How Did He Do It? Animated Dragon Wings Question

[finalx31]

I was amazed at the new animated dragon wings from

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/53271/?tab=1&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fskyrim%2Fajax%2Fmoddescription%2F%3Fid%3D53271%26preview%3D&pUp=1

 

Apparently it's not an equipable as it doesn't take an equip slot...not a body mesh change as it works with all bodies and skeletons...and doesn't require HDT to do the animating...so how did he do it?

 

The download lists out the basic meshes and textures as well as some some hkx files (behaviour files?)...did he just add a skeleton part for the wings? I'm pretty mind blown as this is outside all the "normal" ways i know to change the character appearance.

[Cyndi]

It was done as an art object, instead of a regular piece of gear. 

It's set up as hit effect art on a magic effect (not to be confused with a hit shader).

 

Beyond that it looks to me just like any other nif with kf, and the hkx (Im guessing) just controls when it plays them.

Sort of like how estrus works, only estrus' tentacles/etc were set up as pieces of gear instead of art objects if I'm not mistaken.

 

 

[finalx31]

Ooh...so it's similar to the spinny flame cloak effect when you have the buff on...thank you