Character head presets

[stiffneck]

Is there a way you can extract a NPC head preset into photoshop ?

 

I want to extract Alistairs head template , change it and export it into another game

 

So is there a way to extract the head as you would armour and make changes to it ?

[Thandal]

What players do on their own machines is their business, but... Distributing BioWare's assets for use in another game probably infringes their copyright. So I'd be very careful what you ask, and what you do with the results publically. :whistling:

[mcgoy]

Or if you are just wanting to make modifications to the morph files or the armor files, there are probably better starting points than extracting into photoshop

[stiffneck]

Or if you are just wanting to make modifications to the morph files or the armor files, there are probably better starting points than extracting into photoshop

 

could you elaborate ?

 

Thandal... what I'm trying to do doesn't infringe copyright.It's covered by fair use doctrine and I wouldn't expect to be sued for spending 4 hours on the character creation screen making mysef look like sephiroth and naming my PC sephiroth.And making my armour fit too.

 

But I take your serious point and understand it...

Edited December 9, 2012 by stiffneck

[mcgoy]

I'm answering this on the assumption that you want to change the appearance of your DAO GW (or NPCs in DAO), not that you are planning to take these characters to another game. For one thing, what I'm telling you probably wouldn't help you take them to another game!

 

1st, what you are trying to do isn't a 5 minute task or even 'a few hours' but I'll give you some suggestions for getting started.

 

Option 1:

You might want to look at some of the mods that have created multiple head morphs and see if there is one that is close. I suggest

http://dragonage.nexusmods.com/mods/1692 and http://dragonage.nexusmods.com/mods/3263 as good sources for head morphs. If one of them has a morph that is 'close enough' you follow directions, download multiple files, figure out how to install everything correctly, and you are done. There are other mods that provide head morphs, but these are the ones that I like.

 

The armor is an entirely different issue, you'll just have to go through the various armor mods that are 'out there' and see if there is anything close, but I don't think so off the top of my head.

 

This is the easiest option and even it will take some time.

 

Option 2:

Download the toolset, install the original DAO files, download/install some of the appearance mods that provide the hair, makeup, eyes, etc for what you want and create your head morph using the DAO toolset.

 

I'm assuming you have never used the toolset or you wouldn't be asking how to do this. Where I can create a head morph (for myself, I'm not all THAT skilled) for myself in hour or two if I really want to get into the details. It will take you much longer to learn how to use the toolset and then find all of the mods that give you the hair, makeup, etc that you need for your character.

 

There are ways to 'reskin' armors using the toolset, but I've never tried (something else that would take 'a while' to learn) so I can't tell you how much flexibility there is to change the appearance of armor.

 

Option 3:

If you REALLY want the exact hair, etc etc you start with downloading the toolset and source files, use various 3D modeling tools to create the exact appearance (hair, tints, textures, etc) that you want and then migrate everything into the toolset, add it to DAO, etc etc etc

 

This option works for both armor and head morph, but will be VERY time intensive. To give you a time frame - I've been working on a mod for months to add NPCs/Companions to the game. I would love to have custom armors for them. I haven't even tried to learn a everything that I need to know to create those armors. I'm content to just muddle along with the generic armors

 

Option 4:

Put in a request for the modding community to create it for you. This relies on people with the needed skills being available and interested in your project. I'm not sure that they are.

 

Summary:

You'll have to pick the option that best suits your level of desire, time, and skills. There are people who can provide answers to (some) of your questions, but for this type of project..... I've just given you all of the information that I have! Good luck and best wishes

[Thandal]

@stiffneck;

 

People try to excuse all kinds of copyright infringements under the fig leaf of "Fair Use". In the US (other countries have slightly different rules, and the international agreement on this issue is also fairly similar) the term applies to:

... commentary, search engines, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship.

Only if the purpose of the use of the copyrighted material fits into one of these does the rest of that portion of the law (Title 17, Section 107) come into play. (The parts talking about being non-commercial, the amount of the original material, etc.)

 

Don't think a modification for use in a computer game falls into any of those categories... :whistling:

 

An entirely different question is whether or not mods really can be copyrighted, given their relationship to the original work of the games themselves. We here at the Nexus do not try to resolve that issue at all. We respect authors' rights (those of the game publishers, as well as those of modders) and treat all materials as if they were covered. So their use by others depends primarily on obtaining permission from the person(s) who created the original work. :thumbsup:

 

Again, what a player does on the player's machine for that player's own amusement is outside the scope of the Nexus. But when these sites becomes the channel by which material is made available to others, ("published") we have to pay attention to this sort of thing.

It's not you who would be sued, it's the Nexus. :armscrossed:

[stiffneck]

I totally understand that and have no intentions of publishing anything on the Nexus.

 

@ Mcgoy

 

Thanks for that...I tried for hours last night and couldn't find an actual image file to extract from the mrh or mor.

 

I'd hoped like the armour, it would be just a flat texture that could be worked on in a paint program and recompiled into a different games file structure.Doesn't look like its possible.