Skyrim SE FNIS Guide – How to Install & Improve Skyrim’s Animations (2022 Mods Tutorial)

FNIS (Fore’s New Idles in Skyrim) has been one of the most popular tools for modding Skyrim and installing custom animations. In case that you didn’t know, there’s a new tool that’s called Nemesis (opens in new tab) which brings many new benefits and updates to good old FNIS. However, if for some reason you still wish to use FNIS instead, this is how you do it.

First thing’s first. You need to know how to mod Skyrim via Mod Organizer 2 (MO2) so in case that you’ve never done that before, please make sure to familiarize yourself with that first. I’ve done extensive guides on the topic.

Modding Skyrim LE & SE

If you don’t know how to mod Skyrim, check out my beginner’s guide to modding Skyrim SE (Special Edition). It opens in new tab so go ahead and click it.

It’s the same for LE (Legendary Edition). You just need to download appropriate mods between them.

Once you’re ready, download & install FNIS packs of your choice from Nexus. This link is for Skyrim SE (Special Edition).

Install like any other mods in MO2. I used the creature & spells pack.

Download & Install the Engine

Now that we have those packs in MO2, we need to add the tool as an executable, so download it and do that. Make sure your overwrite folder is empty. I demonstrate all of this in the video.

Start the tool and select any patches you need from the interface. Read everything else it says as well.

Click on Update FNIS Behavior. Click on Consistence Check. If everything looks good, right click on overwrite folder and create a new mod from the output contents.

Go to the game and you should be able to equip two new spells, one for yourself and one for NPCs to test whether you’ve done it right.

2 thoughts on “Skyrim SE FNIS Guide – How to Install & Improve Skyrim’s Animations (2022 Mods Tutorial)”

    • Most animations can be installed like any other mod. Meaning, if the animation mod is just changing vanilla animations, then you don’t need to run it through the engine.

      If it adds anything new to the game, then it needs to go through the engine, and for that I recommend you take a look at this page & video.

      Reply

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