facial morphs. And if it's essentially going to be a mask, it's probably easier just to make it a mask as opposed to an actual head. Bone weighting should be easy enough as there are only two bones to worry about, but you will need to do it either way.

 

At that point, all you need is to finish the textures - heads use object normals while helmets and masks use tangent normals. Vanilla normals also like to put a shine map in the alpha channel of their tangent normals, while heads need the other two textures in addition to the diffuse. It doesn't matter what program you use to create them so long as they work. Personally, I have a 3ds max project setup to bake generic, object normals that I paint the details on. I also use 3d mode in photoshop to add said detail and fix seams like you'll definitely have between the neck and the body.

 

 

However, given your description of an inexperienced modder, I would probably recommend sculpting the vanilla face in race menu like everyone else does. You can still make custom textures and apply them if you create a custom race for the player to use (or download a mod that does that already). Alternatively, making a mask for the character to wear is considerably easier than making a head - especially if your mesh comes with textures already.

[Anvindel]

Levionte thanks for responding, I'm glad to hear from someone. I know it is an ambitious goal at my current level and experience and I am pretty determined to be successful with my objective. I have briefly looked into .tri files and I was wondering if you had done it before and had any tips on that process. I saw some tutorials suggesting to copy an existing one then edit it accordingly. One thing I was curious on is working with nifskope, such as messing with nitrishapes and BSLighting, I hear it is a pain to work with. I watched a few tutorials on working with armor but that was editing armors from the game not custom ones. One tutorial suggested copying the BSLighting from an existing .nif. A lot of the tutorials that I found were made a couple of years ago so I don't know if it is still a valid way of doing it or if there is an easy way.

 

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Levionte]

You should wait on the .tri files until the meshes are done. They're essentially instructions for each vertex, telling it where to go to form the morph. If you change the vertex count or order while you're working on it, the .tri files will be made useless and you'll have to redo them anyway. That's why it doesn't really work to "copy an existing one then edit it accordingly," because the vertices are always going to be different between meshes. You do need the names of the morphs to be exactly the same, so that'd be one way of getting them; but there's nothing else to be gained from it. I don't really know of a good tutorial on how to make them, but there's some documentation on it if you look around. I should note that I don't make .tri files that way, so I can't speak to those techniques.

 

The nifskope stuff is going to be trivial compared to the other things you're talking about. I copy and paste parts from vanilla assets all the time - it's a lot faster than setting everything manually and you don't need to know what everything is in order to use it. But when things aren't looking right, it's very helpful to know which settings you need to adjust. BSLightingShader can be copied from similar types of items and work similarly well. You'll just need to tweak it by changing the texture set and whatever else your mesh needs.

[Anvindel]

Alright thanks for the advice I greatly appreciate it. I probably would have been making big mistakes, I wish someone would make a great tutorial on it. I've been having trouble with the baking in Blender but I will get it.