A noob needs help learning to mod

[ChefBoyardie]

Hi loverslab I have decided that I want to try to make an armor mod of my own after seeing so many good ones out there. I have no experience what so ever so I was hoping to get a idea of what programs I will need and some tutorials and how to edit meshs in particular. Thanks

[hgosling]

Look over at https://cgcookie.com/. There youll find a lot of free tutorials for various tools. I personally prefer Blender for 3D modelling, but it has poor support for Skyrim (nif). I think most of the modders here use 3D Studio Max. You'll have to learn how to model with taking topology into consideration, how to UV unwrap and create textures, how to rig your armor to the skyrim skeleton and then you'll have to learn how to create a new armor in skyrim with the creation kit, export your armor to the nif file format and assign it to your custom armor in the creation kit.

 

You probably wont be able to suceed the first time trying. Especially for creating decent 3D Art you'll need a lot of practice.

[myuhinny]

Well there is blender which is free but tricky to learn there is 3dmax not free there is also maya but I have never saw much on it. There are lots of tutorials on on youtube for learning how to use blender/3dmax.

[Guest]

Hi.

 

If your aim is to make an Armor Mod, then these are the most important things you need to learn.

1) Creation Kit (http://www.creationkit.com) - with this tool you will create the mod, the Armor(s), and the Armor Addon(s)

2) Probably a 3D editor if you wish to create a brand new armor (Blender and 3D Studio are the best ones)

3) NifSkope (to do the fine tuning to the NIF (that is the file format for the meshes)

4) NifTools to import/export the NIF in the 3D format (here the possibilities are endless, I cannot give you a specific advice, I just use the Blender plugin.)

5) Probably a painting tool for the textures (GIMP or Photoshop, but here pretty much any tool that can export a DDS file is OK.)

 

 

Start by understanding which object in CK you need to create/edit. Maybe by editing an existing mod.

 

Then post your questions in this site when you will get stuck.

 

Keep in mind that there are tons of tutorial and videos. Google will be your best friend.