How To: Make Leaderheads! Ekmek's Guide

[The Capo]

sometimes a pic says more than thousend words

first you have to copy the animated light from sitting bull in your dido nif. Afterwards you can to the other steps

Thanks Coyote, just for clarification on your image:

The part you have circled/boxed-in are the only parts I should copy over to Dido? I have to do it from the regular Sitting_Bull.nif (i.e. NOT the Sitting_Bull_Nonshader.nif). And then finally I have to make sure the emissive/last line on the material property thing (or whatever) is full black?

That's it?

 

[The_Coyote]

yes, you should only the circled point light (use copy branch, even if the other lights don´t harm, because they create the general light ambience), and yes the shader sitting bull nif

just try this steps for the beginning, at least in my test with the nonshader sitting bull it worked and was enough (don´t forget to change the emissive color for every part of your dido)

 

[The Capo]

Well, I managed to get the shaders going on Solomon. Unfortunately one part won't be shadered; his shirt. This is partially because Ekmek was right in saying that clothing kinda looks plasting when it is shadered, but also because I totally changed it, and in the shader version there are too many differences that looks very strange when I shader it. But thanks, and I think I've learned how to shader LHs now.

Despite the fact that I probably will have to bug you a bit further Ekmek, I think the majority of your annoyances from me may be at an end.

 

[The Capo]

yes, you should only the circled point light (use copy branch, even if the other lights don´t harm, because they create the general light ambience), and yes the shader sitting bull nif

just try this steps for the beginning, at least in my test with the nonshader sitting bull it worked and was enough (don´t forget to change the emissive color for every part of your dido)

Okay, I'll try that out after I get Solomon finished and posted.

 

[Ekmek]

Ekmek seems to be getting a little frustrated with all the questions, sorry Ekmek!

Anyway, I am having some trouble here. I couldn't get the Peter file swapped on to Solomon (there were way too many errors so it wouldn't let me, everytime I tried something a new error came up). So I figured I might as well try to swap Solomon's hair on to Peter, follow your steps, and then swap his hair back on to Solomon. Unfortunately as I was following your steps something happened.

I'm not sure how bad this is (or if it is even bad) but on p. 46 of your guide it says that it should read "2 Mat 2" and then I should delete one so it reads "1 Mat 1." Unfortunately mine says "3 Mat 1"

let me guess those errors said so-and-so bone not found. if you click on the skininstances and find those bones and rename to something in your solomon LH (i.e. change b_moustache to b_head, or other bones close). not only would you have gotten the mesh on their but you would have learned to skeleton swap too!

Now I have tried out different thing and I can successfully delete it so that it says 1 Mat 1, but I was just wondering if it was a problem that it didn't say 2 Mat 2 to begin with? Is it even possible to do it the way I am trying it? Here's a screen shot.

I think you may have figured it out already but the mat number is not hte important part - the name is. so delete each material that has the name from the no shadered part. i guess i could be more clear about that in my guide.

but i think you got shadering down

 

[The Capo]

Wait, should I shaderize Dido first, or try the light thing first? Does it even matter?

 

[Ekmek]

i think shaderize first - but really you should be able to both at the same time.

 

[The Capo]

i think shaderize first - but really you should be able to both at the same time.

Well technically one has to happen first, or at least get started first. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't a specific order they HAD TO be done in.

 

[The Capo]

Hmm, I figured I wouldn't be able to do this on my first attempt. I copied over the stuff from Sitting Bull, loaded her up, and nothing happened. She looks the same.

Here's a shot from NifSkope (in case you can tell what I did wrong) and then a shot from the game showing that nothing changed. As far as I am aware I copied it over correctly, I might need exact step by step instructions on this though.

 

[The Capo]

I still don't know what any of this means.

without additional changes it did not worked, but after changing the alpha property flag to 4845 and the emissive colour from full white to black it worked [i think the second was the important thing]. Not completely sure what the NiVertexColorProperty property does, but after i saw this in a lot non shader objects in shader nifs and i covers light, i would guess adding it could at least do no harm [but it was not necessary to get the flickering working]

What is the Alpha Property flag? And how do I change it?

When you refer to the emissive color is that just the one from the nif, if that is the case it is already black and still doesn't work.

So, yeah, help a brother out.

 

[The_Coyote]

can you upload your files? i´m better in trial and error than in guessing what went wrong (and say me please which animation)

 

[The Capo]

Here are the files, I haven't finalized any animations just yet but I did change some of them. They are already there though. Catherine.nif is the one I edited (the one I copied the SB stuff over to) Catherine2.nif is the original/backup nif (so you might want to work with that one). I haven't shadered anything yet, here is the artdefines I am using:

		<LeaderheadArtInfo>
			<Type>ART_DEF_LEADER_DIDO</Type>
			<Button>art/LeaderHeads/PLACEHOLDER.dds</Button>
			<NIF>art/LeaderHeads/DidoFinal/catherine.nif</NIF>
			<KFM>art/LeaderHeads/DidoFinal/catherine.kfm</KFM>
			<NoShaderNIF>art/LeaderHeads/DidoFinal/catherine.nif</NoShaderNIF>
			<BackgroundKFM>art/LeaderHeads/DidoFinal/leader_BG.kfm</BackgroundKFM>
		</LeaderheadArtInfo>

The PLACEHOLDER.dds is not included, but you don't really need that, just put in a different button or something. Let me know when you've got it so I can remove the attachment.

 

[The_Coyote]

here we go,

ok adding lights seems to need a bit more steps than expected. you must also add them as effects to the node (so they must be child and effect of the node). Because i wanted to make a save some test time i exchanged all lights with the corresponding sitting bull version (a did some other minor steps - adding alpha property and the vertex color, which i think weren´t needed) and the flickering started.

At the beginning it was a bit weak, therefore i changed the position of the light mentioned (the one you should only copy before) and it looks better. Perhaps a bit fine tuning wouldn´t harm. Btw the face texture is atm also a bit pixelated.

 

[The Capo]

Wow! Thanks man.

It looks way better now, good work. I posted an image to compare. The left is the new lighting thanks to The_Coyote and the right is the original without it.

 

[The Capo]

Alright, I have never used the smooth feature on Blender, and everytime I try it stuff gets deleted? How do I use it?

EDIT: Well, I got the right look without using it. Although I'd still like to know how to.

 

[Ekmek]

deleted. you just need to highlight stuff then select smooth and it will move stuff around.

 

[The Capo]

I just have to add shaders, although I think she looks good without them. The only things I am concerned about on this one for adding shaders is that it is Isabella's body, and her shaders are for clothing (and not this much bare skin), so I don't really think that will work out too well. Also I had so much trouble getting this to work, in fact it was really Ekmek who did it. So I'm worried that I might screw something up.

I still have just a couple of things to retexture. Her shoulders need to be retextured and the neck isn't seamless, so I have to try and do something I realy suck at which is mess around with textures. Although I'm pretty set on trying to get this thing done tonight. Anyway here's a picture showing how I darkened the background, and fixed her stomach. I just have to retexture these parts... do you think this needs shaders or what?

 

[Ekmek]

well i guess you already put it up. but the one thing i hated about the isabella/dido is taht the body parts are aall separated on the texture file so its hard to sync them up.

now for igorS prob.

 

[The Capo]

well i guess you already put it up. but the one thing i hated about the isabella/dido is taht the body parts are aall separated on the texture file so its hard to sync them up.

Yeah, that is one of the issues with it. But the lighting and the effects are a pretty good cover for the lack of shadering, and I was able to get the neck to look very close to seamless. If anyone complains about it I'll tell them to make their own Dido.

now for igorS prob.

Yeah, I think you might be done with me again... for now. I made Ptolemy in like two hours and he seems pretty good, there are only a couple of clipping issues.

 

[IgorS]

Any news on my problem, Ekmek?