Difference between revisions of "Bethesda Tutorial Creation Kit Interface"

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Before you can start, you first have to load the data. From the 'File' menu, choose 'Data...', then double click 'skyrim.esm'. When you do this, the checkbox next to it will become checked, which indicates that it will be loaded.

{{InDepth|"Cells" are physical areas of the game that the Creation Kit can load. They can be interior cells separated by load doors, which we'll be working with in this tutorial, or exterior cells, which stream in seamlessly during gameplay.}}

*'''Category List''' Below the filter are the many categories of base objects. Advanced users may wish to select the "*All" category at the bottom of the list, to show everything, and then use the name filter to more quickly access items, but for this tutorial we'll manually specify the locations of objects needed.

{{NewFeature|The Creation Kit now features the option to open multiple Object Windows, which can be handy for advanced users. Simply right-click on the Object Window and "Create New Object Window"}}

{{InDepth|'''Base Object vs Reference''' It's important for users to understand the difference between a base object and a reference.  Whenever you place an object in the world, you are creating an instance - or reference - to that base object. For example, if we drag a "TrollFrost" into the world and modify that reference, or "ref", our changes will only affect this specific Troll.  If we make changes directly to the TrollFrost base object, however, all Trolls will be affected, including those already created. For this reason, modders will usually want to avoid modifying pre-existing base objects that other mods may rely upon.}}

Single-click this to select it. You should notice a thin outline of green, red and blue lines.  This is the ''"bounding box"'', and for now we just care that it lets us know what's selected.  Try scrolling your mouse wheel slowly back and forth.  Notice that this zooms the camera.

 

Next, try panning the camera.  This is accomplished by holding down the middle mouse button or spacebar and moving the mouse in any direction.

* Press '''"Y"'''.  This cycles through a few pre-set camera angles, and otherwise works exactly like "T". Easy to remember because they're right next to each other (assuming a QWERTY keyboard). Convenient!

Also note that you're only moving the object on the horizontal plane, or the "X/Y axis" of the world.  You can move the object up/down by holding '''"Z"''' while dragging it.  Likewise, you can hold '''"X"''' to constrain movement to X axis, or '''"C"''' to constrain movement to the Y axis. It's '''"C"''' (and not Y) because '''"Z"''' '''"X"''' and '''"C"''' are right next to each other. Convenient!

Rotation is accomplished by simply selecting an object and holding the '''right mouse button''' while moving the mouse.  Rotation is affected by angle snapping (Snap to Angle button [[image:Jbrowne IconSnapAngle.jpeg]] or CTRL-Q in Render Window), and also can be axis constrained by holding X, Y or C while rotating.  You should also note that objects rotate around their '''pivot point''', indicated by a small, yellow '''"+"'''.  Being aware of pivot points will become important for users who expect to be working with the Render Window frequently.

Objects can be scaled as well.  Scale by holding '''"S"''' while dragging with the left mouse button.  Heavily scaled art will look out of place, however, so it's best to avoid using this tool unless it's absolutely required.

 

 

 

If you undo too many steps, the Redo button [[image:Jbrowne IconRedo.jpeg]] is your friend, at least until you perform another action in the render window: at that point, any undone actions that you have not redone are lost.

 

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