Question about using Nifskope

captmorgan72 · May 29, 2008, 09:52:26 PM

Can I take parts from one mesh and put it on another? I want to remove the long hair and helmet from a Thor mesh and put Sentry's hair on it. Can I do things like this? If it's doable is it difficult to do?

AfghanAnt · May 30, 2008, 05:16:24 AM

Quote from: captmorgan72 on May 29, 2008, 09:52:26 PM
Can I take parts from one mesh and put it on another? I want to remove the long hair and helmet from a Thor mesh and put Sentry's hair on it. Can I do things like this? If it's doable is it difficult to do?

The mesh has to be be seperate pieces. If you are attempting this with Beyonder's Thor you may have to alpha out the helmet and hair and then skope on the new hair.

captmorgan72 · May 30, 2008, 10:13:29 AM

Thanks for the reply. I assume that "alpha out" means delete the helmet and hair. I am a total rookie with editing with Nifskope and GIMP. It started with me wanting to put viens on some the masterpieces you guys created. I learned how to do that with GIMP, although not as well as I would like it to look. Then I started to take a look at Nifskope and all the applications that are possible with it. I started getting ideas of taking off a cape from one mesh and putting it on another and all sorts of Frankensteinish things.

One of my fav characters in Marvel is Hyperion. I was attempting to put Courtnall6's skin of him on Renegade's Superman mesh and make it look like a convincing Hyperion. After using GIMP to change the cape to yellow and blotting out the "S" in the back it was starting to look pretty cool. I really wanted to add shiny gold clasps to his shoulders where the cape would connect to like on his "real" costume. Although the clasps would not be in the same places like his costume in the comics but that's fine with me. I see that Courtnall6 created the reflective silver circle thingies on Thor's King Thor costume very well with a painting program. It doesn't look like part of the mesh like on Renegade's Captain Marvel mesh with the gold clasp. I would love to actually have the gold clasps like Ren's Marvel mesh but I suspect that takes lots of work.

One thing is for sure I am really developing incredible respect for all the people in the community that crafts these works of art. I spend hours just looking at the different meshes/skins in GIMP and Nifskope and wonder how the hell did they do this? I'll google some tutorials on GIMP and Nifskope and hopefully learn some more. How did you guys start out making this stuff?

captmorgan72 · May 30, 2008, 10:59:26 AM

I realize some of you might just think why doesn't this joker just read some tutorials? I have but still haven't found an answer to what I am trying to do. So with that being said. I am trying to remove the helmet and hair from Beyonder's Thor mesh and in it's place put the hair from Ren's Sentry mesh. I have both opened in Nifskope and removed Thor's helmet and hair by choosing transform and clear. Now he has half a head. I selected Sentry's hair and chose transform and copy. Now how do I get that hair onto the Thor mesh? Thanks.

GogglesPizanno · May 30, 2008, 11:47:55 AM

Nifscope really is more like an art form given quirks and what not... so what may work in one instance may not work in another. The best way to figure it out is to just start playing around.

I'm at work and there are many that are better than I at it. But the basic concept is you open up the two meshes in two instances of nifscope. You would right click on the piece you want to copy (in this case the hair) and select "copy branch" (or something similar -- Im working from memory here) Then switch to the target mesh and then you would "paste branch" on the appropriate node -- it now becomes a child of whatever node you pated onto. As to what the appropriate node is, its often a a bit of trial an error as it doesn't always behave like you expect.

Given that the Thor mesh you are using has seperate pieces for the helmet and hair (which makes it easier) rather than 'clearing' the thor hair and helmet, just right click and get the properties and check the "hidden" box. This keeps the mesh piece there should you need them again, but turns off their visibility. This also gets you the advantage that you can use the (now invisible) original hair piece as the node to attach the new hair onto. This helps to insure that the behavior and movement of the new piece at least SHOULD behave like the old one.

captmorgan72 · May 30, 2008, 02:14:00 PM

Thanks for replying. I'm getting some progress. I highlighted Sentry's hair and copied the branch. I then "hid" Thor's hair and helmet. I pasted the copied Sentry hair branch in the Thor hair/helmet node but Thor still has half a head and Sentry's hair is between Thor's feet. Lol, not the result I was looking for but it's a start.

GogglesPizanno · May 30, 2008, 02:29:35 PM

Once the new object is pasted in.... you will almost always have to reposition it and move it around. Once you you get it placed it should cover up the gaping hole in the head like the other piece did.

Right click on the piece and play with the transform values for scale, x, y and z to get it placed and sized correctly. The little up down arrows move in increments of 1. for more fine tuning you need to enter in the decimal values yourself.

captmorgan72 · May 30, 2008, 03:51:44 PM

I repositioned the hair to fit his head and saved it making sure that the hair is not hidden. I went to see what he looks like in the character tool but he still has half a head. Is there another step to do to make this work?

GogglesPizanno · May 30, 2008, 04:37:58 PM

In the character tool, if you zoom out and move the camera around can you see the hair floating around somewhere away from the character? This is one of those quirks I mentioned. Depending on the exact attachment location (NiNode vs. actual object etc...) can make weird things like that happen.

Since Im at work, I cant open it up and look for exact names etc... but assuming the new hair isn't invisible in the nifskope window, then it should be visible somewhere... You might try adjusting the Node that its attached to... things like that.

You could also try attaching it not to the existing object but perhaps to the biped head object (the skeleton) to see if that at least shows up remotely properly. Hopefully some of the more experienced nifskope folks can chime in with their expertise.

captmorgan72 · May 30, 2008, 09:39:58 PM

Nope, the hair is nowhere to be seen in character tool. I didn't think it was going to be this easy. There must be something else that has to be done.

captmorgan72 · May 31, 2008, 09:44:42 AM

I figured it out. Thanks for your help, it really helped.

Boalt92 · May 31, 2008, 06:00:45 PM

I know you said you figured it out, but here's a little tip that's helped me immensely with Nifskope:

The translation (in the block details) of a node is its position in 3D space. That position is relative to the parent node onto which it is pasted. If the pastee is not set at x:0, y:0, z:0, the paster will effectively incorporate those coordinates into its new position. As a result, you get things that seem to float in the middle of nowhere.

As far as I know there is no "fix" for this, but it helps to keep it in mind while you're toying around.

B92

PS--I know this is basic, but it was a huge epihany for me.