HaloMods "Classic" Read-only Archive

I need a skinning tutor. I have read all of the skinning tutorials I could find through search, and most of them help but not enough.

Anyone up for it?


Communication:

AIM -- Senor Grunt

Yahoo -- ninja_of_the_night21

MSNM -- axeljhernandez@hotmail.com

Why didn't you put the entire question in the subject?

It's rude to shove all the other threads down with a subject that doesn't tell people whether or not there might be valuable information in the thread. The purpose of the subject is to tell people whether the discussion is of any interest to them, without forcing them to delve into it to find out.

Subjects like these are rude and obnoxious:

"How do I..."
"Can someone help me with..."
"Where is..."
"Problem..."

What if every forum and subforum had the title of "This is the place for..." and you had to click each subforum to find out what it is for? Do you see what I'm getting at?

Hierarchy is our friend.

EDIT: Thank you for fixing that. As for finding a skinning tutor, you might have a hard time, especially since school has resumed for most of the people here.

Your best bet for getting help is to post specific questions about what you have tried or are having problems with, or what parts of a tutorial are giving you trouble (also specify which tutorial you are using). Post only a few questions at a time, and make sure you try as many different things as you can think of before you ask for help.

For example, "When I reinject images after editing them, they always get corrupted," or "I don't have Photoshop or GIMP, so what else can I use for editing bitmaps?" or "Program X keeps crashing when I try to do ABC. Is there another program I should use?"

Skinning seems to be the most popular type of mod once people get past the projectile and shader swapping phase, so there should be plenty of expertise here. But I doubt anyone will want to invest the time in walking you through the basics of skinning, beyond what has already been detailed in the tutorials.

Oh, ok I'm sorry, ill put the question in the subject but I still want a tutor because I'd rather not constantly bug everyone with my questions.

Do you want help with the actual bitmap editing or extracting/injecting?

I know how to extract and inject things but i just need some help with bitmap editing.

So you need help with graphics...?
You can't just learn how to be good at photoshop with a tutorial in an hour. It takes much practice.

ive been skinning for two years and i suck at it so i mostly stick with AI and effects and stuf

Zone 117 wrote:So you need help with graphics...?
You can't just learn how to be good at photoshop with a tutorial in an hour. It takes much practice.

I don't plan to learn in an hour, but over time. Thats why I need a tutor and not just someone to give me advice for an hour.

Here's the very first tut I read when I first started skinning, It's really old but if it helped me it could possibly help you (hopefully), It is just the text, I did'nt keep any of the pics....sorry, if you need pics I could possibly find them and update this but for now I hope this helps a little. Remember there are alot more ways to go about this then the tut below. You can now use a couple of other prog's. Look in our tut section.



Programs Needed
**************
Adobe Photoshop Cs2 or
A Bitmap internalizer Recommed Halo2IB
.DDS plugins
Dothalo Map Editor
CMR [Coolspots Map Resigner]
Shared.map
and Knowing that you know how to FTP to Your xbox and Sign maps
FTPING

********************
Step 1
Adobe and The Plugins
********************

Ok First you need to Download Adobe Photoshop Trial i think you get 30 Days of free Trial then you Need to Purchase Activation, there are Cracks . Now once you go that go to My computer ..Local disk..Program Files..Adobe..Photoshop cs..then Copy The .dds plugins Available Above ot File Formats, Extensions, and import and Export. just in Case..

************************
Step 2
Weapon/Vehicle Internalizing
************************

Ok Now Weapons and Vehicles in terms of Bitmaps are not located on the map so internalizing will put that Weapon/vehicle into the map.To do this a program Called a Bitmap Internalizer
I recommend halo2IB [above] Now Find What Map You Want to add these To.
open Halo2IB
open ur Map ..
Scroll down unitl you find your Weapon/Vehicle
Warthog=Warthog Standard
Banshee= banshee plate
Weapons are Normal names...
And click it then on the Bitmap Relflex numbers Click One and Make Sure the Non Proper Method is Clicked then click internalize Bitmap As Shown Below..it will ask Your For Shared.map open that Then Wait a Blue Bar will Appear After a while and then done

Now that Weapon or Vehicles Bitmap is inside the .map and Able to be Skinnned.

*********************************
Step 3
Extracting Bitmaps For use In Photoshop.

*********************************

ok Now We need to get that Bitmap Out to edit With Photoshop. So open Dothalo and open the map that you internalized the bitmaps in.
scroll down to the [Bitm] or Bitmap tag Scroll around to find the bitmap you internalized. i will be using a warthog as Example.
click the Bitmapthen the Raw data Editor Will Appear Showing the Bitmap of your Item or Vehicle. if it is Black or distorted You did Something Wrong or That Weapon Cant be Skinned...
Now click extract bitmap as shown..Now Remember the Dxt Version of bitmap Located here


Now open Adobe photoshop..Wait for it to load then in the upper right click file open And open The Bitmap you just extracted..As shown


***************
Step 4
Editing In Photoshop
***************

ok Well there isnt Much too Explain but Make it cool looking be Creative [P.s Most Designs look pretty cool No matter what]
functions Shown Below of adobe
Now there Are Much More functions but Main ones Are this

now Saving is easy Simply Click Save Then On the Drop down save As .dds
a screen Will appear..now you need to save It according to your bitmaps Version as you shuld of recorded above,,,Dxt1, Dxt 2/3, Dxt 4/5
Warthogs happen to be dxt 3
So i will save it as Dxt 3 as shown [ now the Dxt Version Depends on your bitmap so dont Save everything as dxt 3 B/c there not


*********************
Step5
Inject Bitmap
*********************

Now open Dothalo and Open your Map go to the Bitmap you are editing [where we extracted the Bitmap]
[Bitm]. then On the Raw Data Editor Click inject Bitmap and Choose your recently edited Bitmap as shown

Now Click Save Changes ,
fix Encryption
then Sign your Map


***********************
Skinning Scenery Like maps

***********************
Now this is All the Same Except You do not have to internalize it B/c of course It is Already in the map so Find the Bitmaps you want to Edit Like these

Now Above is an Example of some Scenery bitmaps From Terminal. Those are already internal so dont internalize them do all the Steps Extract Bitmaps, edit, Save, inject,Save,fIx,Sign Map

ok now FTP map to Xbox..

Created By Gorlax

Thats the kind of stuff I already know how to do, maybe its not a SKINNING tutor that I need but a Photoshop tutor. I'm trying to figure out how to properly skin a contrail like, say, the banshees purple-ish contrail. When I extract it, its black and white and not in color.

PhotoShop is an immensely powerful, professional graphic design tool with an accordingly steep learning curve. It's beyond the scope of a Halo modding site to provide a solid foundation for such a program. Fortunately, due to its prevalence, you should be able to find plenty of tutorials elsewhere on the internet. Quality runs the gamut, of course.

As for editing contrails, why didn't you just say so in the beginning?

That problem has already been addressed witha simple app by DarkMetal.

haha, i just found that about an hour and a half ago. lol