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Author	Topic: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a step-by-step tutorial) - CHAPTER 5 of 5 UP (3 Jan 03)
jp-30 Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Dec '00	Date Posted: 9/21/02 4:55pm Subject: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a step-by-step tutorial) - CHAPTER 5 of 5 UP (3 Jan 03) - Date Edited: 1/2/03 2:39pm (5 edits total) Edited By: jp-30
	Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies By jp-30 Chapter One: Tools and Preparation What you need: A copy of Jedi Outcast installed on your PC Modview An unzipping program A good art / paint program* (you won't need this until the next chapter is published in a week) Notepad / Wordpad / Word or similar text editor (you won't need this until the next chapter is published in a week) You will need to have a basic appreciation of Windows - making folders, renaming folders and files, copying and pasting files & folders etc. You will also need a reasonable knowledge of using your art / paint program. This guide (from next week) will describe techniques as used in Jasc's Paint Shop Pro. If you need specific questions answered for Photoshop or other programs, hopefully someone else will partake in the resulting discussion and be able to assist. A copy of Jedi Outcast installed on your PC. If you don't have this game, go buy it at any half decent computer game dealer. Modview Get this in JK2 Editing Tools (4 MB), or you may be able to find modview 2.1 on its own if you search the web. An unzipping program We'll need Pakscape for packing up the skin at the end, so get this now and use it for the unzipping process too. Download (106k) or here Pakscape_new.zip. A good art / paint program (not needed this week). If you don't have one you can download a free trial of Jasc Paint Shop Pro here. Glossary Model or Mesh - a 3d representation of an object. In this case "model" refers to a 3d representation of a humanoid. These models are seen in game as your player character and as enemies. Skin - images that are wrapped over a model to give it clothes, flesh, a face etc. Skinning - the process of creating a skin for a model. Editing - customising a game. It can be making new models, skins, maps, animations, behaviours etc. Introduction Jedi Outcast uses a special archive called a pk3 file to hold all the game data. If you've downloaded any models, skins or levels you may already be familiar with the file type. The best way to get into skinning is to alter an existing skin. Once you get better at skinning you can make the skin files from scratch. It's wise to use a model that is supplied with the game, rather than skinning a model made by a member of the editing community. You don't need permission to edit one of the models / skins that come with Jedi Outcast. If you wish to alter someone elses work, it always pays to ask their permission (or check the readme file, as sometimes permission is given in there to all who wish to adapt the work). 1. Getting Started: Unpacking assets0.pk3 Unpacking the JO players. There are several ways to do this, and if you're familiar with unzipping there are probably easier ways to do the following. So long as you can get to step 2, feel free to do it any way you're comfortable with. OK, so lets take a look at the models and skins that are supplied in Jedi Outcast. Make a subdirectory off C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars JK II Jedi Outcast\GameData\base\ called models C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars JK II Jedi Outcast\GameData\base\models Launch your UNZIPPING program. I suggest using pakscape, as you'll need to be familiar with this program later when you complile your skin. Click "open" (in the file menu, or the open folder icon) Click through your directory structure until you get to this directory; C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars JK II Jedi Outcast\GameData\base\ Find the file assets0.pk3 double click "assets0.pk3" You should see something like this; It's all the folders that are packed inside "assets0.pk3" ] We need to extract some of them. In the left window, single click the "models" directory The contents of the "models" directory will open up in the right window. Right click on the "players" directory in the right window. A menu will pop up. Put your mouse over "object" and from the submenu select "export" A "browse for folder" box will appear. Click through to C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars JK II Jedi Outcast\GameData\base\models click OK. Your hard drive while whirr away for a while as several hundred files are exported from the pk3 archive into your \models\ directory. You can now close up PakScape. You won't need it again until your skin is finished. 2. Examining the models Now we can have a good look at all the models we just extracted using the modview utility. Hint: make a desktop shortcut to C:\Program Files\LucasArts\Star Wars JK II Jedi Outcast\GameData\base\models\players\ Do this by locating the above folder using "my computer", right clicking on the \players\ subdirectory and selecting "create shortcut". An folder icon will appear named "players", but it will have an arrow in the bottom left corner indicating it's a shortcut. Drag the icon onto your desktop. It will save a lot of clicking through to the working folders as we make the skin. 3. Modview Locate where you installed Modview and launch it. Click "open". It will probably default to your "my documents" directory. Click the "up one directory icon". You should now be at the desktop. Find the "players" shortcut. Double click it to take you straight to the directory you just extracted from the assets0.pk3 archive. You will now see all the names of the in game characters. _humanoid atst bespin_cop chiss desann droids galak galak_mech glider gonk gran imperial imperial_worker interrogator jan jedi jeditrainer kyle lando luke mark1 mark2 minemonster monmothma morgan mouse prisoner probe protocol r2d2 r5d4 rebel remote rodian sentry shadowtrooper stormpilot stormtrooper swamptrooper tavion trandoshan ugnaught weequay These are all the characters, npc's (non-player characters) and enemies for the game. For the purposes of skinning, we need only concern ourselves with the humanoid models (but feel free to use Modview to examine the others if you like); Models fit for reskinning to create a customised MP character; bespin_cop chiss desann galak gran imperial imperial_worker jan jedi jeditrainer kyle lando luke monmothma morgan prisoner rebel rodian shadowtrooper stormpilot stormtrooper swamptrooper tavion trandoshan ugnaught weequay 4. Decide what you intend to create A very important step this. There's not much point in aimlessly mucking around with a skin oping that you'll miraculously end up with some amazing new skin. You need some sort of idea to begin with. The best idea is to examine all the models so you understand what the limits are. There's no point wanting to make a female skin with long hair and a skirt, when there are no models with that shape. As I've said before, you can also reskin others custom models, but check the readme to see if permission is automatically granted. If not, drop the creator an email and ask if you can reskin the model. In my experience, they don't often bother to write back. Of course there's nothing stopping you from reskinning the custom model and just keeping it for your own (and your friends) use. Just don't submit it for public download to one of the many Jedi Knight editing sites (massassi, jediknightii.net, jk2files) For our first attempt at skinning we'll choose a pretty "standard" model. I'm going to model the skin on the guy from the early Knights of the Old Republic screenshots, as he looks pretty simple and is a good place as any to start. Gather up some good images of your intended character from books, cards or the internet. Now we need to find a suitable model. So in modview, let's take a look at the male characters who have a similar shape to the KOTOR guy; Click on open - directory up from "my documents" to "desktop". Double click on "players". Double click on "bespin_cop". One file will appear in the box "model.glm". Double click on it to open the model in modview. It may take a little while to load. Here are my quick notes on each potential skin we could use to make our KOTOR guy; bespin_cop - no good, wearing a hat. chiss - quite good, good hair. Shirt tails too long. No holster. galak - OK. Bad hair, Shirt tails too long. No holster. imperial - no good, hat. imperial_worker - no good, helmet. jedi - pretty good. no holster. Hair reasonable. jeditrainer - no good, ponytail. kyle - great, has a holster, but also has an unwanted beard. lando - no good, bit of a 'fro. Holster in wrong place. luke - "That 70's Hair". Shirt tails too long. No Holster. morgan - Pretty good. no holster. prisoner - Great clothes. No Holster. rebel - Helmet no good. No-one has a holster except Lando and Kyle. We can rule Lando out due to the hair. Kyle has a beard that can't be turned off but does have a good holster. The prisoner doesn't have a holster, but it does have a beard that can be removed. Weighing up all the options, including the fact that the prisoner's clothes are already similar to what we're wanting to create we will choose to continue skinning the Prisoner model. 5. Familiarising yourself with Modview Open the prisoner in modview. Play around with the program to familiarise yourself with it. Here are some things to try; Adjusting the view. Click in the model window. Hold down your mouse left-button and move the mouse. The model will rotate. Hold the right-mouse button. Move the mouse up and down to zoom in and out. Hold down your "ALT" button and move the mouse to move the model's position. Open the Jan model and zoom in on her butt. You know you want to. Feel like the worst sort of geek ever, and quickly return to the Prisoner model. Highlighting body parts. In the left window expand "model.glm" by clicking the [+] to the left of it. A subdirectory will open up; Surfaces Tag Surfaces Bones Skins Available Sequences We can ignore Tag Surfaces and Bones, as they don't come into play when it comes to skinning. Expand "Surfaces" Expand "//////// stupidtriangle" Expand "hips" Expand everything that can be expanded (torso, l_leg, r_leg, r_arm, l_arm, r_hand, l_hand, head, ////////head_off, l_leg, r_leg) Single click on "hips" - the hips area of the model will highlight. Use your down arrow on your keyboard to cycle through the various body parts. Some highlight like the hips, and some (that are marked with an ) just give a set of axes. You can ignore the ones marked with an . You can turn parts of the model on or off. For example if altering Jan, as you can turn off her goggles, chaps, belt and pockets. Anything with "////////" before the name is presently turned off. You can turn off all body parts, but there's no point if it leaves a hole in the model. Have a play. Right-click "hips_torso" (near the top). In the popup menu click "Set Staus: OFF". Then click on "torso_l_shoulder". Notice the belt is now gone, and there's a gap in the model. Some models will allow you to turn off the belt, and there will still be torso underneath. This model is no good for that. Luckily our KOTOR guy has a belt anyway. Turn the belt back on by right clicking "hips_torso" again. In the popup menu click "Set Staus: ON". Try the above again for r_hand_wrist or l_hand wrist. Notice that when you turn the sleeve wrist off, there's still arm underneath. There is a slight gap beween the end of the flesh and the start of the sleeve unfortunately, but it illustrates how certain mesh parts can be put over other parts. So, our guy has a beard, but the pictures we're working from do not. This Prisoner model has two different faces we can choose from by turning on and off a couple of surfaces. Scroll down to the "head" parts; Turn off "head_face" Turn off "head_face_mouth" Turn on "////////head_face_off" Turn on "////////head_face_mouth_off" The prisoner should now look like this; Play with other models and turn surfaces on or off. Good things to turn off are belts, pockets, holsters, collars etc. Close up the surfaces by going back to the top and clicking on the [-] by "Surfaces" 6. View the Teams Skins Expand "Skins Available" Double click on "blue". Look at the team colours. Try again for "red". When you've had a look, put it back to "default". Close up the alternate skins by clicking on the [-] by "Skins available" 7. View the Animations Expand "Sequences (From animation.cfg)" Hundreds of animation sequences will drop down. Double click on any of them. The model will move to frame one of that sequence. Click on the "video player" type buttons at the top menubar to view the animation, rewind it, speed it up, slow it down etc. Double click other sequence names to view them. 8. View other bits and bobs Click on "view" in the top menu. Turn various things on and off to see variations in the model window. eg. click on "...as wireframe" to see the mesh without the skin. click on LOD 1, LOD 2, LOD 3 to see the 3 "levels of Details". Play around. It's the best way to familiarise yourself with the program. 9. Summary OK, so we've extracted files from assetts0.pk3, and looked at several models using modview. We've turned surfaces on and off, looked at team colour variations and examined some animation sequences. Next time we'll start actually altering the prisoner model and repainting / recolouring the images that make up the skin. Feel free to discuss this tutorial below. I'll clear up anything that's ambiguous above, and refine it over the course of a week. Once the tutorial is "bug" free it can be uploaded onto force.net/games. -----signature----- B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr
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Jedi_Nailbiter Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 9/21/02 5:53pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial) - Date Edited: 9/21/02 6:05pm (2 edits total) Edited By: Jedi_Nailbiter
	Yay! Now to read it... edit: and your daughters pretty cute. how old is she?
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Aragorn327 Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Aug '01	Date Posted: 9/21/02 6:01pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	Yay! Great opening pic JP ! I'll get started on this tomorrow, but quick question- is paint too lowly for the graphics program? What about Photoshop Elements, is taht ok? Great work! -----signature----- "Question not the ways of the script, there's always a bigger fish" Wyrd bið ful aræd. Steam and Xbox Live tag: Zod the Bear
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Night4554 Registered: Oct '00	Date Posted: 9/21/02 6:01pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	So.... JP.... when ya [link=mailto:games@theforce.net]emailing me the raw no-markup-codes source[/link] so I can convert it to html and stick in on TFN Games later (read: a week or several for a new area)? ¤Night
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Obi_Wan_01 Registered: Aug '01	Date Posted: 9/21/02 6:05pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial) - Date Edited: 9/21/02 6:08pm (3 edits total) Edited By: Obi_Wan_01
	Yeah, I am gonna' read all that tomorrow and get started. JP teh cool. EDIT: LOL!!!11 we all WINKED in our posts. EDIT 2: Put that wink back in your post Nail.
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Lord_Homer Registered: Apr '02	Date Posted: 9/21/02 6:10pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	Cool!
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Jedi_Nailbiter Registered: Jul '00	Date Posted: 9/21/02 6:33pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	whatcha talkin about obi_wan?
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pat-fett Registered: Mar '01	Date Posted: 9/21/02 7:05pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	Nice work. With all the effort you put into this I feel like I have to try to make a skin. -----signature----- ***SFLDM*** WOOHOO Alpha 2 DrunkOnColt45 FORCEBOAT ect. BSGPilots http://www.majesticsites.net/bsgpilots/index.php Look for TighFighter "I will have no fear. Fear is the mind killer" Dune
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Theron Registered: Oct '00	Date Posted: 9/21/02 11:53pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	This is nice, and informative. You can use Paint, but I suggest not using it. Some digital-imaging programs I know of, are Adobe Photoshop, CorelPHOTOPAINT, Paint Shop Pro, Micrografx Picture Publisher (cheap), and Fireworks. Then there is GIMP which is free but since I never used I wouldn't know what to tell you about it. Photoshop Elements work in a way but it is primarily used for correcting photographs. You won't be able to create textures like you can in Photoshop. -----signature----- Confidence is a Killer I DID THIS http://www.geocities.com/tschambers101@sbcglobal.net/main.html
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Night4554 Registered: Oct '00	Date Posted: 9/22/02 5:45am Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	I'm pretty good in GIMP, so I can help you through that. ¤Night
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Jedi Bib Registered: Apr '00	Date Posted: 9/22/02 6:03am Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	USE WINRAR FOR UNPAKKAJING!!!!!111 -----signature----- I'm not making this up.
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jp-30 Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Dec '00	Date Posted: 9/22/02 2:56pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial) - Date Edited: 9/22/02 2:58pm (1 edits total) Edited By: jp-30
	So.... JP.... when ya emailing me the raw no-markup-codes source so I can convert it to html and stick in on TFN Games later (read: a week or several for a new area)? Once people have tried to work through my tutorial and given feedback on where improvements need to be made, I'll add the improvements and send you the file (it should be posted in HTML and as a downloadable word file.) I hope to do this at the same time as Chapter 2 goes live - next weekend. -----signature----- B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr
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BroodMcEto Registered: Jan '02	Date Posted: 9/22/02 3:08pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial) - Date Edited: 9/22/02 3:25pm (1 edits total) Edited By: BroodMcEto
	I think it's great. I would say it's a bit much in parts, but it is for Newbies, so it works great. I didn't read everything word for word at first, but went back and reviewed it, because sometimes I miss things, right JP? It looks great and you should make sure you copyright it hehheh.... great work. My only complaint is the one week at a time thing. I think it would work better as a day by day thing!!! edit:Oh, I do think it would be nice if you put a link to the files that weren't on GameSpy. I don't have an account, and I may be the only one here that doesn't, but I think if there was a link to the file that wasn't through gamespy, it would be a bit better for getting the files.
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jp-30 Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Dec '00	Date Posted: 9/22/02 3:32pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	Gamespy has public servers too - just look on the downnload page. But if someone can give me an alternate host for the files, I'll edit it in. -----signature----- B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr
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GrandMoffTarkin Registered: Jun '01	Date Posted: 9/24/02 9:42am Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	Okay. This is going to sound painfully stupid, but lets go... Where is modview? I've checked every .exe in the downloaded folders, nothing. -----signature----- And so I said, "With friends like that, who needs enemas?" Inmate of the FF:UK South Insanitarium
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jp-30 Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Dec '00	Date Posted: 9/24/02 2:35pm Subject: RE: Jedi Outcast Skinning for Newbies (a weekly step-by-step tutorial)
	What? Is it not in the Raven tools? OK, I'll post it on my website tonight and link you all to it, if no-one else can do that over the next 8 hours. -----signature----- B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr B'omarr
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