How to Change Cerwidens Appearance

For those of you whod like to change Cerwidens in-game look, heres a brief summary of how to do it,
and keeping your modified appearance for any new mod updates I may make. You also need to use the
CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp file, as all appearance changes need to be done here (unless you want to
make your own patch file). Otherwise, if you make them in the original CerwidenCompanion.esp, your
changes will be overwritten if you download any update I may make, and youll end up having to reapply your .NPC file. When installing this mod, please pay particular attention to the steps in the
README file that accompanies this patch mod.
Here are the general steps to create an appearance patch mod, along with screen captures:
1. Use the tool of your choice to create Cerwidens appearance, noting that her base model is Nord
female. For purposes of this instructional, Im using Modder Resource Easy NPC Creation, but
you can use whatever you tool you wish.
Load Skyrim with NPC Photobooth.esp active, open the console and type coc Photobooth.

At the next screen, click the activator, select whatever background (if any) youd like and click
Begin NPC Creation

For purposes of this instructional, I changed Ceris hair to F28 and gave her green eyes.

When done with Ceris look, click R and type in a name (doesnt matter what you type), and
after that return to the console and type spf Cerwiden, hit enter, and qqq + enter to exit out
of Skyrim.

2. IMPORTANT STEP IF YOU USE OTHER MODS THAT CHANGE APPEARANCE: If you used
dependencies beyond Skyrim.esm and CerwidenCompanion.esp, you MUST also make those
dependencies FORMAL in the CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp files header. If you are NOT
using mods that change appearance or do not need them as dependencies, you may safely skip
Step 2 and proceed to Step 3.
If you dont, the look wont appear right in-game and/or youll get errors. There are a few
different ways to include these dependencies in the mod header, the easiest of which is to use
Wrye Bash, and Ill cover that below. If you dont want to use Wrye Bash, you can use TESVSnip
to change the header manually, create temporary ESMs out of any dependent ESPs (e.g.,
ESMifying) and simply save in the CK, use any Hex Editor, etc. Using Wrye Bash:
a. You may want to do a backup of the original CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp just in case
you mess something up and break a dependency.
b. Open up Wrye Bash and go to the Mods Tab
c. Select CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp and youll see the current Masters on the right
side, middle panel.

d. For any ESPs that you need as Masters, bring up the context menu and select Esmify Self.

e. For each missing ESM/ESP (ESMified) that you need as a Master, bring up the context menu
and select Add Master.

f.

Click OK past the Advanced Modder warning.

g. From the Windows Explorer panel, select the ESP or ESM youd like to use as the master.
h. Repeat the above steps for EACH master youd like to include in the header.
3. Open the CK (if you want to be able to preview your work in the Actor window, and you use
ENB, turn OFF ENB prior to opening the CK).

4. From Data Files, select CerwidenCompanion.esp along with any other ESP or ESM files you want
for for her look (e.g., ApachiiHair.esm). For purposes of the sample appearance patch mod, Ill
be using ApachiiHair.esm) and, finally, CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp as ACTIVE. Ignore any CK
warnings that may appear by clicking Yes to All to each one. IMPORTANT NOTES:
a. You may want to do a backup of the original CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp just in case
you mess something up and break a dependency.
b. Relating to dependencies, if you use the SPF method outlined previously to export to
.NPC, make note of the LOAD ORDER of any appearance dependencies and update the
.NPC file for those assets. Otherwise, unless if you load the EXACT SAME MODS into the
CK, the load order wont match, and youll get defaults for some of your selections.
This occurs most commonly with hair, eyes, lips and other facegen components. See
Step 5 for details.

5. Please read this step carefully. If you are not using appearance dependencies, skip to Step 5 and
import the .NPC file normally. If you ARE using appearance dependencies (custom hair like
Apachii, custom eye mods, custom face mods to have freckles/more tattoos, etc.), please do the
following:
a. Make note of the CK load order of the dependencies relative to the Skyrim load order
when you created your .NPC file. What do I mean by this? Lets say when you loaded
Skyrim to create your .NPC file, you had 50 mods loaded, including Apachii SkyHair,
which loaded in position 0A in Skyrim. Check to see if that is the SAME order it is
being loaded in the CK; chances are it IS NOT, and is probably something like 01.
b. Open your .NPC file in any text editor and look for the mod dependency components, as
shown below.

c. In your text editor, change the 1st two characters for those components to MATCH YOUR
CK LOAD ORDER. In the example screenshot above, 0A is my Apachii load order when
running Skyrim. However, because I dont load each and every mod into the CK, Apachii
is loaded as 01, right after Skyrim.esm (00). So I would change 0A to 01 in the
.NPC file and save.
d. Repeat the above steps for EACH custom facegen part you want to use. If you do not
follow this step properly, youll get the racial default component rather than what is in
the .NPC file.
6. Once in the CK, open Cerwiden from the Object Window, and in the Actor window, click on tab
Character Gen Parts.

7. Use the Import button to get the .NPC file youd like to use (I included Cerwidens original
.NPC in the Miscellaneous Files section at Skyrim Nexus, as well as this instructional .NPC file),
which should be in your Skyrim root install directory.

8. Verify the look is accurate/imported properly (e.g., make sure you have ALL necessary
dependencies), and click OK.

9. Set whether you want Ceri as Protected or Essential, click the Save button and exit the CK.

10. Close and reopen the CK with CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp and it should automatically also
load all dependencies, including CerwidenCompanion.esp and any hair/appearance mod you
may use. If these dependencies dont load, it means youve done something wrong to
CerwidenAppearancePatch.esp, so get a new baseline copy. If you are using other dependent
mods, please remember that Step 2 is necessary; otherwise, your patch mod will bork here.

This screen capture relates to Steps 9 12 below.

11. From the Object Window, open Cerwiden again. Once in the Actor window, dont make any
changes, and just click OK.
12. From the Object Window, single-click on Cerwiden and youll notice the line will highlight in
blue.
13. Hit CTRL+F4 to export the new FaceGen files associated with your appearance changes, ignoring
any warnings (click Yes to All) relating to Apachii hairs TRI files.
14. When you see the Done window, close out of the CK, and open up Wrye Bash again.
15. Go back to any dependent ESPs on which you used ESMify and added as Master, bring up the
context menu and select Espify Self.

16. ENJOY YOUR NEW LOOK!

A few IMPORTANT closing remarks:

1. If, for whatever reason, youre still getting the gray face bug after this, use Wrye Bash or
TESVSnip to convert the ESP to an ESM and redo starting from Step 9 above.
a. Youll then need to move the FaceGen files from the ESM directory and into the ESP
directory.
i. Meshes: [install drive and path]
Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Data\Meshes\actors\character\facegendat
a\FaceGeom\CerwidenCompanion.esm
ii. Textures: [install drive and path]
Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Data\textures\actors\character\FaceGenDa
ta\FaceTint\CerwidenCompanion.esm
b. Delete CerwidenCompanion.esm and the directories above after moving, unless you
want to archive them for later use.
2. Keep a copy of the .NPC file and exported FaceGen files stored away safely for later use. This
way you dont have to recreate your look. If you followed these directions properly, the files
you need:
a. NPC Face Export Cerwiden.NPC will be in your Skyrim root install directory
b. Mesh 0001984A.NIF will be in
..\Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Data\Meshes\actors\character\facegendata\Fac
eGeom\CerwidenCompanion.esp
c. Texture 0001984A.dds will be in
..\Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim\Data\textures\actors\character\FaceGenData\Fa
ceTint\CerwidenCompanion.esp
3. When you download a mod update for Cerwiden from Nexus, if you did this right, you wont
have to do anything and Ceri will keep your custom look. To be sure, the core
CerwidenAppearanceMod.esp patch works with every version of Cerwiden, from 1.0 through
the current. Please see the CerwidenAppearancePatch-README.txt file that accompanies this
document for patch installation/update instructions.
4. If you are using Ceris dynamic wardrobe function, and you want her hair color to match that of
your new appearance, youll need to edit the meshes and/or texture files in the hair
subdirectories depending on the degree of color change. There are any number of ways to do
this, so Im not going to go into a whole new tutorial on how to change hair colors (I just use
Nifskope and GIMP). :P
5. If youd like to learn more, generally, about patch mods, ESM vs. ESP and why you had to do all
this, please read this article on De-Isolation.
END