:confused: :confused: What program do I use to skin???? :confused: :confused:

Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro.....some others too

Originally posted by [R5]Rainbow_Phive
Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro.....some others too

Since when can they open .mdl files? Or can they...? Or am I thinking of the wrong file type?

What are you talking about? You don't need to "open" a .mdl file to skin..

You don't? Sweet ass! Which file is it then and where are the files?

get HLMV, look in the release forum for Jed's version.

to skin you simply import new images to use on the model instead of the old ones. save the model and your done.

Oh, that explains how people get their skins to look so realistic with wood, etc.

u can also decompile and then recompile back after u edit images

Originally posted by AnimeLord
Oh, that explains how people get their skins to look so realistic with wood, etc.

You didn't ask untill now. *waits for someone more experiences too come in*

Originally posted by Nemesis6
You didn't ask untill now. *waits for someone more experiences too come in*

Well, lol, I did in another thread, but they told me to ask here, so I did, lol. Ok, cool. I have heard of decompiling/compiling, but can someone explain it in more detail? Thanks.

if you just wanna change the skin of a model avoid decompiling and compiling. they get into 3D model studios and everything.

seeing as your new to this i'll split it up

Skin: The physical texture, the .bmp file(s) that covers the model. NEEDS: HLMV/modeling studio, paint prog

Mesh: How the .bmp is placed onto the model. NEEDS: Meshing tool/modeling studio, paint prog

Model: the actually physical shape of the model. NEEDS: Modeling studio.

each can be done sepratly of the other, you can change the skin w/o having to touch the mesh. If its just skinging you want to do, just get HLMV and a paint program.

get Half Life Model Viewer @ chumbalumsoft (<--key word search in yahoo. i don have the exact adress)

open it, and open a .mdl file in any of your HL folders.

then search the tabs in HLMV and export the textures you want to edit.

get Adobe Photoshope (reccomended) or any other editing program, and edit the skin. you can DL a trial version of Adobe Photoshop at thier main website.

save the texture, and import it to the model, then save the model.



As for decompiling & compiling, you will need a 3d program. again go to Chumbalumsoft, and DL Milk shape.

in MS: Tools/Half-life/decompile normal HL model

select a model to decompile. i suggest you stick the model you decompile in a folder, as when it DOES decompile, it will break up into many, many files, known as SMD's. SMD's contain the models animation and referance information.

it also breaks down the QC file wich, basically contains the... coding i think.. like all the events, and body groups and blah blah. just know that the QC file is what you need in order to Compile/re-Compile a model.

youll also need Studiomdl to compile the model. wich can be found on these forums, search the stickys.

Oh, cool thanks. And also, yea, I have PhotoShop 7 and I make all my pics in it, i.e., see my sig :D

Thanks all. I know basically what I will be doing. Just be looking forward to some darker weapon skins, and hopefully a more beat up greaser being as there are hardly any. Thanks.

Not to correct but to expand on some of Russ. Conscript's comments.

get Half Life Model Viewer @ chumbalumsoft

http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/hlmv/index.html

However this version of HLMV doesnt support some of the new texture features of Day of Defeat.

Shameless plug but my own version does and can be downloaded at:

http://www.wunderboy.org/3d_games/utils/hlmv.php

save the texture, and import it to the model, then save the model.

The BMP's must be 256 colour (Image->Mode->Indexed Colour) for DoD so if you convert it to RGB colour to edit it in Photoshop remember to convert it to 256 before saving it.

As for decompiling & compiling, you will need a 3d program. again go to Chumbalumsoft, and DL Milk shape

http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/ms3d/download.html

Milkshape is a 30 day trial although if you are intending to do a lot of editing work its well worth paying the $25 to register it.

*IMPORTANT* If your going to decompile DoD models in Milkshape make sure you download and install msMDLDecompiler 1.2 (http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/forum/attachment.php3?postid=64341) into your Milkshape folder. If you don't any DoD models that contain additive or transparent textures won't recompile without you editing the QC file.

select a model to decompile. i suggest you stick the model you decompile in a folder, as when it DOES decompile, it will break up into many, many files, known as SMD's. SMD's contain the models animation and referance information.

Yes, if you choose to decompile a model you must choose to extract everything or you wont be able to recompile it again.

it also breaks down the QC file wich, basically contains the... coding i think.. like all the events, and body groups and blah blah. just know that the QC file is what you need in order to Compile/re-Compile a model.

The QC file tells the compiler how to pull all the parts together to make the MDL file. I *believe* QC stands for "Quake Compiler" (DoD/Half-Life is based on the Quake Engine)

youll also need Studiomdl to compile the model. wich can be found on these forums, search the stickys.

You can find it in this thread (http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4245).

There is also a command line decompiler you can use if you dont want to use Milkshape which you can get from here (http://collective.valve-erc.com/data/docs/1047496381-02062100/files/mdldec12.zip)

- Jed

I got Jed's and I opened the v_greasegun model file. Now, how do I take it into PhotoShop?

Ok, I found out how. How can I tell which part is which on the bmps?

Also, please explain each step of getting it into PhotoShop, not overwriting the default, etc.

1) open HLMV and the model
2) export the textures
3) close HLMV and backup the original somewhere
4) open the .bmp's in your paint studio
5) screw around with them till they look how you want, keep in mind you can't shift anythings poition, you can only change its appearance.
6) save
7) open HLMV and the model you wan't to alter
8) import the skins to replace the original ones
9) save the model as the same name
10) boot dod and look at your handywork, go back to 5 untill happy

Ok, cool, thanks. Maybe I'll try to later.

is it just me or if he cant figure out how to navigate hlmv, he prolly wont be able to produce skins

HLMV is pretty foolproof.

if hlep is needed I'll go into a better explanation.