[MISC]Skinning Tutorial
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:36 am
Today I will be showing you how to skin.
Before we start, there will be somethings that you will need to have before you're able to skin.
My tutorial will cover how to skin using Adobe Photoshop.
You will need GCFScape, Photoshop VTF fileformat, and it helps to have VTFEdit. Now we're ready to begin.
1. Open up GCFScape and go to File>Open.
Search around to find the GCFs. They should be in Steam\Steamapps.
Usually textures and bitmaps are found in "[insert game here] materials", but for Portal they are found in "Portal Content", and Counter-Strike: Source they are found in "counter-strike source shared"
2. Open up the GCF and go into the materials folder
Now search for that bitmap you want to skin and remember the you found it, because when you save it you will have to save it in the game folder which is located in the <insert steamname here>. Now when you find your bitmap, it is a .vtf, not a .vmt. Just drag and drop it to the desktop and open it up with Photoshop.
3. Do pretty much whatever you want with it, you can even make the texture larger to make it a high-res texture, but if you choose to resize it, it must be in variables of 2, but I usually resize my textures to be 1024x1024.
4. When you are done with your skin and satisfied with your results, it's time to do what all must to, save.
Now when you save, make sure you save as a .vtf.
When this pops up...
Just hit ok.
5. Now find wherever you saved the bitmap(most likely the desktop). Open up a folder and go to your steamapps folder, go to your <insert steamname here>. Now the bitmap go to the folder for which game you want this bitmap in. But say for instance you make a jeep skin and you want it to be in Garry's Mod, you would get it from the Source Shared Materials, and put it in the Garry's Mod folder. You must remember where you got your bitmap from, which is why it helps to keep GCFScape open. I got my bitmap in "root/portal/materials/models/weapons/v_models". Now for me, I would go to "portal/portal/materials/models/weapons/v_models." If you don't have those folders, just make them.
6. Now the last thing you gotta do is just test it, the only reason why it wouldn't show up is if you didn't save it in the proper folder.
Thanks for reading my tutorial, I hope you all learned something and hope you can have fun skinning. If you have any questions, just feel free to post in the thread and I will address them. I hope to see skins for all source games on this forum.
Good Luck!
Before we start, there will be somethings that you will need to have before you're able to skin.
My tutorial will cover how to skin using Adobe Photoshop.
You will need GCFScape, Photoshop VTF fileformat, and it helps to have VTFEdit. Now we're ready to begin.
1. Open up GCFScape and go to File>Open.
Search around to find the GCFs. They should be in Steam\Steamapps.
Usually textures and bitmaps are found in "[insert game here] materials", but for Portal they are found in "Portal Content", and Counter-Strike: Source they are found in "counter-strike source shared"
2. Open up the GCF and go into the materials folder
Now search for that bitmap you want to skin and remember the you found it, because when you save it you will have to save it in the game folder which is located in the <insert steamname here>. Now when you find your bitmap, it is a .vtf, not a .vmt. Just drag and drop it to the desktop and open it up with Photoshop.
3. Do pretty much whatever you want with it, you can even make the texture larger to make it a high-res texture, but if you choose to resize it, it must be in variables of 2, but I usually resize my textures to be 1024x1024.
4. When you are done with your skin and satisfied with your results, it's time to do what all must to, save.
Now when you save, make sure you save as a .vtf.
When this pops up...
Just hit ok.
5. Now find wherever you saved the bitmap(most likely the desktop). Open up a folder and go to your steamapps folder, go to your <insert steamname here>. Now the bitmap go to the folder for which game you want this bitmap in. But say for instance you make a jeep skin and you want it to be in Garry's Mod, you would get it from the Source Shared Materials, and put it in the Garry's Mod folder. You must remember where you got your bitmap from, which is why it helps to keep GCFScape open. I got my bitmap in "root/portal/materials/models/weapons/v_models". Now for me, I would go to "portal/portal/materials/models/weapons/v_models." If you don't have those folders, just make them.
6. Now the last thing you gotta do is just test it, the only reason why it wouldn't show up is if you didn't save it in the proper folder.
Thanks for reading my tutorial, I hope you all learned something and hope you can have fun skinning. If you have any questions, just feel free to post in the thread and I will address them. I hope to see skins for all source games on this forum.
Good Luck!