Just wondering if it's possible to get Skyrim meshes and armatures into blender yet. While I have no intention of trying to get any custom meshes or textures into the game until the mod tools come out I would be able to get to work on the mods I have in mind if I can get some meshes into blender so I can look at the basic proportions for what I've got in mind. Any help is welcome thanks.

----Off-Topic----
How does Blender feel to you? I've tried using it to make models for other games, but whenever I try to make a large scale model , or anything that requires alot of detail. It just completely falls apart on me, trying to make something proportional is my biggest peeve about it.

So I'm not sure if it's my lack of experience or lack of ability to make models.

I find that tools like zbush are a lot better than blender at high detail stuff, but I havent been able to figure out how to create a normal map from the changes I had made in it

I used to hate blender but since the 2.5 release I've become quite the accomplished blender artist and can make pretty much anything I want. I also have a really good understanding of good topology which I can now apply to anything I make. As far as proportion goes you just need good reference materials. Get or make a full blue print of whatever your making with a front, side, back and even top view if you need it and get those all set up before you start to model.

Almost every mesh in the game can be opened up in NifSkope and exported into a simplified obj file, that you can import into Blender. You'll only be able to import the mesh and the UVs, not the materials or vertex groups.

I like it just fine, but I mostly use it for extrusion modeling and production animation. It doesn't have things like smoothing groups anymore, and honestly isn't as game friendly as a lot of other packages. As for sculpting, obviously Zbrush and Skulptris are more optimized, but people can still bang out some pretty damn impressive things in it.

Oh an baking normals is actually really easy once you know how. I'd recommend anyone interested in checking out this stuff check out these blender sites:
http://www.blendercookie.com/
http://www.blendernerd.com/
http://www.blenderguru.com/

I'd also recommend checking out /3/ on 4 chan. It's one of the SFW boards, but it is 4 chan, and sometimes so be cautious. It's still one of the best behaved out there.

that's fine. As long as I have a correctly proportioned base mesh to work with I can use vertex snapping to help build the outline for my own. It'll also give me a good Idea of what kind of poly count I should be working with.

I also wanted to add that while I'm sure all of these other programs are better than Blender in their own way I simply can't afford them and I wonder how many of you can and have paid for these. I'm not judging but I personally will never produce something, even a mod which will be free, using stolen software. Maybe it's just a matter of personal pride but I believe that if I steel something and use it to make something else there's nothing stopping the owner of the stolen property from taking it away from me. Also considering the quality of work which can be produced using all free software blender/gimp etc I really don't think there's an excuse to not be using these.

Horrific user interface. Complete lack of intuitiveness. Not an industry standard. Given a couple years, I can probably learn to draw with my feet, but why would I do that if I can draw with my hands right now? In the same fashion, I can probably get proficient with Blender eventually, but why switch if I have a perfectly good copy of Max that I already know how to do stuff with?

There's plenty of people who use Blender, like it, and do good stuff with it, but there's no need to make assumptions and look down on those of us who don't.

Last I've heard, the 2.5 niftools are still in development. You could grab 2.49 and use that to check stuff out, Skyrim's meshes are proportioned the same way as Oblivion (other than differences on the body).

did you read the line where I said I'm not judging?

You say "I'm not judging" and then go on to judge.

Hm, so is there an easier freeware/open source modellinng program than Blender to use? I do think some of the stuff looks complicated to do beyond basic modelling (like texturing and all that) but I thought that was just how all 3D modelling programs were.

I go on to express my opinion that is all. Now had I said you are all wrong for stealing and should be put to death for your heracy that would be judging but by simply saying something I believe personaly I am not condeming others. I don't feel I should have to put "In my opinion" at the start of every sentence when it should be self evident. If you want to use software which you have not legally purchased to model with that's up to you I personally would rather not.

If it's just pure modeling you want to do then wings3d is really easy to get you started. It's what I used to make my first Morrowind mods. You will eventually have to content with Blender to rig and export your meshes but you can save yourself a lot of trouble at the start with wings.

Also I've extracted the BSA for the meshes but I can't open them in nifskop is there a patch I need or something?

Blender takes time and patience and yes its an absolute pig to get the hang of but once you have its pretty quick and quite intuitive. Ive been using it now for years and kind of prefer the old version but I am getting the hang of the new. At present I cant open a single file, not a single nif from Skyrim as the current nifskope cant handle them.

There's an updated nif.xml from throttlekitty lying around that lets you open SK nifs in nifskope. It's far from perfect, but it will let you look at them. http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1284257-modding-skyrim-with-tessnip-and-nifskope

I agree with everything you say other than preferring the old version to the new.

thank you I appreciate this.

I cant say for that guy, but for the most part, it is generally understood that Photoshop and Max are far better then GIMP and Blender. However, if you are on a budget, GIMP and Blender are the best free programs, and in that respect, why would you use anything else?

1. Yea, they pirate it. You can't stop them, you can't do anything about it so don't bother. Why would you anyway? You're not loosing money on it, and if they really wanted to prevent piracy, they'd do what LightWave does and require a USB dongle to operate it. They don't because they know that many people who pirate software eventually by it, and if they stopped piracy they'd actually loose future sales. Same reason game companies don't actually try very hard at stopping piracy. They make it a little difficult to pirate it so that people who have money but can't figure it out say "screw it" and just buy it, while expecting many people who can actually figure it out after some time will buy it.
2. If you're going to lecture people on the immorality of an act, try and spell it correctly. Doing otherwise just makes you look like a tool.

Wow. First of all, don't be like that. We both know none of this stuff is intuitive. I've used 3DS Max before, and I've watched CG art theory videos done in 3DS Max too. It isn't any easier. They all require time and tutorials to learn to use them. Blender feels great, and looks fantastic. Soft round buttons. Cute little anti aliasing pixel-art icons. I love it. All that put aside, the important aspects of concepts like proper topology, what specuarity and diffuse colours are suppose to reflect in the real world, that stuff transcends the software packages and that is what is most important.

It's unfortunate for people like me that the Blender Import-Exporter is so far behind 3DS Max's, but in fairness, you guys got a big head start. Every since modding took off with Morrowind most people have been using blender since that's what the first exporters originally released by Bethesda were for.

It's generally believed that they are better. I won't make any contest of it, GIMP is nothing compared to Photoshop. Blender is a very powerful tool in and of itself. Ultimately however, when it comes to 3D software, ultimately none of the packages really mater because they all end up being heavily modified by the studios that use them. That's where blender actually shines, because to my knowledge, you can't just compile your own personalized version of 3DS Max, Maya, Daz or light wave.

I believe this has already been resolved in my earlier discussion with Lady Nerava. I wasn't lecturing anyone I was expressing an opinion. Also commenting on someones spelling is the lowest common denominator in trying to dig at someone in a forum so well done for that. As it happens I have dyslexia not that it's any of your business and saying I look like a tool is completely uncalled for, If you're going to offer an opinion I suggest you do so in a mature and constructive way without resorting to petty name calling as it is you who will come off as a tool.

I suppose my example was a bit harsh. What I meant to say is that I since I am proficient with Max (whether legally or illegally doesn't matter, though as a student I do have access to the legal version for free), why should I use Blender just because it's free? Personally, I found Max very intuitive and easy to learn, but I can see how that doesn't hold true for everyone. On the other hand, I couldn't get the hang of blender no matter how hard I tried.

Guys guys guys can't you see this is what the terrorists want! The war is out there man out there! Now pull it together.

Look this is all just one massive silly misunderstanding and completely off the topic of the thread which has now been resolved. No one is saying what anyone else should or should not do, no one is having a crusade against piracy. This is a problem with internet world in general. Anything from 60 to 90 percent of communication is believed to be none verbal. That through body language and facial expressions we can express a lot of meaning. Being deprived of this and even things like intonation and tone in our words can lead to written posts being very misleading. I can see how I my post may have come off the way you guys saw it but that really wasn't my intention and there's no need for any of this back and forth about tools as they all have their pros and cons. Lets just drop this whole issue before a real argument breaks out or if you do wanna talk tool sets lets at lest do it in an off topic post so as not to be bothering the mod community.

Any mods reading this should know that the purpose of this thread has been full filled. I can now get meshes from Skyrim into blender so you can lock this if you wanna.

Can I just add as well that it's such a pleasure to see bethesdas artists work up close. It really is amazing to see how they work so much detail into low poly meshes.