Xps to Blender to Nifskope to Skyrim

[cantdownload22]

Hello, i have just one question :

 

What is being done exactly between 0:57-1:20 in this video, please explain in detail if possible.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRZQXl1mmFY&feature=emb_logo

 

i am following this guide to create a custom follower and im dumbfounded as to what is being done in this particular part of the guide.i don't undrestand where the resource being imported in this section of the video is or what it is for or how i can get my hands on it because without doing something simmilar for my procedure i can't continue it as i feel like something is missing.

 

there are no files provided in this tutorial but i have everything ready except for this secondary mesh thats being imported.

 

im assuming its a simple femalehead.nif thats been converted as .obj and its from vanilla skyrim but i need an expert opinion to continue working on my project.

 

thank you for your time.

[Andy14]

2 hours ago, cantdownload22 said:

im assuming its a simple femalehead.nif thats been converted as .obj

Correctly. You can export it from the Nif as an Obj with NifSkope or with Oufit Studio.

[cantdownload22]

@Andy14

thank you for your answer, i'd already acted on the assumption that i may have been correct and i imported the femalehead.nif from CBBE HDT onto my model in blender as it was done in this video , i then scaled it and rotate it and moved it until it was transfixed on my model , overlapping it and somewhat encompassing it (i scaled it bigger than my model so it would cover it not be covered by it as that is what i tought i saw in the video) , but since i use blender 2.8 and niftool and xps plugins made for that specific version, im unsure if everything in this video is actually necessary to complete the conversion process as this tutorial is from centuries ago back when outfit studio wasn't even a thing, i am wondering about any potentil shortcuts that could be used to shorten the process, if you are familliar with this workflow and i assume you are, me and others following this process would greatly appreciate your opinion/input on this subject.

kindly awaiting your reply.thank you again for your time.

[Andy14]

It's not good to scale the Skyrim Head. Don't do it.
Especially not at the neck seam.
Instead, scale the other head.

[cantdownload22]

so i should be scaling the custom model to cover up the skyrim head ?  i will take your word for it, thank you, any other ideas on what i mentioned ?

[cantdownload22]

so to get things straight , he is super-imposing a femalehead.nif from skyrim on his xps model , creating vertices and then texturing it ? is that whats happening in general ?

 

at 4:22 he is applying a vertice group to the XPS model , the mode he is using is ''nearest surface'' while in blender 2.8 i have the option to use ''from Inside'' , should i not be using that option to skip through some of the work ? is that possible ?

[Andy14]

There is no one process that is always 100%.
If the source mesh is high poly compared to the target mesh, then next vertex is the best option.

You can use as many shrinkwrap modifiers as you want and see the results in the preview (only one at a time) and decide which modifier to use.
The group was created so that the mouth, neck-seam etc. are excluded from the modifier.

Baking textures is actually not necessary, as both UV and textures of the target mesh (skyrim head) are already available.
If necessary, you can use in Blender / Gimp / Photoshop the diffuse (from the source mesh) as a blend layer around the face itself.
Remember that the textures of the head must match the textures of the body in skyrim.

 

I'm (still) using Blender 2.79 so can't say much about 2.8x.

[cantdownload22]

Ok so when you say bake textures, can you tell me which part in the video this refers to so i can just skip it ? the time-interval of it i mean, other than that im stuck at 1:57-2:02 where he quickly does something i can't replicate, he uses the circle selection to select the mouth vertices of the skyrim mesh then changes the view to solid and deselects them but some of what he selects at first doesnt get deselected , this is what i can't undrestand because when i do it , unlike when he does it , nothing of what was selected from the mouth remains selected after its deselection , so im confused :(. can you clarify what he does that i just can't get right ?

[Andy14]

He selects the vertices for mouth, neck-seam etc.
Then with CTRL + i the selection is reversed.
With this reverse selection he creates a vertex group.
Shrinkwrap modifierer is only used on the vertex group, so that the neck seam etc. does not deform.
If you don't know what texture baking is, watch the video at the end. It is the part in the UV port.

Don't be angry, but I think you should practice a little with Blender first and maybe watch a few tutorials on the basics.

 

 

[cantdownload22]

okay , thank you again, although this didn't answer my question about how he deselects the mouth vertices and yet parts of it that he wants to keep remain selected.

 

thanks for helping me understand the part about texture baking , i will now just skip the UV port part.

 

 i'm fully aware that i don't know much about blender or any of the things that i'm doing while following this guide , but i believe that i don't need to know why things work the way they do i only need to know how to do them , understanding everything done in this video comprehensively would take a lot of time that simply isn't needed. , the workers that build up huge  skyscrapers aren't architects they are only following the plan and yet at the end of the day their the ones  that actually build it. trying to learn blender here would be like trying to solve a puzzle that someone else has already solved in front of your eyes, its much more efficient to just follow their footsteps instead.

 

the only problem with this is that there is no clear instructions given with this video and some things like the parts i'm asking about are left out, that's why i opened this thread.

[cantdownload22]

So i managed to figure out what he did by myself , he selected the vertices with X-ray mode enabled and then disabled X-ray mode and deselected the mouth vertices that were on the surface , leaving behind the ones that were on the inside of the mouth (only selectable in X-ray mode) , i learned this without studying anything about blender , i just messed around with the controls till i figured it out. i'm posting this so i can include it in the guide i will make after i manage to port/create my first model. 

 

i've attached a template for this workflow, anyone can start their port workflow from this template without the need to do anything that was done before this , simply import your XPS model on top of this and fit your XPS mesh to this mesh from the inside, remove doubles and set origin to center on your XPS mesh and continue the steps from 2:12 in the video.

 

XPS to Blender to Skyrim Template 1.blend

[Andy14]

If you want your mesh to work in Skyrim - with morphs (facial expressions etc.) - then keep vertex order and do NOT remove doubles. Remove Doubles is the merging of the vertices at the UV seams - because UV seams are split in Nif.

This makes the vertex order obsolete - and the morphs.

[cantdownload22]

but i didnt remove doubles of the mesh thats going to be finally exported as the .nif  , i removed the doubles from the XPS model like it was done in the video , should i not be doing that ?

to clarify,this is how i undrestood the entire procedure :

 

we are essentially morphing a skyrim compatible mesh to look like our XPS model with matching vertices , then we are texturing this newly crafted mesh and putting it into skyrim for use , but you said we don't need to UV map it so we skip that part, am i misunderstanding something ?

 

this is what i have so far 

 

Cassie Template11.blend

[cantdownload22]

11 hours ago, Andy14 said:

 

can you explain how to do this ? 

 

''If necessary, you can use in Blender / Gimp / Photoshop the diffuse (from the source mesh) as a blend layer around the face itself.''

 

how do i use the diffuse as a blend layer around the face itself in blender ?

[Andy14]

6 hours ago, cantdownload22 said:

i removed the doubles from the XPS model

That's okay, then I misunderstood you

 

6 hours ago, cantdownload22 said:

, but you said we don't need to UV map

Your imported skyrim head already has the UV for skyrim. And if you export the finished obj from Blender and create the skin (bone weights with Outfit Studio, for example) and export it as Nif, you only need to take over the BSLigthingShaderProperty from femalehead.nif

 

How to paint in Blender with a Image:

Spoiler

 

 

In the first step I would use the standard textures from femalehead.
If the result in the game is not satisfactory, then a new Blender project, import the head and the body as obj, assign materials with the textures from Skyrim. Then project the texture (only diffuse) of xps onto the diffuse of skyrim.
Make sure that there is a soft (not visible) transition.

[cantdownload22]

thank you a ton for the detailed explanation , i will try to put this to use and make it happen today, i'll keep you posted on how it goes , thank you once again  !

[cantdownload22]

to be honest i didn't fully undrestand what you said about the whole not baking textures thing so i tried to do it the way its done in the video , but i have this problem and i don't know how to fix it even tough someone answered it by saying you should be in blender render mode and i don't know what that is ,

 

 

[IlMentore72]

Is there a more up to date tutorial using Blender 2.8?