Noob looking for some advice on mesh/texture editing

[GreatSephiroth]

So my end goal is to take this mod:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/15938?tab=description

 

and combine it with archmage robes so that cuirass shows underneath the poncho. I don't see a lot of archmage robes mods out there and the ones that do aren't to my taste for one reason or another.

 

I'm still a beginner but so far I've managed to figure out how to paste the poncho onto the armor in the mod with nifskope. My current issue is the cuirass sticks out the chest of the poncho.

 

 

 

I've still got a lot of work to do like making the textures fit together and all that, but first I have to make this mesh look clean and not a mess of clipping.

 

Any concise resources or advice on where to go from here would be amazing. I've been looking at some video guides but I haven't really seen any that take a ground up approach that teaches how to make the most of the tools let alone which are the most effective ones to use.

 

Thanks for reading to the end.

 

[Dragoon23]

So an outfit mashup? I'd do it in Outfit Studio. Here's a basic walkthrough for how to set that up: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV3QsqpNzG2O1PMYX8Ob5icTfcXCBcZSD

 

What you want to do is a bit more complicated though since that has overlapping layers and it's going to be a bit hard to explain in word format. I can make another video showing how to separate vertices to roughly show what I mean if you like.

 

Easiest way: Follow the videos and after making your weight sliders, import the outfits. They should be one on top of each other. Than with the armor mesh, delete everything except the cuirass vertices. After that, use the inflate/deflate tools to increase/decrease the area around the curiass as desired.

 

Harder but results in a somewhat easier to manipulate end mesh way: Do everything in easiest way until get the cuirass only mesh and archmage. Than with the archmage robe, mask and separate all the vertices of the poncho. I find the best way to do that is to invert all the vertices so they're all red, than use the Tool->current tool -> vertex edit tool (or press the pencil up top or Q) to pick every vertices of the poncho. Use the transformation tool to temporarily move the vertices to see if you got them all, use vertex edit tool to choose any straggler vertices, and than use Ctrl+Z to undo the move but chosen vertices will still be chosen. Finally, once you have all the vertices chosen of the poncho, right click archmage robe ->Separate vertices. Now you edit the poncho alone without affecting the robe underneath.