Turning my character into a follower

[zupra]

Ok so i'm about to start a new game after playing forever with my first character. But ofc i'm not gonna just abandon her, she's gonna come with me. I've never used creating kit before and so far i managed to get the .npc file and i opened it up...

 

Now i think i'm suppose to add skyrim.esm and all the mods my character is using, but how about mods that does not have .esp or .esm? How i can i add them? Example something like long eye lashes it has only meshes folder.

 

How about mods that has both .esp and .esm do i have to select them both?

 

How hard would it be to also add the body type she has right now that i have made using the bodyslide? But since i might try out 7B it would probably be better if i just get the face. That way she could wear all the armors available for that body mod right?

 

Thanks for your answers in advance, more noobish questions might be followed later.

[Guest carywinton]

The first most difficult part is the FaceGen, you are going to need to pull this from your PC by using a FaceGen Ripper type program. I have not currently seen one for Skyrim yet, but I am sure if you hunt around some there should be one, there is one for Fallout 3 and Fallout NV. What these do is take the 3 lines of code for the face out of a player saved game and then you transfer this line by line to the new NPC character you have made. It can have some decent results, usually a little tweaking can be required. As to your mods questions, only load into the CK what you actually need, do not worry about beautification and ENB mods, just load in the main *Esm files, say you want her to have a specific armor, then just load in that one. If you want her to have specific hair that is not in the Vanilla Skyrim game , then you will need to load that mods *Esm file too. Generally the less you load to make her, the less will be required to make changes and such. Let me know if I can help you a bit more as you go along, It can be a slow a frustrating learning process, but once you get the general idea of how it all works, it should be better for you.

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

Okay - stop. No code, no ripping, no 3rd-party rocks-that-keep-away-tigers!

 

It is a very simple and very straightforward process:

 

 - Open a save with the character you want

 

 - Open the console (the " ~ " key), and type "spf thenameyouwanthere"

 

 - That will generate an .NPC file in your Skyrim folder.

 

That's the first step done. Now you have your character's appearance stored in the form of a file.

 

 

To make a follower, I recommend this tutorial for beginners: http://hubpages.com/hub/Hot-to-Turn-Your-Skyrim-Character-into-a-Follower

 

(*If you followed the above steps, you've already covered steps 1 & 2 of the tutorial - start from Step 3). 

 

I recommend following the tutorial through once to get the hang of it, test it in-game so that you at least have a version that you *know* works, then go back & try making one with whatever other master files you're wanting to use. Remember, if you want to load multiple master files in the CK, you will need to go to your SkyrimEditor.ini (located in your Skyrim folder), and add the line "bAllowMultipleMasterLoads=1" under the [General] tab.

 

[zupra]

Great. I will try this during the weekend!

[zupra]

I manage to make the follower but she has red forehead and missing the hair i tryed to add. Maybe it's because i only loaded SGhairs .esm file and not .esp? Also her make up is not as high quality. There was some error when i clicked the preview window after importing the face.

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

Okay - makeup & coloured forehead are an easy fix:

 

 - Before opening your CK, go to ...\Skyrim\Data\Textures\actors\character\character assets, and either temporarily remove or rename your "tintmasks" folder.

 

 - When you're done with the CK, have saved, closed, etc., put the "tintmasks" folder BACK where you found it, or restore its correct name.

 

I do this every time I use the CK & it's a foolproof workaround.

[zupra]

Didn't work. Now she has gray face and the make up still isn't as good. This is the error when i open the preview window.

 

C:_Skyrim\code\TESV\BSShader\Shaders\BSLightningShaderProperty.cpp

Line:806

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

Are you following every step of that tutorial? That should not be occurring if you are (*unless you're trying to use some kinda custom race mod):

 

 

 

"Export the Follower's Face Settings

Once you've imported your follower, click OK to save your work then select them in the Object window and press Ctrl + F4 to export their face settings. Click Yes on the confirmation dialog that appears. If you forget this step, your character's face color will not match the body color in-game and you may be missing scars, war paint, and other face coloring. This is probably the most common problem that people encounter when creating custom NPCs.

Exporting your character's face settings will create the following files in your Data folder:

• Meshes\Actor\character\facegendata\facegeom\YourMod.esp\xxxxxxxx.nif
• Textures\Actor\character\facegendata\facetint\YourMod.esp\xxxxxxxx.dds
• Textures\Actor\character\facegendata\facetint\YourMod.esp\xxxxxxxx.tga

The 'xxxxxxxx' is a unique, 8 digit identifier. The .nif file is your character's head mesh and the .dds file is your character's head texture. (The other file is your character's head texture in a different image format and is not used by the game.) If you release your character as a mod, be sure to include the .nif and .dds files along with it so that others don't encounter your bug, and be sure to keep the file structure intact so that the game can find them.

Tip: If you try to export your character's face and nothing happens, make sure that the Is CharGen Face Preset box is unchecked. It won't export if it is."

 

 

If you're trying to make your follower with a whole list of custom appearance mods, STOP. Get it done at least once using ONLY Skyrim.esm and Update.esm so that you can get it right, THEN go back & add appearance mods if you want (*which is not something I can help with unfortunately - there's simply too many that are bugfests. Don't fret though - if you have a problem with a specific mod, there will be others who can help you).