This is my first attempt..ever at skinning and really I guess I cheated because all I did was use some PS filters to give Splinter's bar a wood colored grip... Splinter I don't really care if you want me to release it or not :| its up to you I was just playin around...so just post here if its ok and if its not thats fine...

Please dont flame me or anything but I just wanted Splinters metal with some wood colored..


More than likely its not worth releasing but oh well...

id say its special but doesnt look realistic enough

very unrealistic wood...u should redo the grain.

I disagree with these two. The woodgrain is decent, it just needs some shading and weathering. Use Dodge and Burn to shade it [Change Exposure to decrease/increase the severity of it]. To make straight lines, use shift.

It takes practice, but the result is rewarding. Here's a ten second shading job I did in Photoshop, the original on the bottom, the quick shading job on top.

wow looks great, thanks for the advice 40, the previous wood was too light in game but I'm sure added effects will look better

Updated wood grain (for the handle)

I tried over and over to get the effect you did but failed..

On yours where you used burn it appears whitish instead of the brownish color of the original wood, how do you do this?

Burn should be what you use for shadows. When you click the tool, up top there should be and option to change the exposure. That controls how dark the burn will be. Dodge is for adding light highlights, the exposure setting controls how light it will be.

Also, are you using multiple layers? What I like to do is have the top layer be the wireframe [UVMap]. In Jed's HLMV there's an option to export the UVMap under Textures.

In Photoshop, open the UVMap, ctrl-a to select all, ctrl-c to copy. Then in your texture, ctrl-a to select all, then shift-ctrl-v to paste the UVMap as a new layer. Then right click the UVMap layer and select Blending Options. Then under General Blending on the right, choose Difference under Blend Mode. This will make the UVMap overlap the texture and allow you to shade accurately to the UVMap. It's also convenient because you can click the eye to toggle it on and off if it's in your way.

I'm sure there's an easier way than that, but it works for me hehe.

So, getting back to your original question, which I'm not fully clear on, start with your Burn brush. For areas I know I want dark, I set Exposure on 50%, for areas I want to build up or put in subtle darker areas, I use 5-15%. Start wherever you want, but I would do the bottom of the grip first. What I do, and this may not be the best, is click on one side, then hold shift and click on the other. This will create a perfectly straight, dark line. If the UV is perfectly vertical or horizontal, you can just hold shift and then click and move the mouse up and down or side to side in a general line, as hold ing shift will bind it to the x and y axis.

To make sharp edges, you'll want to select and area using marquees and then use your burn and dodge tools along the edges.

It may take you a while to wrap your head around lighting, if you haven't got a handle on it yet. Just try to think about where the light would come from and which surfaces would be shaded and which would catch the light.

If need be, feel free to post the wood texture .bmp and I can show you a quick example of what you could do. Brut also posted a good example for me in this thread http://www.dayofdefeat.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42717

Sorry for the long post, and if someone else would like to correct any mistakes I've made, please do so, as I'm still learning as well. :)

EDIT: I think I see what you're asking now. Maybe. To make the light areas, you use Dodge. Right click the Burn icon and there and dodge is under the little selection it gives you. The Dodge tool itself works the same as Burn, but lightens instead of darkens.

I would like to know how to do this from scratch, but I have absolutely no clue how to make it the slightest bit realistic so I just lassoed around parts I wanted to be wooden and used the Eye Candy 4000's filter, Wood...

Could you teach me how to do it from scratch..


PS. The coloring I have on the grip actually looks pretty decent in game

Wow looks very nice i'd say. But only crit i have so far is the metal. It's horrible. It was meant for a dark wooden skin so i suggest you redo the whole thing over then you're GOLD.

only problem is I have no clue how to do metal :\ this wood was my first attempt at skinning

Originally posted by Stuka
Could you teach me how to do it from scratch..

Mine never turns out very good. Basically, choose two colours [eg lighter brown and a darker brown] then Filter->Render->Clouds then Filter->Artistic->Sponge. In Spnge menu, set all the values to the lowest. Then Filter->Distort->Shear and bend the line around until you get something decent.

I'm finding that it never works that great for me. I'd like to know how Splinter and Brutal do theirs though. Boggles my mind :confused: [Photo refs, mayhaps? I can never find really nice refs of wood.]

OK ive been messing around and using the pointers given by Brutal in the post you sent me (overlays, sponges) and I did some touchups on spots which were too dark..did the stock

Darkened the metal and added a very very slight blue tent..you have to look closely to see it

that really looks quite good, i like the wood and the metal, i just always wished splinter had a model with a bipod.

Thanks, and yeah the bipod would be nice when going deployed, otherwise I like it without..just looks weird having the bipod animation with no bipod.

I know this is late, since you've released it, but here's some pics to illustrate the steps involved [ none of which includes "just telling to play around with burn and dodge" :P ] as far as how I would shade it. These were done pretty quick, but it give an idea. Combine these with what I've already posted and it ought to make some sort of sense. Hopefully this helps.

http://mesque.users.sunwave.net/BARBuildup01.jpg
http://mesque.users.sunwave.net/BARBuildup02.jpg
http://mesque.users.sunwave.net/BARBuildup03.jpg
http://mesque.users.sunwave.net/BARBuildup04.jpg
http://mesque.users.sunwave.net/BARBuildup05.jpg

first time... omg then this is awesome!!!!!!!