Difference between revisions of "Blender/Custom Cuirass (part 2)"

You don’t have to have pauldrons, but some people like the look, and they add authenticity by adding protection to the chest and neck area.  Look at your player character in Oblivion when they’re in their “fighting” stance, and you’ll see that they’ve slightly hunched their shoulders so that their pauldrons can help guard their throat and upper chest.

You don’t have to have pauldrons, but some people like the look, and they add authenticity by adding protection to the chest and neck area.  Look at your player character in Oblivion when they’re in their “fighting” stance, and you’ll see that they’ve slightly hunched their shoulders so that their pauldrons can help guard their throat and upper chest.

Don’t forget to export the UV map.

Don’t forget to export the UV map.

Now when you  make this part of the cuirass, you need to have a couple of things in mind.  If you want a sleeveless look, you don’t need to do anything here; you’ll just leave the bare arm sections with your cuirass.  You do have to have some sort of arms included with the cuirass even if it’s sleeveless, because the game engine deletes the body’s arms and torso when anything is equipped in the upperbody slot.  Trust me on this, it will look really strange when a character  

Now when you  make this part of the cuirass, you need to have a couple of things in mind.  If you want a sleeveless look, you don’t need to do anything here; you’ll just leave the bare arm sections with your cuirass.  You do have to have some sort of arms included with the cuirass even if it’s sleeveless, because the game engine deletes the body’s arms and torso when anything is equipped in the upperbody slot.  Trust me on this, it will look really strange when a character  

Again, remember that UV map.

Again, remember that UV map.

Bethesda’s default cuirass meshes generally have a lower section that protects the hip/groin areas of the body (which contains many important arteries including the femoral artery in the inner thigh).  This overlaps the greaves and provides additional protection over them.  However, it creates some issues with fit.  This is why this part of Bethesda meshes tends to be so large; it has to fit over every type of greaves in the game to avoid clipping.

Bethesda’s default cuirass meshes generally have a lower section that protects the hip/groin areas of the body (which contains many important arteries including the femoral artery in the inner thigh).  This overlaps the greaves and provides additional protection over them.  However, it creates some issues with fit.  This is why this part of Bethesda meshes tends to be so large; it has to fit over every type of greaves in the game to avoid clipping.

Bethesda’s default UV maps for their body meshes look nice in the UV screen, but once you get them out and start trying to texture them, you realize that they are absolutely insane.  The femaleupperupperbody.nif in particular has considerable distortion in the chest areas.  It is very difficult to texture over UV maps with no straight lines in them.  This gives us much respect for the talents of Bethesda’s texturers, but it doesn’t do a thing for us as modders.  Besides, we don’t have to work with the filesize constraints that the original game makers did, because we’re making a mod rather than a whole game.

Bethesda’s default UV maps for their body meshes look nice in the UV screen, but once you get them out and start trying to texture them, you realize that they are absolutely insane.  The femaleupperupperbody.nif in particular has considerable distortion in the chest areas.  It is very difficult to texture over UV maps with no straight lines in them.  This gives us much respect for the talents of Bethesda’s texturers, but it doesn’t do a thing for us as modders.  Besides, we don’t have to work with the filesize constraints that the original game makers did, because we’re making a mod rather than a whole game.

Be sure and export this UV map so you can use it for texturing.  A tutorial for texturing from the UV map is [[http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Custom_Texturing_From_A_UV_Map here]].

Be sure and export this UV map so you can use it for texturing.  A tutorial for texturing from the UV map is [[http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Custom_Texturing_From_A_UV_Map here]].

Okay!  It has now probably been several hours of staring at your screen, swearing violently at Blender, et cetera, and your cuirass looks exactly like you want it to look.

Okay!  It has now probably been several hours of staring at your screen, swearing violently at Blender, et cetera, and your cuirass looks exactly like you want it to look.

We don’t have to add textures or materials, because they’re already there.  You’ll want to add different textures, so you won’t have a fleshtoned cuirass, but I’ll show you how to do that in NifSkope.  I won’t show you how to make a new texture from a UV map here, because I’m saving that for another tutorial on another day.

We don’t have to add textures or materials, because they’re already there.  You’ll want to add different textures, so you won’t have a fleshtoned cuirass, but I’ll show you how to do that in NifSkope.  I won’t show you how to make a new texture from a UV map here, because I’m saving that for another tutorial on another day.

Minimize Blender when you’ve exported, then click through the Data files on your computer until you find your cuirass.nif in the armor section.  It’s NifSkope time.

Minimize Blender when you’ve exported, then click through the Data files on your computer until you find your cuirass.nif in the armor section.  It’s NifSkope time.

I'm not going to tell you how to make a texture from scratch here, but once you have one, you've only got to type the texture path into the top of the nisourcetexture node in NifSkope next to the little flower symbol. It will usually look something like data\textures\armor\cuirasstorso.dds. This tells NifSkope where your texture is. For now I'll leave it that the texture must be a .dds file and it must have a normal map, which is called something like mynewshield_n.dds.  

I'm not going to tell you how to make a texture from scratch here, but once you have one, you've only got to type the texture path into the top of the nisourcetexture node in NifSkope next to the little flower symbol. It will usually look something like data\textures\armor\cuirasstorso.dds. This tells NifSkope where your texture is. For now I'll leave it that the texture must be a .dds file and it must have a normal map, which is called something like mynewshield_n.dds.  

''Important warning: make sure the slashes in the texture name lean backwards, like this: \ and not forwards like this: / or the game will refuse to recognize the texture. NifSkope will sometimes try to change this around on you.  (The newest version seems to have mostly fixed that problem.  Huzzah for the wonderful makers of NifSkope!)''

''Important warning: make sure the slashes in the texture name lean backwards, like this: \ and not forwards like this: / or the game will refuse to recognize the texture. NifSkope will sometimes try to change this around on you.  (The newest version seems to have mostly fixed that problem.  Huzzah for the wonderful makers of NifSkope!)''

Double click on the construction set icon on your desktop to load up the CS. If you don't have this icon on your desktop, I urge you to put it there right now. Now wait for it to load. This may take a while, and then there will be very few items on the screen. That's because we haven't loaded any data files.  

Double click on the construction set icon on your desktop to load up the CS. If you don't have this icon on your desktop, I urge you to put it there right now. Now wait for it to load. This may take a while, and then there will be very few items on the screen. That's because we haven't loaded any data files.  

When that is done, click OK. You'll get a message asking if you want to create a new ID. ALWAYS SAY YES.

When that is done, click OK. You'll get a message asking if you want to create a new ID. ALWAYS SAY YES.

Now your cuirass will appear in the Armor list. It will be listed alphabetically by its ID, although you can change the sorting method by clicking the headings of the list.  If you keep it in a separate folder such as Data\meshes\armor\myarmor and don’t just drop it into Data\meshes\armor, the Construction Set will create a special tab just for you under the Armor list.

Now your cuirass will appear in the Armor list. It will be listed alphabetically by its ID, although you can change the sorting method by clicking the headings of the list.  If you keep it in a separate folder such as Data\meshes\armor\myarmor and don’t just drop it into Data\meshes\armor, the Construction Set will create a special tab just for you under the Armor list.

Making armor can take a little while, but before long you’ll get used to the steps and it goes much faster.  There’s nothing like the satisfaction of seeing a character wearing your sweet-looking new armor for the first time.   

Making armor can take a little while, but before long you’ll get used to the steps and it goes much faster.  There’s nothing like the satisfaction of seeing a character wearing your sweet-looking new armor for the first time.