3D and 2D ARTISTS WANTING CONTRIBUTE

You can find all the models that need to be done, primarily for legal and esthetic reasons, within these subforums. Please just navigate through these to find something that interests you.

If you find a model or set of models you'd like to work on then please leave a post on that particular thread that has the model(s).

We are not going to be doing much mentoring, so we rely on your ability to find a task and get yourself setup by yourself. This is a usually a good filtering process for those that have the resolve and genuine desire to finish the game.

If you are a Character artist

There really is very little left to do with "characters". Most of the creatures are done or claimed. We do have Armors and Clothing. We have very high standards for these items, so you will be an experienced modeler if you want to tackle Armors or Clothing. Please go to the Armor and Clothing forums to find out more information.

It would be nice to have team members who can help with potentially retopologizing characters, if other users have produced hi-poly sculpts.

If you are a Hard-edged modeler

Without a doubt 95% of the models left to do are more or less hard edged. Buildings and props are the bulk of the work, so if you have basic modeling skills you will probably be able to help.

We also have separate forums for those wanting to do weapons. However this is of course one of the more popular claims and there is very little left, and actually is a very low priority for us. Environmental models are a much higher priority because of bottlenecks to cluttering and navigation meshing for our level designers.

If you are an Organic modelers

There are still a lot of organic objects to be made; flora, trees, rocks.

How do I get setup to work on models?

Firstly you need the original models to be able to get dimensions, scales and concepts. You can either import from TES3 Morrowind or by getting Skywind distribution of models.

You will need to import the Bethesda model format (NIF) for viewing.

3ds Max (up to 2012) plugin importer/exporter

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1vwmz6hbHGPOWsySFpjR1NhYTQ/edit?usp=sharing

3ds Max (2013) plugin importer/exporter

http://tesrenewal.com/forums/tools-and-coding/nif-importexport-plugin-for-3dsmax-2013

Blender (up to 2.49b) plugin importer/exporter
http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.49b/blender-2.4...

Maya does not have any native support for importing Bethesda models.

As an alternative you can use a program called NifSkope to open up Bethesda models and export to OBJ.

Download NifSkope from here http://www.freeuploadsite.com/do.php?id=36562

If all else fails we can convert files into OBJ or FBX for you, but for time saving please attempt yourself.

What are some of the guidelines for creating assets?

This is a hard one. It always comes down to a case by case basis.

What we normally do is direct you to "equivalent" models found in Skyrim or we probably have good examples of already redone Skywind models to give you an idea of the level of details (polygon counts, texture details, and UVing) that are best served by the Skyrim engine.

As a general rule of thumb, you can afford increase polygon counts by 50%-150% more than original. But don't just do that because you can, its more of a case of appropriate topology based on detail wanted for model and its relevance in the game world.

One of the faults of the original Morrowind models is that single models are normally mapped to multiple textures. Especially for props, like furniture, clutter, flora we want to UV and probably bake to a single texture. We aim for 2048 sized textures mainly, obviously smaller object can be better served at 1024 and 512, but we plan on making several packages for different spec'd computers, and 2048 being the highest, as its easier to down scale for this as required.

Please do not hesitate to request a texture or set of textures on this thread http://tesrenewal.com/forums/skyrim/skywind-development-forums/environmental-and-architecture-3d-modeling/7653

How do I submit my work

You can submit pictures of progress or finished work to the claims thread, or create your own thread like many of our users do.

At the moment either Eloth or HappyChappy are the people to submit your work to. Upload and provide links when necessary. You can export as OBJ or FBX file formats. We have team members that will get them game ready.

We will try and get team members to review your work for possible improvements and suggestions. At this point in time, there is going to be a bit of a gap in consistency between levels of work. Especially with textures and optimizing them. However at this stage this really is impossible with the number of people working on the project and generally being unaware of what is available. We will try and figure out better ways of making people aware of texture resources available or worked on, but this is only going to come overtime. Being one of the team members who is constantly talking to other team members is going to be more than clued up than those who don't.