How To: Make Leaderheads! Ekmek's Guide

[cool3a2]

I tried to give Blender a chance again and tried to import my Nagy LH (before that, I installed everything mentioned in the first post of this thread / in the tutorial in the given sequence using the given links). These are the messages I get when importing:

Spoiler :

Blender NIF Scripts 2.4.9 (running on Blender 248, PyFFI 2.0.0)
cyclic Pierre_Trudeau.nif.00
cyclic PTrudeau.nif
cyclic alexander.nif.01
cyclic Scene Root
cyclic _alex_parent
cyclic d_julius_caesar_MASTER
cyclic d_julius_caesar_MASTER NonAccum
cyclic b_torso
cyclic b_neck
cyclic b_head
cyclic d_face_MASTER
cyclic d_face_parent_lower
cyclic b_face_cheekbone_R
cyclic b_face_cheek_R
cyclic b_face_cheekbone_L
cyclic b_face_cheek_L
cyclic b_face_mouth_crease_R1
cyclic b_face_mouth_crease_R2
cyclic b_face_mouth_crease_L1
cyclic b_face_mouth_crease_L2
cyclic b_face_lip_corner_R
cyclic b_face_lip_corner_Rb
cyclic b_face_lip_upper_R1
cyclic b_face_lip_upper_R2
cyclic b_face_lip_upper_R2b
cyclic b_face_lip_upper_R3
cyclic b_face_lip_upper_R3b
cyclic b_face_lip_upper_L3
cyclic b_face_lip_upper_L2
cyclic b_face_lip_upper_L1
cyclic b_face_lip_corner_L
cyclic b_face_jaw
cyclic b_face_lip_lower_R1
cyclic b_face_lip_lower_R2
cyclic b_face_lip_lower_L2
cyclic b_face_lip_lower_L1
cyclic b_tongue1
cyclic d_face_parent_upper
cyclic b_face_eyeball_R
cyclic b_face_eyelid_R
cyclic b_face_eye_lowerlid_R
cyclic b_face_eyeball_L
cyclic b_face_eyelid_L
cyclic b_face_eye_lowerlid_L
cyclic b_face_eyebrow_R1
cyclic b_face_eyebrow_R2
cyclic b_face_eyebrow_R3
cyclic b_face_eyebrow_R4
cyclic b_face_eyebrow_L4
cyclic b_face_eyebrow_L3
cyclic b_face_eyebrow_L2
cyclic b_face_eyebrow_L1
cyclic b_clavicle_R
cyclic b_shoulder_clav_R
cyclic b_bicep_R
cyclic b_shoulder_bicep_R
cyclic b_forearm_R
cyclic b_hand_R
cyclic b_fingerR_3ring_01
cyclic b_fingerR_3ring_02
cyclic b_fingerR_3ring_03
cyclic b_fingerR_4pinky_01
cyclic b_fingerR_4pinky_02
cyclic b_fingerR_4pinky_03
cyclic b_fingerR_2middle_01
cyclic b_fingerR_2middle_02
cyclic b_fingerR_2middle_03
cyclic b_fingerR_1index_01
cyclic b_fingerR_1index_02
cyclic b_fingerR_1index_03
cyclic b_fingerR_5thumb_01
cyclic b_fingerR_5thumb_02
cyclic b_fingerR_5thumb_03
cyclic b_clavicle_L
cyclic b_shoulder_clav_L
cyclic b_bicep_L
cyclic b_shoulder_bicep_L
cyclic b_forearm_L
cyclic b_hand_L
cyclic b_fingerL_3ring_01
cyclic b_fingerL_3ring_02
cyclic b_fingerL_3ring_03
cyclic b_fingerL_4pinky_01
cyclic b_fingerL_4pinky_02
cyclic b_fingerL_4pinky_03
cyclic b_fingerL_2middle_01
cyclic b_fingerL_2middle_02
cyclic b_fingerL_2middle_03
cyclic b_fingerL_1index_01
cyclic b_fingerL_1index_02
cyclic b_fingerL_1index_03
cyclic b_fingerL_5thumb_01
cyclic b_fingerL_5thumb_02
cyclic b_fingerL_5thumb_03
cyclic b_neck_comp_L
niftools.blender.import:WARNING:Skipping environment map texture.
pyffi.nif.matrix:WARNING:improper rotation matrix (error is 0.210003)
pyffi.nif.matrix:WARNING:improper rotation matrix (error is 0.210000)
niftools.blender.import:WARNING:Skipping environment map texture.
niftools.blender.import:WARNING:Skipping environment map texture.
pyffi.nif.matrix:WARNING:improper rotation matrix (error is 0.210000)
niftools.blender.import:WARNING:Skipping environment map texture.

The result is, that it obviously imports a camera and something that cold be a light, but no trace of the leaderhead itself. The screenshot of the import menu in your pdf is somewhat blurry (well, the tutorial already is 30MB,, but hell! You wrote a whole book! Impressive...), so that I couldn't really read it, but I guess the settings I made per approximation are okay. Even the "use the force Luke"-Button didn't work... If the force won't help, what chance can there be that I get this LH imported? No, seriously, any ideas?

I also tried to import Ghandi. The leaderhead gets imported, but the environment map gets also skipped.

Any ideas?

 

[Ekmek]

trudeau may not import because the maker probably did some modification in nifskope or nifviewer. i can tell by the rotation stuff. thats the shame about nifskope modified LHs like Amra's Hiram and others. the only way i think may get around it is if you nifswap trudeau onto the original skeleton - alexander i think. and then try it might realign things

since i'm assuming you imported the shaded ghandi did you have those enviro files in the folder you imported from? if so post your import settings, I'll see if they match mine.

As you see, this one I centered but I was just lucky !

well the nice thing about centering is that you just click the whole bjects and move it to the center it should remember it when you export.

 

[Ekmek]

I can't seem to get the leader(that I'm making) to animate, although I believe I have rigged it. But right now, rigor mortis. And in another one, there is no way to rig it because the space for vertex groups is blank.

if the vertex is blank that means you did not join the boneless part to the original boned part. you have to click the boneless (one with no vertex groups) to the one with vertex groups.

you may have skipped this step when you rigged too. give it another shot and if it still doesn't fix it, then attach a blend to your next post.

 

[cool3a2]

So these are my settings. When I imported Ghandi, I had the nif in one folder with all the other files belonging to him.

 

[Ekmek]

my settings are the same except i don't have import animations checked. i'll see if i have same issue with gandhi? just to be sure you are importing the shader one and you are using the same blender i have right?

 

[Vortilex]

Alright, so I've started my first major undertaking(s): I'm definately working on a new Big Brother LH because the one I downloaded wouldn't play, and only contained a nonshader .nif file. Also, I imagine him wearing the black overalls of the Party, and the one on CFC uses Vladimir Korovin's suit (Final Frontier in case someone hasn't tried the mods [you should btw]), so I'll use Augustus Caesar's armor and (hopefully) reskin them into black overalls, and I'll see about the shirt (I need to re-read what that looks like for the Inner Party). I'm also going to work on Robert Mugabe and see about Shaka in a Roosevelt Suit, or in de Gaulle's suit. I may work on a new Charles V and/or Wilhelmina (the ones I downloaded didn't work ) so wish me luck! Hopefully I can get at least Mugabe done before school starts (I'm on South American vacation, so that's on August 10th)

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Ekmek, I'm mostly done with all pre-rig things on my first ever selfmade LH but I do have a question : how do you hide those nasty octahedron (or else) bones ? I'm sure it was said somewhere but your prize will be a preview of my work. I go back and attagh the neck to the suit now.

 

[Ekmek]

its in my guide you change from global view to local view

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Oh yes, sorry ! I'm a little dumb at times. I only hope you are not annoyed with me and prepare for war .

 

[IgorS]

By the way, Ekmek, I exported my Tamerlane. Thanks. Now it only needs reskinning and I think it'll be done and we'll finally have Tamerlane in Civ 4!

 

[Huayna Capac357]

Well, not counting that obscure one on the Russian website.

 

[IgorS]

Well, not counting that obscure one on the Russian website.

Definitely not counting it. Don't expect something amazing from me either, but I'll try. I am really bad a skinning, so this will probably make my Tamerlane look a lot worse than I had in mind. This is definitely the last (and only) difficult LH I am trying. All my future creations (and don't expect a lot) will mostly be easy-to-do leaders like the four I've done so far. I just don't have the skills Ekmek, The Capo and cfkane have, and it is not something you can learn, I just don't have it.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Here is what I got so far :

I'm slowly merging vertices atm.
In the meantime, how would I name it ? I started blind with just a concept but I guess it can be anything during the dark age of europe.

 

[Vortilex]

I noticed that while importing some LH's from Vanilla, it would import the skeleton, and there would be a ton of error messages in the little black window that opens with blender. What should I do about this?

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Nobody wants to give me a word ?

 

[Texpatriate]

Ekmek,

I have been working on the Sam Houston LH. Basically, I just added some of John Adams hair and Earp's shirt and coat. After the nifswap, there are a couple of issues that are confounding me. First of all, the LH is static in game. He doesn't move at all. Second, the Adams hair and Earp jacket are blacked out. I went through the steps of assigning each of the body parts to the correct textures in the folder. I also did my best to assign the bones to the right body parts that I imported. Are there some common errors I can check for to troubleshoot this?

 

[Ekmek]

Ekmek,

I have been working on the Sam Houston LH. Basically, I just added some of John Adams hair and Earp's shirt and coat. After the nifswap, there are a couple of issues that are confounding me. First of all, the LH is static in game. He doesn't move at all. Second, the Adams hair and Earp jacket are blacked out. I went through the steps of assigning each of the body parts to the correct textures in the folder. I also did my best to assign the bones to the right body parts that I imported. Are there some common errors I can check for to troubleshoot this?

texpatriate,
great start! I have some hunches as to what problems you are having but if you upload your last blender save (blend file) and your last nif I can take a look and probably tell you whats exactly wrong and what needs to be done to fix it.


But while you are waiting you can follow the info I gave to Cybrxkhan he had the same issues (and I addded this a new version of my guide I'm updating):

ok I went through it and you made a few, but easily corrected, mistakes:

1) I noticed your suit didn't move. In your blend I see that you assigned the parts of the body to stuff like B_TORSO. what you did was highlight parts and then created a new group and assigned them to that new group not the bones on the original skeleton. Which is not bad and useful but you did not JOIN OBJECTS. your body wasnt attached to the skeleton. So:

You need to join the objects, the boneless to the boned one (click boneless first and then Shift-click to the boned/original object) and then choose join objects as described in the guide. Then assign the parts to bones that are already there. Fortunately you did all the assigning just select the bones you made (the all capital letter ones) and then click the original bones and press assign and deselect all so nothing is highlight and then select the next bone you made and then bone to assign it to.

2) after this when you try to export, you may get the unweighted vertex cant export problem. its because you still have some of mehmed's flesh there. so once you are done rigging/assigning stuff to the bones then select them each in sequence and then hide them. you should see parts like part of memed's skin on the hands (delete them) and the inside of the sleeves that you didn't assign to the forearms. highlight the inside of the sleeves and assign appropriately.

3) you may want to edit the sleeves too, they don't totally line up. highlight the right parts and line them up over the hands.

4)Why the suit came out solid black! you added a shader LH part to a nonshader LH nif so there is no lighting associated with the light files. The way to fix this is to get the original shader LH nif and do the nif swap with that one and not the asoka_noshader.nif. A nonshader mesh should show up fine in a shader.nif.

even though you imported the nonshader asoka you can still add it to the shader nif.

If you want to get the better nonshader.dds texture file to show up you don't need to import the nonshader.nif. Import the normal (shaded) nif. Do your blender stuff but you can rename the source file in nifskope. In nifskope, you click on asoka's body expand the branch and go to the part that says texturing property expand that and you see your texture names. I believe I have a part of that in my guide. Rename it from asoka_diff.dds to asoka_nonshader.dds and make sure that file is in your folder or it will be pink.

4) The eye issue: It appears that the asoka nonshader is set up different than the shader. So instead of selecting scene root and adding the branch there, you have click the ninode Asoka (in the shader.nif I think its #248) and attach your branch there it will center the mesh on the skeleton. see attched picture:


I'm uploading the fixed nif and the blend I made as reference. Of course you can go with the fixed one, its totally playable but I assume you want to learn so try the steps I described above and if it doesn't make sense check out the corrected stuff I attached.

Original post here:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=8285838&postcount=541

 

[Texpatriate]

Thanks for volunteering some time, Ekmek. I appreciate it.

 

[cool3a2]

Breakthrough! See attachment. And it was that easy if you only know what to do... The problem was, that there was a bend in the arms which dropped shadow and thus caused the whole problem. I knew that since a couple of week, but didn't know neither what caused the bend exactly nor how to fix this. Subdividing the polies didn't solve the problem, as mentioned elsewhere. So it must have been the vertex weights. Today, I changed the assignment of the body to the shoulder clav L bone to another one next to it and noticed that this smoothed the arm. Of course this caused other distortions on the shoulder, so I imported the nif in Blender and removed the assignment to the mentioned bone according to your description in your tutorial. That's actually all you have to do to get the suit working. So, thank you, Ekmek, for your tutorial and patience! Of course I have to shader the suit (most probably I also try to rotate some bones to get Nagy less musculous), smooth the head (sure, he looks like a mummy right now) and have to tweak the glasses a little. And maybe fattying him a little.

Anyways, there are still 3 questions I have.
1. Is it possible to view the weights of a certain vertex in Blender? I mean I read in your tutorial that you can display all vertices affeced by a certain bone by clicking on the select button, but that's boolean oly. You only see that a vertex is affected, but not how much. And to figure out which bone affects the vertex, you have to click through all of them. So, is there something like a weight table that lists all bones affecting the vertex and how much?
2. Is it normal, that it takes Blender that long to export to nif? I mean it takes me 6 minutes, from the moment I click on OK on the export screen till Blender displays the default screen again.
3. As mentioned I have a little problem with the glasses. They don't rotate as they should. They slightly move into the head. I played around with the center property of the glasses in nifskope as I remembered that in case of keyframe animation there is an element (called pivot element) that serves as the orientation point during a rotation. Anyways, that didn't have any effect. I also tried to use cfkanes Fireflies glasses (they worked for Firefly perfectly), but they don't work better for Nagy either. Maybe the problem is the head, not the glasses, I don't know. I may tweak this problem by moving around the glasses, but I'd prefer a clean solution. For the glasses, there is no skin this time, so no rerigging. Any ideas?

BTW: Importing Nagy worked when not importing the nif (even without nifswap with alex), just as you said. You may mention this in the tutorial, if you ever plan to update it again. Very good tutorial otherwise!

 

[Ekmek]

Thanks for volunteering some time, Ekmek. I appreciate it.

Ok, i looked at it unfortunately it appears that you skipped a small but critcal step when you joined the objects. you seem to have clicked the boned head and the shift-clicked the boneless body. Thereby erasing the skeleton. I see all the bones there which is odd did you create them?

You need to to reimport the syndicate nif. get rid of his suit. then import the boneless suit you have. Then joing the suit to the body by clicking the suit and then Shift Clicking the head/body. then do the body assigning stuff. let me know if you have problems. and if you want to see if you gotten it right so far before getting into the rigging, when you join the objects save the blend file and upload it here. I only need the blend file no to look at it.

Anyways, there are still 3 questions I have.
1. Is it possible to view the weights of a certain vertex in Blender? I mean I read in your tutorial that you can display all vertices affeced by a certain bone by clicking on the select button, but that's boolean oly. You only see that a vertex is affected, but not how much. And to figure out which bone affects the vertex, you have to click through all of them. So, is there something like a weight table that lists all bones affecting the vertex and how much?

I've never doone. I think Coyote has a tutorial on it though. not sure how it helps.

2. Is it normal, that it takes Blender that long to export to nif? I mean it takes me 6 minutes, from the moment I click on OK on the export screen till Blender displays the default screen again.

yeah it depends on your computer, but mine cantake a few minutes.

3. As mentioned I have a little problem with the glasses. They don't rotate as they should. They slightly move into the head. I played around with the center property of the glasses in nifskope as I remembered that in case of keyframe animation there is an element (called pivot element) that serves as the orientation point during a rotation. Anyways, that didn't have any effect. I also tried to use cfkanes Fireflies glasses (they worked for Firefly perfectly), but they don't work better for Nagy either. Maybe the problem is the head, not the glasses, I don't know. I may tweak this problem by moving around the glasses, but I'd prefer a clean solution. For the glasses, there is no skin this time, so no rerigging. Any ideas?

what is the glasses rigged to? the head? if its place view another nifskope swap then you may have issues. As you can tell I like to do my work strictly in blender then nifswap. others do a lot of nifskope work which sometimes leads to stuff not lining up and making it impossible to import in blender.