drose25 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Hi, I am completely new to 3D graphics and animation, so bear with me as I ask some stupid questions...I've been googling for hours and only wind up with more questions. Goal: create a new, ornate fish model (think koi or other decorative fish) for use in Skyrim. My favorite house mod (The Reserve) has some small pools with a couple of salmon swimming in each of them. I'd like to create a more ornate fish resource to use there. I want to make sure I have the workflow down and understand the right tools to use. I found some very nice (and free!) 3D fish models from the Toucan Virtual Museum available in .3ds format. They are not rigged, however, at least from what I can tell. I can import the .3ds model with NIFSkope and save it to .nif format but I am unsure about how to go about doing some very basic animation. Do I need to import the .3ds file into another program, like Blender, to rig and animate it, then bring it into NIFSkope to export for Skyrim? Are there any other open-source tools I can or should use in the process? Blender is currently giving me a headache, but I'm going through some tutorials since I'm out of aspirin at the moment. :D A few other basic questions. I've seen some 3D models available on resource sites, but I'm confused about some of the terminology. What is the difference between "rigged" and "animated" or what does it mean to get an animated model that is not rigged? Any pointers to good learning resources or just some clarification on terminology and recommended programs would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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