How can I replace a follower's face with another follower's face, safely ?

[Bloodfang]

Hello loverz !

 

I preparing a file with all the mods I'll use when I'll install Skyrim after formating my PC.

So far, everything is fine, I've come to only one issue : how to replace a follower face with another follower's ? I don't think it would be as easy as replacing the meshes/textures files right? Do I have to do something in CK?

 

Here is the follower I want to change the face : http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/54527/?

 

With this face (way more cute imo) : http://www.loverslab.com/files/file/1299-rowana-the-pirate-wanabe/

 

I'll also change her hair with a hair from the KS Hairdos mod, and that will need a modification in CK, but what about the face? Do I just need to replace and rename the meshes/textures files of Sofia?

 

 

Thanks in advance !

[gvman3670]

You should be able to unzip them both then open them in two windows. You go to Sofia/Rowana then...

 

 

/data/meshes/actors/character/facegendata/

 

...with both of them and copy/paste Rowana's nif file into Sofia's folder, overwriting or deleting the original. You may also need to do the same thing with textures.

 

I did look in their folders and their folder structure is basically the same so it should work fine. Once you're done swapping files over just zip it back up and install it. Or drop it into Skyrim/data if you're one of those manual install masochists.

 

Keep in mind that I didn't put it into my game to test, but it should be fine. I've swapped a lot of stuff with followers, like textures, skeletons and body meshes. And on that note, you may want to add the XPMSE skeleton nif to Sofia so she can have some bounce. And maybe even a new body mesh? 

 

Have fun. Experiment with it a little bit.

 

[Rayblue]

Don't forget to note the weights and heights of both source and target NPCs -- they have to be the same or you'll have to generate your own in CK.

[DarkMatter]

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Using_a_face_made_with_Chargen_Extension_on_an_NPC_for_Skyrim

[yatol]

...with both of them and copy/paste Rowana's nif file into Sofia's folder, overwriting or deleting the original. You may also need to do the same thing with textures.

 

that won't work, most follower use a custom race

 

open sofia head nif

open x head nif

 

copy paste x hair in sofia nif, rename to the same name there is in sofia nif, delete original hair

you only need the morph for the rest, so a copy paste of the nitrishapedata is enought

then either you left sofia texture, or copy paste x texture path, or pick new ones

[zzz72w3r]

 

...with both of them and copy/paste Rowana's nif file into Sofia's folder, overwriting or deleting the original. You may also need to do the same thing with textures.

 

that won't work, most follower use a custom race

 

open sofia head nif

open x head nif

 

copy paste x hair in sofia nif, rename to the same name there is in sofia nif, delete original hair

you only need the morph for the rest, so a copy paste of the nitrishapedata is enought

then either you left sofia texture, or copy paste x texture path, or pick new ones

 

 

Can you do a complete dummy's guide to replace NPC appearance?  I kept following your advices on various threads but I kept failing at getting them to work and giving up.  I have limited success using nifmerge and gimp by following this guide:

 

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/35312-guide-how-to-customize-viljas-face/(only NPC appearance alteration guide idiot proof enough for me)

 

but it does not apply to followers with hair/eye/mouth/outfit.  I am now trying see if I can use Jessica Alba Redux for Alicia Painslut and are getting nowhere. 

 

Thanks

 

 

 

[gvman3670]

These guys were right about the head. I couldn't make it work with 3 differnt ones, which all ended up ugly, dark or nonexistent.

 

I did make her look better by adding a new skeleton, a UNP HDTPE body mesh and nicer textures. It made a big improvement and she jiggles all over real nice.

 

[yatol]

i just do what i write above

000012c4.7z

[zzz72w3r]

i just do what i write above

 

 

 

Yes I know you can do it because I have seen it numerous times in various threads what you can do with nifskope.  Not everyone gets what you think we (or is it just me?) should be able to do with 3 sentences.  If this comes across as rant from a bitter person then I apologize to everyone because I often cannot spot the line separates acts of teaching and showing off, something I personally have done to others just as well. 

 

[Bloodfang]

Thank you Yatol and all of you, wasn't sure replacing the files would work ( I was afraid to get the black face glitch).

Seems I'll need to change a few things on the CK to make her look better but at least the main issue is solved!

 

I still can't play Skyrim right now but I'm sure it should be ok. Thank you !

 

PS:

W3r6, it's simple actually, in this case you need to replace the meshes files and textures files of Sofia with those of Rowana. Don't forget to rename Rowana's meshes/textures files so they look exactly as those of Sofia's ( or the game won't be able to know which path to use to load them in-game). And it should be done.

Load the creation kit to make some few changes/adjustments if needed.

[Dubhorizon]

It's not only the facetint mesh and textures that make the face what it is. Some custom followers depend on the femalehead textures as well to look cute. That would create a color mismatch though that you will have to manually edit with photoshop. Not a hard thing to do, just time consuming.

[yatol]

 

i just do what i write above

 

 

 

Yes I know you can do it because I have seen it numerous times in various threads what you can do with nifskope.  Not everyone gets what you think we (or is it just me?) should be able to do with 3 sentences.  If this comes across as rant from a bitter person then I apologize to everyone because I often cannot spot the line separates acts of teaching and showing off, something I personally have done to others just as well. 

 

 

 

all i did was copy paste some nitrishapedata from another nif on this one, and... that's all

no need to write a book about that

 

most of the time i have no idea what is what, so i keep it simple

here's a daz to skyrim tutorial, without technical language (don't know it)

to make that, just load a char in daz3d, import unp or whatever you use and move a char to be similar (and save the pose for next outfit, let daz do the converting in your place)

load the outfit on your char and export the .obj, scale 18 and 180°

 

import the .obj in blender, and remove the body, there's probably some clipping here and there, move things around

object mode, f9, delete all materials, create new one, f6, load a random image, f5, uv map, f9, add a dozen materials (useless ones won't be in the nif)

pick a part in edit mode, and assign it to a material

blender won't be able to make the nif if a material have to much verticles, i put 25 000 max per material (number of verticle is on top bar, right of www.blender.org)

object mode, select the outfit and the parent, assign (that's what you got near the body after importing it in blender)

weight mode, a (select all), then paint, and set weight (there's a bone copy weight but it's a pain in the ass when some things don't get weights)

 

then you just select your outfit and export the nif (exporting the body is a waste of time, delete it, clear parent does probably the same, didn't try yet)

 

you have time to waste, back to daz3d, and try the textures

open the ones you pick in paint, resize it 2048*2048 (or 4096*4096, or 2048*4096...), save it

open the result in gimp, normal map, i use filter 9*9, scale 5.0, wrap i saw here or in the nexus, but that won't look like other normal maps, save it with _n at then end

 

blender is not done yet, come to loverlab and write a useless tutorial about converting stuff from daz to skyrim

 

when blender is done, open the nif, replace 11 34 with 12 83 in the niheader, save, reload the nif

delete all the crap at the end of the nif

and for each mesh, put 0 bone in bsdismember and nitriskindata, and refresh (bye bye the weights), and put sbp_x in bsdismemberskin (32 for body, 33 for hands, i put 49 and wear an invisible armor)

open a random nif and copy paste the bslighting thing on a mesh, select the textures, copy paste that on the rest (you will be in the good folder to select other textures)

 

save the nif and load bodyslide

load a merge of all body part as reference (or else you have to load the feets to weight the boots, the hand to weight the glove... and some things will get mess up if you need weight from multiple parts)

in blender, after importing the body, select all armature, join, select all mesh, join, delete materials, new one and export

load your outfit and bone weight copy

export with a new name and it's done

 

if you can't open the nif in niskope, that's because some things don't have weights (that's why you don't overwrite)

reload your outfit, pick another reference (most of the time it's around the legs, maybe a robe can work), or put weight yourself and hope the result won't be too crappy

[Bloodfang]

It's not only the facetint mesh and textures that make the face what it is. Some custom followers depend on the femalehead textures as well to look cute. That would create a color mismatch though that you will have to manually edit with photoshop. Not a hard thing to do, just time consuming.

No worries I'm aware of that ^^

Just some dark red lipstick and dark eyeshadow would be better imho

[zzz72w3r]

 

 

 

Thank you Yatol and all of you, wasn't sure replacing the files would work ( I was afraid to get the black face glitch).
Seems I'll need to change a few things on the CK to make her look better but at least the main issue is solved!

I still can't play Skyrim right now but I'm sure it should be ok. Thank you !

 

 

PS:
W3r6, it's simple actually, in this case you need to replace the meshes files and textures files of Sofia with those of Rowana. Don't forget to rename Rowana's meshes/textures files so they look exactly as those of Sofia's ( or the game won't be able to know which path to use to load them in-game). And it should be done.
Load the creation kit to make some few changes/adjustments if needed.

 

I guess it is just me who couldn't copy and paste using nifskope.  Every time I try to copy and paste I got this:

 

Unknown property: "NiSkinPartition"

or this:

 

Unknown property: "NiSkinPartition"

Unknown property: "BSShaderTextureSet"

 

There must be a basic tutorial of nifskope somewhere that I cannot google because this appears to be something so trivial that everyone here just knows how to do.  I don't even know which nodes/blocks are the right one to copy:

 

 

 

 

 

[Handsome Squidward]

You should be able to unzip them both then open them in two windows. You go to Sofia/Rowana then...

 

 

/data/meshes/actors/character/facegendata/

 

...with both of them and copy/paste Rowana's nif file into Sofia's folder, overwriting or deleting the original. You may also need to do the same thing with textures.

 

I did look in their folders and their folder structure is basically the same so it should work fine. Once you're done swapping files over just zip it back up and install it. Or drop it into Skyrim/data if you're one of those manual install masochists.

 

(In my case), swapping through renaming and replacing facegendata nifs (and facegendata/facetint textures) is a viable option. However, the parts within the character gen parts/ those appearance tabs must be the same for Skyrim to recognize the parts of the nif. Basically the parent .esp should have all the parts of the modifying .esp (headparts, hair, etc.), and the parent npc (Sofia) should use the appearance of the modifying npc (Rowana). The race, weight and char gen parts/morphs (which may require CharacterMakingExtender.esp if ECE) of the parent npc need to be the same as the modifying npc. Under ActorBase, use the modifying npc as a template and Use Traits. Set the voice accordingly and save. Replace the face models and tints. Open the facegendata nif and make sure the parts have the same names as the parts within the Creation Kit on the parent npc.

 

I used this to replace a hearthfire orphan with Poet.