Baldur's Gate 3 Model Port - 2.0 Update (Patreon)

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Overview:

Man this one was a lot of work.  I spent much of this month sick, tunnel-visioned, and working on this port.  Thankfully due to the help of many we're finally able to release this update.  Like last time Axel Black and I were the primary contributors, but I also got help from others like NORN3D and SmuttyTris so I'd like to thank them for that.

If you're unfamiliar with the models, I'd recommend checking out my original release post.  It's a little wordy but it breaks down the core elements of the models.  Since then, however, I've made some changes and improvements.  Mainly: a ton of new characters.

Unfortunately there were some UI improvements I had to push back to a later date, but I managed to get some of them in.  I'd also like to make a few more tweaks in the future, as well as porting in the male characters.

Now I'll outline the improvements of this update, do a quick refresher, and then a Q&A section that should be helpful.

Improvements:

- More unique characters, such as Karlach, Orin, Jaheira, Nightsong, and many more.

- Added Half-orcs and Dryads.

- Over a dozen new faces for custom characters.

- New hair, clothing, and accessories.

- More shapes, drivers, and proportions.

- More and better color attributes (formerly vertex colors).

- New normal and bump textures for body customization, such as for muscular characters.

- Major material improvements and optimizations.

- Rig improvements.

- Eye improvements.

Refresher:

So how do you use these models?

When you download the file, it wont just be a packed .blend file.  It's a full directory of all of the model's resources along with the .blend file itself.  Since the .blend file is referencing the textures relatively, don't move it out of the folder.  When you open the .blend file you'll want to turn your attention to the 'Character' and 'Hair & Accessories' collections.  Within the 'Character' collection, you'll find the main armature and some meshes under it.  The two main meshes are female and futa, which is self-explanatory.  Within the 'Hair & Accessories' collection, you'll find hair, horns, clothing, weapons, and piercings.

The models main controls can be found in the armature's custom properties in the sidebar.  You'll also want to be familiar with the materials and modifiers tabs in order to properly use the models.  Though I've made improvements since the initial release, these models will still be tough for beginners to use.

Since these models are modular, they'll take some set-up to use properly unless you stick to Shadowheart.  For all of that you can refer to the original post, the Q&A section down below, or message me if you have any questions.

Q&A:

Q: What characters are available in this update?

A: Pretty much every playable female custom character, plus most unique female NPCs.  However there are no dragonborn and I don't really have any plans for them.  Goblins are a maybe.  Plus most hair is included, though not all clothing and accessories are available.

Q: If I want to set up a certain character, how do I do that?

A: Let's take Lae'zel for example.  First you select the armature in object mode, open the side panel and find the properties drop-down in the item tab.

From there you can select whatever character you want using the sliders, or mix them together.

After that, you'll need to select the mesh and change the head, body, and eye materials.  Depending on the model, you might also have to change more.  For Lae'zel, you would choose Lae'zel Head, Lae'zel Eyes, Githyanki Body, Githyanki Nails, and Githyanki Mouth.  Typically anything labeled 'BG3' is universal.  Plus, a lot of things use textures labeled as 'human', since they're sort of the default.

Once you have the right materials in the right material slots, you'll select the body (or dick) texture and change the color palette to the appropriate character.  In this case, you would just click the little material icon to open a drop-down of all of the options, then select Lae'zel Colors.

After that, you can use different shape keys, proportions, textures, etc.

Q: How do I duplicate the model?

A: To properly duplicate the model, select the armature and all relevant meshes under it and press SHIFT + D.

It's important that you do this all at once, as opposed to at separate times.  For example if you duplicate the armature and the meshes separately, the drivers and dependencies for the new model wont be connected correctly.

Remember that when you duplicate a model, external constraints from things like hair and clothing have to be redirected if you want them attached to the new model.  For something like hair, just click on the armature and go into pose mode, then redirect the targets for each bone constraint.

Q: How do I copy the model to a different file?

A: Copying the model is as simple as CTRL + C and CTRL + V, however you must keep in mind two things:

1. Currently pose assets (found in the animation panel) don't carry over when you copy the model.  To bring these over to a new file, you must append them from the actions section.

2. Try to transfer everything you need all at once to avoid duplicate textures, node groups, and materials.  This helps keep your file cleaner and can save you trouble down the line.

Q: How do I change a model's skin color?

A: Just click on the head or body material in the materials section, then find the color node group next to the skin node group, click it, then press tab.  There you will find an array of color mix nodes that will affect different parts of the skin.

Q: What do I do if I have two different models that share the same body material?

A: In these cases, it's best to just duplicate the material so that it can use its own color palette.  An easy way to do this is by just clicking the number next to the name in the materials panel:

The materials will still draw from the same textures and node groups.

Q: How do I use the original body proportions?

A: To use the original proportions you just go into pose mode, select everything in all six layers of the left side of the bone layer tab (1-3 and 17-19), then navigate to the pose library which is in the animation tab of the sidebar, and finally click on whichever proportion you want (Original, Dwarf, Large, etc.)

Keep in mind that these proportions are going to be more unstable than the default one.

Q: How do I change the pubic hair of the model?

A: The controls for the pubic hair are found in the vertex groups section of the particle properties tab found in the properties menu.  From there you can alter the density, length, and roughness to change the style of the hair.  You can also mess with the other options if you want.

To change the color, just select the pubic hair material in the materials section and then change the colors of the color ramp.

Q: How do I enable/disable the model's IK controls?

A: You can do so in the custom properties of the armature, where the head shapes are found.  You can also enable or disable the bone constraints of the bones themselves.

Q: What do I do if I find a character that's mirrored in the wrong way?

A: The best solution at the moment is to mirror the armature by selecting it in object mode and scaling it to -1 on the x axis (S+X+-1).  You'll have to uncross the eyes too.

Q: What is the gear bone used for?

A: That is a proportional control bone used to enable certain shape keys.  It's a way to connect the pose library proportions to the shape keys of the mesh.  It could use some improvements but right now its scale translates to proportional changes.  0.25 = Small, 0.5 = Default, 0.75 = Original, and 1 = Large.

Q: How do I switch between female and futa variants?

A: The two variants are separate meshes.  The head shapes and proportions will carry over between the two, but they both have independent shape keys and materials that you have to assign.

Q: Do the female and futa models share all of the same shape keys?

A: Almost.  Most of the shape keys are the same, but with a few differences.  The body shapes are the same up until body shape 7, and from then on they are different.  Plus the two models have different shape keys related to their genitalia.

Q: How do I make the clothing fit?

A: The clothing uses a separate armature that's parented to the character model's armature, so there are going to be inconsistencies between the two.  The clothing will fit best using the original body proportions (found in the pose library) and you'll probably want to make use of the character models' clothing masks available in the modifiers tab.

Q: What do I do when the hair doesn't fit the head correctly?

A: Some hair is made for different head and body shapes, so they don't always fit correctly.  You can usually fix this by just scaling and moving the hair's head bone appropriately, but sometimes the shape itself is going to be a little off.

Q: How do I change the model's facial expressions?

A: Right now all of the facial expressions are stored as shape keys in the model's mesh.  You can also use the face bones found in the 9-11 and 25-27 bone layers.  In the future I might build out a face rig that marries the two, but for now they're separate.

Q: Is there a way to adjust the colors in specific areas of the model?

A: Yes, with color attributes (formerly vertex colors).  If you navigate to the 'object data properties' tab in the properties panel, you will find a color attributes section.  Each color attribute has a red, green, and blue component marked with R, G, and B.  This denotes what each color in the color attribute does.  For example, the green in R-Blush G-Pale B-Tan adds paleness the model.  You can use these color attributes to not only change the coloration of the model, but also add clearcoat, wetness, freckles, stubble, etc.  If you're not sure what an attribute does... then it's probably best to be careful with it.

To paint with color attributes, just select the mesh and enter vertex paint mode.  Then select whatever color attribute you'd like to work on and you can paint just like with weight or texture painting.  The colors are on a per-vertex basis instead of a per-pixel basis, so keep in mind your level of detail will be limited.  I recommend using the Add and Subtract brushes, as they allow you to paint in a specific color without affecting other colors.

Here's a break down of all of the vertex colors:

Pores - Paints a skin pore bump map.

Stubble - Paints short hair stubble.

Dick - Denotes what area the dick is.

Genitals - Denotes what area the vagina is.

Blend - Blends in a different diffuse texture.

Smooth - Lowers normal map value.

Subsurface - Lowers subsurface value.

Seams - Adds a blank diffuse material used to cover seams.

AO - Lowers ambient occlusion value.

Nipples - Denotes what area the nipples area.

Freckles - Paints freckles (or waves for Orin or clovers for Dryads)

Ass - Denotes what area the ass/groin is.

Blush - Paints in the color palette's blush color.

Pale - Paints in a pale tone.

Tan - Paints in the color palette's markings color.

Clearcoat - Raises clearcoat value (wet/oily surface).

Jizz - Paints in jizz material.

Wetness - Paints in water droplet material.

Q: How do I change the make-up of the model?

A: The make-up options are found in the three atlas textures found in the upper side of every head texture.  The first controls the eye shadow/liner, the second controls the scalp/hair line, and the third controls the facial tattoos.  You can change these by changing the X and Y coordinates of the mapping nodes next to each texture.  Each of these has a corresponding color in the color palette.

Q: How do I change a hair's color?

A: Most of the hair uses a system that splits it up into 4 different colors for better layering.  Just go into the material panel and alter the colors found in the three mix nodes.  You can also mess around with the color ramps to change the way the colors appear.

Q: How do I fix the foreskin if it isn't working properly with other dick shapes?

A: Unfortunately there's no great modular solution for this just yet.  So you'll have to tweak the foreskin shape keys if you intend on using that function with a different dick shape.

Credits:

Texture Projection, Topology, Modeling, and Additional Work- Axel Black

Porting and Additional Assistance - MetalWolfHowl, NORN3D, SmuttyTris

Dicks - Urgarulga

Textures & Misc - Baldur's Gate 3, Daz