how to creat skins

[DrunkSniper]

Basic skinning existing model


For DF:BHD / JO:TR / JO:ESC / DF:X

Now, no body ever told me what to do, or how to do it, what you see here is my own method.

There may be better ways, or other ways..

Requirements

These are links as well..

1. NVIDIA Texture Tools
2. Doc's3DI Texture Viewer
3. Unofficial Jo/DFX Mod Tools
4. Photoshop CS2
5. FwO Raven's pff utility v0.7
6. DeSCR * (C) 2004 DV
7. BHD Mod Tools

Help Files

I have attached a winrar file.

It contains 3 files.

The original dds
My Working Untitled.psd
The jpg I used to create the pattern

Getting Started

1. Install a version of Photo Shop
2. Install the nVidia Texture tools, they will install the .dds plugin, so you can view/create .dds files.
3. Install FwO Raven's PFF tool.
4. Install Doc's 3di viewer.
5. Extract all the files from the pff files in your game folder.
6. If your modding JO, or DFX, you will need to decompress the dds file, or they will NOT load into photoshop, do this with BFC1Extractor.exe from the Unofficial jo mod tools, or the devilsclaw tools. You can batch about 30 at a time using the shift key to select the file names.
7. Unzip DV's decrypter, and create a shortcut for it.
8. Unzip the BHD Mod Tools.

Basically, We're ready to go...
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Now, decide what weapon your going to Skin.

Extract the weapons.def for your game..

Decrypt the weapons.def if you haven't done so, there's already one in the BHD Mod tools for BHD:TS.

flags for the following graphics are:

gfx1 <3di name> // first person weapon 3di name
gfx3 <3di name> // third person weapon 3di name

I have the M24 in this Tutorial, so I look at the M24 def..

gfx1 M24_1st
gfx1a arms
gfx1b armsb
gfx1_sa armsc
gfx1_sb armscb
gfx3 M24_3RD

This means we need to extract the M24_1st.3di and the M24_3RD.3di

Open Docs Viewer and load the 2 3di files..


This tells us we only need to edit the one texture file, it's called N_M24.tga

Now, this actually means N_M24.dds

The reason for this name difference has got to do with 3Ds max, it doesn't use dds file, just tga, so, the game will regognise either .tga, or dds.

dds is more space efficient, and with DFX and JO, uses a compressed version, so, the file is even smaller, and the game engine decompresses the file..

So, if your using DFX or JO, you will need to decompress the N_M24.dds using BFC1Extractor.exe, just run the .exe, use the browse popup to locate the file, and hit OK, it will decompress the file, and overwrite the original, it happens pretty quick..

The file I used is from DFX, and was compressed, it's actually exactly the same dds as used in BHD, and JO..


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Here's where we get Down and Dirty !!

Load the N_M24.dds into Photoshop, do not show mipmaps..

Now, don't look at my file name in the pic (_N_M24.dds), I renamed mine for reasons to do with creating this tut..

pic below..

Now, just as a note, the dds file has an alpha channel, you will see it if you click on channels..on the right hand side..

This is used for the depth map, we will be copying this over to your new working file shortly..

pic below..



Create a working copy

You can edit the dds file as it is, but, I've always had trouble saving it, so we'll make a working copy, that we can add layers too.

Then we'll save it as a tga, then as a dds..

Go back to the layers..

Now, bring out the edges of the pic a little, by dragging it out from the bottom right corner..

Now, using the rectanglar marquee tool, select the whole picture..

pic below..
Create a working copy

You can edit the dds file as it is, but, I've always had trouble saving it, so we'll make a working copy, that we can add layers too.

Then we'll save it as a tga, then as a dds..

Go back to the layers..

Now, bring out the edges of the pic a little, by dragging it out from the bottom right corner..

Now, using the rectanglar marquee tool, select the whole picture..

pic below..
Create a working copy

You can edit the dds file as it is, but, I've always had trouble saving it, so we'll make a working copy, that we can add layers too.

Then we'll save it as a tga, then as a dds..

Go back to the layers..

Now, bring out the edges of the pic a little, by dragging it out from the bottom right corner..

Now, using the rectanglar marquee tool, select the whole picture..

pic below..

Now, from the pull down edit menu select copy, or ctrl+c

This copies to the clipboard.

pic below..


From the File Menu, select "New" or use "CTRL+N"

A window will open, do not adjust the size, it will be the right size for the Copy you have in the clipboard.

Change the background to "Transparent", select OK

pic below..


Now edit/paste or "CTRL+V" and paste the clipboard into the new image.

You will now have a copy called "Untitled-1"

pic below..


Select the original dds file, over on the right, where the layers are, select the middle tab, and show the channels.

pic below..

Select the alpha channel..right click on it, and select "Duplicate Channel"

pic below..


From the popup window, use the arrow selector, and choose your new image..."Untitled-1"..then hit OK

pic below..

Close off the original dds file, you now have a working copy, with an alpha channel.

pic below..


From the channels, select RGB, then turn off the alpha channel, click on layers to return to a workable image..

pic below..


Adding a New Layer

From the layer Menu, select New/Layer or use SHIFT+CTRL+N

pic below..


Reselect layer 1 from the layers on the right hand side..

Then select the ploygonal lasso tool, you can right click on the tool to select 1 of 3..

pic below..


Place a lasso around the furniture (Butt and Wood bit under the barrel)

Now, from the edit pull down select copy, or use CTRL+C

pic below..

Select layer 2 on the right hand side layer control panel..

Now, from the edit pull down select paste, or use CTRL+V

pic below..


You have now pasted a new layer with an existing image, you can't even tell that it is there when you look at the pic !!

pic below..

Adding the Texture

There are a few ways of doing this, we're going to create a new pattern, then overlay that pattern with the layer properties function.

Open your picture that you want to use as the texture.

I have attached one below this post if you need one.

Now, using the rectanglar marquee tool, select the whole picture..

Then, form the edit pull down menu, select "Define Pattern"

From the popup, just hit OK, use the default names..

pic below..


Close off the image you used for the pattern, make sure you select the "Working Image"..

Select layer2, right click, and select Blending Options..sometimes you need to do this twice, as there are 2 different context windows that popup, if your doesn't say blending options, then do it again..

pic below..

The Layer Style window will popup, select "Pattern Overlay"

From the arrow by the bubble pattern, select your new patter, it should be the last one in the list..

pic below..

Use the pull down from the blend mode, and select "Overlay", then OK

You can experiment with others if you like, and adjust the opacity and scale if you want..

pic below..

Merging

Once you have what you want, we will merge the 2 layers, you may want to save here, before we do this..

From the layer pull down menu, select "Merge Visable", or use SHIFT+CTRL+E

pic below..

Now, I like to save this as a TGA before I continue..

So, choose Save As from the Edit menu, choose Targa (TGA) in the file format, and save your image..

pic below..

Choose 32 bit to maintain the alpha channel..

pic below..

Open the TGA in Photoshop..

pic below..