When I export a vanilla creature and rebuilt it the exact same shape, can it be easily added to the old skeleton and keep the animations?

My (very unfinished) Nixhound is in this pose: https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-FGDkBox9aKQ/VTUxXqNE8eI/AAAAAAAACGQ/9F4kI3aLYos/w1120-h840-no/nixhound_01.jpgand has the exact same proportions as I build upon the original mesh.

In the end I will have a proper low poly model together with new UV mapping and texture, in OpenMW even a proper normal map. Hopefully its easy to get the animations working too?

Sorry if this was asked before, search function is broken.

Yes, it can, you just have to weight paint it accordingly. Just look at the original mesh to see which parts are affected by which node. It's a bit trial and error to make it look good, but I suppose if the basic shape is the same it will be no big problem.

The proces is the same as with armor/clothing

Some common knowledge

Creatures need three files

creature.nif = animation+skeleton+geometry, only used in CS preview

xcreature.kf = animation

xcreature.nif = skeleton+geometry

The last one is editable in the same manner as if you would like to make a skinned gearments for a NPC,

Just remember to attach bounding box and shadow mesh (optional?)

Thanks for the quick help! I was hoping to be able to just drag and drop replace my mesh with the vanilla one but I guess some nifskope fiddeling is required.

The thing is that I dont know much about Nifskope, moving bones and stuff around is a mistery to me atm.

So I tried to import the vanilla nif into Max which keeps animations and everything intact, even on export. Unfortunatelly the Nixhound always has this starting pose: http://i.imgur.com/PhG8Dn1.png. I wouldnt know how to change everything to fit the pose of my model tho, total animation noob.

I guess I just finish the model and hope that one of you guys likes it much enough that you decide to do the animation part