Okay. I've read a few topics regarding editingNPCs and I've got the gist of it (I think), using ctrl+f4 to export the textures and meshes then creating and saving the esp but I've run into a problem. I went through and changed a few NPCs from Riverwood and Whiterun, changing their hairs (Apachii hairs) along with a few other minor tweaks. I played the game and all seemed fine, but when I was heading towards Whiterun and ran into the three companions, Aela and Farkas were unchanged and their faces were bare, no war paint etc. In the CK I changed their hair, eyebrows, and changed Farkas' war paint. Ria looked fine (and I did change her war paint successfully) , but not these did not work.
I thought perhaps it was a mod conflict, but my esp was loaded last, and I believe Specialized Followers was the only other one making changes to the same NPCs, but back in Riverwood Faendal had his changes just fine and he is edited in the other mod. Am I missing something? I'd like to eventually change most of the NPCs with added custom hairs for more diversity, and give a few NPCs some more detailed changes . I'd like to have them as I see them, really, so mods that are available that do this already are not appealing to me.
So pretty much I'm curious as to why those two did not show their changes while the others did and also can I save all my changes to one esp file or will that not work? The one I had loaded had about 15 different NPCs changed.
I did not try loading my esp with not other mods as I grew frustrated and gave up , but even so, I want to keep the mods I am running anyway. I do know none of them edit NPC faces.
I'm fairly new at this and have little experience with the CK outside of a few small changes. Help would be much appreciated, as well as any advice to changing a ton of NPCs and incorporating them into my game successfully.