How To: Make Leaderheads! Ekmek's Guide

[Ekmek]

I think I solved the rigging issue. I have Houston moving like FDR (before the wheelchair, of course). Still having trouble with the textures. They will show up on nifskope and then ne absent when I start the game. I know you mention the possible need of altering the names of the textures. Is that what I need to do? How? To what?

ok, you probably found out that it was your right elbow that you didn't rig/assign.

I don't think you need to alter the name of the textures in game. I got them all to show. I'll post the working stuff I have and what texture files you need (the rest you don't).
so to make this game playable you'll need the nif and textures like I have in my rar plus the syndicate/fdr kfm and kf files + the BG files (like bg.dds, bg.kfm etc)

but you may want to:
1) re-rig the tie. make it the same as the shirt which I think is the torso. as it is now it moves when he moves his head.

2) mess with the transform stuff i show in my guide to make him have less of a double chin.

3) fill some gaps. you'll have to "click the dots" on these but it will save you from some gaps between the collar and neck especially on the right side.

Other than that. Congrats! you got a working leaderhead!

Your Austin though. you might want to start over that blend had serious issues going on.

 

[The Capo]

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.

I like the concept you have so far. I'd reskin the sleeves a bit though so they don't look exactly like Ragnar's, and what may look cool is adding the belt/sash from Frontenac and the sword from that Arpad LH that's floating around, it would give it a bit of a unique look. I'd maybe make his face a bit lighter, you can still tell its that Col LH. You could call him Harald Hardrada (a lot of people are using that LH C. Roland made, but this would be a bit more appropriate, I don't think Harald would have worn a bearskin over his head, at least not in his times), or you could name it any Saxon leader. Basically I'd hit up Wikipedia and search around for good dark age leaders and think about who would make the best new leader and match that up to any likenesses you come accross. Part of the good thing about making an ancient leader is that nobody really knows what they look like, most images of them are from later on and are very anachronistic. I like his look though.

What about St. Olaf of Norway? That could make for a cool Viking leader. You could just throw Justinian or Charlemagne's cape over him, and maybe throw that cross that is used for that Jan Sobieski LH on there somehwere and voila, Olaf.

 

[The Capo]

Ekmek, am I crazy or am I seeing a likeness to Ben Gurion there? Not that there's anything wrong with yours, but I think it captures his crazy hair pretty well. Just a thought.

And yes, I'm here to increase my LH-making knowlege a bit. This damn Askia LH is kicking my ass. But it does look awesome, can't wait to get it up. I still have two more African LHs to make, but I figure we could always use more Africans.

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Wow ! I thought nobody saw my post ! I appreciate this reply very much, Capo. In fact, the work already done covers 3 days or about 5 hours so there is not a lot of skinning yet.
I intend it to be a base LH that I will branch out for 2 or 3 designs I have in mind. Possible destinations are :

• dark age albion
• dark age spanish kingdoms
• scandinavian lands
• lombardy
• syrian christian kingdoms
• fantasy pirate leader
  

I will be glad to read opinions on that list.

 

[Texpatriate]

Thanks Ekmek. I got it in game later that night myself and had already deleted the tie and filled a few of the gaps. I was also doing a few things wrong with the nifswap. I also thought I was close to fixing the issues with the Austin nif, but I thought the only real issue was the way I was joining the objects and the fact that I couldn't get the texture for the Metternich hair to show up in the nif. I will look at it and if I can't fix it pretty quick, I will start over like you say.

Thanks for all the help. It is a good feeling to get one in the game.

 

[tgvulcan]

Quick question, when i import saladin or a few other leaders they have a box at their waste that's trying to render. I'm not sure if it's ok to delete this or what? It doesn't appear to be used for anything but i'm not quite sure.

 

[Ekmek]

Quick question, when i import saladin or a few other leaders they have a box at their waste that's trying to render. I'm not sure if it's ok to delete this or what? It doesn't appear to be used for anything but i'm not quite sure.

yeah, I forgot to add that when you start up you don't need the box, lamp, sun you can delete those and then go to file and select (set default) or ctrl+U I think

 

[tgvulcan]

Yeah i after reading i realized you're just taking the geometry from blender and fitting it into a firaxis made nife. Thank you for the reply!

@ cfkane

add the shader name to the part which disappears in game (atm you have, shader: yes , shader name: 'no entry', unknown value: -1 ; shader name should be 'TLeaderheadShaderNoSkin_20'). The values can be found in the block details of the NiTriStrips (in your case: zara)

Would you be able to add this to your guide, this was extremely helpful in getting the model come out just like the rest of the leaders! When i pasted my branches in nifskope there were no shaders applied and i was confused on what shaders this game even used. I saw some others using the TLEaderheadShader_20 but that crashed the game so gotta use the no skin one!

 

[Ekmek]

good point I'll add it to my guide. so when can we see your LH gallery thread?

 

[Texpatriate]

I need help with the Houston's neck. It looks right until I add the animation. Whenever he tilts his head to the right, the neck vertices poke through his shirt. I have played with it a while and can't seem to make it any better. Tips anyone?

 

[Ekmek]

click on the parts that poke through the shirt and assign it to the torso (probably the same vertices of the shirt). if it still moves then 'remove' (not delete) the vertices from the b_neck bone/vertex. that should do it.

 

[tgvulcan]

good point I'll add it to my guide. so when can we see your LH gallery thread?

soon as i actually complete one! lol

 

[Texpatriate]

Thanks. That worked.

 

[Texpatriate]

I redid Stephen F. Austin as Ekmek suggested and I like him a lot better. But no matter how many times I try to join his body to his bones, I get bones that move independent of his body when I add a kfm in nifskope. It was doing this with Houston too, but either I fixed Houston unwittingly or what I used to fix him isn't working with Austin. I posted the blender file in case that would help Ekmek (or anyone) point me in the right direction.

 

[Methyl Orange]

How do I get the vanilla Alexander's kf files?

And you can add me to the LH Academy graduates list.

 

[IgorS]

How do I get the vanilla Alexander's kf files?

And you can add me to the LH Academy graduates list.

You need Pakbuild to unpack the files from the vanilla Civ4.

 

[Ekmek]

How do I get the vanilla Alexander's kf files?

yeah you need pakbuild (unfortunately). i ended upkaking them all and put them in my working LH forward just to always have access.

And you can add me to the LH Academy graduates list.

Done! I guess I need to start making certificates/diplomas too! actually I'm starting to lose track with all the new great LH makers out there!

I redid Stephen F. Austin as Ekmek suggested and I like him a lot better. But no matter how many times I try to join his body to his bones, I get bones that move independent of his body when I add a kfm in nifskope. It was doing this with Houston too, but either I fixed Houston unwittingly or what I used to fix him isn't working with Austin. I posted the blender file in case that would help Ekmek (or anyone) point me in the right direction.

wow! that austin looks great. i'll look at the issue but I had knee surgery today so I'm not sure how much computer time I'll be getting. but i *think* i see that the sleeves are not lined up with the hands. in my guide you'll see i talked about rotating the sleeves to line up with the hands or you'll get distortion. try that out and see if that fixes Austin.


@everyone
BTW, every get the updated guide?

 

[Methyl Orange]

You need Pakbuild to unpack the files from the vanilla Civ4.

Ok, so I deleted them by accident once.

 

[Texpatriate]

i *think* i see that the sleeves are not lined up with the hands. in my guide you'll see i talked about rotating the sleeves to line up with the hands or you'll get distortion. try that out and see if that fixes Austin.

You were correct in seeing the sleeves were not lined up. I fixed those and, while he looks less like he jumped out of his skin, something isn't meshing in the export. Hope your recovery from surgery goes smooth. Thanks for looking at it when you can.

 

[Ekmek]

You were correct in seeing the sleeves were not lined up. I fixed those and, while he looks less like he jumped out of his skin, something isn't meshing in the export. Hope your recovery from surgery goes smooth. Thanks for looking at it when you can.

post your latest blend. and who is the main skeleton so i can do the swap.