Extra trick in blender is to use the bump map texture to add surface details. After you subsurface the model, instead of loading the colourspace texture, load in the displacement map (I can't remember the exact name Bethesda give to theirs, but it will be the RGB image). You can apply another modifier using that texture instead. It offsets the vertices on the model to match how the game would interpret it. (The game doesn't use vertices for this, just fakes it with light rendering)
What about assets from something like Mass Effect. Would it work with a ship? Also, is there a good blender tutorial for someone to basically prints stuff. I'm not an artist and that's a hugely complex application.
I really appreciate the fact you explained what each modifier does in blender instead of just saying to do it. I’ve used blender for a while now so now I know what the stuff does, but when I was new and learning how to use it, a lot of the tutorials were very vague about everything so it was pretty hard.
Combining Edge Split with Subdivision Surface and playing with the Edge Split angle is how I preserve sharp details. It isn't perfect, but it is much more powerful for not much more effort.
I'm a Blenbder Artist, Edge Split will damage your mesh a bit, here's what I would do. +Go in edit mode->select->sharp edges->Shift + E and input 1. This will mark out sharp edge as you like and Subdivision will not break the edge +Add in a Bevel Modifier, this will add more edges around already sharp edge to reserve it rather than splitting current edge in 2. Remember to place Bevel modifier above the subdivision modifier First method is lengthier but will produce better result and less glitches than the second one, second is quick for tests
Talking about Bethesda prints, the first video I ever saw of yours was the one where you printed the Fallout Deathclaw in a huge size in multiple parts - and got my first Up Mini not long after! How time flies! Great to see you update this 'origin story' for modern times, the most frequently requested prints I get are game file rips from Destiny 2, using 'Destiny STL Generator' - I'll definitely be using this same method for fixing up those models, as they're frequently VERY borked!
Haha! Yeah that print wasn't even that large, the UP mini was just tiny. 3D Builder has the best repair I've come across on a free program for some time, give it a go with those borked models : )
Oh. My. God.... Thank you SO much on the displace modifier!!! I have spent weeks manually trying to bulk everything up feeling like there was a better way of doing things. You have literally saved me hundreds of hours! Realized I wasn't subscribed but I sure as hell am now!
Great video! Here's some Blender tips and tricks to help if you want to understand it more. If you're wanting to add detail with the displace method, it's better to add more polygons manually rather than using subdivision surfaces. Subdivision Surfaces smooths the model. To manually do it, go into edit mode with tab, and select all, press the W, and the S or click Subdivide. The manual method, doesn't change any of the geometry, it just splits the polygons in half. You can do it multiple times, but each time, it is exponentially more. For example if you do SS on a pyramid, you'll end up with a blob. If you do it manually, you'll just have a pyramid with a lot more polygons. In order to work with displacement, it would be best to separate the models first if possible by selecting all in edit mode, and pressing P, all loose objects. Then you can displace them separately, and then use a Boolean to rejoin them. Another way to do the wall, would be to use the Solidify modifier so that you still have just the wall shape, as well as not having to print the thing as a fully solid object. The reason the Alduin model was not viewable, was because the camera distance was not far enough to view the whole model, to fix this, on the item properties in the top right of the main window, select the view tab, and change the clip distance. This way you don't have to rescale the object. Blender's scaling is very accurate, I make non-organic size critical components with it all the time. You just have to set it up how you want it. I'm an American that loves the metric system for measurements with modeling. It's so much easier than freedom units. (for this anyway). There is a built in 3D modeling addon in blender that you can fix manifold objects with. It doesn't work all the time, but most of the time, you can fix object pretty easily. It becomes a tab in the item properties top right window. If you ever need any help with blender, feel free to ask. -Kevin ( inventimark, youtube channel).
Blender has an included "3d printing" plugin that allows you to repair meshes with a single button press. You can also voxel remesh a model in sculpt mode to make it solid and manifold if that doesn't work
I am so shocked that the exact, perfect video that I was looking for actually exists. Thank you so much for making this tutorial, gets me even more excited for when I can finally invest in this hobby :D
Great video! I'll just add that there's a method to retain those sharp edges when subdividing. There's a setting called "Mean Crease" that applies per edge. It controls how th smoothing is applied: A value of 0 (default) and the edge is fully smoothed A value of 1 and the edge is sharp It allows for a much finer control of the smoothing, and it could change everything on that alduin model. It can take a bit more time to get all the edges you need to sharpen, but it's not really that more complex, just time consuming and would give a much better result
Quick tip: If a detail gets rounded over by the subdivision surface modifier and you want to bring it back, you can select the edges in edit mode that you want to restore and press Shift + E then drag the geometry to form back against the edges.
The "not loading in properly" because it is too big in blender is a clipping setting. You can also run into this working with something very large or very small. The correct fix for this behavior is in the right side view menu> "clip start" or "end" depending if it is doing it zooming in or out. This could be important if you are trying to model something at the correct size. Edit: Just noticed the right side menus are not showing on you blender. It is called the "sidebar". 'n' button will show or hide it. I always have it on on mine.
As soon as I started to watch the video I noticed the new hair cut and all I thought about was you must be going to Cosplay as Zorg. Gary Oldman's character in The 5th Element
@Maker's Muse About the model not displaying correctly on Blender because of it's size. You fix that by changing the clipping of the "camera". You do that by pressing "N" (or clicking the small arrow to the right of the XYZ gyzmo on the corner), then going to the "View" tab on that menu that opened, and then changing the "Clip Start" and "End" that are below the "Focal Length". You can play with the values but I personally use 0.01 mm and 1000 mm for start and end. Also, not sure if this is needed but, you might need to change your Blender scaling, if so you should probably check the previous setting after you change the scale because they might change because of it. That is done on the right side of the window, below your "Scene Collection", in a tab called "Scene Properties" (it has an icon with a cone and two spheres, at least it looks like that to me), then you go to "Units" and change the "Unit System" to "Metric" for example, and the "Unit Scale" to "0.001" so that the base scale is in millimeters. These are good settings if the objective is to work in blender for 3D printing since we're working on models that are, most of the time, going to be millimeters and centimeters, not really meters in size. By the way, in case you don't know, or anyone else, to keep these settings always like this, what you need to do is, open a brand new empty file, do these changes, and then go to "File" on the top left of the window, go to "Defaults" and "Save Startup File". This will make that state of Blender the default state for any new project. But take notice that if you're loading an already made file, it might load that file's configurations, even the UI, if you want to keep your configurations you need to disable "Load UI" in the Blender Preferences in "Edit" - "Preferences" - "Save & Load". Hope these help someone. Thanks for the video.
If you want highly detailed models I totally recomend getting meshes straight out Skyrim mods! For example Static Mesh Improvement Mod (SMIM) or Immersive Creatures look amazing in-game and they must look even better in real life cheers!
You know, ive been learning 3D with Zbrush and Blender for 3 years now.. i started November 2018 "Yeah, im a Geek i wrote it down when i started EARNESTLY Learning" i took 6 months off one year cause i thought "im too old to learn, i may as well just give up" at only 35 mind you.. and then i was like, no.. thats an INCREDIBLY Stupid way of thinking! ive SCULPTED all my life! literally since i was 2 with Playdoh! why would i give up on learning something ive been told is not Rocket Science.. and i went back.. and the other 6 months was just after my Mother died.. i went into a 2/3 month depressive episode, and then i had to pack for 3 entire months so i could move to my new house.. so i look at it like one of those 4 years i haven't learned anything at all.. but 3 of those years ive tried to learn at least SOMETHING every single day. and only TODAY did i finally learn what "Non Manifold" means, and how to solve it. the only issue i can come up with is how you patched it, that made an "Ngon" which Zbrush HATES Ngons. it cannot use them. but... BUT... you could easily just make the Verts connect in different places. it doesn't gotta be pretty, just no Ngons. then you can take it into Zbrush and sculpt on top of it. also im fairly sure if there is a way to extract the Textures out of other Video games, you can turn them into Normal Maps... and then have the Normal Maps shrink around the models to give them the texture they have in the video games.. ill have to do more research about that, though.
Note for the legal aspect of ripping content out of the game files. It's actually written in the terms of use. And it varies between games. In most case, it's authorized for personal use (since it can't be monitored anyway). For blender, if you want a great entry point to 3D modeling in this software, Blender Guru is your guy. Tons of content with updtated version of it's main course suiting the lastests versions of blender. Then you can go deeper with other big names in youtube that you'll probably discover during your journey.
there is a pluggin called F2 or something that comes with blender. it lets you literally fill stuff like that wall in 1 face at a time simply by pressing F with 1 edge selected. i use it a lot! edge loops are your friend for preserving crisp edges with subdiv- also i think you can tell the subdiv not to touch specific points on a model.
If you want more geometry to play with but don't want to use subdivision to avoid smoothing you can use the multiresolution modifier. Could be useful in some scenarios. It's also less destructive because you can always revert to a different LOD.
quick tipp from my side. if you created the bridge like in 11:23 you can select the bottom edge of the open gap. after that, hit the F key. it will fill out the next bridge and therefore will create a quad face instead of an n-gone if you will the whole edge loop. hold the F key and it will fill the whole face with the next bridges. pretty cool.
That’s awesome, didn’t know you could print from Skyrim. I made a short tutorial on how to print from Team Fortress 2, it’s really similar, just with source engine model files. Didn’t know how to repair meshes before, this is gonna be super useful!
I was thinking this when he mentioned the game getting yet another "remaster" this year, like really? instead of just making a new game, they "remaster" it THREE times?
I want to mention a cool feature. If you apply a subdivision mdf and then bring in the textures of the mesh using a displacement mdf you will get those textures but printables
There are ways in some software (can't go into details without going through multiple programmes, so I'll leave it there) where you can tell the program: "I want these faces to be part of group A, these faces to be part of group B, etc." and that _separates_ these groups, so you don't get smoothing e.g. at the edge of the bases, where they should be crisp lines; with more advanced programs, you can even subdivide these groups distinctly from each other, giving you even greater control over smoothing.
Yeah, think the first video for when I started 3D printing was that old Skyrim one. I wanted to find models from the game and make them for myself. Really cool to see it updated! Especially when so many more people are getting into 3D printing. The editing and rework done to game assets would be scary to hear about through a lawyer's letter, but damn does it seem like it'd be fine so long as personal time was put into crafting it right.
I love Blender. I use to use it years ago to make models for virtual worlds. I know a lot use 3dsmax and Maya but I always loved Blender. Your models look cool.
Ah yes, Skyrim... the one I never played... as someone else said: use a normal map for displacement as it will allow you to convert the faceted/flat shaded model into the smooth shaded model, but with actual details. Normal maps are literally generated by making a really high res model and then a low res (game usable) model then "baking" the high res detail into a 3D texture (XYZ -> RGB). When the game uses it, it applies light to it and the normal map displaces it instead of the polygon, so it looks smooth instead of "low poly". Displacement modifier can do that at a geometry level instead of a shading level, which would make it more useful for 3D printing. Edit: what I would love is for there to be either something that can turn the the texture mapped model into either separate parts for MMU printing or... because you've already gone through the process: convert the texture into a print so you can hydrodip the model. No paint, no MMU/Palette. Just a vat of liquid, a model held at a specific angle, and an image printed on some special paper... plus a mostly steady hand.
I'm so happy you did this i have found lots of files that I have issues with my resin printer that were done for fdm and it needs fixing, I will definitely give this a try ,thank you!!
My daughter and I made the MLP model following your video the other day and it worked great. I used the formware online repair tool and it worked well.
I'm pretty sure you can use the normal texture map in blender to recreate original vertex positions. You should get the original high poly models as they were created by the developers. You can't use normal maps directly however as normal maps only store the direction of the normals at texture level and is used directly in lighting calculations to give an appearance of more complicated surface, basically it just tells dirctly in which direction the surface points at each texel, what you need is a height map which is typically not provided as it is faster to use normal maps. There are tools to convert normal maps into height maps though and I'm not sure if blender can do this natively. I think this is worth looking into.
Normal map will never give you back original high poly. It's got limited resolution so there is a limit to how much detail can be recovered, and as you say, you actually need displacement rather than just normals (even then you ewouldn't get back to the high poly because of the limited texture resolution). It's still a lot better than trying to use the color texture though. It will add details that are much better than trying to use the color texture, which is a last resort.
@@MakersMuse I know the most functions but I am just bad at sculpting, but adding detail shouldnt be so complicated. Alpha brushes etc. arent so hard to use
If the game you are ripping models from has normal, or better displacement maps; you will get much better results using those with the displacement modifier. Using a colour texture with displacement is.. not going to do much. I also find the multi-res modifier produces better results than the subdivision modifier.
Just saw this after figuring out Blender had a .mdl importer first thing I had to do was all the original Quake characters so now I have a Shambler on my desk I love it! Its worth doing multiple prints because of size options and many different animation frames to pick from for posing. Trying to think of next oldschool low-poly game models that can be imported that I can do next.
15:00 couldn't you just extrude the bottom edgo loop downwards before repairing, then subdivide and then cut away your previous extrusion? would that make the autorepairing easier?
Just wondering, would it be possible to add the original bumpmaps instead of textures in blender? Those represent actual 3D data, so will probably give a better result than textures.
@@MakersMuse A quick google gives me "The game engine automatically determines the name of the normal map by using the name of the diffuse texture and adding "_n" to it. Example: Helmet.dds --> Helmet_n.dds." So I guess all I have to do is do what you did in 20:28 but then use the _n textures instead of the normal ones? The only issue is that they don't show up in the selection. I'm not a blender expert, any idea how to make them show up?
I’d love to get a specific Transformers War For Cybertron Starscream pose screen captured like this but only have a laptop now. Pretty I’d still have the game if I could remember my steam account. Might have to try learning this if can get a computer one day. Wish I could get into this just seems like a really expensive hobby to do at good quality as I’d want to print decent sized statues.
II a tools works for Fallout 4 &*/or 76 then it will work for SE and (probably) AE: This is because Fallout 4 was developed using the same engine that is also in Skyrim SE. Yes, there are differences, but those are in the specific addons, not in the base engine. Plus many of those tools now have a 64 bit as well as the original 32 bit version available, and, if not there are conversion tools for SE available.
The UV Map displacement, it didn't look like your texture didn't line up with your model's UV map. I think, since you used 3D Builder to fix the model, the UV map is probably all over the place and not how it originally was with the game model. You can kinda tell when looking at the lower part of the base at around 21:02. I've got an unopened Mars 2 Pro & graphics tablet waiting for me to go through CGBoost's blender basics and sculpting series and learn how to do all this myself. I'm ambitious but uber keen :)
I thought about this for years but one of these days a game company is going to be smart enough to release 3D files alongside their games. It would be nothing for them to throw together and it would be a boon for their fan communities. Honestly, movies should do it too for cosplayers. Imagine a world where a new property not only supports their fandom directly by giving them assets but maybe even designs those assets to be easy for the community to replicate in the first place. It's a massive appeal for indie games and it boggles my mind that the industry hasn't realized it yet.
Cool video, Angus. I remember the original - watched it a mere couple years after its release when I got started in 3D printing. 😁 And awesome haircut.
That Dwarven armour bust is beautiful, going to have to try to follow Valtech's tutorial then to remake it because I absolutely have to make it and paint it! I've developed a bit of a thing for printing dwemer stuff and painting them xD
So I've been trying this method for the past few days and all those people saying you could get good results with the displacement maps either didn't try it out themselves, or know a secret method that I cannot find. Skyrim doesn't seem to store displacement maps, only normal maps. The conversion is not super difficult, but the end result in Blender leaves quite a lot to be desired. If you're expecting a result like the Dwarven bust in the video, you'll be disappointed. It adds detail, yes, but it requires an ungodly amount of polygons (frying your pc), doesn't work with the fixing that 3D builder does (because it changes the mesh) and the end result is blurry at best. If the scale you're aiming for is 28-32mm, I would just sculpt some minor details yourself and paint the rest directly on it. Next step is to actually print full models of your own player character. There is supposedly a method using the Outfit Studio program on the Nexus, but I haven't had time to try it out yet. I will report here later.
I can't wait to try this, I have a full color printer (Da Vinci Color) and have not had much of a cause to use it. Also that skyrim has been my all time favourite game
I somehow became a Jack of all trades and know how to rip game assets and modify them in blender, now I just need a resin printer, wish I had some help (in person) fixing the Z wobble in my Monoprice Mini
A big question as to whether or not you can sell ripped files is whether or not it's transformative. I think the dragon and Dwemer file, even though modified and adapted for 3D printing, are still kind of in the same decorative realm as they were in the loading screen. But who knows, a court might find that adapting those game files to 3D printing might be transformative enough to warrant fair use. A case can be made either way.
A couple years ago I tried to extract characters from Star Wars the Old Republic (using many of the same programs) for 3d printing, and ran into the wall that is rigging with 0 experience. Every time I think about trying it again, I default to "I should just hire someone to do the rigging and posing" because boy that was a frustrating few days, and Blender has a learning curve so flat it feels like a learning wall.
The grammar in the title threw me for a loop. This is perfect timing, just as I'm getting back into Skyrim. Happy Skyrim Anniversary
oops haha, ill fix that
Yooo same
Extra trick in blender is to use the bump map texture to add surface details. After you subsurface the model, instead of loading the colourspace texture, load in the displacement map (I can't remember the exact name Bethesda give to theirs, but it will be the RGB image). You can apply another modifier using that texture instead. It offsets the vertices on the model to match how the game would interpret it. (The game doesn't use vertices for this, just fakes it with light rendering)
What about assets from something like Mass Effect. Would it work with a ship? Also, is there a good blender tutorial for someone to basically prints stuff. I'm not an artist and that's a hugely complex application.
Sir, when I try to do the displace mod it make the mesh like a crumpled paper. How to fix this?
I'm pretty certain that's a normal map, and turning a normal map into proper displacement requires a master's touch.
@@markdbest3244 Look up how to convert a normal map to displacement.
@@Ang3lUki thanks for that info. Actually, i just didnt scale (dont know much about blender).
This dudes a damn wizard
A true god-send!
Only because I suck at organic modelling 🤣
I read this as "lizard" for some reason and was so confused
@@MakersMusewhere the link to his video to learn
@@MakersMuse potato tomato, same thing
I really appreciate the fact you explained what each modifier does in blender instead of just saying to do it. I’ve used blender for a while now so now I know what the stuff does, but when I was new and learning how to use it, a lot of the tutorials were very vague about everything so it was pretty hard.
Combining Edge Split with Subdivision Surface and playing with the Edge Split angle is how I preserve sharp details. It isn't perfect, but it is much more powerful for not much more effort.
Nice! I'll have to play around with that.
I'm a Blenbder Artist, Edge Split will damage your mesh a bit, here's what I would do.
+Go in edit mode->select->sharp edges->Shift + E and input 1. This will mark out sharp edge as you like and Subdivision will not break the edge
+Add in a Bevel Modifier, this will add more edges around already sharp edge to reserve it rather than splitting current edge in 2. Remember to place Bevel modifier above the subdivision modifier
First method is lengthier but will produce better result and less glitches than the second one, second is quick for tests
Fun fact: since the first video Angus has not aged a single day :D
LoL IKR?
This is a widely spread secret
he vampire
That's because Australia, he stands upside down the whole time 😂
@@FireN2k9 ah, so he gets younger?
Talking about Bethesda prints, the first video I ever saw of yours was the one where you printed the Fallout Deathclaw in a huge size in multiple parts - and got my first Up Mini not long after! How time flies!
Great to see you update this 'origin story' for modern times, the most frequently requested prints I get are game file rips from Destiny 2, using 'Destiny STL Generator' - I'll definitely be using this same method for fixing up those models, as they're frequently VERY borked!
Haha! Yeah that print wasn't even that large, the UP mini was just tiny. 3D Builder has the best repair I've come across on a free program for some time, give it a go with those borked models : )
@@MakersMuse I can’t get the texture load to work any advice
Oh. My. God.... Thank you SO much on the displace modifier!!!
I have spent weeks manually trying to bulk everything up feeling like there was a better way of doing things. You have literally saved me hundreds of hours! Realized I wasn't subscribed but I sure as hell am now!
Such a clever idea. It’s wild to see how far the software had come; awesome video!
I reckon! Blender has absolutely blown me away, I need to get over my ancient hang-ups and learn to use it properly.
@@MakersMuse It’s legit! I was using daily for a while; there’s a brutal learning curve but it’s worth it!
Great video! Here's some Blender tips and tricks to help if you want to understand it more.
If you're wanting to add detail with the displace method, it's better to add more polygons manually rather than using subdivision surfaces. Subdivision Surfaces smooths the model. To manually do it, go into edit mode with tab, and select all, press the W, and the S or click Subdivide. The manual method, doesn't change any of the geometry, it just splits the polygons in half. You can do it multiple times, but each time, it is exponentially more.
For example if you do SS on a pyramid, you'll end up with a blob. If you do it manually, you'll just have a pyramid with a lot more polygons.
In order to work with displacement, it would be best to separate the models first if possible by selecting all in edit mode, and pressing P, all loose objects. Then you can displace them separately, and then use a Boolean to rejoin them.
Another way to do the wall, would be to use the Solidify modifier so that you still have just the wall shape, as well as not having to print the thing as a fully solid object.
The reason the Alduin model was not viewable, was because the camera distance was not far enough to view the whole model, to fix this, on the item properties in the top right of the main window, select the view tab, and change the clip distance. This way you don't have to rescale the object.
Blender's scaling is very accurate, I make non-organic size critical components with it all the time. You just have to set it up how you want it. I'm an American that loves the metric system for measurements with modeling. It's so much easier than freedom units. (for this anyway).
There is a built in 3D modeling addon in blender that you can fix manifold objects with. It doesn't work all the time, but most of the time, you can fix object pretty easily. It becomes a tab in the item properties top right window.
If you ever need any help with blender, feel free to ask. -Kevin ( inventimark, youtube channel).
Blender has an included "3d printing" plugin that allows you to repair meshes with a single button press. You can also voxel remesh a model in sculpt mode to make it solid and manifold if that doesn't work
I am so shocked that the exact, perfect video that I was looking for actually exists. Thank you so much for making this tutorial, gets me even more excited for when I can finally invest in this hobby :D
That original video was one of the reasons I decided to pull the trigger and purchase my own printer like 4 years ago, thanks Angus!
Great video! I'll just add that there's a method to retain those sharp edges when subdividing.
There's a setting called "Mean Crease" that applies per edge. It controls how th smoothing is applied:
A value of 0 (default) and the edge is fully smoothed
A value of 1 and the edge is sharp
It allows for a much finer control of the smoothing, and it could change everything on that alduin model.
It can take a bit more time to get all the edges you need to sharpen, but it's not really that more complex, just time consuming and would give a much better result
Very handy, thanks!
Quick tip: If a detail gets rounded over by the subdivision surface modifier and you want to bring it back, you can select the edges in edit mode that you want to restore and press Shift + E then drag the geometry to form back against the edges.
The "not loading in properly" because it is too big in blender is a clipping setting. You can also run into this working with something very large or very small. The correct fix for this behavior is in the right side view menu> "clip start" or "end" depending if it is doing it zooming in or out. This could be important if you are trying to model something at the correct size.
Edit: Just noticed the right side menus are not showing on you blender. It is called the "sidebar". 'n' button will show or hide it. I always have it on on mine.
Yes....it's here! Been waiting for this upload. Thank you sooo much Angus!
Hope it helps!
As soon as I started to watch the video I noticed the new hair cut and all I thought about was you must be going to Cosplay as Zorg.
Gary Oldman's character in The 5th Element
Haha! That's what my parents said. Honestly, one of my favorite antagonists!
This new haircut suit you great, and I'll deal with it :)
Nice video as I missed the original one 7 years back !
Haha ! Cheers ;)
@Maker's Muse About the model not displaying correctly on Blender because of it's size. You fix that by changing the clipping of the "camera".
You do that by pressing "N" (or clicking the small arrow to the right of the XYZ gyzmo on the corner), then going to the "View" tab on that menu that opened, and then changing the "Clip Start" and "End" that are below the "Focal Length". You can play with the values but I personally use 0.01 mm and 1000 mm for start and end.
Also, not sure if this is needed but, you might need to change your Blender scaling, if so you should probably check the previous setting after you change the scale because they might change because of it.
That is done on the right side of the window, below your "Scene Collection", in a tab called "Scene Properties" (it has an icon with a cone and two spheres, at least it looks like that to me), then you go to "Units" and change the "Unit System" to "Metric" for example, and the "Unit Scale" to "0.001" so that the base scale is in millimeters.
These are good settings if the objective is to work in blender for 3D printing since we're working on models that are, most of the time, going to be millimeters and centimeters, not really meters in size.
By the way, in case you don't know, or anyone else, to keep these settings always like this, what you need to do is, open a brand new empty file, do these changes, and then go to "File" on the top left of the window, go to "Defaults" and "Save Startup File". This will make that state of Blender the default state for any new project. But take notice that if you're loading an already made file, it might load that file's configurations, even the UI, if you want to keep your configurations you need to disable "Load UI" in the Blender Preferences in "Edit" - "Preferences" - "Save & Load".
Hope these help someone. Thanks for the video.
Now it's time to print out an entire diorama of a Skyrim town 😅
you totally could! haha
3D printing stuff from video games really shows the crazy fact that this technology can take something digital and make it real and physical
If you want highly detailed models I totally recomend getting meshes straight out Skyrim mods!
For example Static Mesh Improvement Mod (SMIM) or Immersive Creatures look amazing in-game and they must look even better in real life cheers!
You know, ive been learning 3D with Zbrush and Blender for 3 years now.. i started November 2018 "Yeah, im a Geek i wrote it down when i started EARNESTLY Learning" i took 6 months off one year cause i thought "im too old to learn, i may as well just give up" at only 35 mind you.. and then i was like, no.. thats an INCREDIBLY Stupid way of thinking! ive SCULPTED all my life! literally since i was 2 with Playdoh! why would i give up on learning something ive been told is not Rocket Science.. and i went back.. and the other 6 months was just after my Mother died.. i went into a 2/3 month depressive episode, and then i had to pack for 3 entire months so i could move to my new house.. so i look at it like one of those 4 years i haven't learned anything at all.. but 3 of those years ive tried to learn at least SOMETHING every single day. and only TODAY did i finally learn what "Non Manifold" means, and how to solve it.
the only issue i can come up with is how you patched it, that made an "Ngon" which Zbrush HATES Ngons. it cannot use them. but... BUT... you could easily just make the Verts connect in different places. it doesn't gotta be pretty, just no Ngons. then you can take it into Zbrush and sculpt on top of it.
also im fairly sure if there is a way to extract the Textures out of other Video games, you can turn them into Normal Maps... and then have the Normal Maps shrink around the models to give them the texture they have in the video games.. ill have to do more research about that, though.
Crazy how the universe just kinda brings me back to Skyrim
Todd Howard wills it.
Note for the legal aspect of ripping content out of the game files. It's actually written in the terms of use. And it varies between games. In most case, it's authorized for personal use (since it can't be monitored anyway).
For blender, if you want a great entry point to 3D modeling in this software, Blender Guru is your guy. Tons of content with updtated version of it's main course suiting the lastests versions of blender. Then you can go deeper with other big names in youtube that you'll probably discover during your journey.
there is a pluggin called F2 or something that comes with blender. it lets you literally fill stuff like that wall in 1 face at a time simply by pressing F with 1 edge selected. i use it a lot!
edge loops are your friend for preserving crisp edges with subdiv- also i think you can tell the subdiv not to touch specific points on a model.
Haha I loved the end of the video. Angus don't sweat it, your haircut looks great!
If you want more geometry to play with but don't want to use subdivision to avoid smoothing you can use the multiresolution modifier. Could be useful in some scenarios. It's also less destructive because you can always revert to a different LOD.
I see after all these years in 3D printing you finally focus on making some more beautiful prints, instead of 'just prints' ;)
Dude just a glimpse of your talent! I just hope you don't get tired of it all and stop sharing
quick tipp from my side.
if you created the bridge like in 11:23 you can select the bottom edge of the open gap. after that, hit the F key. it will fill out the next bridge and therefore will create a quad face instead of an n-gone if you will the whole edge loop. hold the F key and it will fill the whole face with the next bridges. pretty cool.
It simply warms my heart to learn you use Blender. I love Blender!
When using the subsurf modifier you can select the bottom faces, hit the n key and set the mean crease to 1. Blender is amazing.
I was an adventurer like you once, then I had a spanner to my thermistor.
Could you do a guide to 3D printing a character made from the Skyrim Character Creator?
That’s awesome, didn’t know you could print from Skyrim. I made a short tutorial on how to print from Team Fortress 2, it’s really similar, just with source engine model files. Didn’t know how to repair meshes before, this is gonna be super useful!
In nifscopes settings you can set the texture path so all models will render with their textures.
They've been reheating that game in the microwave for 10 years..
It's more like a stockpot, they keep adding community content and packaging it up as their own 😂
That game isnt microwaved, it was put in a cardboard solar oven you would make with your kida to make smores.
I was thinking this when he mentioned the game getting yet another "remaster" this year, like really? instead of just making a new game, they "remaster" it THREE times?
I want to mention a cool feature. If you apply a subdivision mdf and then bring in the textures of the mesh using a displacement mdf you will get those textures but printables
Thanks for this Angus, I've found it super helpful for my Wowmodelviewer escapades rather than skyrim
If I ever get a printer I will come back to this vid and take notes. Thank you.
There are ways in some software (can't go into details without going through multiple programmes, so I'll leave it there) where you can tell the program: "I want these faces to be part of group A, these faces to be part of group B, etc." and that _separates_ these groups, so you don't get smoothing e.g. at the edge of the bases, where they should be crisp lines; with more advanced programs, you can even subdivide these groups distinctly from each other, giving you even greater control over smoothing.
Yeah, think the first video for when I started 3D printing was that old Skyrim one. I wanted to find models from the game and make them for myself. Really cool to see it updated! Especially when so many more people are getting into 3D printing.
The editing and rework done to game assets would be scary to hear about through a lawyer's letter, but damn does it seem like it'd be fine so long as personal time was put into crafting it right.
Aengus, you totally nailed the „Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg“ from 5th Element Cosplay in the picture in picture mode! Great Job! 👍
I love Blender.
I use to use it years ago to make models for virtual worlds.
I know a lot use 3dsmax and Maya but I always loved Blender.
Your models look cool.
Ah yes, Skyrim... the one I never played... as someone else said: use a normal map for displacement as it will allow you to convert the faceted/flat shaded model into the smooth shaded model, but with actual details. Normal maps are literally generated by making a really high res model and then a low res (game usable) model then "baking" the high res detail into a 3D texture (XYZ -> RGB). When the game uses it, it applies light to it and the normal map displaces it instead of the polygon, so it looks smooth instead of "low poly". Displacement modifier can do that at a geometry level instead of a shading level, which would make it more useful for 3D printing.
Edit: what I would love is for there to be either something that can turn the the texture mapped model into either separate parts for MMU printing or... because you've already gone through the process: convert the texture into a print so you can hydrodip the model. No paint, no MMU/Palette. Just a vat of liquid, a model held at a specific angle, and an image printed on some special paper... plus a mostly steady hand.
Thanks, far better description of the process than I could remember!
@@davidmcglynn2765 no problem
The hair cut looks great, man!
I was thinking the exact opposite LOL.
I'm so happy you did this i have found lots of files that I have issues with my resin printer that were done for fdm and it needs fixing, I will definitely give this a try ,thank you!!
Haircut looks great!
My daughter and I made the MLP model following your video the other day and it worked great. I used the formware online repair tool and it worked well.
I'm pretty sure you can use the normal texture map in blender to recreate original vertex positions. You should get the original high poly models as they were created by the developers.
You can't use normal maps directly however as normal maps only store the direction of the normals at texture level and is used directly in lighting calculations to give an appearance of more complicated surface, basically it just tells dirctly in which direction the surface points at each texel, what you need is a height map which is typically not provided as it is faster to use normal maps. There are tools to convert normal maps into height maps though and I'm not sure if blender can do this natively. I think this is worth looking into.
Normal map will never give you back original high poly. It's got limited resolution so there is a limit to how much detail can be recovered, and as you say, you actually need displacement rather than just normals (even then you ewouldn't get back to the high poly because of the limited texture resolution). It's still a lot better than trying to use the color texture though. It will add details that are much better than trying to use the color texture, which is a last resort.
Good that I learned blender, now I can use it for 3d printing :)
It's honestly a really valuable skill!
@@MakersMuse I know the most functions but I am just bad at sculpting, but adding detail shouldnt be so complicated. Alpha brushes etc. arent so hard to use
I can open and close the app. That’s about it. How to learn this tool easier way
Hmm really interesting. A lot of the Daedric weapons would go well with Chaos armies.
I actually love your haircut!
If the game you are ripping models from has normal, or better displacement maps; you will get much better results using those with the displacement modifier. Using a colour texture with displacement is.. not going to do much. I also find the multi-res modifier produces better results than the subdivision modifier.
Just saw this after figuring out Blender had a .mdl importer first thing I had to do was all the original Quake characters so now I have a Shambler on my desk I love it! Its worth doing multiple prints because of size options and many different animation frames to pick from for posing. Trying to think of next oldschool low-poly game models that can be imported that I can do next.
I'd assume unreal tournament could have some cool stuff but I have no idea how the process works so that's just a random suggestion
Yesturday i printed the logo! Glad to see that you are a fan tho
15:00 couldn't you just extrude the bottom edgo loop downwards before repairing, then subdivide and then cut away your previous extrusion? would that make the autorepairing easier?
Yep definitely. It was really easy to do that in meshmixer with facegroups, but hard to include dead software in a tutorial :(
@@MakersMuse Im so sad about Meshmixer. I'm a Pedorthist and use it professionally to organically model and 3D print orthotics and prosthetics!
Just wondering, would it be possible to add the original bumpmaps instead of textures in blender? Those represent actual 3D data, so will probably give a better result than textures.
absolutely if you're able to source them. I'm honestly not sure how.
@@MakersMuse A quick google gives me "The game engine automatically determines the name of the normal map by using the name of the diffuse texture and adding "_n" to it. Example: Helmet.dds --> Helmet_n.dds." So I guess all I have to do is do what you did in 20:28 but then use the _n textures instead of the normal ones? The only issue is that they don't show up in the selection. I'm not a blender expert, any idea how to make them show up?
@@interficiam You could modify the MTL file so all the textures have _n before you import the OBJ into Blender.
I’d love to get a specific Transformers War For Cybertron Starscream pose screen captured like this but only have a laptop now. Pretty I’d still have the game if I could remember my steam account. Might have to try learning this if can get a computer one day.
Wish I could get into this just seems like a really expensive hobby to do at good quality as I’d want to print decent sized statues.
I'm going to try this with Elden Ring models (using other tutorials to export) once I get a pc
II a tools works for Fallout 4 &*/or 76 then it will work for SE and (probably) AE: This is because Fallout 4 was developed using the same engine that is also in Skyrim SE. Yes, there are differences, but those are in the specific addons, not in the base engine. Plus many of those tools now have a 64 bit as well as the original 32 bit version available, and, if not there are conversion tools for SE available.
The UV Map displacement, it didn't look like your texture didn't line up with your model's UV map. I think, since you used 3D Builder to fix the model, the UV map is probably all over the place and not how it originally was with the game model. You can kinda tell when looking at the lower part of the base at around 21:02.
I've got an unopened Mars 2 Pro & graphics tablet waiting for me to go through CGBoost's blender basics and sculpting series and learn how to do all this myself. I'm ambitious but uber keen :)
Thanks for the video, and love the hair cut!
Finally I can make a ring of namaira with details!
VERY Nice Work!
I thought about this for years but one of these days a game company is going to be smart enough to release 3D files alongside their games. It would be nothing for them to throw together and it would be a boon for their fan communities. Honestly, movies should do it too for cosplayers. Imagine a world where a new property not only supports their fandom directly by giving them assets but maybe even designs those assets to be easy for the community to replicate in the first place. It's a massive appeal for indie games and it boggles my mind that the industry hasn't realized it yet.
Your hair looks great man!
Cool video, Angus. I remember the original - watched it a mere couple years after its release when I got started in 3D printing. 😁
And awesome haircut.
That "not all loading in" thing is a blender setting, you can change it.
How about using photogrammetry? with the skyrim console you can stop the game a move the camera around to take screenshots from different angles
I seem to remember it's been tried before with decent results. A good option for sure.
Nice. My favourite helmet
Seven years? My goodness, seven years!
The Mace is btw the Mace of Malog Baal and the story to get it is hilarious.
Oh yeah! I remember now, great quest.
That Dwarven armour bust is beautiful, going to have to try to follow Valtech's tutorial then to remake it because I absolutely have to make it and paint it! I've developed a bit of a thing for printing dwemer stuff and painting them xD
Your prints are so smooth for FDM... i thought it was resin
I guess the display technique would work better when working with texture height maps.
Great video, many thanks man
Cheers! Hope it helps.
The rolling/flying cart bug got me so many times i stopped playing Skyrim after years of it only
So I've been trying this method for the past few days and all those people saying you could get good results with the displacement maps either didn't try it out themselves, or know a secret method that I cannot find.
Skyrim doesn't seem to store displacement maps, only normal maps. The conversion is not super difficult, but the end result in Blender leaves quite a lot to be desired. If you're expecting a result like the Dwarven bust in the video, you'll be disappointed. It adds detail, yes, but it requires an ungodly amount of polygons (frying your pc), doesn't work with the fixing that 3D builder does (because it changes the mesh) and the end result is blurry at best. If the scale you're aiming for is 28-32mm, I would just sculpt some minor details yourself and paint the rest directly on it.
Next step is to actually print full models of your own player character. There is supposedly a method using the Outfit Studio program on the Nexus, but I haven't had time to try it out yet. I will report here later.
I can't wait to try this, I have a full color printer (Da Vinci Color) and have not had much of a cause to use it.
Also that skyrim has been my all time favourite game
You have to try the VR version :O it is so awesome to play
Great walkthrough video 👍
Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀
How to deal whit Maker's Muse new Haircut ( tutorial next please ; )~
Thanks Friend! Doing some Fallout 4 models, but seems to work the same! Thank you!
I've been waiting for an updated how-to on game assets. I will try this on Fallout 4. I never got into Skyrim. 😬
Damn, I am getting old... I was in high school when this came out, skipped a couple of days of school to play it.
Awesome man!
need to atlas your textures to one UV
also Ultimate Unwrap 3D can import the extracted NIF rigged so you can pose the bones in Blender
I'd like to see if Sketch Up could be useful since it can work with .OBJ files.
Awesome video! Thanks for such an informative review👍👍👍
WOAAAAHHH! Amazing!
👏👏👏
I somehow became a Jack of all trades and know how to rip game assets and modify them in blender, now I just need a resin printer, wish I had some help (in person) fixing the Z wobble in my Monoprice Mini
so is it possible for me to 3d print my elden ring character?
Have you tried Ninja Ripper ? you can take instant shots of player posing.
A big question as to whether or not you can sell ripped files is whether or not it's transformative. I think the dragon and Dwemer file, even though modified and adapted for 3D printing, are still kind of in the same decorative realm as they were in the loading screen. But who knows, a court might find that adapting those game files to 3D printing might be transformative enough to warrant fair use. A case can be made either way.
A couple years ago I tried to extract characters from Star Wars the Old Republic (using many of the same programs) for 3d printing, and ran into the wall that is rigging with 0 experience. Every time I think about trying it again, I default to "I should just hire someone to do the rigging and posing" because boy that was a frustrating few days, and Blender has a learning curve so flat it feels like a learning wall.
I ripped a jason mask model from MKX and I wonder the display modifier would work well in bringing the scar texture you see with the mask in game.