I'm extremely new to Skyrim modding, but I'm willing to spend the time and effort to achieve what I'm setting out to do.

My first goal is to create a scrawny, wimpy body type for male characters. There are a few people, among myself, who http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1348279-we-need-more-male-customization-mods/ in roleplaying a physically thinner character, such as shrimpy mages. So, I've decided to try and create a shrimpy body type. However, this is quite a daunting task for someone who is new to this sort of thing. However, I'm going to try and do the work and learn the programs. I am an artist and I have anatomical experience so I am fairly confident in my ability to slim down the mesh in a fairly anatomically correct way.

However, there are simply some times where I get stumped though, and no matter of reading or Google will help me. So I've created this thread to track my progress and to ask the community for assistance when I get stuck.

I recently followed http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=3790 tutorial to import the male body mesh into Blender. Things went smoothly until I tried actually getting to edit the mesh. I've read a lot and looked around, but I'm simply stuck and I'm hoping someone with experience can help me.

I http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4996/84679076.jpg on the mesh. The only mode that is listed is Object Mode. There are no other settings. Is there a way I can convert the mesh to an editable object in Blender? Have I done something incorrectly?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I figured out how to get the mesh into edit mode. It was embarrassingly simple, I just had to right-click the mesh.

Now comes the next step, which is getting the mesh mirrored. Unfortunately, for some reason, loop cut won't work on the mesh, so I can't cut the whole thing in half vertically to mirror it so that any changes I make to one side are made on the other.

I had the idea of manually going in and deleting everything on one side, which will take a lot of time that I am willing to do, but it makes me wonder if it will mess up any rigging that is already present on the mesh? Will I be wasting my time with it?

Aeolian Mode, I appreciate your hard work. So I will tag you in...with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmOFRkRjOSQ

Really good series.

Thank you very much for your post, and for the others in the previous thread.

I've taken some time learning more about Blender. I have no idea how this is gonna work out in-game when it's done. I definitely want to retex it and make it an option alongside the other body options in the chargen. Right now my only hope is that all the body parts will be rigged properly in-game. It probably won't be, at least on my first attempt, but I"m thinking of making a test model soon just to see if I can figure out how to at least stick it in-game.

Here's a few screenshots of what I'm doing so far. He's not thin enough yet and I've done very little work on the arms and legs. Right now I'm concerned with the torso. I'm not adding any new polygons to the model, I'm just molding what Bethesda already included. A question: if I did add more polygons, would it be a hindrance? In order for me to define individual ribs, I need more polygons along the side, but I think I would be able to define individual ribs just as well with a retexture.

Right now my primary concern is simply an anatomically correct slender male figure. I've got a lot of work to do, and I'm definitely open to suggestions if anyone has anything to say about it.

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/9824/73830936.jpg
http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/183/45938148.jpg

Dear Aeolian Mode, first I want to thank you, that you are going to make "new men" for skyrim. I highly appreciate it. I am going to learn blender for a project of mine. I am no help at the moment, but maybe in future. I will keep an eye on this thread.

Good Luck , Brezel

Hallo, I must say that you started quite a great project. Blender is a great tool, but at the moment it lacks the propper import/export scripts, but that should get better. Soon hopefully. I, however, fear that if you want your new body to be correctly implemented in the game you will have a hard work. Unless I'm mistaken, the body itself is not taken into concideration when you put clothes/armour on. If I looked correctly, for every mesh that covers your character body (be it armour or clothes) you have two versions. The heavy one and the light one. The scale we use in the CharGen sort of indicates where is your characte's body in between thsoe two extremes. I other words, if you want the game to use your scrawny body, you would, unless I'm mistaken, remake all "light" versions of armour and clothing to be as scrawny as your new body type, because the mesh only scale in between those two predefined extremes.

More variety is always good when it comes to bodies.

IMO make the forearm and calf muscles less pronounced, reduce most of the pec and traqezius muscles and pronounce the clavicle bone more.

Here's a somewhat decent upper body reference pic for you: http://arenacreative.com/young_scrawny_teenager_flexing_his_skinny_biceps_sjpg10288.jpg

@Brezel: Thank you for your encouragement! I hope that both of us will have good luck learning Blender, let me know how it goes for you.

@Naja: Thank you for your detailed post. I understand the issue presented here. If I do create this new bodytype, I would be willing to do all the work in scaling all the armor to fit the edited mesh if I can figure it out.
Right now I'm mostly concerned with just seeing if it's even possible to impliment the bodytype, and if not, if it would serve as a good learning experience for modeling and using the Creation Kit.

@Razorwire: Thank you for the reference. I'm still working on the arms and legs, most of my work done has just been on the abdomen. I tried to define the clavicle more, but there isn't a lot of polys to work with around the clavicle which makes the mesh blocky when I try to define bones. I may have to add more polys if it's possible to do without messing up too much.

I've made a little bit more progress, but there's still a lot of work to be done.

I hesitate to change too much about the arms and around the neck, because I want to be sure the holes for where the hands/head go are still in the same place. I feel like it might be important to maintain that. So that keeps me from making the arms as thin as I want them to be and closer to the body so I can mess with the chest where the pectorals meet the deltoids. I'm unable to modify too much of the pectoral area without causing issues with the arms, and this is giving the body a bit too much of an hourglass shape. Also, as I observed earlier, the more bony I make the clavicle, the more blocky the model looks in comparison to Bethesda's.

I'll keep trying, though. Let me know what you guys think.

http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/610/beths.jpg
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9429/skeeny.jpg

Well, technically you could use your new body mesh to replace the vanilla "light one", the "problem" is that, as far as I know, that would change all the other body types except for the "heavy one" as they are sort of calculated from the two variants. I'm not sure whether that would cause any glitches, though. Only that about every character in the game would get more scrawny then before. Well, but do not quote me on this, perhaps there is a chance to do this otherwise. I just cannot see any.

I like your new model. I am reading introductions first - and on the weekend I will make my first try to use it, play around a while with blender and maybe begin to create the dress. It is an medieval (marriage-) dress, a bit like a robe. If I figure out how to design the dress and achieve success in make it work for Skyrim, I can make some mage-robes with low effort.

zOMG I've been looking for a waif-male mod. This is wonderful news!