Now to open these up in MS3D, go up to the file menu, then down to the import option. A side menu will kick out and you will look for the wavefront OBJ files. Thats what SKN2OBJ created out of the .skn file for you to edit, along with a .mat file and an .spj file. But we're just concerned with the .obj file right now.

I'm going to open up the bun one first since I will just be using pieces of it. Once it's open, I begin moving the vertices (the little dots that connect the lines) around to start making the shape I want.

*NOTE* Don't ever move the root mesh around! You'll end up with a crap skin mesh and have to do it all over again. This goes for heads and bodies. The internal skeletal structure isn't really editable at this point, so if you move it, it'll just look bad, likewise, if you tried to put the arm by the leg. You can't bend a body if you're meshing it, you can't move a head around, either.

Using the sketch I made as a referrence, Here are some pics of the work in process:

To get that fuller, loose upsweep look, I need to scale out the sides of the head. I select the vertices on the side using the "select" button on the Model tab, and then the scale option. From here I drag the mouse across the front view window from side to side. One direction shrinks, the other expands. I also move the vertices on the top of the bun back and expand them as well to make the bun fuller.

screenshot2

When the head gets too big for the window, I can resize the view using shift+L to zoom the view in and out. Likewise if I wanted to move the view around, I don't move the mesh, just the window view with ctrl-L. The only thing is, you can't use it when the "select" button is pressed or nothing will happen.

Now that I have the bun like I want it, it's time to delete the face vertices. I don't need them for this and they will just be taking up unecessary space and probably look a little funny with the longhair head mesh.

I also need that stick for the bun, so to make it, I will use the cylinder button. To minimize vertices (because SKN2OBJ can only handle a limited amount of vertices and faces, or you will get an error window saying "runtime error" when you try to convert it back) I set the options in the window to 1 stack, and 3 slices. I stack, because I'm not bending it anywhere or making it multicolored, and 3 slices, because as small as it is going to show up in the game, roundness doesn't really matter.

I make a nice long cylinder, rotate it and move it into place. (I don't type in numbers to rotate it. I do it manually, dragging the mouse across the windows depending on the direction I want it to rotate, same as moving it, just drag it into place.)

I also need some ribbons, and I think the easiest way to do that would be to make ribbons out of cylinders, too. The only thing I will change here is to up the stack count to 4. Looking at the side view, along the bun, the cylinders will have to bend in 4 places, so that should give me enough to work with.