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3D Craftworks: Bows, Blender & Skyrim


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BBS_MainTitle_zps87094f8a.png


Craft_Welcome.png


We have a tutorial for creating bows in 3DS Max courtesy of Artisanix, but we don't have one for Blender .. Well we didn't until now. This tutorial will show you how to take your newly created bow model, do a little :wizard: and get the bow into Skyrim. This workshop won't be too long and it does require basic working knowledge of Blender.

Do you have that?, Good let's get started! :dance:

Craft_Req.png


Blender 2.49b - Download from Blender.org
Nifskope - Nifskope 1.1.1
Blender Nifscripts - Nifscripts 2.5.8
Pyffi - Pyffi

ResContents_Title.png


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BBS_ImportTitle_zps60b9e5f7.png

 

We will be needing to copy some information from a Vanilla NIF in order to get our Bow to work correctly. For us to do this we'll have to import it, but since we're a little ways off getting Skyrim support for Blender we have to take an extra step. So what we need to do is pick our NIF, in this case the ebonybowskinned.NIF and edit it in NIFSkope removing any data Blender can't handle yet.


You'll need to look through the vanilla bows and find one that has roughly the same shape as your bow and use that for importing, it'll make things easier.
Let's open up our NIF and start removing data, if you're following the tutorial and using the same bow, this is what we'll need to remove.

  • BSBehaviorGraphExtraData
  • BSInvMarker
  • NiStringExtraData
  • bhkCollisionObject
  • BSLightingShaderProperty


With all that removed we'll be left with a NIF that looks like this:


Bow_Screenshot01_zps2e78f2fc.jpg


Our last step with this before we import is to change the NIF version number so the NIFScripts can import it. Click the toolbar at the top and go to View>Block List>Show blocks in List.


Click on the NiHeader at the top and make sure you have the Block Details pane open. We need to change the following:

 

  • User Version to 11
  • User Version 2 to 34

 

Bow_Screenshot02_zps0c4c5423.jpg


Save it and we're ready for importing. Open up Blender and your Blend file with your bow in, then import the ebonybowskinned.NIF you just saved.


Bow_Screenshot03_zpsa4d44ebe.jpg

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3DBows_Blender_zps6ddfae6d.png

 

 

The next step is to copy the weight painting data from the imported model onto our own bow. To do this we move the imported bow onto the same layer as our bow and then use the multi select (Shift + Click) to select our bow. Doing it that way means the data will be copied from the imported bow (selected) to our bow (Active).

Open the Scripts window and select Scripts>Object>Bone Weight Copy, set the quality to 3 and click ok. The data should now start copying over to our bow.

 

Bow_Screenshot04_zps981dc28e.jpg

 

With that done move the imported mesh out of the way and move the skeleton over to our bow's layer. Deselect everything then click on our Bow and using the multi select click on the skeleton. With those selected press CTRL+P to parent them, make sure to click Armature and Don't create groups.
In the Editing Pane click on the Make Real button for the Armature modifier, now our bow and skeleton are properly paired.

 

Bow_Screenshot05_zps0600fb8b.jpg

 

Before we export, let's delete the imported bow and change the name of our bow to BowMesh:0.

 

Bow_Screenshot06_zps7cc98899.jpg

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3DBows_NIFPrep_zps75147e6f.png

 

 

Open up the exported Bow in Nifskope, we need to change the NIF version again but this time to the following:

 

  • User Version to 12
  • User Version 2 to 83

We also have to remove:

 

  • BSShaderPPLightingProperty
  • NiMaterialProperty

After that is done we need to change the parenting on the Skin Instance block so we can copy it over to another NIF without any problems. Click on the NiSkinInstance node and in the details pane change Skeleton Root to -1.

Bow_Screenshot08_zpsda872e96.jpg

Open up a fresh copy og the EbonyBowSkinned.NIF and in our exported NIF copy the mesh block over to the EbonyBow NIF.

Bow_Screenshot09_zpsfe32b0e8.jpg

Next copy the BSLightingShaderProperty from the Ebony Bow over to the newly imported mesh and set the textures.

Click on the NiSkinInstance again and change the Skeleton Root to 0 so it's parented to the skeleton in this NIF.

 

Bow_Screenshot10_zps5a489da2.jpg

 

Rename the node to BowMesh:0 and delete the vanilla NIF's block so it's gone.

 

Bow_Screenshot11_zps94df5cdf.jpg

Click File and uncheck Sanitize File before save

Bow_Screenshot12_zpsc3d407f2.jpg

and then save your new bow NIF.

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:shock:

 

dude holy crap

no really holy crap

thank you so much, i've been looking for the past 2+ weeks and haven't found crap. I come here and mention in my introduction post that i would like to learn how to do this, you comment and make a tutorial 20 minutes later. screw the nexus forums and everywhere else that i asked, im staying here!

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hmm not having any luck with my exported nif file

a2daf6e348.png

and when i change the skeleton bone it rotates and quadruples in size.

 

for now ignore, ima take a break then restart from scratch. 

 

ok bows in the game

it was invisible but i redid the blender steps and fixed it.

has no animations as of now but ima make sure everything is up to date with this tutorial and retry. worst comes to worst i havent made the bow mesh correctly and need to spend 5 minutes making a new poc bow.

 

but other then the few problems i listed this works and does get a bow in to skyrim. :good:

i'd give more cookies but i already cookied all i can

Edited by delta19
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No animations is easily fixied, make sure the bow mesh is properly parented to the skeleton before exporting and then before saving the new NIF uncheck Sanitize File before save.

 

It's usually the latter that completely breaks the animation.

 

100% sure i did the latter because i just checked nifskope and its still off. so mesh error.

 

now to correct it i have to ask.

how did you make the string on your bow? because i just added a cube in edit mode and scaled it to size. and did you apply armature modifier to the bow before export? you don't say in the tutorial.

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