42 - CA4S - Shaping the Mask
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Masks are quite different than most pieces of the armor set so let’s go over the basics necessary to develop them. The first thing to understand about masks is that they will typically only make use of the head bone. If the mask extends to the neck it might also make use of the neck bone along with some of the bones on the upper chest. It may require that you also import the body mesh and add it to the skinwrap modifier during your workflow. This concept is typical of any model that is being skinned to match the movement of another mesh. If bones need to be assigned to the skin of the model but they are not present in the model that you are skinwrapping to, you will need to import a model that does have that skin information and add it to the skinwrap modifier.
The second thing to understand about masks is that they will be working much like a circlet. The head mesh will not be disappearing underneath the model. This presents additional challenges as the head mesh allows for the player to customize it within the game. As a result the player will have to shape their face to match the shape of the mask itself. A mask does not morph when the face is reshaped in the game by the player. This is typically the reason why most mod developers create helmets as opposed to masks since a helmet will be more fool proof and will create less chance for user error.
Links to Required Programs for these tutorials:
3ds Max 2012
http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=home
Nifskope Application
http://sourceforge.net/projects/nifto...
3ds Max Nifskope Plugin
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/5622
Fall Out Mod Manager
http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/640/
Dimonized UNP Body
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/6709
Gimp
http://www.gimp.org/
Gimp Normal Map Plugin
http://code.google.com/p/gimp-normalm...
Gimp DDS Plugin
http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/dow...
Creating Custom Armors for Skyrim Resource
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/19249
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