Tutorials WITHOUT "youtoob"

[Allannaa]

I get that "youtoob" is all fun and whatnot...

If you don't have hearing issues, or bandwidth issues...

I can't begin to tell you how totally frustrating it is to look for tutorials, only to find that the one subject you wanted consists of nothing but unusuable "youtoob" links.

I'm also well aware that there are probably fifty bazillion lists of tutorials on these forums, but they don't get bumped or replied to so they get lost, or updates to resource programs (including the CK for instance) render them no longer valid or useful.

This is not a place to debate sound or hearing, it's not a place to recommend "voice to text" programs, it's not a place for "gee whiz how do you even play like that!" so don't clutter up the thread with that stuff. This is also not a place to "hate on" people who do use and enjoy video tutorials, so don't do that either. It's not a place for "help my mod didn't work", except in that troubleshooting tutorials may end up here too. If you do any of this stuff, I'll go whining to a mod to get your post edited or removed.

DO NOT LIST OR LINK ANY TUTORIAL WHICH RELIES ON A VIDEO OF ANY KIND, whether or not said video is subtitled.

The below list of "Useful Tutorials" will be updated appropriately, as people (including me) find or write such information.



Use of the CK (Creation Kit) from download to finished mod

• Creation Kit Main Page
• Alla's Creation Kit Quick-start
• Cleaning Dirty Mods (or in-thread link here.
• Forcing Saves As You Test
• The SKYBRARY
• Armour Explanations
• Tambo's Tutorial Series

Creating Cells, Decorating them, and Linking them to the World

• Creating an Interior Cell
• Alla's Acorns, Creating an Interior Cell (VERY basic)
• Bookshelves
• Weapons Racks and so on, Modder's Resource (Remember if you use a Resource, credit the provider.)

• Creating an Exterior (world) Cell
• Doors
• Cell Grid Map of Tamriel
• Creating Exterior World Cells by SpectralDragon
• Creating Exterior World Cells via HeightMap by salaa (This requires TESAnnwyn, but the author placed the download link right in the tutorial for you)

Crafting and World Interaction

• Sit and Sleep including how to tie either of these to a new item
• Sjogga's Sit Tutorial

• Harvest, including how to add a new harvestable item (for instance, why kill your neighbor's cow to get milk? You don't have to kill a chicken to get an egg, right?)
• Cooking including how to create and add new recipes
• Alla's Cooking Tutorial
• Trigger Box Tutorial by ThatEscalatedQuickly
• Talking Activators by MoonSweets
• Tentain's Interior Decorating

• Forging, Tanning, Workbench (Improving), Grindstone (Improving) including how to create and add new recipes
• Alchemy including how to create and add new "potions and poisons"
• Enchanting (and spells in general) including how to create and add new spells
• Mining and Woodsplitting including how to tie an ore vein (existing or created) or a log pile to the action

Creating a New Item, including making a texture map for it, texturing it, and getting it into Skyrim

• InsanitySoul'sObj to Nif Lesson
• Help, My Shorts Are Too Shiny -- Note, this is a GIMP tutorial. There are other methods involving Nifskope, the easiest of which is just to turn the emissive and specular colours to Black.
• Alla's Texture Template
• Goujosamma's Texturing Guide
• Saerileth's Real Reflective Gemstones

Making Scripts and Items that Do Things

• Sjogga's Dragon Claw Holders tutorial
• Sjogga's Tutorials on Basic Scripting Part One
• Sjogga's Tutorials on Basic Scripting Part Two
• Sjogga's Tutorial on Scary Dragon Priest Mask Busts
• DrNewCenstein's Weapons Racks Easy Tutorial

Creating Playable Races

• Expired's downloadable tutorial for creating a playable race.
• Ishara'sCustom Character Tutorial
• Editing and Moving Bones by lightningo
• Tentain's Level Design Tutorials

General Neat Stuff

• Skyrim Modding Blog
• Take me to IsharaMeradin's tutorial on Using Plugins With Plugins
• Take me to Ishara's Useful Links
• Armour (and clothes)
• Notepad ++
• ConText
• GECK Papyrus Script Editor
• ArmourMashing by GameFever
• DDS add-on for GIMP
• AshenFire's Perks Tutorial
• Manually Set Up Lua Binaries on Windows by Garglion
• Skyrim MW (a great source for tutorials and so forth)
• Matthiaswagg's Tutorial Links
• Ld50365's Tutorial to allow adoption for player-made homes (Note, this is written for use with TMPhoenix's multi-adoption mod)

 

If you think of something else you'd like to see a non-video tutorial for, please say so. If you've written such a tutorial, please feel free to post your link, or even your tute, if it's short. If you've found a link for a non-video tutorial -- and you have permission to link it -- please feel free to post it.

(and one last note -- keep it PG13, there are kid-modders out there. If something's going to have adult content, warn appropriately!)

*Ongoing edit to add links in the appropriate categories*

(Special note: Tutorials on my own site seem to view best in Firefox. But, your mileage may vary.)

Edited May 10, 2016 by Allannaa

[IsharaMeradin]

Good place to start for a lot of it is at the Creation Kit's own listing of Tutorials

http://www.creationkit.com/Category:Tutorials

[theru]

aswell http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/ holds some file download tutorials, u can just category search there or with tutorial as keyword and they will pop up

 

and dont forget

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Main_Page

 

theres a category creationkit with some tutorials in it and on the link skyrim some tut there aswell and here http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/522532-skyrim-tutorials/ along some post, u have to look in the whole thread to find em thought.

 

non youtube tuts are EVERYWHERE if u want something then please bother to search for it

Edited August 10, 2012 by theru

[DaedalusMachina]

There are probably many videos posted which are completely silent, where somebody is typing in what they are doing, and essentially only using visual cues. I tend to see these as often as talking videos. I assume these are acceptable.

 

Also, it is my understanding this thread is meant as a collection of resources, so I don't see the reason to point out that the OP has not simply found them by themselves.

Edited August 10, 2012 by DaedalusMachina

[Allannaa]

  On 8/10/2012 at 6:23 PM, theru said:

non youtube tuts are EVERYWHERE if u want something then please bother to search for it

 

I never said I hadn't bothered to search for things. If you read my OP, you'll see that I said I'd like to COLLECT things here, not for my sole use, but for others to use and for anyone who wants it to have a quick-reference that's as up to date as I can keep it. There's no need to be nasty.

 

And I will not only be posting tutorials of my own, but also links that I have found.

 

Also, as posts and replies grow, I'll edit the original post, to put the links in the categories I listed, and of course, will add categories as folks think of stuff they'd like to see or work on.

 

Feel free also to write a tute in the thread itself, if you don't have anywhere else to host it. I'll do that as an example, though after today mine will be hosted off-site, to avoid bandwidth clogging and stuff like that.

Edited August 10, 2012 by Allannaa

[Allannaa]

Here's a very basic quick-start of the Creation Kit, written by me, as I explored it.

 

The CK is available for free to anyone with a Steam account, and Skyrim.

 

Click the Spoiler button to "unfold" the tutorial.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Go to your Steam Library

Select Tools

Find the Creation Kit and download it. Let it install where it wants to install. (Generally I disagree with such defaults, but in this case, do it "their way".)

 

Once it's installed, open the CK. If you're not connected to Steam, it'll force you to connect, but you can use offline mode. I always do.

 

(If the image doesn't load, go here http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o1_1280.png )

 

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o1_1280.png

 

 

Click File > Data

You'll see window with:

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm

Whatever mods you have loaded

(If the image doesn't load, go here http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o3_1280.png )

 

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o2_1280.png

 

Double-click each of them to put an X in the checkbox

Click OK

(If the image doesn't load, go here http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o3_1280.png )

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o3_1280.png

 

You may get a popper that says, You have not set a file as the active file. Do you wish to continue?

Click Yes

 

You may get another popper that says,

MASTERFILE: NavmeshInfo 00028e37 has no parent space, ignoring

"Yes to all" will disable all Warnings for this context

Click Yes to All

(If the image doesn't load, go here http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o4_500.png )

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o4_500.png

 

Now, before you do ANYTHING ELSE, click File > Save

This saves your mod as a mod, rather than "breaking" Skyrim (or Oblivion, if you're still back there)

Give your mod a name you can find easily (for instance AllaStuff) but don't put a numeral in the first position. I've forgotten why that is, but for some reason it can "break" the games.

The plugin you just created should end up in C > Steam > steamapps > common > skyrim > Data (or Backup)

(For future sessions, back up your plugin in a safe place, in case the current day's work goofs up the previous day's toil)

(If the image doesn't load, go here http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o5_1280.png )

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8kl55oaAP1rz7lb0o5_1280.png

 

After that, the CK works a whole lot like the TESCS, but if you never used that, don't worry, the CK is still easy to deal with.

 

Look around some. Figure out where the windows are and what they do. Keep in mind, the CK can "come apart", which is to say you can max all three windows if you like, and the "parent" window of the CK itself.

 

MAIN TOOLBAR across the top is pretty self-explanatory. If it's not, hover the mouse pointer and you'll get an idea of what something does.

 

CELL VIEW is the list of Interior or Exterior cells available in Skyrim

 

OBJECT WINDOW is a list of "stuff", including the Category list, Base objects, RefIDs, and the like

 

RENDER WINDOW is the "viewport" where the cell you're working on is loaded

 

 

In the CELL VIEW window, click a cell. That will load it into the Render Window.

Click on a reference in the right side of the Cell View window to select it.

 

In the RENDER WINDOW, click on an item to snap the camera to it.

Pan around the item by holding Space and mousing, or by using the middle mouse button (You'll have to find out which it is, on your own computer; it's different for everyone, it seems)

Shift + f will focus on an item

T is for "top down" view of the item

C will cycle the camera angles

Shift + Mouse will let you move the camera around the item

 

Random Helpful Stuff:

Ctrl + z will "undo" whatever you just did

Gridsnap will align items (such as wall bits or cave sections) in relation to the cell's grid. It won't move them up or down, it will only move them along the "compass points".

Gizmos help you align an item in its environment -- There are three:

-- E = Movement

-- W = Rotate

-- 2 = Scale

An * beside an item, cell, or whatnot, indicates that the base object has been changed.

 

Remember, always make a backup before you load your plugin, and save early and often!

 

 

Edited October 18, 2012 by Allannaa

[Korodic]

looks like a good tut to me. Sometimes it's just faster to list it in an organized fashion.

[gsmanners]

  On 8/10/2012 at 8:14 PM, Allannaa said:

...

Now, before you do ANYTHING ELSE, click File > Save

This saves your mod as a mod, rather than "breaking" Skyrim (or Oblivion, if you're still back there)

Give your mod a name you can find easily (for instance AllaStuff) but don't put a numeral in the first position. I've forgotten why that is, but for some reason it can "break" the games.

The plugin you just created should end up in C > Steam > steamapps > common > skyrim > Data (or Backup)

(For future sessions, back up your plugin in a safe place, in case the current day's work goofs up the previous day's toil) ...

 

Is there some particular purpose to this magical ritual that you specify here, or is this advice just the result of some internet urban legends? I've already made myself many many mods, and have never once even looked at Update.esm, for example.

[Tamb0]

  On 8/10/2012 at 8:11 PM, Allannaa said:

...you'll see that I said I'd like to COLLECT things here, not for my sole use, but for others to use and for anyone who wants it to have a quick-reference that's as up to date as I can keep it...

 

Did it not occur to you that a lot of people like/prefer video tutorials ?

[Allannaa]

  On 8/10/2012 at 10:12 PM, Tamb0 said:

Did it not occur to you that a lot of people like/prefer video tutorials ?

Read the original post. There's nothing at all wrong with a vid-tut -- as I stated very clearly -- and this isn't the place to debate that. It's a place to post non-vid tuts, for those of us who cannot, for one reason or another, use them. (I'm guessing you missed the implication that some of us are hearing-impaired, which makes most youtoob tutes unusable.)

 

 

 

  On 8/10/2012 at 9:37 PM, gsmanners said:

  On 8/10/2012 at 8:14 PM, Allannaa said:

...

Now, before you do ANYTHING ELSE, click File > Save

This saves your mod as a mod, rather than "breaking" Skyrim (or Oblivion, if you're still back there)

Give your mod a name you can find easily (for instance AllaStuff) but don't put a numeral in the first position. I've forgotten why that is, but for some reason it can "break" the games.

The plugin you just created should end up in C > Steam > steamapps > common > skyrim > Data (or Backup)

(For future sessions, back up your plugin in a safe place, in case the current day's work goofs up the previous day's toil) ...

 

Is there some particular purpose to this magical ritual that you specify here, or is this advice just the result of some internet urban legends? I've already made myself many many mods, and have never once even looked at Update.esm, for example.

Well, the purpose is to keep one's own mod separate, and to avoid goofing up gamefiles themselves. I'm aware not everyone does this, but I'm of the "measure twice, cut once" school of thought -- also known as "overly cautious old lady". I find this makes it easier to ensure nothing goes wrong, or that anything that does go wrong, can be fixed. As for the list in the checkbox, that screenie is just an example of MY Skyrim build -- I'm sure other folks have other things in that list. The one thing we'll all have in common, of course, is Skyrim.esm.

 

If you have a better starter-tut, or a different one, please by all means! Link it or paste it for us! The more info the better, right?

Edited August 11, 2012 by Allannaa