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Skyrim Blender Armor conversion Tutorial {{{UPDATE}}}

Zquad1

By Zquad1,
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Zquad1

Zquad1

Posted
Posted

Hey Guys/Gals I have put together a Small easy & quick Tutorial on armor conversions using Blender version 2.49

Now this isn't in depth & doesn't cover weight painting BUT, it will give you a very good converted piece of armor to fit ANY body type.

Just Follow My Step By Step tutorial & it should come out looking good.

 

Now this ONLY covers the Body armor, NOT the Gloves, Boots or Jewelry. so just keep that in mind.

 

Please also take in account that I am a beginner Modder, so If I forgot a small detail please be NICE & let me know & i'll fix it & if there is something you don't understand just ask But please Be NICE!! & i'll help ya fix it.

 

I am writing this for those of you out there who want to use Blender But don't know what to do to get your .Nifs into blender & where to go from there.

 

 

I have also included a MS Word version to download for off line referance.

& also included Blender & all the files needed to get it working.

 

 

BLENDER ARMOR CONVERSIONS

Skyrim.

Ok First things First you need to prepare the .Nifs for Import into Blender. this tutorial will concentrate on the Body armor "ONLY" Not the Glove or Boots.

Nifskope

1. Open your weight_0.Nif   &  weight _1.Nifs of your armor & Body type.

2. Under “Block List” Drop the NiNode Tree.

3. Open the First NiTriShape Tree.

4. Highlight, the BSLighting ShaderProperties.

5. Right click, & go to “Block”,  “Remove Branch”

6.  do the same for NiAlpha Properties as well.

NOTE: the only things you want left is the BSDismemberSkinInstance, & NiTriShapeData

            Do “NOT” Delete these.

7. do the same for everything in each NiTrishape tree. For Both Weight_0.Nif & Weight_1.Nif

8. Now Under “Block Details”  Open the NiHeader Tree.

9. Locate under “Name”& highlight “ User Version”

10. Under “Value” Change the user version from 12-> to 11

11. Locate under “Name”& highlight “ User Version 2”

12. Under “Value” Change the user version from 83-> to 34

13. Now go up to “File” Click “save as” & save it some where you will find it.

14 Now you’re ready to Import the .Nif into Blender.

Blender

1.  Import your FemaleBody_0.Nif

2.  Import Armor Weight_0.Nif

3.  Right Click on the Bone Node that attached to the Armor & Skeleton, Press "X" & Delete Both Skeleton's from Armor & Body

4.  Right click on Body to Select it.

5.  Press Alt. "p" & click "Clear the Parent"

6.  Form fit the Armor to the Body.--->this may take awhile.

7.  Select ONLY the Body

8.  Add New Material Under(Link and Materials) Click "Delete", "New", "Assign", "Set Smooth"

9.  Now Split the Screem By ckicking the devider between the render window & the Panel Bar about center, & right click--->

    "Split Area"

10. Now in the Right render Window, Bottom left hand side click the Box that looks like a tic tac toe grid,

    & click on "UV/Image Editor"

11. Hit "Tab" on your key board, the Mesh should be Yellow if it's purple Press "A" until it's yellow.

12. Hit "Tab" again to be in Object Mode.

13. in the Right render Window, Bottom Panel click "UV", "Scripts", Save UV Face Layout.

14. "UV Image Export" window will pop up...Just click OK.

15. At the bottom of the screen a Save panel will pop up....Just Click "Save UV (tga)"

16. (REPEAT) Steps 8 through 14 for every Mesh. Body & armor...but ignor Step 9

 

17. Press Tab.

18  Press A to deselect everything.

19. Right Click between render window & UV window & click Join Area & drag the render window over the UV window.

 

20. Very Bottom Panel Press F5 on your keyboard.

21. Now Right click the Body.

22. Very Bottom Panel Under the "Texture" Tab Click "Add NEW"

23. then Under "Map Input" Click UV.

24. Press F6 on your key board.

25. Under "Texture" Tab click the Bar under Texture type, & select "Image"

26. Under "Image" Tab click "LOAD"

27. Now find the Texture or .dds file associated with that Mesh.... & click "SELECT IMAGE"

28. (REPEAT) Steps 20 through 27

 

29. Press A to deselect everything.

30. Very Bottom Panel click the Editing Box or Press F9 on your keyboard.

31. Right Click the armor>>>>>>>> NOT THE BODY <<<<<<

32. Now in the Very Bottom Panel Under "Links and Materials" Under "Vertex groups" Click "DELETE" Keep pressing Delete until

    the Vertex Groups are empty.

33. (REPEAT) Steps 29 through 32 for every piece of Armor. NOTE:>>>> Do "NOT" delete the Vertex groups for the Body.

 

34. Now Right Click the Body.

35. Press & Hold "Shift" Key on your keyboard &  right click on the Armor.

36. Very Bottom Panel click the Box in the far left of the screen Called "Window Type:"

37. Select "Scripts Window"

38. Then click "Scripts" & select "Object", "Bone Weight Copy"

39. A window will pop up called “Copy Weights for 2 Meshs” & under "Quality:" bring it up to a "3"

40. Click "OK"

 

Bone weight Copying take some time, & when It's done the Colored Bar at the Top of the screen should Look Dark Green again.

 

41. (REPEAT) Steps 34 through 40 for every piece of Armor.

 

42. Now Right Click on the Body to select it.

43. then Press "A", "A" to select everything.

44. Go up to & click "FILE" & select "IMPORT" "NetImmerse/Gamebryo".

45. Import Window Will pop up at the very bottom of the screen, Locate your edited FemaleBody_0.nif

46. Click "IMPORT"

47. Another window will pop up this time Select "Import Skeleton Only + Parent Selected" & click "OK"

48. Now Press "A", "A" to make sure everything is selected.

49. & press & hold "Control" & Press "A"

50. Apply Object window will pop up & select "Scale & Rotation to ObData" press that Only once.

51. Go up to "File" & select "Export", NetImmerse/Gamebryo.

52. the Export Window will pop up at the bottom of the screen, Locate where you want to Export the Nif file, & click "EXPORT"

53. Another window will pop up Just Click "OK"

 

Your First .Nif Will Be created.

 

"DO NOT" close Out Blender. You Need to Create The Weight_1.Nif Now.

 

54. Now Delete the Bones & the Body By right clicking on the Bones & press "X" & then rightClick on the Body & Press "X" to Delete.

55. Now Click "File" & select "IMPORT" NetImmerse/GameBryo.

56. The Import Window will pop up at the very bottom of the screen, Find your Edited FemaleBody_1.Nif & Click "IMPORT"

57. A Window will pop up this time unselect "Import Skeleton + Parent Selected"

58. Click "OK"

59. Delete the Skeleton.

60. Right click on the Body & Press Alt "P" & Clear the Parent........

 

61.(REPEAT) ALL the Steps Above. to make the next .Nif which would be the “Weight_1.Nif”

 

 Back to NIFSKOPE

But First Lets get your .Nifs Looking good.

62. Open your new _0  & _1 .Nifs you just created.

63. Under “Block Details”  Open the NiHeader Tree.

64. Locate under “Name”& highlight “ User Version”

65. Under “Value” Change the user version from 11-> to 12

66. Locate under “Name”& highlight “ User Version 2”

67. Under “Value” Change the user version from 34-> to 83

68. Under “Block List” open the NiNode Tree.

69. open the first NiTriShape Tree.

70. Right Click “Block” “Remove Branch” & delete the  BSShaderPPLightingProperty, NiMaterialProperty, & NiSpecularProperty “EXCEPT”  the  BSDismemberSkinInstance, & NiTriShapeData  leave these two alone.

71. Now Locate & Open an un-altered .Nif from the same armor that has working textures.

72. Go to the Un-Altered .Nif  & under “Block List” & open the NiNode Tree.

73. Open the First NiTriShape Tree.

74. Now Highlight the BSLightingShaderProperties.

75. Right click & go to “Block”, “Copy Branch”

76. Now go back to your New weight_0.Nif under Block List, open NiTriShape tree & locate the exact same piece of armor you just copied the BSlighingShaderProperties from & click to Highlight  NiTriShape.

77. Now Right Click on Nitrishape & go to “Block”, “Paste Branch”

78. do the same for the NiAlphaProperties as well if any.

79. (REPEAT) Steps 69 through 78 for every NiTriShape in the Weight_0.Nif  Under  “Block List”

 

80. Now Under every single NiTrishape in the weight_0.Nif  right Click on BSDismemberSkinInstance, go to “Block”, “Convert” Then go to Ni> NiSkinInsatance.

81. Do this ONLY for the BSDismemberSkinInstance.

82. Now go to “File”, “Save as” & Place it some where you can find it But Not in your Skyrim’s data Directory.

 

  Now Check the file Sizes & make sure they are the exact same size.

 If they are not the same size don't fret yet!!!

Try this trick---->

83. Open your Armor's Weight_0.Nif & Weight_1.Nif & Drop the NiNode Tree from Both .Nifs

84. On your Weight _0.Nif Drop the NiTriShape Tree & highlight the "NiTriShapeData" & Right click, & go to "Block", "COPY" >>>NOT Copy Branch<<<

85. Now on your weight_1.Nif Under the NiTriShape Tree Highlight "NiTriShapeData" & right click, & go to "Block", Paste Over.

86. (REPEAT) Steps 83 to 85. for every Piece (or NiTrishape) of the armor in your weight_0.Nif & weight_1.nif

87. Now Save the weight_1.Nif as weight_0.Nif & overwright the current Weight_0.Nif

88. Now that, That’s all done go ahead & save it into your Skyrims Data Directory, & replace the Original one’s. & your Done!!!

 

NOTE: Make sure You make back up copies of your original Files You had altered.

Have fun!!!!  & Happy Modding….

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Change Log:

 

{{{UPDATE}}} 12/05/2013  I urge all of you who have downloaded my tutorial to Please Download My updated Version which Includes Pics & a Bit more info.

 

{{{UPDATE 2}}} 3/29/2014 "Creation Kit Tutorial V1.0" Added

 

{{{UPDATE 3}}} 6/12/2014 X-Blender V2.49 Portable version added as a Better alternative to the standard Blender V2.49

 

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Again if there is anything you don't understand from my next tutorial Please Let me know. 

 

I sure do hope everyone likes it & really does get some use out of it, if it does work for you PLEASE comment I would love to hear feed back.

"Happy Modding Everyone!!!!" B):D

 

 

 

 

 

UPDATE:  I have added X-Blender Portable as an alternative to the standard Blender That I offered, I will Keep the Standard Blender Download up, in case anyone has issues with X-Blender .

X-Blender Portable has everything you need to run Blender already installed , all you need to do is find a place to put it, you can place the X-Blender Folder anywhere you like hence why it's the Portable version no need for installation. you can even place it onto a USB memory stick & take it anywhere.

 

Thank you Very Much gerra6 for Pointing X-Blender out to all of us..

Here is the Original source X-Blender

 

anyways now that I am done advertising...LMAO :D  :P 

 

Here ya Go....

 

X-Blender Portable

BLENDER.rar

Blender Armor Conversion Tutorial with Pics.rar

Creation KIT Tutorial V1.0.rar

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  • 4 weeks later...
Zquad1

Zquad1

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Actually I am working on the tutorial with pics, but it's taking me longer to do that, because I have been modding, but I will release it soon.

as for a Degree, I never went to collage & I learned Blender from a very patient teacher, & I Bugged the hell out of him with question after question, & Bless his heart he is still teaching me things, in fact he is teaching me how to make weapons, but it's been a slow process but I will learn it.

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Lendova

Lendova

Posted
Posted

I'll give up after 3 hours.

 

The first Nifskope part is done.

Had some problems to find "Niheader", because if i have a selected part in the "Block List", "NiHeader" not shows up in the "Block Details".

 

Blender:

 

Press Alt. "p" & click "Clear the Parent"

If i do that, just a small square lefts on the screen while the program not responding and my cpu usage incrise.

So i searched for the option to click instead of using hotkey for it.

 

Its not clear for me, how the armor should cover the body. What i mean, i have to hide the body as much as possible with the armor or should i focus on the circle matching for the neck or else?

 

What i have to split? The render window, the bottons or both?

 

Not saw anywhere: UV, Scripts, Save UV face layout.

 

 

Thats how long i went.

 

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Demonhunter

Demonhunter

Posted
Posted

I'll give up after 3 hours.

 

The first Nifskope part is done.

Had some problems to find "Niheader", because if i have a selected part in the "Block List", "NiHeader" not shows up in the "Block Details".

 

Blender:

 

Press Alt. "p" & click "Clear the Parent"

If i do that, just a small square lefts on the screen while the program not responding and my cpu usage incrise.

So i searched for the option to click instead of using hotkey for it.

 

Its not clear for me, how the armor should cover the body. What i mean, i have to hide the body as much as possible with the armor or should i focus on the circle matching for the neck or else?

 

What i have to split? The render window, the bottons or both?

 

Not saw anywhere: UV, Scripts, Save UV face layout.

 

 

Thats how long i went.

First By clicking on the mesh you are converting IE. THE ARMOR press Alt+p this will bring up a list of options by clicking clear paernt you remove the data from the old body, .... easy

second. Wuuuuuuuut??????

You shape the armor Around the imported body ie the body you are converting to. have no idea what ths mystical circle is????

 

Its clearly stated "to split the screen right click on the bar seperating the two pnels ie bar above options. then split screen. 

 

uv scripts etc are in the UV options. or you are in the wrong render screen. Please be sure to Read ALL of what Zquad has written, it does make sense. 

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Lendova

Lendova

Posted
Posted

This happens if i press Alt+P while the body selected (instead clicking on object/parent/clear parent)

http://s26.postimg.org/5u1mb6zmx/Clipboard01.jpg

The grid and body+armor dissapear, cpu usage goes up from 1-2% to around 20%.

 

11. Hit "Tab" on your key board, the Mesh should be Yellow if it's purple Press "A" until it's yellow.

http://s26.postimg.org/h43ixmjft/Clipboard03.jpg

Is this right?

 

12. Hit "Tab" again to be in Object Mode.

13. in the Right render Window, Bottom Panel click "UV", "Scripts", Save UV Face Layout.

http://s26.postimg.org/oisuq05bd/Clipboard04.jpg

Here its not okay something.

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Zquad1

Zquad1

Posted
  • Author
Posted

 

 

This happens if i press Alt+P while the body selected (instead clicking on object/parent/clear parent)

http://s26.postimg.org/5u1mb6zmx/Clipboard01.jpg

The grid and body+armor dissapear, cpu usage goes up from 1-2% to around 20%.

 

 

OK I am not sure why your getting this, perhaps you have a sticky button check your buttons on the keyboard make sure nothing is obstructing a key some where.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11. Hit "Tab" on your key board, the Mesh should be Yellow if it's purple Press "A" until it's yellow.

http://s26.postimg.org/h43ixmjft/Clipboard03.jpg

Is this right?

 

This looks Normal, is there an issue??

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

12. Hit "Tab" again to be in Object Mode.

 

This is correct. is there an issue??

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

13. in the Right render Window, Bottom Panel click "UV", "Scripts", Save UV Face Layout.

http://s26.postimg.org/oisuq05bd/Clipboard04.jpg

Here its not okay something.

 

Yup that's what ya do. But you have to be in Edit Mode to be able to click the "UV" tab

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Lendova

Lendova

Posted
Posted

Then the 12. step should be skiped in Blender, because its brings to object mode while the 13-14-15. step have to be done in edit mode. Right?

 

 

Hopefully the last 1-2 thing what i dont know:

27. step in Blender, have to load a texture

Which one? Have:

-femalebody_1.dds            (Tryed with this one)

-femalebody_1-msn.dds

-femalebody_1_s.dds

-femalebody_1_sk.dds

 

 

53. step in Blender

During exporting, i got this error message:

"Non-UV texture in mesh "Cube", material "Material". Either delet all non-UV textures, or in the Shading panel, under Materials Buttons, set texture "Map Input" to UV.

 

Checked it, Map Input is UV, so i load a wrong dds or what went wrong?

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Zquad1

Zquad1

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Then the 12. step should be skiped in Blender, because its brings to object mode while the 13-14-15. step have to be done in edit mode. Right?

 

 

Hopefully the last 1-2 thing what i dont know:

27. step in Blender, have to load a texture

Which one? Have:

-femalebody_1.dds            (Tryed with this one)

-femalebody_1-msn.dds

-femalebody_1_s.dds

-femalebody_1_sk.dds

 

 

53. step in Blender

During exporting, i got this error message:

"Non-UV texture in mesh "Cube", material "Material". Either delet all non-UV textures, or in the Shading panel, under Materials Buttons, set texture "Map Input" to UV.

 

Checked it, Map Input is UV, so i load a wrong dds or what went wrong?

 

Please Check out my latest version of My tutorial I have revamped the old one & included pics. hopefully that should answer any questions you might have.

 

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  • 2 months later...
Lobzpooatu

Lobzpooatu

Posted
Posted

Thank you so much for this.  I was using this

 

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Creating_an_armour_for_Skyrim._Part_1

 

to basically start from scratch and make my own armors,  but I think it might be good to learn to convert first and get the hang of messing with the armors.  Then go from there.  I've read a ton of conversion tutorials over the years,  but so many things were left out.  This is spot on.  I can't thank you enough!

 

 

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Zquad1

Zquad1

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hey thank you soo very much for the feed back I had a great teacher & some other really awesome modders helped & guided me as well, I am still learning new things but I will update the tutorial when I have grasped the understanding of some of the more difficult things to convert.

 

I am trying to find the time to get 'er done But I am wanting to explain some of the most used buttons when forming a piece of armor, so we shall see.

 

I couldn't follow Wikis tutorials they were just not detailed enough & they would redirect you to this or that to define the explaination of how to do something & it just got really confusing really fast. & I was about to give up when I posted a shout out & to my luck a few people responded..God Bless them for that.

 

BTW Your absolutely welcome!!!

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ratrace

ratrace

Posted
Posted

I read on the net that you can skip the Nifskope steps necessary for Blender import and export by installing Calientes Bodyslide 2

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49015/?

 

It contains a tool named NifCleaner. For importing a mesh into Blender, just clean it with that tool using the option "To Blender" (tested it, ti works). When you've edited and exported the mesh with Blender, you can again clean the mesh and make it ready for use in Skyrim by opening the mesh in NifCleaner again and select "Clean". Tested that step as well.

 

To easily access Nifcleaner, I just drag and drop the mesh on a shortcut of that tool which I put on my desktop.

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Lobzpooatu

Lobzpooatu

Posted
Posted

Ok dropped mesh onto cleaner,  hit to blender,  got a blend nif for the dress and imported it and came out with this 

 

post-330638-0-75206700-1393959270_thumb.png

 

All my setting seems right too

 

post-330638-0-14651100-1393959395_thumb.png

 

Looks fine in nif

 

So anything in particular I might be doing wrong here?  Here's the dress.nif I'm using if you want to try it out.

 

blend_Dress_1.nif 

 

 

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ratrace

ratrace

Posted
Posted

I'm at the beginning of the Blender / Nifskope learning curve myself, but any body mesh I imported that way, re-modeled and exported, re-cleaned with NifCleaner, re-ordered the link arrays and blocks with Nifsope works pefectly in the game. It might be worth mentioning that I didn't edit any armor but only remodeled some body meshes.

 

If you feel that the NifCleaner doesn't work as it should, it would be a good idea to ask Caliente - the maker of NifCleaner - about what went wrong.

 

 

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gerra6

gerra6

Posted
Posted

Don't worry about that.

 

The Skyrim base bodies (skin, not armor, clothing, etc) don't include vertex normals. What you are seeing is the result of Blender rendering a mesh with no vertex normals.

 

This is perfectly normal for Skyrim and nothing to worry about. However, when you export the nif there is a very good chance that vertex normals will be added to it automatically by the export script. If this happens, I believe that you can manually delete the vertex normals using Nifskope.

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