[WIP] Squall Leonhart Final Fantasy VIII

[Bubbajones_ya]

This thread is to track and display my progress on building Squall Leonhart from FF VIII for Skyrim. I Have very ambitious plans after completing the armor but don't know if I've got the talent to do everything (custom limit breaks as an ability/power etc.)

 

As of now, I'm working on the armor. I'm making everything male/female compatible, so females can enjoy wearing Squall's clothes! I won't make a specialized female body/face/hair though (like a feminine Squall, I'll invest that work into making Rinoa if I get there), I'm basing the female version on UUNP and including bodyslide files.

 

 

Armor: ~ 75%

 

Boots - In Game w/ World Mesh / Finished for now

Pants - In Game w/ World Mesh / Finished for now

Undershirt - In Game w/ World Mesh / Finished for now

Jacket - In Game w/ World Mesh / May make jacket longer for males

Gloves - Haven't Started

Necklace - Haven't Started

 

Body: ~ 55%

 

Hair - In Game / Still needs some touchups

Head Shape - My save only / Still needs work and integration into custom race for release

Face Texture - My save only / Still needs work and integration into custom race for release

Body Shape - Currently using Enhanced Character Edit's Young Nord weight 0 / May adjust and integrate new shape into custom race

Body Texture - Using AVA followers body textures / Probably will keep unless permission aren't acquired to release with mod

 

Gunblades: 25%

 

Revolver/Shear Trigger - Revolver Done/WIP Shear Trigger 3DS Max

Cutting Trigger/Flame Saber - Haven't Started

Twin Lance/Punishment - Haven't Started

Lionheart - Haven't Started

 

 

 

 

 

Current Mod Download on Nexus:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/78998/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D78998%26preview%3D&pUp=1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just in case I forget, I made sure to follow my own topic. I don't want to miss if I update anything now do I?! Now I've got a follower!

 

 

Edited: 28 October 2016

[Bubbajones_ya]

So I got most of the pants mesh done for now. I want to add some more things, but I'm going to wait on that until I know I can get everything working together. I was going to add the lionhead belt buckle, but decided to do a normal buckle for now since it would take me a little while to get a good looking lionhead.

 

Pants2

 

I've never before made armor from scratch in any editing program so this is pretty new to me. I did some NIFSkope editing and threw some some textures on the pieces just to see if I could get it actually working in game. At first, it didn't show up, but then I realized I didn't change the BSDismemberment settings properly in NIFSkope, so after changing that, they came up great!

 

The texture I used wasn't even for the same type of clothing, but the good thing is I was able to get this 3 piece (belts/buckles/pants) set working in game! I don't feel too dumb now so I can go ahead and start making more pieces once I'm done with these pants. I have to make the pants a little bit longer, but that should be easy. The nice thing is I can throw some reflective type textures on the belt buckles since it's a 3 piece set (using different shading properties on the TriStrips setting in NIFSkope.)

[Bubbajones_ya]

Well I spent a lot of my free time today making the base texture for the pants. I still have some work to do (like the button seam and the entire back end of the pants) but I'm getting close to done.

 

Pants3

 

I'll have to make the normal and specular maps once I finish these textures. I've never made a spec map texture so hopefully the gimp has an easy way to make one! I'm hoping the weird transparency issue goes away when I'm done with the textures as well (part of the pants is showing through the large belt buckle only when zoomed out despite the mesh easily clearing what's underneath it.)

[Bubbajones_ya]

Though this may not be a very popular topic, I decided to give an update of what's going on.

 

My MSI GTX 970 randomly failed when I was playing Skyrim for a little bit. I think a short happened somewhere in the card because my desktop would not power on with the PSU plugged into the card. It just so happened I gave my friend my GTX 960 I had as a spare and sold my friend's 770 I had laying around right around when this happend.

 

Luckily my 970 is still under warranty, but I've yet to hear when I'll get it back from RMA. It's been about a week so I suppose It will probably be another week. I did manage to find an old GTX 650 I had laying around so I threw that in my computer in the meantime. I think I'll wait to do any more modeling/testing until I can get my card back. I may consider buying a used 970 while waiting, so I can then do SLI when I get my other one back but I'm not too sure yet if that's what I want to do.

[rhyme]

odd no one is commenting on this, ff8 is great, and have a griever tattoo irl. I am stoked that you are working on this, though i feel overwhelmed by all the elements just looking at this solo project. It may be worth contacting some of the mod creators of other mods for personalized options. IE, use HQ images of his hair and make a request to Apachii to either guide in the process or to assist in making one so that it can be used in their future updates and be utilized more players. 

 

i know nothing about modding, so i just felt wrong not having anyone comment and support you on this journey. 

 

also nothing wrong at looking at other projects to get some inspiration 

i.e. http://finalfantasyseries.tumblr.com/post/102395698938/cloud-and-squall-mods-in-skyrim-facebook

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/30706/?

 

or even collaborating with the original authors to make an updated version, most of them have stopped modding skyrim, but frequently authors will come back, assist, or loan out assets to other modders that want to revitalize their original concept. 

 

hope you new gfx card hurries up

[Bubbajones_ya]

Thanks! I may call MSI today and see how much longer they think it may be. I know they've received my card, but I don't know if they have done anything with it yet. It's been almost 2 weeks now , but I don't know if that's really that long for an RMA.

 

For those other mods, I did take a look at them and the link to the first one you posted was the main thing that really got me to seriously start doing this. I was excited to see a mod with Squall/Cloud in them, then really bummed out to see that those mods were never released. Also with that first link, since Squall/Cloud are actually armors, the faces wouldn't be animated, so I wanted to make the face mesh so it could still be animated.

 

After I get the clothing done, I think I was going to try to make the face a little better and work on the hair some more. I've never made made a hair mesh before, so the first few pieces of the mesh are pretty badly setup for UV mapping (flattening out the mesh to add the texture file.) I may go back and redo those pieces so that I can get the hair textures to look more detailed! I didn't think about asking Apachi or other hair modders for advice, that may be a good idea as well!

[rhyme]

yeah, yours looked more promising, but the first had some ideas for combat animations and such. Main thing i meant by looking at others was just to see common themes for iconic aspects of their outfits and weapons. For me, i always thought his super fuzzy collar was iconic, but usually gets left out, which made me realize that was just me The hair mesh would be super hard to do without the resources, but apacchii at least has enough set up that he might consider lending a hand at least. Good Luck!!!

 

edit, j

https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/35092-1-1366570154.jpg  from  http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35092/? - kinda looks like noctus or snows hair, weird

[Bubbajones_ya]

Ha it does look a little like Notis's hair. I can't wait for FFXV it's going to be amazing.... too bad I don't have a PS4 or XBOX1...... I may get enough money to get one before I get sent to training for the AF. I have 4 to 6 months probably so that should be enough time!

 

I just saw that MSI created a shipping label for my graphics card so I should be getting it probably by the end of this week! Then I'll start doing more work on this project. I would really like to know how to make hairs myself, because I'll want to make Rinoa, Zell, etc hairs as well. The hair I have now I think looks decent, but the texturing could really use a lot of work and it could look much better. Also like I said, I think the way I set up the UV mapping that is bad so the textures lay out somewhat stretched. I may have to redo the hair from scratch.... but at least I have a better idea of what I'm doing now! Maybe I can salvage this current hair to make it look better, but I'll worry about that once I get the clothing done first.

[Bubbajones_ya]

I got my graphics card back in earlier this week so I'll be able to start making some more progress on this mod again! My poor diabetic cat had a couple seizures this week and I was scared I was going to lose him so I didn't work on much for a while. He's the best cat in the world and if you don't like cats then you're wrong! Anyways..

 

 

I've been practicing making things for other mods so that I can make mistakes on those files instead of the files for this mod. I think I'm getting much more comfortable working on this altogether so I should be making some progress soon! I've learned a lot about the papyrus scripting recently which should at least give me a head start if I want to do more than just modeling for this mod! I'll definitely start with just the models/characters first so people won't have to worry about adding in a bunch of extra things if they don't want it.

[Hayleyrose2323]

wow very nice! I should have replied sooner! Can't wait to see more from you in the future!

[Bubbajones_ya]

Thank you! I finally finished the base .dds texture for the pants just now. I didn't have the back done before, just the front, and was missing seams/buttons/ belt loops (a lot which are covered by the red belt, but I added them in just in case anyone ever wants to use the pants model and get rid of the belt portion.)

 

I'll post some pictures tomorrow once I'm back from hiking. Now that the weather in getting nicer here in AZ, I can go hiking!

 

I hope creating the normal map won't be too hard. I think the gimp program should be able to create it pretty easily.

[Bubbajones_ya]

Okay I can't figure out this weird transparency issue.

 

Here's what I'm talking about:

 

 

Here, when zoomed in close, it seeems GOOD:

 

When zoomed out, this weird garbage happens:

 

In game, it's even worse with the random transparency issues.

 

Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this? I don't want to move too much further on making other pieces if I can't get these pants working correctly, so I want to figure this out first!

 

EDIT: Turning off double sided textures on the buckles lessens the issue with the larger decorative buckle, but it doesn't help with anything else so something else seems to be going on...... I don't have an alpha channel on the belt buckles either, so I'm not sure why the buckles are allowing the red belt to show through them in some spots despite the mesh being clearly on top of the belt. The same thing goes for the belts. The red belt mesh allows for the pants texture to show through in some sections despite the belt mesh clearly being on top of the pants mesh....

[Bubbajones_ya]

I can't figure this stuff out! If anyone knows and good modeling forum's to go to or someone to ask specifically I'd greatly appreciate it! I can also post up my file for what I have now if someone is willing to take a look at it! I really want to get started on the other pieces, but I want to make sure I can get these issues fixed before spending time on other pieces that may end up with the same problems!

 

EDIT:

 

I just tested the pants again in game and found something interesting. I forgot I have deviously cursed loot installed which makes the character cover them-self when naked. I didn't give the pants the proper keyword to be considered clothing so the character played the cover self animation.

 

When doing this, the hand part over the crotch also become transparent so that the pants mesh was showing but the hand mesh was not! Something from my model is wanting certain sections of the pants model to render instead of anything covering it and the sections of the belt model to render over the buckle model as well..... What could be causing this?

 

EDIT2: Here is a link to the file on nexus if anyone cares to look at it and help me figure out my issue! http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/78998/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D78998%26preview%3D&pUp=1

[Bubbajones_ya]

Thanks to FrankFamily on the nexus forums, I was able to figure out the issue!!!! He messed with my file and told me he though it was a skinning issue, which it ended up being. I went back into 3DS Max and deleted some skinned bones (that had no mesh I believe) and reweighed other parts to compensate and the transparency issue is now gone!!

 

I know have to touch up this mesh by removing clipping and such but it will be pretty much good to go.

 

As a side note, does anyone have any good advice or tutorials on how to make my mesh BodySlide compatible? I've used outfitstudio to converting meshed to bodyslide, but I don't know what files are needed to actually have other people use it for bodyslide.

[Bubbajones_ya]

Well I got the pants "done enough" for me to start work on the other parts now. The textures maybe could use a little better work on the belts. The red belt is a little shiny, but I wanted the silver buttons to shine with the belt so I added a cubemap to the texture. I may go back and actually make the metal buttons meshes but not now.

 

The current version of the pants has a ground/inventory mesh, works for males with weight 0, and females with the UNP body. Bodyslide files are included and ready to go for the FEMALE version so all you have to do is open up bodyslide and edit the "Leonhart Pants UNP" file to get it to whatever you want. The pants are craftable in game too.

 

Here is the link for that: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/78998?

 

 

Anyways, I'm now going to start working on the boots or undershirt, then after those two I'll try and tackle the jacket. I'm a little intimidated by the feather portion, so I hope I can make that look right.

[Bubbajones_ya]

Well I got the main model/texture of the shirt done. Now I just need to do the normal map and rig it to the body. Rigging is not as fun as I thought it would be.....

 

The first take of the pants, I let 3DS max's "Skin wrap" modifier do all the rigging for me thinking everything would be great! Well it was awful, so I went back by hand to fix stuff. It still could use work (the pants), but it's good enough for now. The buckles deform more than I'd like due to bad rigging on my part, but it's not terrible.

 

Here is the undershirt. Man I'm sure learning more stuff with each thing I try and make:

 

Shirt 

 

 

I had major issues with the smoothing modifier with this shirt. The model kept coming up all "triangulated" with the lighting. I thought it wouldn't show up in NIFSkope/game so I UVriggged the mesh and made an initial texture. Well upon loading up NIFSKope, the shirt looked terrible! All the creases and other parts had improper lighting and shading due to the mesh not being smoothed properly with the smoothing modifier.

 

Another huge issue was that I have the vertices set up all wacked on this shirt so the polygons are weird shapes. So I ended up using a tool to increase vertices by like 100%, then scale it back down (which basically was rearranging the vertices.) I did this a bunch, then went back by hand to weld vertices near the creases so that the lighting wasn't all triangulated.

 

It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it so far. I may go back in the texture and add shading for the creases as well. Anyways, I better get back to working on it!

[Bubbajones_ya]

So I'm having MAJOR issues trying to get this shirt rigged to the body.

 

There's too much clipping, and no matter how I changed the rigging, it clips somewhere else! I managed to import animations into 3DS max to test. I'll get the clipping all gone for the running animation, but then I import any other animation and clipping is present. I ended up using bodyslide to "copy bones weights" and that seemed to help the most (so I suck at hand rigging apparently), but clipping is still present. I'll have to make the mesh a little bigger I suppose.

 

I think the way I placed vertices on the shirt is a big culprit with this issue. When I make the jacket, I'll make sure to have more vertices around moving parts (like the armpits).

[Bubbajones_ya]

Well it turns out I can't get the shirt rigged properly. I don't know it I'm just not good enough messing with weight paints, or if the mesh itself isn't set up well enough for rigging around the sleeves.

 

As a workaround, I made the shirt a tank-top (just the textures so the mesh is the same) and alleviated almost 100% of the clipping issues (I think they're all gone but I didn't do super extensive checking.)

[Poet Olette]

Looking very good! Can't wait to see it finished!

[Bubbajones_ya]

Well here is my progress now. I have to figure out the shading on the shirt/hair still though. As of now, it looks fine, but the shirt and hair are transparent in areas where the body mesh is NOT behind (as in the very edges of the shirt or top and sides of the hair) AND they both become invisible through water...... so they obviously need a little work..

 

[Bubbajones_ya]

Well I'm working on the shoes now and still making tons of mistakes and learning a lot more.

 

I had a very basic model ready for the boot, but when I would export it and see it in NIFSkope, some of the normals (or faces at least) would appear un-shaded compared. I would try "face normals" "flip normals" "smooth normals" etc then, update tangent space (trying different combinations of all those settings before updating tangent space) and it would just move around the un-shaded faces to differnt locations....

 

After messing around for an hour or so, I then tried unchecking the "update tangent space" when exporting in 3DS max and that seems to have completely corrected the issue! Now I don't know if the mesh will have problems in game now though but it's shaded fine in NIFSkope! I suppose I'll ask around and see if someone knows if that will mess it up.

[The Gauntman]

Looks great. Looking forward to seeing it.

[Bubbajones_ya]

Well thank you! I figured it would be fun to upload my progress of the boots so far so people can see how crappy they look at first and (HOPEFULLY) how good they look when I'm done.

 

Here is me first taking the foot mesh and coping/editing it over:

 

And then here it is with a lot more detail/shape to it. Also, I copied the shirt texture over to it so I wouldn't be confused with the foot texture. The boots are going to be black, but it's easier to tell if there are weird normal/shading issues with a white texture.

 

[Bubbajones_ya]

Well I stayed up too late working on the model but I think the base model is done:

 

 

It has a little more polygons than I expected (mainly because of those metal buttons I added) but I don't think it should be a problem.

 

Now I just have to UV Map it, give it a texture, then rig it to the body!

[Bubbajones_ya]

Well I got the boots done and now am starting the jacket. I'm really nervous about rigging the sleeves... I hope it doesn't become a pain! I couldn't rig the sleeves on the undershirt so I had to get rid of them. I'm hoping since the jacket will be much larger around the arms, there won't be clipping issues. Also, I have a bit more vertices around the arms to play with so it should be a little more forgiving this time around!

 

I also have to figure out a good way to implement the feathers up top. I would eventually like to do HDT movements for the feathers, but I haven't learned how to do that yet.

 

Here are the boots in game:

 

 

They could use some texturing work, it's not very detailed. I'm still learning tips and tricks for making textures look better, and I was kinda stumped on the boots.... They are supposed to be somewhat shiny (like polished boots), so I think I can get away with the texture for now since it shines pretty well.

 

Here is the Early WIP of the Jacket.

 

 

I've been learning to copy the body mesh then delete/move vertices from there (that's why the jacket part looks like it has a nip, because it does). It's much faster and easier than creating a cylinder/box etc, then trying to shape it and extrude vertices around everything. I got the boots mesh done easily in one day working aroudn other stuff I needed to do while doing that method! The texturing took me a few days though because I got busy with real life!!!!! SHEEZO