Lets Learn Some Reskining

Daza4

<div class="IPBDescription">Originaly from Irregular Hunter</div> Alright, first things first. I made this tutorial so some people can learn how to re-skin instead of feeling useless and asking for the skins (Where con artists can get YOU!!! Kidding )

This is what tools you need
For HLMV (Half-life model viewer) go here
<a href='http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/hlmv/' target='_blank'>http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/hlmv/</a>

For skinning
Paint shop pro or Photoshop

For now in this tutorial I'm using Paint

STEP 1: HLMV
With this tool you can view any model you wanted but where are they held? In some mods like Sven co-op they're in a folder called 'models' using hlmv go to
File -- load model
From there find the folder with the mode in thatl you want to skin, for models that come from valve or HD packs go to
File -- Open pak file
From there go to the folder with ether names
pak1.pak
pak2.pak (HD pack)
Okay? Okay....
In this tutorial I will be using the Hgrunt model, let's call him bob for now

<a href='http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter2003/hgrunt.txt' target='_blank'>http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter20...2003/hgrunt.txt</a>

As you can see bob here is looking a little dull, what can we do? At the moment it's in the sequence mode (Animation mode) And also there's a few other modes that you want to check but for now let's stick to skinning.

STEP 2: Getting the skins
Now you might be wondering, how can this help me? Using HLMV you can get the skin you want to skin, click on the texture box

<a href='http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter2003/hgrunt2.txt' target='_blank'>http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter20...003/hgrunt2.txt</a>

As shown on the pic, you now should be in the texture mode. Still looks confusing? Well here is the features of it
Import, export, save model, chrome effect
Also there should be a box with names on, these are the skins, for now I'm gonna re-skin the helmet which is
DC_Soldier_misc
You can also choose a different skin by clicking on the arrow beside the box where you get a list of the skins
Then I will export it as the pic below will show

<a href='http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter2003/texture.txt' target='_blank'>http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter20...003/texture.txt</a>

Note that all Half-life model skins have to be in BMP format
Export to a folder now we get to the next step

STEP 3: Editing the skin
Alright, for this you need a paint tool. For example I'm using paintshop pro
<a href='http://www.jasc.com/products/paintshoppro/' target='_blank'>http://www.jasc.com/products/paintshoppro/</a>
As you can see in this pic, the colours are in a palette this is because it's in 8-bit
<a href='http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter2003/psp.txt' target='_blank'>http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter2003/psp.txt</a>

Because it's in that you won't be able to use different colours besides the palette colours but there's still a way. Go to the top bar where you should find
File, edit, view, image, effects, colours, layers, objects, selections, Masks, window, help
But for this click on Colour, you should find a list of things. Scroll down to find 'Increase Colour depth'

<a href='http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter2003/psp2.txt' target='_blank'>http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter2003/psp2.txt</a>

Then find another list, click on 16 million colours (24-bit) then you are free to edit the skin. For the my skin I made the helmet deserty (Or yellowy depending on how to looks to you)

To make this usable for the Hgrunt model we need to get the colour back to 8-bit, so we go back to colours scroll down but this time don't click on 'Increase Colour depth' now we click on 'Decrease colour depth'

<a href='http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter2003/psp4.txt' target='_blank'>http://www.geocities.com/irregularhunter2003/psp4.txt</a>

And find another list, you should find
256 colours (8-bit)
click on that then it should go back to it's normal state (But with your skin edit)
Now go to file and save

STEP 4: Finishing off
Okay let's go back to HLMV and go to texture mode, this time click on Import

and open the skin you edited, for me it's
DC_Soldier_misc.bmp
Then you should have your edited skin viewed as so

Looking good so far? Let's see how to looks on Bob, click on sequence and villoa!

IT'S FINISHED, and Bob looks good with it. Try it yourself but with other skins and see the results.


Hope this helps you newbies!!
Thanks to irregualr hunter of the svencoop forums who made such a good tutroial!

Cheez1

Nice tut....unless you don't use PSP <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->

Daza4

I dont use psp ether. But this is for n00bs who dont have either and tells you where to get one <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->

CoolCookieCooks

heh psp is better for editing palettes, but still i dont use it either <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> god, that is a good tutorial, i cudnt say it better myself. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->

HKK

I find adobe better than Paint shop pro, but thats me.

Jabba_The_Hunt

I've used paint shop pro for a while, but assume adobe is better because thats what the pro's use, but I cant be bothered to change, and I've seen people do some very good graphics with psp.

Duo_Maxwell

This needs to be a sticky.

CrouchingHamster

Good tutorial.

By the way, all of this would apply to Photoshop as well, just instead of "increase / decrease colour depth", you'd use "image > mode" functions to switch between 24bit and 8 bit.

If you were using Corel Photopaint, it would be the "image > convert to" functions.