Getting New Creatures into the Game

[Mathius]

I hope this thread is appropriate as I'm new here and tried to read all the rules and guidelines I could find.

 

I can't seem to get my creature meshes into the game.  The problem is directly related to attaching the mesh to the skeleton.  I'm using 3ds max 2012 design version, nifskope plugin 3.7.2.41462, and nifskope 1.1.3

 

I have learned the basics of the basics with 3ds max and nifskope.  I have created many armor mods (for my personal use) using existing meshes and changing the textures in nifskope and adding them with the creation kit (no replacers).  I have made armor mods from scratch in 3ds max and successfully gotten them into the game.  I've also managed to get some static pieces into the game, again using existing meshes.

 

The problem I'm having is my lack of understanding of the rigging process, so that I am unable to get my mesh to properly attach to the skeletons.

 

I have watched the following tutorial: 

 

The jist of that particular tutorial seems to be to make your mesh edits, import the existing creature whose skeleton you wish to use and then skinwrap your new mesh to the existing creature's body, delete the body and leave the skeleton.  This method did not work for me.  When I tried, the mesh successfully exported and shows up normally in nifskope, but in the creation kit, the vertexes explode and it complains of too many bones.

 

I have also read the following tutorials, one based on the other:

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/562202-tutorial-editing-the-horse-mesh/

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/558012-about-changing-monsters-meshes/

 

These suggest that you modify the mesh of an existing creature, then use the skin modifier instead of a skin wrap and then the bsdismemberskin modifier.   Using this method I get an error when exporting about I need to select at least one bone and the .nif doesn't show texture in nifskope.

 

What I have done is made a new texture for the falmer body, and made some slight changes to the falmer mesh, shortening the ears, and elongating the nose, which I was going to use for a basic Goblin creature (goblins as in from Oblivion), but I can't seem to figure out how to get my mesh attached to a skeleton properly.

 

One thing I have noticed is that the Falmer skeleton seems to have extra bones for arrows, swords, etc. which may be complicating my issues.  There are also extra bones for the loincloth that the basic falmer mesh uses.

 

I have looked on google, youtube, the nexus, and this site for some kind of tutorial on creating new creatures.  I know there are people doing it successfully, the monster mod is proof of this, bug I contacted dogtown and he uses Blender, not 3ds Max.

 

This is not a creation kit issue.  I have successfully gotten creatures into the game using simple texture replacers, but when editing the meshes I have had zero success.

 

Could someone please give me a crash course on rigging so I can figure this out, or point me to another tutorial I might have missed?  Do I need to individually attach and weight each bone somehow?

 

Thank you for your time.

[DoctaSax]

Moving to tech support.