Need some help rigging a high poly preset head .nif mesh to the XPMSSE skeleton.

[TheEbonySmith69]

I want to do some custom posing and animations in Blender using Skyrim assets. This tutorial on YouTube works well for the vanilla assets. Using vanilla assets, I am able to get the skeleton to pose the mesh. This even works for my own custom BodySlide preset and with the XPMSSE skeleton. However, when I try importing a high poly head mesh, the neck inverts.

 

 

If I try to attach this inverted head to the skeleton, this happens:

 

 

Rather than "spawning" in at the top of the skeleton where the head is supposed to go, the head spawns at the origin of the blender file, and the upper body of the mesh tries to attach to the neck. 

 

Does anyone know how I can fix this so that the custom preset head mesh is actually at the top of the body rather than at the ground?

[traison]

While I know very little about Blender, relatively speaking, the first thing that comes to mind here is that Nifs can have their own transforms and this kinda looks like Blender isn't agreeing with them. I think what I'd do in your case is open both heads side-by-side and compare the transforms on the bones weightpainted for the neck area. Also, if Blender has an import option to ignore transforms (or similar) you should try poking those as well.

 

Remember that in NifSkope, transforms need to be applied as well (context menu option). I'm not certain what this means, never looked into it.

 

Edit: Also, if there's nothing wrong with the neck transforms (etc.) then do not assume it is the neck that has moved above the head, but rather the head below the neck i.e. inspect the upper head bones for transforms instead.

Edited July 4, 2025 by traison