The complete skinning tutorial (FAQ)

[501st_commander]

From Skinning to In-game – The complete skinning tutorial
First off you need the following things:
GIMP - 2.6.7
Msh viewer
White clone
The modtools
If you don’t have just one of them, click the name above.

Basic Skinning

Open the tga by right clicking it - open with - GIMP 2.0
It should look like this:


Now let’s make it look like.. A custom clone..
So go to: Colors => Brightness and contrast
And make it look like this:


Now select part of the body with the rectangle select tool, for me it’s the chest. You may want to scroll in a bit by clicking "Ctrl" then use the mouse wheel, or the bottom left there is a "100%" click it and click "300%".



Now go to: Colors => Colorize
Make it a red close to mine.


TIP: Try not to use much saturation, sometimes it makes it look bad..
Click OK when you are done.
Try now to go off and color more of the troop.
TIP: when you color more things and you want the color to be the same, click the presets dropdown box. Then click the first number you see. Aka. #8
Now here is what I got:


To get the slanted color area, use the free select tool.
This is what he looks like in the Msh viewer:



Now, Click: File => Save As
And save it as a TGA on your desktop. You will get this:

DE-check RLE compression. The mod tools doesn’t like RLE compression..
Leave your skin open please, for the next part.

Basic Battle Damage

Now that you have made your skin, let’s make battle damage!
Scroll to 1600% zoom at the chest. You need to be this close to make GOOD paint chips.
Click the free select tool


Make a squiggly selected area


Go to: Colors => Colorize
Make it sort of white


Continue to do this on the "other side" and on the rest of the clone, where you feel there needs to be battle damage.
Now let’s "brush" the sides of the color
Reselect the entire skin with the rectangle select tool.
Use the smudge tool and lightly smudge he edges of the color on the skin.
This is what I came up with:


Msh Viewer:

I like it. Save it. Now to the next part..

(Optional) Extra Skin improvements
Here i will tell you a bit of improvements i picked up.
At the top in GIMP go to: Filters => Enhance => Sharpen


And sharpen it between 60 and 70%


It should look like this:


Msh viewer:

Now save your skin.

For more skinning improvements, read Labj´s skinning tricks <= click

How to get your skin in-game

First, make a map. Go to /BF2_modtools/data/_BULD/visualmunge.exe
Make a world, with a 3 letter map name and name as SKN
The description you can, well, make up stuff
Make sure you click "conquest"!
When that is done, go to: /BF2_modtools/data_SKN/sides
Make a folder and name it rep, now inside that folder make a, odf, msh, req, effects, and munged folders.


NOTE: I’m using data_XXX, but you need to use data_SKN
Go to: /BF2_modtools/assets/sides/rep
copy the rep.req and paste it in: /BF2_modtools/data_SKN/sides/rep
Now open the rep.req
It should be a LONG line of text. Edit that to looks like this:


Now save that.
Go to: : /BF2_modtools/assets/sides/rep and copy the following files
In msh folder:
rep_weap_inf_rifle.msh
rep_weap_inf_rifle.msh.option
rep_1st_weap_inf_rifle.tga
rep_1st_weap_inf_rifle.tga.option
rep_1st_weap_inf_rifle.msh.option
rep_1st_weap_inf_rifle_bump.tga
rep_1st_weap_inf_rifle_bump.tga.option
rep_inf_ep3trooper.msh
rep_inf_ep3trooper.msh.option
And paste them in the msh folder in data_SKN/sides/rep/msh

In odf folder:
rep_weap_inf_rifle.odf
rep_weap_inf_rifle_ord.odf
rep_inf_default.odf
And paste them in the odf folder in data_SKN/sides/rep/odf

Copy the entire folder of munged and effects from: /BF2_modtools/assets/sides/rep
and put them in: /BF2_modtools/data_SKN/sides/rep

Now open notepad
And we make the trooper’s odf’s.
Put this in notepad:

Code: Select all

[GameObjectClass]
ClassParent         = "rep_inf_default_rifleman"

[Properties]
GeometryName        = "rep_inf_ep3trooper"
GeometryLowRes      = "rep_inf_ep3trooper"
FirstPerson         = "REP\reptroop;rep_1st_trooper"

Then save it as: rep_inf_ep3_rifleman.odf
in: BF2_modtools/data_SKN/sides/rep/odf
NOTE: remember to put the .odf at the end of the file name when you save or it won’t work!

Now we make the default odf. This is where the weapons are set up.

Code: Select all

[GameObjectClass]
ClassParent         = "rep_inf_default"


[Properties]
WEAPONSECTION = 1
WeaponName         = "rep_weap_inf_rifle"
WeaponAmmo         = 4

WEAPONSECTION = 2
WeaponName         = "rep_weap_award_rifle"
WeaponAmmo         = 4

VOUnitType        	= 121

Save that as: rep_inf_default_rifleman.odf
in: BF2_modtools/data_SKN/sides/rep/odf
NOTE: remember to put the .odf at the end of the file name when you save or it won’t work!

We now need to make the req for the trooper. Open notepad, and put this in it:

Code: Select all

ucft
{
    REQN
    {
        "class"
        "rep_inf_ep3_rifleman"
    }
}

Save that as: rep_inf_ep3_rifleman.req
in: BF2_modtools/data_SKN/sides/rep/req
NOTE: remember to put the .req at the end of the file name when you save or it won’t work!

Done? Good.
Now go to: /BF2_modtools/assets/sides/
And copy the entire common folder and paste it in: /BF2_modtools/data_SKN/sides/

Don’t forget to copy the trooper’s tga on your desktop and put it in the msh folder!!

The LUA stuff

Now I will tell you how to add the unit to the LUA.
Go to: /BF2_modtools/data_SKN/common/scripts/SKN/
And open SKNc_con.lua
scroll down to this:


Make it look like this:


NOTICE:
I removed the rep_inf_ep3_rifleman from the first ReadDataFile("rep\\rep.lvl,
Also I added a dc: to the second ReadDataFile("rep\\rep.lvl,

Save the lua and close notepad

Munge time

Go to: /BF2_modtools/data_SKN/_BULD
And open the visualmunge.exe

Select rep like in the picture, then click "munge". This is the first munge, it will take a while..
When it’s done,

Time to test!!
Play Battlefront 2, find the map you named (the 3 letter map: SKN), and play. The trooper you added should be the first one!

Hidden/Spoiler:

[RogueKnight]

Looks liek a win.

Its a tad long, you may want to cut it down to the most important parts, so that it doesn't scare people (like it did me) into not taking all the time to read it.

It seems like you covered most of the basics, some of the advanced operations, and getting it ingame, which is good.

I'll be doing one of these myself sometime soon when I'm not being lazy.

[501st_commander]

Its a tad long, you may want to cut it down to the most important parts, so that it doesn't scare people (like it did me) into not taking all the time to read it.

If you remove the pics it doesn't look that long..

It seems like you covered most of the basics, some of the advanced operations, and getting it ingame, which is good.

[mswf]

Could you also release this as a downloadable document? This is a great tutorial. (Though I don't quite like to use colourize personally. (I like layers and brushes) Though, again, that's just personal, this is great anyway)
EDIT:
Scratch that last comment, colourising works great.

[General_Nate]

This will be great for those who can't skin! (Nice skin you made BTW.) I had no idea that you could colorize inside of a selection. Very cool!

[Fiodis]

Very nice. I skimmed it, and the one thing I had an issue with was the use of the "free-select" tool to get slanted marks. If you use the Paths tool to make a custom path, then click "select from path", you get guarunteed straight lines/smooth curves, and the selection's easy to edit: just edit the path and click select from path again. I think this'd be easy for newbies at any sort of graphics editing, who can't draw a straight line on a computer too well. (It's actually harder than it looks; I had plenty trouble myself when I was starting off. The thing that throws you off is that the mouse moves horizontally flat on your desk, while the computer screen is vertical....)

Overall, very nice. Unlike other tutorials, it gives details on both making skins and getting them in-game. Pretty useful for beginners, and everyone starts off as a beginner....

[Maveritchell]

Very nice. I skimmed it, and the one thing I had an issue with was the use of the "free-select" tool to get slanted marks. If you use the Paths tool to make a custom path, then click "select from path", you get guarunteed straight lines/smooth curves, and the selection's easy to edit: just edit the path and click select from path again. I think this'd be easy for newbies at any sort of graphics editing, who can't draw a straight line on a computer too well. (It's actually harder than it looks; I had plenty trouble myself when I was starting off. The thing that throws you off is that the mouse moves horizontally flat on your desk, while the computer screen is vertical....)

Overall, very nice. Unlike other tutorials, it gives details on both making skins and getting them in-game. Pretty useful for beginners, and everyone starts off as a beginner....

You probably should use some kind of pathing if you plan on doing any accurate texturing at all. Using just the straight mouse pointer in anything (unless you have an attached writing pad) is almost always a terrible choice.

[destos]

not always true mav, i have never used pathing and my lines are actually straight. of course i have to hit undo and try again sometimes, but it actually is much easier than it sounds.as seen in these skins

Hidden/Spoiler:

just wanted to prove that it can be done =P

of course the main reason i dont use pathing is because idk if Photoshop elements 3.0 has that ability =P

[Maveritchell]

of course the main reason i dont use pathing is because idk if Photoshop elements 3.0 has that ability =P

It's true that not every app has a pathing ability, but you don't need that explicit tool to make selection paths - all you need is the ability to create more than one layer and the ability to select by region ("fuzzy select," "magic wand," etc.). Open up a new layer, draw your path with the line/curve tools, and then select by region that area. Switch layers and use that selection.

[destos]

i have acctually never opened up a new layer i always work right with the source, because elements has many brush types that allow you to do special coloring (like burn tool, it burns the skin with a color, so say i wanted red, the skin becomes red and it looks nicer than just using the normal brush with the opacity of 65%, also the overlay is like colorburn but without the burning, that how i created the commando in my previous post =P

but im getting off topic, this is a nice tutorial, I hope to see some more skins soon =D

[IronJaw]

I personally like to select the general araa that I want to colorize, open a new layer, past and anchor the image, then colorize it to (insert color). Since it's on a different layer than the skin I can use the eraser with opacity down to 37 or so and erase the color. This lets any shading and, to a lesser extent, damage to show through. It also keeps the colors from looking to strong, painty, and all round colorized look.

[BigG00001]

nice guide. taught me how to skin, and with knowledge from some other guides I can make custom sides with it.
the guide is good for skinning beginners.. like me..

[501st_commander]

Could you also release this as a downloadable document? This is a great tutorial. (Though I don't quite like to use colourize personally. (I like layers and brushes) Though, again, that's just personal, this is great anyway)
EDIT:
Scratch that last comment, colourising works great.

I can release it as downloadable document. when i was writing it, i was typing in in word, so.. i can

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

[ArkAngel]

Hey I followed all the instructions, and the map loads for 5 seconds with my custom skin, and crashes... The error log said that the ep3trooper had like 1,000 vertices or w.e, and that was all. Help?

Oh and also, for some reason, it has the sniper's kama... is that waht's causing it? my skin looked so cool lol

[RC-1192]

nice tut 501st (very helpful)

[501st_commander]

Hey I followed all the instructions, and the map loads for 5 seconds with my custom skin, and crashes... The error log said that the ep3trooper had like 1,000 vertices or w.e, and that was all. Help?

Oh and also, for some reason, it has the sniper's kama... is that waht's causing it? my skin looked so cool lol

run the BF2_modtools.exe in the gamedata folder. then post the BFront2.txt document here.

the shipers kama is there because you used the snipers msh and/or it has the kama in it's ODF file. Im not to sure now because i uninstalled the modtools to upgrade my OS.

[Starkiller2356]

Awesome tutorial!!! I just made my very first skinned side with this . I have been looking everywhere for something like this. I am a beginner at this kind of stuff. Great job man!

Too bad I can't play with my new skinned clones because my ZE doesn't work at the moment.

Well until I get it working I will be working on ideas for skinning. Thanks

[genaral_mitch]

You can play with your clones without ZE. You just need to munge.

Hidden/Spoiler:

Pretend ZE not working is a good thing, cuz that's how I got good at side modding, and it did start with a simple reskin.

[lucasfart]

Also, you said you would release it as a doc. could someone tell me where it is released?

[Starkiller2356]

You can play with your clones without ZE. You just need to munge.

Hidden/Spoiler:

Pretend ZE not working is a good thing, cuz that's how I got good at side modding, and it did start with a simple reskin.

Oh thanks I will try it. One more question: how do you skin the clones with patterns like the camo clones you see on Kashyyk or in the conversion pack? Thanks in advance.