Help with custom meshes?

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 4:22 pm

Hey everyone!

I'm a massive noob when it comes to modding, literally made my first one last night - a set of glass armour with rough leather mesh, since I've always disliked the original glass look. I started thinking it would be more fun if, instead of just having the new armour set show up on specific enemies at a certain level, like usual, the armour only became available as loot upon completion of a quest. So, I've written the quest, I'm slowly scripting my way through it lol, but here's the thing - I downloaded Blender, Niftools, etc today, to take a whack at creating my own custom meshes for the quest. It didn't go so well - I kind of jumped in at the deep end and very quickly wanted to smash my computer to pieces.

I was just wondering (feel free to tell me where to get off, but it'd really help me) if someone with a bit more experience than me in creating meshes might be willing to knock up a couple of things for me? The quest is centred around an Ayleid method of smithing that allows the armorer to hybridise light and heavy armour styles (not really - the hybrid armour is slightly tougher than glass, and a fair bit heavier, so it remains balanced. Like I said earlier, I just want a better-looking alternative to glass) and I'm planning on creating a couple of new items for it:

1) Ayleid Tool #1: Ideally, this would be a very small version of an Elven Warhammer, perhaps tweaked to look darker and more aged.
2) Ayleid Tool #2: Not really sure what this should be. Something related to smithing, obviously, and something that looks elven/Ayleid in origin.
3) A larger version of the Grizzly Bear enemy - hunting an Umuu [giant cave bear] will be a part of the quest. Perhaps twice the size? Something to make players think 'Holy crap.'
4) And the armour itself - this is what I started trying to do earlier, but Niftools stopped rendering textures halfway through experiementation, and nothing I could do would sort it. I did like the look of a Steel Cuirass with the texture of the Dark Brotherhood's Shrouded Armour, but I was thinking more along the lines of a half-steel half-leather mix. Perhaps a standard leather cuirass mesh with chainmail sleeves from the elbow down, steel elbow and knee joints, etc? I dunno. If you're feeling artistic, go for it.
5) Oh yeah, and the Dark Brotherhood's Shrouded Hood, recoloured to match the leather armour colour - it's a little dark at the moment.

Like I said, if you think I'm being lazy or froobish, my bad - I just don't really have the time to learn the necessary skills myself right now, and I really would like to finish this little pet project lol. If anyone out there fancies taking a whack at any of the meshes above, that would be amazing.

Thanks a load!
Seraph
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Steph
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 8:13 pm

I can do you #3 without any effort. You just need to change the scale on the regular bear when you place the instance in the Construction Set. Double-click the bear to bring up the attributes of the Ref, and change the scale. If you want scaled up stats, you can select the "Edit Base" option, type in a new name for the modified base (e.g. change BrownBear to GiantBrownBear) - alter the stats you want changed, and then choose "Yes" for create new FormID.

Scaling standard items might also do some of the other requests, and check what's already been made among the many armors at the Nexus. You might be able to refine your request better if you can refer to an existing mod and tell us "like this, but without the..."
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loste juliana
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 1:30 pm

I can do you #3 without any effort. You just need to change the scale on the regular bear when you place the instance in the Construction Set. Double-click the bear to bring up the attributes of the Ref, and change the scale. If you want scaled up stats, you can select the "Edit Base" option, type in a new name for the modified base (e.g. change BrownBear to GiantBrownBear) - alter the stats you want changed, and then choose "Yes" for create new FormID.

Scaling standard items might also do some of the other requests, and check what's already been made among the many armors at the Nexus. You might be able to refine your request better if you can refer to an existing mod and tell us "like this, but without the..."



Oh great - I didn't realise NPC scaling could be done via the CS. Heh, told you I was a noob. Thanks a bunch though, I'll give it a bash. Did you say you can scale standard items via the CS, too? That'd save me going into Blender or whatever and farting around trying to make things smaller. As for making the request more refined - in all honesty, I wasn't sure what I wanted. I figured if any modders fancied taking a whack at it, they were welcome to full creative control. But you're right, if I'm asking for someone else to make the mesh anyway, there's no harm borrowing something from an existing mod until I get the hang of it. Thanks!
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JD bernal
 
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