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How to convert/morph your lowpoly head into a highpoly Citrus head for Skyrim

Create a highpoly copy of your skyrim, ece or racemenu head. With working facial animation.

This Tutorial is for people who have spent a lot of time creating their lowpoly custom head (from ece or Racemenu) and want to convert it to a highpoly CITRUS head. If you simply want to create a highpoly CITRUS head from scratch, you don't need this tutorial.

This howto is WIP - if you have any issues, please list them in the comments section.

The HowTo for Skyrim SE is here

Requirements:

Basic Blender skills required.
You need to know how to make a follower in CK.

 
Tools Needed:

Blender (or your preferred 3d program)
BAE - Bethesta Archive Extractor
NPC Nif Merger
   version 1.0.6.beta
Bodyslide Outfit Studio
Nifskope  latest version
Surface Follow tool for Blender
Creation Kit
Skyrim


Use with CUSTOM RACE Followers.

  • Download the Citrus Head mod ressource. Choose CITRUS Head - Replacer - and extract femalehead.nif from the BSA with the BAE extractor (also extract femalehead.tri, femaleheadraces.tri, femaleheadchargen.tri for later use)
  • Import the "Replacer Citrus" femalehead.nif head into Outfit Studio and export the head as OBJ - Citrushead.obj
  • Import your followers facegen-head NIF (usually called something like 00000D62.nif) into Outfit Studio and export only the head as OBJ  - Facegen.obj
  • Extract femalehead.nif from Skyrim's meshes.bsa with the BAE file extractor, import it into Outfit Studio and export it as OBJ - Basehead.obj
  • Import all three heads into Blender (Important: KEEP VERTEX ORDER option when importing).
  • Join your Facegen.obj with Basehead.obj as shapekeys.
    Spoiler:  
    Show
  • Use a "Subdivision Surface" (2x Subdivision) and a "Triangulate" ('Fixed Alternate') modifier on Basehead.obj.    Never 'apply' these two modifiers. The subdivision is necessary for the surface follow tool, the more triangles, the better it works.
  • Use a "Shrinkwrap" modifier on Citrushead.obj (target Basehead.obj) to smooth out the minimal differences.  Don't shrinkwrap the neckseam and inner mouth (3 edgeloops inside the head). Exclude them with a vertex group  IMPORTANT: 'Apply' this shrinkwrap modifier now, before you use the surface follow tool. You might have to move one or two displaced vertices in the mouth lip area.
  • Use Rich Colburns Surface Follow tool to bind the Citrushead.obj to Basehead.obj and morph it by using Basehead.obj's shapekey. *See bottom of the page to see how this works
  • (Optional) If you want to modify/sculpt the Citrushead mesh now, delete the Shapekeys on the Citrushead.obj. 'Basis' first, then 'surface follow'. The Citrushead should stay in Shape.
    Don't add or delete vertices and don't rotate edges. Only use non-destructive tools (to keep the vertex order intact). You might have to stretch out the two inner edgeloops of the mouth (inside the head). On some morphs, they might be visible on mouth movement in-game.
  • Export the morphed Citrusehead.obj head as .OBJ (Important: KEEP VERTEX ORDER option when exporting).
  • Import the "Replacer Citrushead" .NIF (also called femalehead.nif) into Outfit Studio again (this is the unaltered original Citrus head).
  • Import the morphed Citrushead.obj - It will ask you to update the vertices - Click yes everytime.
  • Export the updated Citrushead as NIF -  Citrushead.nif
  • Extract eyesfemale.nif, femalebrows.nif, mouthhumanf.nif from Skyrim's meshes.bsa with the BAE extractor
  • Load your original facegen.nif (00000D62.nif) into NPC Head Nif Merger as "Source" and update each target -
    eyesfemale.nif, femalebrows.nif and mouthhumanf.nif - individually.
  • You now have all .nifs to make all the headparts (headparts tutorial) for your custom race. Put the .nifs in a subfolder (name it "Faceparts" ) in your followers meshes folder. Also put the CITRUS .tris there. IMPORTANT: Use the femalehead.tri, femaleheadraces.tri, femaleheadchargen.tri from the CITRUS mod, the ones you put in the "Faceparts" subfolder, for the head headpart. Otherwise the face will not animate.
  • Switch all existing headparts with your custom headparts in your custom race in the "Face Data" tab. (If this doesn't work, i.e the headparts don't show up, create a new empty FormList, drag and drop your custom race in there. Then select this custom race in each of the headparts. After doing this, the headparts should show up in the 'Face Data' tab).
  • Select your follower caracter and press CTRL + F4. It creates a new nif with the highpoly head in the FaceGenData/FaceGeom folder.
  • Save and exit the Creation Kit.
  • Update texture paths in Nifskope.
  • Done.



The Surface Follow tool:

First of all, delete all shapekeys ('Base', 'surface follow' ) on the Citrushead you may already have created.

1. Move both heads to the same layer.
2. Shift select both heads. Citrushead first, Basehead second.
(Both heads are now selected and Basehead is the active selection)
3. Press the "Scene Update" button on the Surface Follow tool
4. Press the "Bind to surface" button on the Surface Follow tool
5. Citrushead has now two shapekeys called "Base" and "surface follow". Don't touch them.
6. Use the Basehead's shapekey to morph both heads.


Thanks to:
Levionte
ats321
blabba for Citrus
Ousnius and Caliente for Outfit Studio