Character Design: Introduction

[DarkRider]

Introduction:

Welcome to Character Design!

This is the Enclave's second modding tutorial course for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. If you have not completed the Creation Kit Basics course, or achieved the equivalent skill level in your independent learning here or elsewhere like the Creation Kit Wiki you'll want to hold off on attempting this course until you have learned the basics of modding and using the kit.

As with any tutorial, you have certainly come here with lots of brilliant ideas about all the things you'd like to create, mimic, or change and with some careful study you will soon achieve those goals. However, it's recommended that you jot them down and set them aside for now. Take the time to study this new material, ask questions, and learn how Character Design works in general, rather than stumbling through your ideas one tutorial section at a time. If you start with your ideas first the margin for error is typically greater, your experience can prove frustrating, fruitless, and you may find yourself having to fix or even redo things later when you've learned proper skills. For now, clear your minds and let's begin learning about Character Design!

Smarty Says: Hi! I'm Smarty, I know everything there is to know about modding for the Elder Scrolls and I will follow you along your course of study in all the classes on TESA. I pop up in some of the strangest places but always have useful tips and reminders for you, so keep your eyes open for me!

Quote

CK Basics: When you see this icon in your lessons the concept being discussed has been addressed in the CK Basics course. If you get lost, just click on the icon link to brush up on your Basics.

What You Need:

• STEAM GAMING PLATFORM
• TES CREATION KIT v1.8.15+ (Available on Steam)

Quote

Terms to Know

• CK: A shorthand term for Creation Kit
• TES: Not to be confused with CS, TES stands for The Elder Scrolls
• NPC: A shorthand term for Non Player Character, any character who is not the player
• AI: A shorthand term for Artificial Intelligence, characters in Skyrim use AI packs to evaluate their behavior
• Actor Base: An actor base give a new actor the same traits and stats, ect as the selected actor base
• Patrol: A predetermined route or sequence an NPC is programmed to travel

Let's cue up the Creation Kit!

Part I: Anatomy of an Actor

With the Skyrim.esm loaded in the CK let's take a look at the actor form editor and the elements we will be modifying. In the object window, under Actors>Actor, right-click>New to open this editor.



Traits Tab
The traits tab is the first tab that loads by default in the actor's tab list (see Traits (Data) section for more info )

ID/Name/Short Name

• ID: is how the Creation Kit identifies this actor. The ID name should be unique to your mod using a simple naming convention like "aaDRActorIDName" for example.
• Name: is how the player sees this character in game, when the player hovers the cursor over them, it's the name that is visible
• Short Name: In Skyrim's Radiant story mechanism, short names are how NPCs are referred to by people they know well or have a significant relationship with.

Flags

Flags establish special restrictions and states for the actor such as making them unique, or unkillable. or making them summonable by the player. This table is from the CK Wiki, it offers a basic outline of what each flag is for.



Dialogue

This button opens a filtered dialogue page for the actor, which contains a filtered list of all dialogue this actor is qualified by conditions to speak.

Scripts

The scripts pane holds any scripts that apply to this actor.

Template Data

Template Data allows a different actor to be used as the base for this actor. Whatever flags are checked in this section will determine which traits are inherited from the base. For example, by simply choosing Ralof as your Actor Base, and checking use traits and use stats, you can create a new NPC that looks just like Ralof but you can then customize his inventory and AI.

Traits (Data)

The traits tab in this image is greyed out because this example actor has inherited its traits from an actor base. With the actor base flag "use traits" unchecked, the individual character traits on this tab can be edited to change the race, gender, voice type, death item, etc.

---------------------------

Now that we've had a look at the primary form editing features, let's break down the remaining tabs that we will actively make use of. There are three tabs that will not be used for anything except in rather advanced circumstances so we won't be looking at them in depth. Animation, this list is populated automatically by other choices you make for the character such as race selection; not much to do manually here. The Sounds tab, is greatly unused in character design, the list there is part of the detection formula for Skyrim. The Attack Data tab is also automatically populated by race selection, unless you deliberately override it but there are only rare instances when that would actually be a technique you'd use.



Stats Tab: Like the traits tab, the Stats tab can be inherited from an actor base or manually set. Stats determine the base line value of your character's health, magicka, stamina, level, and skill values.



Factions Tab: Factions listed on this tab establish the various affiliations your character has. A great deal of dialogue options are faction based, and factions can also determine what property your actor owns, what their job is, how other actors treat them. There are many more factions in Skyrim beyond just what is accessible to the player in game. Factions can be inherited from an actor base.



Relationships Tab: Similar to the Factions tab, relationships in Skyrim change the dialogue your character speaks and receives from those around them. They are like small scale factions, between husband and wife, or father and son, close friends, bitter enemies. Each relationship in this list connects this actor to some other specific actor. Relationships cannot be inherited from an actor base.



Keyword Tab: In most cases you will never really use this tab. In Skyrim modding, keywords are used in a number of ways on all sorts of things as a sort of shorthand tracking device; mostly for ease of reference in condition function calling in scripts. For example, certain spells are scripted to effect only actors that have a particular keyword in their form base. Keywords can be inherited from an actor base.



AI Data Tab: AI Data establishes your actor's overall personality. Are they the sort to charge into any battle? Or maybe they have a hard time NOT pickpocketing everyone they pass? These sort of character quirks are established here. AI Data can be inherited from an actor base.



AI Packages Tab: In a Radiant AI world, AI packages are what define what an actor does, when, where, etc. Packages are stacked in this list pane and the NPC evaluates what to do next starting at the top of the list and working their way down. Whichever package comes up true first is what the actor will do in game. AI Packages can be inherited from an actor base.



Inventory Tab: The inventory tab displays what items are in an actor's inventory. Depending on the actor, the inventory may contain keys, or tools, or weapons, even gold, jewels, and leveled items. What you won't generally see is clothing and armor. These things can be added to an actor via the outfit slots in most cases, so it's not necessary to put clothing in the inventory. Setting the outfit to NONE and adding clothing to the inventory however can allow you some freedom of mixing articles your want your actor to have. Inventory can be inherited from an actor base.



Spell List Tab: This tab contains all the spells that are in the actor's casting arsenal. Be careful when choosing spells that you don't select spells that are beyond what your actor's magicka and level can handle. Spells can be inherited from an actor base.



Character Gen Parts Tab: This tab is used to customize your actor's facial coloring features. Think of it as the texture set, here you choose skin color, eye color, beards, hair, tattoos, scars, etc. These traits can be inherited by the "use traits" flag on an actor base.



Character Gen Morphs Tab: This tab is also used to customize your actor's facial features, but this is more like changing up the face shape. On this tab you can choose the nose, eye, and mouth types, as well as adjust the shape of the brow, chin, and jawline. These traits can also be inherited by the "use traits" flag on an actor base.

Part II: Of Armor & AddOns

The design features in this section may be self-explanatory for some, but for the sake of outlining the basics we're going to just define them for future reference. It's important to have a read through even if you think you already know them, you never know when you'll catch some new bit of info and learn something


 

ID/Name/Character Count:

• ID: is how the Creation Kit identifies this armor item. The ID name should be unique to your mod using the same simple naming convention you've chosen for your mod.
• Name: is the name this item has in game whether being viewed in the game world or in the inventory; this is the name that is visible
• Character Count: Skyrim's menu has a character count limit of 24 characters with spaces. Keep your in game names to the point.

Value is how much this armor item is worth. Keep values feasible when adding new items to the game world. If the most expensive items in Skyrim top out at around 4,000g making your uber cool sword sell for 4x that is bordering on silly.

Enchanting: allows you to add a unique enchantment to this armor

Template Armor: acts as an actor base for armor, when another armor type is set as the template, you can only change the name, value, and enchantments on this new armor. It inherits everything else from the template.

Weight: how much the armor weighs in the payer's inventory

Armor Rating: how much protection this armor affords the player against damage

Playable: determines whether or not the player can wear this item

Race: allows you to restrict what race can use this armor. Playable armor should use "DefaultRace"

Biped Object: determines which parts of the body this armor covers

World Model: allows you to select the model that will render when this object is in the game world, lying on a table, or in a display case

Models: this is where the armor addons are listed for this armor; addons provide the model details for the actual armor when worn

Keywords: armor keywords can be called by script conditions. For example, a script may check if the armor the player is wearing has a certain keyword attached to it.

Scripts: special scripts can be added to armor in this pane, for example in questbuilding you might script this armor to advance a quest when picked up or worn.



ID is how the Creation Kit stores this addon

Biped Model (Male): is the model for male characters to wear

Biped Model (Female): is the model for female characters to wear

Footstep: determines how the player's steps sound when wearing this addon

Race: allows you to restrict the armor to one race, generally set as DefaultRace

Biped Object: defines which body parts this addon covers; should match the biped object data of the armor this addon is for.

Additional Races: defines which races can use this addon

What Happens Next?

This concludes the simple introduction to the Character Design in Skyrim. We'll be expanding on these concepts as we go, but you should now have a good grasp of basic terms, where the most common actor features can be found, and what they are for. Well done!

You are probably eager to get started now, but before you dive into the class work, please take a few minutes to read the following post About the Character Design Course so that you know what's expected of you as a student.

Also, have a look at the Sample Homework assignment to download your class materials and to see how to submit your homework.

If you have questions on what we've covered so far, post them here in the General Questions thread.

When you're ready to move on, you can head to Character Design Lesson #1: Building Bendu

[DarkRider]

About the Character Design Course

 

About the Character Design Course
This tutorial course will continue to be updated during the first few sessions with actual students. Please keep in mind that the course as you see it today, is a work in progress.

Description:
The Character Design class has been developed to give beginner modders a working understanding of common and basic creation kit functions used when creating characters and creatures for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. This course does not cover every subject, for example Texturing and Questbuilding, as those subjects are covered in other courses.

Rules:
Character Design students are expected to adhere to the general rules for Enclave Decorum. Be sure to read through them before posting in this class. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse for breaking them, so have a read and you'll be set to go.

Homework:
By Lesson #1 homework is introduced. The point of the homework assignments is to give students an opportunity to practice what they are learning while still being guided by the class and the active Scholar. Doing the homework is optional for independent study, but completion is required if you want to earn points toward your Character Design medal. Students should not plan on releasing their coursework. When posting homework, please post embedded screenshots and not links to your gallery or images which can delay grading.

Extra Credit:
Extra credit is just that, extra, doing some of these will be necessary to earn a total of 100 points, but you can pick and choose what you do to make the grade. You can also earn bonus points from the Scholar at any time.

Credit Challenges:
Credit challenges are small tasks worth points but offering little guidance. This enables students to boost their point count while expanding on their skill set and gaining some confidence for working without guidance.

Final Exam:
The final exam offers one of the best opportunities to earn points as it's worth a total of 20 possible points toward your class medal. It must be completed to graduate the course.

Points:
In this course, you are required to achieve at least 100pts in order to receive the Character Design Medal. There are more points possible however and doing all of the homework and all of the credit challenges will boost your skill set and your confidence. Points are tracked on our Student Progress Report

Sessions:
Students of this course are divided into seasonal sessions on the class roster. New students may PM the Scholar to join the class at any time regardless of which session is current. The purpose of sessions is to limit how long idle students sit on the roster. As a new session begins, active students are moved forward to the next session while idle students are dropped.

About Advanced Students:
Some of you may be more advanced by modding previous games, but still want to earn a Character Design Medal by doing the assignments. Regardless of your skill set, if you do the homework assigned in step with the class you can certainly earn a medal. However, with advanced skills comes the temptation to show off a bit and add in resources and other custom touches like different bodies or custom armors. Screenshots of your work will only confuse and invalidate the other students who are just learning, so such images will be nixed and you won't get credit for your work toward a Character Design Medal. If you want to do the work, you must do the assignment within the outlined spirit of the course.

Smarty Says: Once the course is completed and points are tallied everyone, beginner and advanced students alike, are welcome to add or change whatever they like in their creation to make it custom.

[DarkRider]

 

Required Class Materials
Because this course focuses solely on the basics of Character Design, the setting for our study has been created ahead of time. In order to participate in the course activities, you will need to download the materials attached here. Once downloaded, rename the .esp file and replace the course name with your name or ID (ie DarkRiderStarter.esp). This will ensure every student has a unique mod environment to practice in and will keep the assignments straight should the Scholar request them for play testing. When you begin each lesson in this course, you will start by loading your copy of the starter.esp in the Creation Kit as the Active file. If you have any questions regarding the course materials, post in the General Questions thread
 

Download

 

**Download Link Coming Soon**

 

Half-Moon Village Overview Reference

Sample Homework Submission
 
When you complete your character creation or behavior packages you will need to screen capture an image of your character and/or their behavior as required at the end of each lesson and post the images in the corresponding lesson thread, the following images are an example on how to submit your assignments. For more info on how to add a screenshot to a forum post, please see THIS tutorial.
 
Show Your Character

My Character: Wylandriah

 
Show Your Character DOING the Behavior

Wylandriah Enchants


Wylandriah Sleeps

 

 
Show Your Behavior Package