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Tutorial - Getting started with 3d models
🕑 Added 2021-08-06 00:09:18 +0000 UTCINTRODUCTION
If you want to get into modding you should know a few things.
- It's not easy. It takes time to learn, but it's not impossible. It's all about how much you care about learning.
- It's time consuming.
Especially if you want to do something both good looking and properly implemented into
the game.
- It's not just something you can learn from books and tutorials. Trial and error is
fundamental. Don't let mistakes stop you from tying againr.
- Each game has a different format for mods and files, however nothing really changes. If
you know the basics you can mod pretty much any game, provided you get all the
required tools.
This tutorial will not give you a step by step instructions on how to successfuly import and export a mesh from blender, but instead it'll explain you why a certain step is required, what does it do, so that you'll be able to learn faster, rather than just memorizing steps of a ritual.
VOCABULARY:
- Mesh: the 3d model, the .nif file.
- UV Map: it's a 2d sheet of your 3d model to determine how the texture will wrap around the object. It's essential in videogames. In blender to export a nif with an uvmap you'll have to assign a material to your mesh.
- Material: a feature 3d models have. It affects the way the surface will respond to texture maps and lights, it's essentially the "shader". Materials can be tweaked in blender to create renders. However videogames have their own settings, and are tied to the game engine. That's why we use nifskope to tweak these parameters.
- Skeleton \ armature: The skeleton is used to animate the models in a game. The skeleton is made of bones, the bones move dragging the body\armor with them. The armature is the skeleton used by a secific armor piece. The skeleton has ALL the bones, and it's used to create animations and poses, while an armature only has a reference for the bones used by the armor piece. (Example: boots will not have the arm bones). The skeleton\ armature must be parnted to an armor mesh, and this armor mesh must have weights painted for each bone, if you want it to be moving in the game.
- Weight paint: It tells which parts of the mesh should be influenced by which bone and
whith what intensity. The intensity is given by colours BLUE= 0 movement. RED= 100%
movement, any color in between is used to blend out the distortion.
A script from blender can copy the weightpaint, however the script alone doesn't do a
good job for everythign, and soem parts will have to be adjusten manually, especially
hanging objects, like belts and ropes, armpits, and skirts.
If a skirt splits in half, it's because it's weighted as legs, and it should instead have a
smoother transition between left and right leg.
Weight paint is too often overlooked, but it's the key part of a good armor
mod. This is why bodyslide armors look bad. They don't pay enough attention to the
weightpaint, and the sliders always mess it up. Outfit studio is also not as good as blender
for control over weightpaint, however it's still the only tool vailable for fallout 4 and with
enough care you can get something semi-decent.
Here is an example:
REQUIRED TOOLS:
Since i mostly mod Skyrim (LE, SE) and Fallout (3\NV) I'll link you the required tools and versions for those games.
To mod FALLOUT 3\NV you'll need:
- -BLENDER 2.49b
- - Nifskope 2.0 (you can actually use ANY nifskope version).
EXPORT SETTINGS: (for skyrim and fallout)
Blender 2.49b can directly import and export Fallout Nifs.
Tips:
Always UPDATE Tangent spaces in nifskope (Spells>batch>update all tangent spaces) in nifskope or your meshes will display odd shiny lines
Fallout 3\NV export as nitrishape, same as skyrim, however some items need to be exported as nitristrips in fallout:
The items are poseobjects, clutters, static objects, and anything that is not skinned, or tied to the character creator.
Each items needs it's own shader flags, copy them from another mesh, or read this tutorial for a step by step tutorial:
https://wiki.nexusmods.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Fallout._Part_2
To mod SKYRIM you'll need:
- -BLENDER 2.49b
- - Nifskope 1.2
SPECIAL EDITION requirs 2 additional tools: - - Nifskope 2.0
(Special Edition isnot compatible with older version of nifskope, and LE is not 100% compatible with this version of nifskope. You can preview LE files, yout you cannot set them up to be imported in blender, so the 1.2 of Nifkope is still a must even if you play Special Edition) . - - Nif Optimizer (Special Edition Only) You need this to convert nifs from SE to LE and from LE to SE.
Blender is only compatible with LE format, so even if you want to mod SE, you'll need to run Nif Optimizer, and do the one click conversion to LE. (Don't be afraid the program will handle everything, you just need to click 2 buttons! ). Then proceed as usual import into blender, do the edits, Export, fix, and run again Nif Optimizer to get the nif in SE format.
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IMPORTING INTO BLENDER
You cannot directly import a Skyrim ".nif" (mesh format of bethesda games) into blender, so you'll have to do a little hack in nifskope to be able to import the mesh.
You basically need to make the .nif a Fallout format .nif, because thats the latest working importer for blender.
Yes the newest blender has a Skyrim .nif importer, but it's not easy to install, you need to deal with python, and it's not at all beginner firendly. However 2.49 version of blender doesnt require any additional installation, sicne it's a "portable" version.
You can read a complete tutorial about Skyrim modding here:
http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Skyrim._Part_1
The Hack:
Load a NIF, look in the "block details" and change "User value" 1 and 2 from 12 and 83 to 11 and 34.
Delete any BSSHADERLIGHTINGPROPERTY from your nif in nifskope.
Now your armor will not have a Material in blender.
What does this mean? It means that when you export it, it'll not have an uvmap. Your textures will not be able to be displayed on the model. There's no way for you to recover the UVMAP once it's exported without, unless you still have the blender project.
We'll cover the Material thing later in the tutorial.
EXPORT SETTINGS:
Same as fallout armors (see above)
Once you successfully export, you'll have to revert the blockdetails change in nifskope back to skyrim format (12,83) and copy paste back a bsshaderlightinproperty.
Quick Tip:
Copy the shader from a similar mesh. Body shaders are different from armor\cloth shader.
Read more about this step here:
http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Skyrim._Part_2#Adjust_the_armour_in_Nifskope
You'll also have to change the body partition if you want your nif to appear ingame.
Please refer to this tutorial for that part.
http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Skyrim_bodyparts_number
HOW TO ADD A MATERIAL:
A mesh to be exported as a nif, needs a material. This is not only related to SKYRIM. but any 3d model you'll create will need to have a material.
I already wrote a tutorial about this step, please refer to that:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/exporting-skyrim-49878238
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If you want to improve your uvmapping skills you may want to check this other link:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/41132/how-do-i-straighten-uv-maps
If you want to learn more about blender Interface, and 3d models i suggest you watch some youtube tutorials, it's actually a lot easier than reading it through a tutorial.
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Now hopefully you'll have a better understanding of what it takes to make a mod.
