Please feel free to post links to more tutorials and I'll update this OP as needed.

Go here first. http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index...egory:Tutorials - Everything is Oblivion specific and there's tons of stuff for all the programs listed below. Don't forget to browse in the subcategories on that page too.

The Elder Scrolls Construction Set:
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Main_Page - The Construction Set Wiki is about as good as it gets.
http://www.morrowind-oblivion.com/oblivion/tools.php - 3 tutorials: Making a house, Making a quest, and a scenery tutorial.
http://tessource.net/files/file.php?id=7877 - Video tutorial on adding custom dialogue with lipsyncing to NPC's.
http://forum.gamingsource.net/index.php?showtopic=25701 - How to make a quest tutorial.

Blender:

Beginner:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro - This is one of the best for someone who has never done anything with blender before.
http://www.blenderwars.com/tut-path.php?module=index - Multiple tutorials for beginners.
http://www.spaghettimoon.co.uk/downloadpot.htm - Video tutorials from beginner level to more advanced.
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/dojo/ - Contains multiple threads on using blender. The first few are directed towards beginners and they get more advanced.
http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/28/Learningunits - More Blender tutorials starts at the beginner level and moves up.

Oblivion Specific:
http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Blender - tutorials for modeling, configuration, and splitting Oblivion meshes for custom characters
http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/Nif...h_import_export - Directions on exporting in the .obj format.
http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/Obl...New_Hair_Meshes - This tutorial is intended as an starter aid to those wanting to model Oblivion hair meshes.
http://www.alys.org/gallery/CuteUnits-Rigg...Oblivion?page=1 - CuteUnits guide to rigging meshes and exporting them.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.p...0guide&st=0 - throttlekitty's guide to riggging meshes and exporting them.

Not specific to Oblivion:
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/art/features/blender1/ - Making a Sword Part 1
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/art/features/blender2/ - Making a Sword Part 2
http://bgdm.katorlegaz.com/lscm_tute/lscm_tute.htm - UV Mapping a head. Note: For people using newer versions of blender that are following this select "unwrap" as you won't see "LSCM" as an option.
http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~kapu/cg_course/compgrfx-27.htm - Contains links to many tutorials. I especially liked the tube through a cube tutorial.
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Main_Page - Tons of tutorials in two locations. Look under "Tutorials-->Tutorials" and "Tutorials-->Tutorial Links"
http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/ - Many tutorials, some with video.
http://www.blendernation.com/category/tuto...videotutorials/ - Video tutorials, oh how I love the video tutorials. Also, check out the tutorials link on the right side of the page for non-video tutorials.
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSo...acter_Animation - Intro to character animation.
http://www.geneome.net/index.php/blender-tutorials/ - Lot's of video tutorials covering a wide range of topics.
http://www.ibiblio.org/bvidtute/ - Yet another list of video tutorials from a different site.
http://blendernewbies.blogspot.com/ - A great resource with lots of video tutorials. I've learned a lot from this one site. Make sure to check out the "archives" list on the bottom right of the page.
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Man...wrapping_a_Mesh - This is a must read for any Blender user. It shows multiple methods for unwrapping your mesh. Normally I avoid making multiple links to a site but I think this one is worth pointing out.

3D Studio Max:

Beginner:
http://www.max-realms.com/modules/wflinks/ - Beginner and Advanced tutorials. Also has videos for both beginner and advanced.
http://www.3dtotal.com/ - Make sure JavaScript is enabled and go to "Free Stuff-->Tutorials-->3d Studio Max-->Beginners"
http://www.mr-chompers.com/tutorial/video/beginner.zip - 16 minutes long. Rather fuzzy picture quality but it'll show you a few things.
http://tutorialoutpost.com/count/6121 - Explains the Max user interface.

Oblivion Specific:
http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/Category:3ds_Max - Contains tutorials on Importing, Exporting, Conversion, and Configuration.
http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=2477 - Collision: the easy way out using gundalf's exporter


Not specific to Oblivion:
http://www.mr-chompers.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm - Ben Mathis's site directed toward video game modeling and texturing. Tutorials from beginner to advanced.
http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/j...rc/joanmenu.asp - This tutorial covers modeling starting with a person all the way through to adding armor, a weapon, UV mapping, rigging, etc. In other words, it's pretty thorough.
http://www.3dtotal.com/ - Tons of other tutorials from the same site as above. Make sure JavaScript is enabled and go to "Free Stuff-->Tutorials-->3d Studio Max"
http://area.autodesk.com/learning/ - You need to define what you're searching for but there's lots of stuff here.
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/3d_studio_max/ - another long list of tutorials (check out the subcategories)


Gimp:

Beginner:
http://www.communitymx.com/content/article.cfm?cid=0A44B - If you've never used Gimp before then this tutorial is for you.
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/gim...ayers-gimp.html - Explains how to use layers in gimp. I highly suggest this one for any new gimp user wanting to learn how to texture.
http://www.onona3d.com/pdf/texturing.pdf - Texturing for Dummies. Somewhat geared towards Photoshop but mostly explains methods and theory. The file is 7.4 MB so you may want to right-click and save this one to view instead of opening it through your browser.

Oblivion Specific:
http://canadianice.ufrealms.net/forum2/ind...hp?topic=3942.0 - Contains guides on normal mapping, creating icons, and semi-transparent textures.

Not specific to Oblivion:
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/ - Lots of tutorials from beginner to advanced.
http://gug.sunsite.dk/?page=tutorials - Many tutorials for Gimp. The section about working with textures may be useful for some of you.

Adobe Photoshop:

Beginner:
http://www.good-tutorials.com/tutorials/photoshop/basics - Multiple pages of tutorials teaching you the basics of using Photoshop.
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/pho...-photoshop.html - Tutorial on how to use layers. Very important for someone who's not familiar with layers.
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=392677 - This thread has 3 pdf files for texturing. You will find more advanced tutorials if you browse around the sites forums and wiki.

Oblivion Specific:
At this time all I've found are on the wiki site listed above. - http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index...egory:Tutorials

Not specific to Oblivion:
http://www.bitbrush.com/tutorial1.html - How to make convincing seamless textures.
http://www.simmerspaintshop.com/forums/pho...-photoshop.html - How to use and make custom brushes
http://www.mr-chompers.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm - Ben Mathis's site directed toward video game modeling and texturing. Good tutorials and stuff on texturing theory for video game objects.
http://www.3dtotal.com/ - Make sure JavaScript is enabled and go to "Free Stuff-->Tutorials-->Photoshop"
http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/adobe_photoshop/ - another long list of tutorials (check out the subcategories)
http://photoshopbrushes.com/tutorials.htm - Tutorials and free brushes. There's millions of sites like these but I really like this one so I'm throwing it out there.
http://home.zonnet.nl/epragt/tutorials/pho...p/index.jsp.htm - Many tuts covering text, shapes, effects, and most importantly, textures.
http://www.cgchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=25997 - How to create good normal maps. If you read peoples posts to it you can find a link to a cool little program called "Crazy Bump" too. It's used to make normal maps.
http://www.dvd-replica.com/kozykorner/tuto...5/no/no/Date/0/ - A very large collection of various tutorials for Photoshop.
http://www.freeseamlesstextures.com/textur...rials/index.htm - How to create seamless textures.

NifSkope: Tutorials and references.
http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/Category:NifSkope - Has multiple links to NifSkope documentation and tutorials.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.p...howtopic=542099 - A page that explains many parts of a nif object.

Miscellaneous:
http://www.alys.org/gallery/Windys-Bow-Tutorial - Windy's Tutorial on creating a bow that morphs.
http://grimdeath9740.googlepages.com/tutor...eateyourownrace - Making a Custom Race Tutorial for Oblivion by Grimdeath
http://canadianice.ufrealms.net/forum2/ind...hp?topic=2953.0 - Distributing useable horse armor retextures legally (This one's pretty advanced and not for a novice).
http://www.quake3bits.com/htm/tutorials/cr...pressonator.htm - Program that converts images to dds format. Get it here. Learn how to use it here.
http://ni-te.de/blog/ - wz_'s Mod Blog.

Hey, good idea to collect whatever is useful for the common modder!

http://www.niftools.org/wiki/index.php/Category:Tutorials is always worth a look.

wz

Oh and I trash my thread, for the sake of this one. So feel free to add the tutorials directly in here.

Thanks wz_! I added those to the list. I'm glad to see someone else liked the idea. Hopefully this will help some people out instead of just myself by cleaning up my bookmarks.

Thank you ICUP!!! I've already replaced like 8 of my bookmarks with this one thread, and maybe this will even motivate some people to write some new tutorials as well. Glad you made this

I wrote one today. It's linked to in the page wz_ linked to, it's the bottom nif one.

It's already in there under Blender/Oblivion specific. It looks like you did a pretty good job on it too.

Thanks!

Thanks guys for posting links etc, i'm a ...oh my, the teapot is boiling, toodles! and have just completed the blender firrst tutorial of the dude/person. Next the hat, soon a weapon....

Good info here, just what I was looking for.

Thanks!... though I have one bit of a question..

Let's say I am interested in doing something, but have no idea where to begin: it is easy to say "Look at the tutorial".. but what if the person is so inexperienced that they don't even know which tutorial to read?

Take me for example: I want to create new page images (DDS format pictures for Books) ... I have downloaded just about every program up there; and the only one which "partially" worked for me isn't on that list (I'll come to what it is, shortly).. It allowed me to convert JPG images to DDS.. and sure enough I can insert them into my books. But Ingame - the images are all shaded with big light blue boxes. Obviously I did something wrong.. but to be honest I don't have any clue about how to fix it.. and I definately am less interested in having to learn a ton of things regarding this, than I am in leaving the images as they are. In other words - I want a simple conversion process... If I have to learn all the features of all these programs; it isn't going to happen. Too many other things to do to spend that much time becoming familiar with software which I have no interest in using beyond a single task (one which seems like it should be simple).

So, which Tutorial do "I" read?

NOTE: I did find my answer; and have fixed the problems I described - but similar questions will inevitably face any new person with as little experience as I had going into this process - and it was frustrating to me. It may be usefull to give a quick list of things that can be editted and the "quickest and easiest method for modifying those files".. Maybe it isn't really possible to make such a list - but it would be nice.

Yoshi - I'm going to break this down into sections here as that's a lot of stuff.I get what you're saying Yoshi. I've found myself looking for answers before but I didn't exactly know what questions I should be asking. It can be really frustrating at times. I've found when I didn't know what questions to ask that many of these tutorials helped me to figure out what question I should be asking if they didn't explain it to me.The fault lies on the person saying "Look at the tutorial." If they're going to take the time to say that then they may as well take the time to point out which tutorial. I've tried adding good descriptions where I can but some of the sites have too many tutorials to list them all here. The intention of this thread isn't so much a Q&A thread as a guide to finding info thread. Posting on the forums with a specific question like that would probably get you your answer quicker. (You never mentioned the programs but it doesn't matter as I see you solved your problem).Fortunately, you don't need to learn the entire program to make a mod. How many users of these programs really know everything about them? I doubt there are many, if any, on these forums.I'd suggest these.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index...h_pictures_only
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/DDS_Files - for Photoshop.
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Wanted_Poster - for Gimp (scroll down to the save settings).Good to hear. I hope it was this thread that pointed you in the right direction. As far as making a thread of what can be edited and the easiest method for modifying them. There are way to many possibilities and such a thread would be so long it would be hard to find what you're looking for. The closest thing we have is the CS wiki. Now, what I would like to see is a thread made that links to tutorials of what could be edited and how to modify them. I realize that this list is far from being a complete reference to modding Oblivion but not everything has been written up in tutorials.

ICUP, it is individuals such as yourself that make modding OBLIVION possible.

CS is not very friendly as a modding platform. If the community didn't have as many people (such as yourself) who are willing to put the time into helping others - Oblivion would never have been installed on my computer in the first place; for the one thing that I felt about Morrowind - and was quite confident would be the case with Oblivion - was the need for mods in order for the game to be enjoyable. Thank you to the many modders - and more importantly, those who make the various tools and tutorials so that modding is possible for joe-smoes such as myself...

You're too kind. I'm just a Joe Scmoe myself.

ICUP, there was a series of tutorials on these boards that were quite good, I can't find them with a cursury look, but I found them easier to follow than the wiki ones any chance of digging them up and adding them to the thread?

You can add my quest tutorial (sig)

If you can tell me what were they for I'll add them if I can find them. I've found a few on these forums but as you pointed out, the info was also on the wiki so I didn't add them.


Done. Thanks!

Oh cool, my bow tutorial got added...flattered the Windy is.

Hello All
I am trying to edit existing game meshes in Blender from the simple to the far more complex...
I have seen a few tutorials so far, but nothing about changing existing meshes by any other means then
TRYING to move vertesies (sp) by hand with you mouse ...one by one...painstakingly to the subtle improvements I want.

I am a noob to modeling so any advice to make this less tedious would be greatly appreciated. ((!))

*EDIT* Well I saved that "Noob to Pro" tut, that has good stuff at page 4,5,6 ...might work yet.

Most of what you're going to find will talk about how to create your own meshes. There's only one tutorial I can even think of that refers to editing existing meshes with blender. Splitting Oblivion meshes For Custom Characters by Durgis Flak.

EDIT: There's a cut and paste armor tutorial too. I'm not sure if it is blender related. I'll be back in a minute with updates on that one.
Armor over robes tutorial. It's not the one I was originally thinking of but I think this one uses the same method.

no that's like super easy stuff compared to what I want to do.
It just makes me understand why it hasn't been done already... .. .. . . . ..

I've got some Blender related stuff at my place, although they're ostensibly for another game the general principles are applicable; smooth-groups, prepping mesh for export and so on. Might be of some use to someone ;o)

yo ICUP- I learnt alot from this guys tutorials:
http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm

Edit: just noticed you already have his site up.....I like this ones address better though

and these are some tutorials for blender:
http://www.spaghettimoon.co.uk/downloadpot.htm

many of these are in video formats..It makes it alot easier, and I like to see modelers styles and workflow in action

Wow, this is incredibly useful but easily missed by somebody looking for tutorial collections like this. Do you mind if I update my 3D Modeling Resources list with the links on this topic? (with a link back to here of course)

thanks again!

EDIT: Doh! Here's the link

I don't mind at all. Do what you want.

The video for adding voice hasn't been working for a few days atleast. I didn't immediately say anything because I had hoped it would come back up after the weekend - but it still isn't working. Does anyone know if there is an alternate link? Maybe someone could host a copy of it since it is offered on the Wiki as the guide to go to.

Thanks. It took quite a while but I've finished integrating it into the page.

<--click here

@Yoshi En Son - I don't have a copy of the video to upload but if you don't get a response in a few days it may be worth creating a new topic asking for someone to upload it as your comment may not get seen here.

I asked over on the wiki about this and someone was nice enough to upload it onto tessource. The OP has been updated to the new link. Thanks for pointing that one out Yoshi.

Great thread! I'll add this to the Oblivion Mods FAQ.

Be my guest, good sir.

http://www.3dlinks.com/ Massive list of tutorial links for all popular modelling programs(except blender) photoshop links, free 2d texture and free 3d models site links.

http://www.noir.org/2dTutorials.html
Noir.org | 2d Tutorials - good tutorials for learning how tp make your own 2d textures in photoshop.

Tremendous training and tutorial resources can be found here for many tools
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_dl_list.php?c=2

That link doesn't work for me. I just get a "Could not get login ID." message.

Ok, here is another "I am a beginner and don't know which program to use or which tutorial to use" post... This time I want to know how to edit an XML file. Our user-friendly forum here allows us to only search out four-letter words (which it promptly blocks if we try to actually use them to post) making the task of searching for XML something akin to a search for Supercalafragilisticexpialadocious. (only you are much much much more likely to actually find Supercalafragilisticexpialadocious because I just used it and it is more than 3 letters long)

My knowledge of XML editing is almost non-existent. The little I do know about XML editing would quickly get bashed/flamed and then if you were lucky, corrected.................that gives me an idea.

XML editing can be done through notepad and the code appears similar to HTML.

Good enough - here I am trying to open them with just about every graphical editor which I can think of.. THANKS.

Found this Blender site - an online open course by Tufts University. Looks very comprehensive - includes tutorial models, notes and lots of Blender usage videos. I've even managed to complete the yellow submarine tutorial. Its free (as all education should be).

http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/28/Learningunits

ps. ICUP - love the avatar.

thanks for this awesome thread...i found just the tutorial i was looking for

You might want to add this tutorial for blender. If you download the offline PDF version it's 182 pages long....
Introduction to Character Animation

It also looks at modeling and is made for complete beginners.

Just wanted to say that this is a great thread... bump, due to request and better to bump this thread than to bump the request thread.

Anyone know of a tutorial on how to make any kind of sense out of the Effects Shader menu in the CS? The only thing I've come across is THIS -which frankly is not very helpful in figuring out how to make decent shader effects.

Now THIS should be stickied!!!

Good luck! until then maybe you could put a link to this in your snippet thread?

Good idea!

Useful. Arigato.

Has anyone copied this list to the CS Wiki yet? If not, we should (before it gets purged).

Never fearo, it's time for a Higgly Town Hero!

This list and more is also on TESSource.net. If you have a particular page in mind, I can easily copy/paste the source text into a wiki page.

LHammonds

Awesome! That's great news, man. Thanks so much. I'll update the Oblivion Mods FAQ so it includes the one you posted on TESSource.

The Wiki really needs to start collecting links, and this would be a great start! ICUP, would you mind if I started copying links onto a page on the Wiki?

Great thread! Thanks for the hard work and posting!

Ok, I finally wiki-tized it.

Resources for 3D Modeling

Now anybody can keep it up-to-date with the latest kickin tutorials they find!!!

LHammonds

I'm not sure if I had said it publicly or privately before, but I know LHammonds and I had already discussed that the list is okay for anyone to do what they wish as far as I'm concerned. Thanks for adding this to the wiki. That's a good idea as it can be updated by anyone now.

* Oblivion Texturing Tutorial Wiki
Contains guides on normal mapping, creating icons, and semi-transparent textures and much much more.

[bump]

This is so useful it needs to be bumped!

Thank you so much for this initiative ICUP! Awesomely useful...

Just thought I would add this here:

Nicoroshi's way of using Windy's Bow Morph method:

The way I do it:

1. create a model of the bow at rest.
2.save the model as a .obj file "filename"
3.(without even closing the 3D editor window during the first two steps) I move the vertices into the morphed position.
[HINT] I make my string with vertices at the top,middle, and bottom so morphing the string only requires pulling the middle vertices back (in max it's 3 1/4 squares aprox).
4. I then grab the limbs of the bow (separate item in the 3D editor so it doesn't affect the handle or string), and use a bend modifier until the angle looks right for the length the string moved back
[HINT] This takes some practice and an eye for relationships between the string pull, and distance the limbs will move.
5.Now move the bent limbs back over the handle so they line up again.
6. Grab the string ends, and move them to the ends of the limbs where they should be.
7. This is now your morphed model of the bow containing exactly the same information set up exactly the same (very important).
[NOTE] I actually created a bow that has vines wrapped around it, and in the morphed model the leaves on the vines moved also (I move their locations on purpose). So....Pretty much anything can change in the morphed model so long as the number of vertices, and their numbering when exported is exactly the same.
Example:
You could have the limbs spread flat on morph or make the limbs or whole model be bigger or smaller on morph if you follow the instructions I have outlined here.
8. Save the morphed model as an .obj "filename morphed"

Now the fun part...creating the working .nif.
I use an older version of NifSkope mainly because I tried updating to a newer version and although it works better for exporting models with information from Max it does not work for Windy's method of creating bowmorphs (I tried).
The newest version I was able to use Windy's method with was 9.6.

1.Load a bow model from the game.
2.Click on NiTriStrips (generally named Bow:0), and Right click/ OBJ /Import mesh/ "Filename".
3.Now right click on the NiTriStrip, and update tangent space.
4.Next go down the list a couple to NiGeomMorph.
5. Right click/ Morph/ Save Vertices to frame/ Base
[NOTE] You now have your model in the render frame, and the locations of the vertices at rest saved in the .nif. Next will add the morph.
[VERY IMPORTANT ALTHOUGH STILL NOT SURE EXACTLY WHY]
Move the animation slider to about 1/4 of total (would put it during the actual morph sequence (if a morph was there).
6.Click on the NiTriStrip for the 'Bow:0' /Right click/ OBJ /Import mesh/ "Filename morphed"
7. Do the update tangent space tango like step #3
8.Repeat step #4
9.Right click/ Morph/ Save Vertices to frame/ Bow morph.

At this point your model in the render window should be part way through the morph (because we moved the slider in the VERY IMPORTANT NOTES above).
Click the Play button next to the slider, and check out your new morphed bow