Creating "aura"s

[seraglio]

Does anyone know how to create auras and transparent models? Basically I'm looking to learn how to create my own Green Lantern style characters or characters that are "inside" a larger, transparent model.

[Cyber Burn]

Is there a specific character that you had in mind? Or maybe a specific character type ("Male_Basic", "Male_Heavy")?

[seraglio]

No its not a request for a specific character. I like learning and creating. I have a female telekinetic hero concept in mind, but I just mess around with ideas and techniques till I get something I like.

I thought for sure there was a tutorial about aura's a while back, but I'm not finding anything in the search engine.

[Cyber Burn]

Yeah, I've never figured out how to modify or create new auras, I've just been Skoping other bodies into Meshes that already have them. As for female's with auras, the only one that I know of is the "Female_Basic_Green_Lantern" by Renegade. But maybe someone familiar with Blender could modify it to fit your needs?

[SickAlice]

Pretty easy yes, and there's a few methods.
- Skoping one aura into another mesh.
This should be done either way to get a feel for how auras look and work and game. Observe all of the various texture settings and what not during the process and make notes of what you find. The drawback of course is auras may not fit something your doing exactly.
- Make a copy of a needed piece, increase the size (X+Y+Z) and adjust the alpha channels.
This is about the quickest way to make an aura. The downside of course is it won't be one uniform piece and have divides on it.
- Follow Randomdays Blender tutorial
Can be found onsite and it's the best way available to pull an aura off. The quickest method being taking an existing aura and modifying it to fit the new mesh, then donating it to that mesh.
I pretty much guarantee once you get his tutorial down a few times this will all be second nature to you and the sky will become the limit in what you can pull off visually.

[seraglio]

Thanks for the reply. Looks like the answer is "not possible with NifSkope".

I've tried Blender, cant get used to the interface. I don't know if its a base Unix or MAC interface, but its not the typical windows interface I'm accustomed to, so I have to think/read too much to use it, which makes me forget whatever creative thing I was trying to do in the first place.  It looks like a Pro tool, I'm not even good enough to be an amateur.

[laughing paradox]

Thanks for the reply. Looks like the answer is "not possible with NifSkope".

I've tried Blender, cant get used to the interface. I don't know if its a base Unix or MAC interface, but its not the typical windows interface I'm accustomed to, so I have to think/read too much to use it, which makes me forget whatever creative thing I was trying to do in the first place.  It looks like a Pro tool, I'm not even good enough to be an amateur.

SickAlice's second suggestion is with Nifskope. What you're doing is basically copying and pasting the same item on the mesh, but making it bigger (the X, Y, Z reference) and using the Alpha layer in Photoshop (Gimp, whatever) to make it an aura.

[SickAlice]

What they said.

You of course know if your going for a molded aura you'll have to 3d model it, and that means the finished result runs through Blender or Max. I agree about the Blender interface but when you do the process you end up using a combination of less than ten menus and keyboard shortcuts. In other words you can make the model in any 3d program then import into Blender just to rig and finish it. To make things quicker import the model you want to donate to in Blender, delete everything but what your going to use and export that to whatever filetype, then you can open that in any other program and work form there. It will assure whatever you make is lined up perfectly with the nif your going to eventually weight it to. In the end all you need to know are the few keyboard shortcuts, the File > Import menu, the Scripts > Object menu, the Edit, Object and possibly Pose modes. It's pretty easy and straight foreward after a try or two and you seem smart enough to me that it'll come naturally to you. As for Max, still trying to find that tutorial here so if you come across it let me know.

Edit* I created a quick and dirty custom aura on Larfleeze for you to look at.

Edit* I discovered a modified method by accident the other day. It involves the Blender technique but rigging the model to GL John Stewart (so far). If no texture has been assigned to the .obj past importation, it will default to the exact texture coordinates of the aura's. In doing so it's vertexes take on that skin assignment as well, regardless of what else the piece is assigned to bipedwise (for example male_basic rather than any of the auras) so it will hide and reveal with the auras animations. The problem is that if the original aura's are hidden the new one will as well. The workaround is to make a source texture for one of the auras in Nifskope, something individual and assign an alpha channel if it's not present and alpha that one out by the texture.

Edit* Noting more discovery in the process here. If you place a mesh without an assigned source texture (they can be easily clicked off in Nifskope) directly in an aura directory tree it automatically takes on the aura properties as listed above. So if you place say a mesh that follows female basic keys in an aura that does, and then attach it's parts there, well you get the picture. I've been doing a ton of experimenting and I'm finding the sky is the limit when it comes to aura's and there's a handful of ways about it.