So, with all the hundred or more mods I've downloaded, I've been wanting to create mods by myself. It's intimidating, however, and I'm not sure where to start.

I'm not really too interested in creating new quests, but in new armor and equipment. How would I get started on that?

I'd also like to make new animations and poses-- Are there any tutorials out there for this?

I would start here:

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Category:A_beginner%27s_guide

For modeling and animation, this might be a good place to start:

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/985359-introduction-to-oblivion-modeling-and-animation/

You may also want to check out http://www.tesalliance.org/ It's the first (and so far only) modding school available. There are a lot of great tutorials there.

Start with the CS Wiki. That's pretty much all you need to start. Use the wiki as a help, but don't use it as a guide. I mean, the first few tutorials are all fine and dandy, but there comes a time where the wiki only can tell you what X does, but you gotta figure out how to use X with Y to make Z work ^^

other than that, yeah, ask on the forum if something doesn't seem right on anything, and you can always google for more tutorials!


Oh, and to break it up:

The Construction Set is used to edit current in-game stuff. meaning you can take a piece of weaponry and make the stats godly, you can make a house, etc, etc. Going more advanced you can make a script for custome effect and all that fun stuff.
However, you can NOT create brand new Weaponry or pieces of armor. Arguably you can't make all new magic efefcts either, but with the shader, nifskope and scripts, you can, to a deegree ^^

For all custom particle effects, weapon, armor, etc: You will need knowledge of 3d, 2d and the biggest pain of all: Nifskope.
oh, and for brand new animations ... 'boy you'r gonna wish you never thought off that ^^ Animation is the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. Simple animation is fine, but humans? Key-frame animating humans is really not anything I would want to do.

So a good tip to you:
If you just want to make new pieces of equipment and stuff - start off playing around in the CS and learn what, and how, to use it. CS is your tool to placing stuff in the world. From there, if you desire all new gear, you better have some 3d and 2d knowledge ^^

if you want to make spell effects and all that, I really -REALLY- think you should script some easy stuff, this include quests.

If you simply don't want to use time on modding and just want to do something .. I suggest you make a house in the CS and stop there ^^ modding really takes time ... I am serious!

A'ight, if you are new to 3d and 2d I can suggest some softwares to start with:
Gimp/photoshop - 2d
Blender - 3d

Hope my rambling is understandable ^^
If you ever need some help, or advices, give me a hint! The forums have given me tons of help, and I am happy to pass it on.

PS: excuse bad grammar and terrible spelling mistakes. havn't slept in the last 30 houres ... ^-^


Cheers,

Matth80!