SSE Armor modding process in 2020?

[Siegtorias]

Hello there. I'm attempting to take my skill of modeling donuts in Blender and experiment with making my own custom armor. I'm wondering about the program versions modders are using in 2020, are modders still using 2012 3ds max or 2.49 Blender? I used BAE to unpack the BSAs, and Nifskope to delete the BSLightingShaderProperty and change the User Version/Version 2 numbers on the character model. Is that the modern day process to get to the modelling and texturing? And what about dragons? I really admire FrankFamily's Breton Paladin armor, and want to create my own wandering Breton knight getup that has a battered, hand-me-down Daggerfall Covenant cuirass over a gambeson. I know the modeling itself is quite an undertaking but I'm having trouble just getting to that point, so if anyone could share their armor modding workflow or tips and set me on the path I'd appreciate it.

[N7R]

How I make armors for human races in Skyrim/Fallout 4:

 

Using cbbe (or whatever body you are making your model on) export the zeroed slider version of the body, hands, feet from outfit studio as a obj or fbx into a 3d modeling program of choice. If its for a male just do same thing, import the male body nif in outfit studio and export as an obj or fbx. For me, I use Blender 2.8.3 (latest version) where I model my armor/clothing. You can then go from there and unwrap the model in blender and create textures from a 2d program like Photoshop, gimp, affinity, etc. However for me I take my models from blender and use 3D Coat to unwrap and make my textures, it is a 3d paint program.

 

From there I have my models and textures and at this point the art side of making an armor is pretty much done. I then use compressonator program (which is free) to make my BC1 and BC7 compressed dds textures. For the model I paint the weights in outfit studio and export the bodyslide shape data as a nif. With nifskope if I have to do any texture setup or model adjustment I will tweak it in there. After that I have the bethesda compatible nif and dds files which it just comes down to hooking it all up in the creation kit.

 

Unless you are doing complex HDT physics where you need to add custom bones and such no need for 3ds max, you don't need to keep using old versions of blender (if you don't want to) either since outfit studio handles nif creation just fine.

 

My workflow is quite fast. I can model a leather strap for example around like the character's arm or leg and have it in Skyrim in less than 30 mins. Obviously more detailed and complex armor I'll spend more time on but as far as creation from scratch of a simple mesh to in-game it doesn't take me that long.

[Siegtorias]

Really? Outfit Studio replaces the need for nifscripts and an outdated Blender? Great! 2.83 is my favorite version, though I haven't given the new 2.90 much of a chance yet. Thank you!

[N7R]

True I forgot 2.90 just came out, any version will work really and any program that can create 3d models that you are comfortable with is viable. I'm still on 2.83 just becasue I have some add-ons I'm waiting to get updated for 2.90

 

But yes, outfit studio works great for armor in Fallout/Skyrim. You import your 3d models as a obj/fbx and then you just adjust the armor (if needed) to fit the body then copy the bone weights and export the nif and its been fully skinned . If some deformations look off you can paint or change the paint weights for each individual bone too.

[Siegtorias]

Yeah, outfit studio worked like a charm and I'm back in 2.83. Importing as a .fbx file worked perfectly where the .obj had been giving me a Blender error all day! Thanks for the thorough and timely response, it helped me out more than I could have imagined. Kudos to you!

[Evangela]

Wow, totally bookmarking this. When I get a stronger computer(maybe I can do some light work on my laptop in the meantime), going back to 3D modeling.