Oblivion Tutorials and Useful Links

If you know any links or created your own custom Tutorial, please post it into this Thread^^

Please no Comments, this topic should contain USEFUL LINKS and NOT ALREADY POSTED TUTORIALS only!!!

Here are some links that are both useful for beginners and experienced modders alike.

This thread will be updated frequently so check back often.

This was originally posted on the official Bethsoft forums by ICUP.

The Construction Set Wiki - Tutorials

Useful CS tutorials for beginners

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Blender:

Beginner:
Blender 3D: Noob to Pro - This is one of the best for someone who has never done anything with blender before.

http://www.blenderwars.com/tut-path.php?module=index - Multiple tutorials for beginners.

http://www.spaghettimoon.co.uk/downloadpot.htm - Video tutorials from beginner level to more advanced.

http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/dojo/ - Contains multiple threads on using blender. The first few are directed towards beginners and they get more advanced.

http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/28/Learningunits - More Blender tutorials starts at the beginner level and moves up.


Oblivion Specific:
http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Blender - tutorials for modeling, configuration, and splitting Oblivion meshes for custom characters

http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/ ... ort_export - Directions on exporting in the .obj format.

http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/ ... air_Meshes - This tutorial is intended as an starter aid to those wanting to model Oblivion hair meshes.

http://www.alys.org/gallery/CuteUnits-R ... ion?page=1 - CuteUnits guide to rigging meshes and exporting them.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/inde ... guide&st=0 - throttlekitty's guide to riggging meshes and exporting them.


Not specific to Oblivion:
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/art/features/blender1/ - Making a Sword Part 1

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/art/features/blender2/ - Making a Sword Part 2

http://bgdm.katorlegaz.com/lscm_tute/lscm_tute.htm - UV Mapping a head. Note: For people using newer versions of blender that are following this select "unwrap" as you won't see "LSCM" as an option.

http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~kapu/cg_course/compgrfx-27.htm - Contains links to many tutorials. I especially liked the tube through a cube tutorial.

http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page - Tons of tutorials in two locations. Look under "Tutorials-->Tutorials" and "Tutorials-->Tutorial Links"

http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/ - Many tutorials, some with video.

http://www.blendernation.com/category/t ... tutorials/ - Video tutorials, oh how I love the video tutorials. Also, check out the tutorials link on the right side of the page for non-video tutorials.

http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/ ... _Animation - Intro to character animation.

http://www.geneome.net/index.php/blender-tutorials/ - Lot's of video tutorials covering a wide range of topics.

http://www.ibiblio.org/bvidtute/ - Yet another list of video tutorials from a different site.

http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/ - A great resource with lots of video tutorials. I've learned a lot from this one site. Make sure to check out the "archives" list on the bottom right of the page.

http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/ ... ing_a_Mesh - This is a must read for any Blender user. It shows multiple methods for unwrapping your mesh. Normally I avoid making multiple links to a site but I think this one is worth pointing out.

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3D Studio Max:

Beginner:
http://www.max-realms.com/modules/wflinks/ - Beginner and Advanced tutorials. Also has videos for both beginner and advanced.

http://www.3dtotal.com/ - Make sure JavaScript is enabled and go to "Free Stuff-->Tutorials-->3d Studio Max-->Beginners"

http://www.mr-chompers.com/tutorial/video/beginner.zip - 16 minutes long. Rather fuzzy picture quality but it'll show you a few things.

http://tutorialoutpost.com/count/6121 - Explains the Max user interface.

Oblivion Specific:
http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/Category:3ds_Max - Contains tutorials on Importing, Exporting, Conversion, and Configuration.

http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=2477 - Collision: the easy way out using gundalf's exporter


Not specific to Oblivion:
http://www.mr-chompers.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm - Ben Mathis's site directed toward video game modeling and texturing. Tutorials from beginner to advanced.

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/ma ... anmenu.asp - This tutorial covers modeling starting with a person all the way through to adding armor, a weapon, UV mapping, rigging, etc. In other words, it's pretty thorough.

http://www.3dtotal.com/ - Tons of other tutorials from the same site as above. Make sure JavaScript is enabled and go to "Free Stuff-->Tutorials-->3d Studio Max"

http://area.autodesk.com/learning/ - You need to define what you're searching for but there's lots of stuff here.

http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/3d_studio_max/ - another long list of tutorials (check out the subcategories)

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Gimp:

Beginner:
http://www.communitymx.com/content/arti ... ?cid=0A44B - If you've never used Gimp before then this tutorial is for you.

http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/ ... -gimp.html - Explains how to use layers in gimp. I highly suggest this one for any new gimp user wanting to learn how to texture.

http://www.onona3d.com/pdf/texturing.pdf - Texturing for Dummies. Somewhat geared towards Photoshop but mostly explains methods and theory. The file is 7.4 MB so you may want to right-click and save this one to view instead of opening it through your browser.

Oblivion Specific:
http://canadianice.ufrealms.net/forum2/ ... pic=3942.0 - Contains guides on normal mapping, creating icons, and semi-transparent textures.

Not specific to Oblivion:
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/ - Lots of tutorials from beginner to advanced.

http://gug.sunsite.dk/?page=tutorials - Many tutorials for Gimp. The section about working with textures may be useful for some of you.

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Adobe Photoshop:

Essential:
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/phot ... ugins.html => NVidia DDS Plugin, necessary for creating Textures for Oblivion

Beginner:
http://www.good-tutorials.com/tutorials ... hop/basics - Multiple pages of tutorials teaching you the basics of using Photoshop.

http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/ ... oshop.html - Tutorial on how to use layers. Very important for someone who's not familiar with layers.

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=392677 - This thread has 3 pdf files for texturing. You will find more advanced tutorials if you browse around the sites forums and wiki.

Oblivion Specific:
At this time all I've found are on the wiki site listed above. - http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/in ... :Tutorials

Not specific to Oblivion:
http://www.bitbrush.com/tutorial1.html - How to make convincing seamless textures.

http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/ ... oshop.html - How to use and make custom brushes

http://www.mr-chompers.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm - Ben Mathis's site directed toward video game modeling and texturing. Good tutorials and stuff on texturing theory for video game objects.

http://www.3dtotal.com/ - Make sure JavaScript is enabled and go to "Free Stuff-->Tutorials-->Photoshop"

http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/adobe_photoshop/ - another long list of tutorials (check out the subcategories)

http://photoshopbrushes.com/tutorials.htm - Tutorials and free brushes. There's millions of sites like these but I really like this one so I'm throwing it out there.
http://home.zonnet.nl/epragt/tutorials/ ... ex.jsp.htm - Many tuts covering text, shapes, effects, and most importantly, textures.

http://www.cgchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25997 - How to create good normal maps. If you read peoples posts to it you can find a link to a cool little program called "Crazy Bump" too. It's used to make normal maps.

http://www.dvd-replica.com/kozykorner/t ... no/Date/0/ - A very large collection of various tutorials for Photoshop.

http://www.freeseamlesstextures.com/tex ... /index.htm - How to create seamless textures.

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NifSkope: Tutorials and references:

http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/ ... y:NifSkope - Has multiple links to NifSkope documentation and tutorials.

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/inde ... pic=542099 - A page that explains many parts of a nif object.

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Miscellaneous:

http://www.alys.org/gallery/Windys-Bow-Tutorial - Windy's Tutorial on creating a bow that morphs.

http://grimdeath9740.googlepages.com/tu ... ourownrace - Making a Custom Race Tutorial for Oblivion by Grimdeath

http://canadianice.ufrealms.net/forum2/ ... pic=2953.0 - Distributing useable horse armor retextures legally (This one's pretty advanced and not for a novice).

http://www.quake3bits.com/htm/tutorials ... onator.htm - Program that converts images to dds format. Get it here. Learn how to use it here.

http://ni-te.de/blog/ - wz_'s Mod Blog.

http://www.overclock.net/pc-games/14334 ... g-faq.html - OVERCLOCK.NET -- FAQ PART 1 -- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Modding

Evandar's Tutorial will show you in some steps how to create your own Swords. Thanks to WebSlug for Helping.

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/in ... D_Modeling => Many additional Links if the above ones won't help you.

Creating Icons for new modders Using Gimp 2
Tools needed:
1) Oblivion ConctructionSet-CS
2) NifSkope(latest version)-
3) Gimp2(latest version) –
4) Both Gimp and Nifskope are Downloadable free from: (http://sourceforge.net
This is a very simple tutorial which will enable you to create and use full color in game icons for items ,clothing and armors.
1)Open your mesh in Nifscope. Double click on the mesh itself.
2) now open Gimp 2 by clicking on its desk top Icon
3) maximize the Nif image so your mesh fills the screen, then press Prt Scr on your key board….minimize the Nif Image.
4) Now in Gimp click on file, click on “Acquire”, click on “paste as new” from the drop down screen.

5) Press the “R” key on your key board. Click the image, then make a square around your image.
6) Click Image, then click “crop to selection”. Image is now a square.
7) Click Image again! Then click scale image. New dialog box will appear.
8) Click on the chain next to height and width, delete numbers in height and width and add 64 in both boxes. Then click ok!
9) Now, click on file, upper left corner of Gimp. Click save as. Now you should see “untitled in the header of new screen. Name your icon then add: .dds(dot dds).
10) Open file where you want to save the icon ( I save mine to a file on my desktop) You can open your game data\textures\menus\icons\file name and save to your mod icon file if you wish
11) Click save and your done


BlackWidow's Tip for Modders:
Here's a little tip for those new to the Oblivion CS (Construction Set)

When you create a new ID for any type of item,armor,clothing, etc, always begin the ID with this: aaa
example: aaatribalprincesscuirass

Since the CS keeps things in alphabetical order whenever you need to add to , edit or remove, your ID's will always appear at the top of the list saving you hunting for it!






This tutorial will allow you to edit,add and delete armor and clothing pieces and combine same without Blender or 3d max knowledge.This is a beginners "Get your feet wet" tutorial.


Adding clothing and armors pieces to make new ones

Open a mesh in NifSkope

Open a second Mesh if NifSkope keeping the first mesh open also.

Remove unwanted items from first mesh, just right click on the part you don’t want,then go to block,click remove branch

Now, left click on the item that you want to move from mesh 2 to mesh 1

At the left, you’ll see a Nitri shape highlighted in blue

Right click on the highlighted wording, then go to block, select, copy branch.

Now go to mesh 1, look at top of column with listings for the mesh. You should see a zero, followed by Main Ninode, followed by “scene root”

Right click on “main Ninode, select block, paste branch.

Item should appear properly located in mesh 1 with no errors.

These steps are very important!!!!!!!
Click spells, optimize, remove bogus nodes
Click spells, optimize, strippify all TriShapes
Click spells, move to batch, Update tangent spaces, and save.







http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Console => You need some Console Codes? This Link will bring you to the UESPWiki which contains a great list of all useful Console Commands.