Adding Camo to units, The Arab Way!

[Arab4life]

Alright, so i made this after some replies to my first few skins, people wanted to know my method so i will explain it step by step... Its actually simple.

Alright, first thing you want to do is make up your camo.

1. First, open up a program like paint or photoshop or what ever you use and make a square about 125X125.




2. Next thing you want to do is a bit obvious, in that square, fill it with what your camo is going to be. This part you can do on your own, but ill give you a tip.

Start with a base color, fill it with a dark green for example if you are going to do a jungle camo.

Not a good artist? No problem!!

Here's another way you can do it. Go to google, images and search camo. THERE'S YOUR CAMO! Find a square of camo (You will hopefully find one) Or edit out a square of it from a shirt or something. (I actually used this method for my jungle Skin. No were not stealing, we still make it on our own.

As an example of this method, i will use a nice pink camo to make a pimpin feminine Marine.

Here is what im going to use (Using this method) Now i suggest this method for your first Camo or 2. But dont get too lazy, try making your own camo soon!

Pink camo: http://www.armysurplusworld.com/custom/photos/pinkcamobandana.jpg

A perfect square...

3. Hm, im going to make mine a bit bigger, 166X162 or so, you can do the same fitting your needs. Bigger squares do come in handy.



4. Now we get the marine, first you might need warcraft3viewer
http://hiveworkshop.com/resources_new/tools/6/

(SKIP IF YOU ALREADY HAVE YOUR MARINE SKIN)
Use it to extract your marine BLP, just click the MPQ folder icon, get your MPQ file from your warcraft 3 file. Then press CNTRL+H and get the tree view. Now check the box that says BLP. Now get your skin, Units>Critters>Marine>Marine.BLP


Alright, now go to Convert on the top menu, and then go to BLP> TGA, JPG, Blah blah blah.

Convert your file as a JPG!


There you go!

5. Alright now open up your pink square (or what ever camo you made) again in paint, copy it. Now open your marine skin in paint, make it larger a bit (Blue boxes at the bottom right corner boundry) and paste your camo.

Should end up like that.

I know what your thinking, "WTF IS THAT, HOW THE f*CK IS THAT GONNA HELP ME" Well shut up, and keep reading.

6. Now for the tricky part, open up your marine with pink square in Paint Shop Pro. This is what i use, you can use any other advanced Paint program if you want. But i suggest Paint shop pro, download the 30 day trial if you want. I'm not sure if the other programs can do it.

Got that? Good, were getting to the good part now. (Also the longest)


7. Now, to start painting camo on your Marine. Click on the Clone Brush.

Got that? Its the icon with 2 brush's

8. Now, we start the REAL painting, here we go. RIGHT CLICK on the center of your camo square.

You should get a nice X in the center of your camo square.

AHH, ARAB WHERE'S THE X I DONT SEE IT IN THE PIC! Its there, but my screenshot program doesnt show the cursor.... So anyway.

9. Ok, seriously NOW WE PAINT. Heres what you do, the X wont start moving untill you start brushing. What the clone brush does is copy what ever is on the X onto what ever your brush is painting.

IT REALLY WORKS! LIKE MAGIC! (Place TV Add slogan here)

P.S: Click on the images to see whats going on better, you do not have super human vision you can not zoom in with your eyes. CLICK ON THE IMAGES.

10. Now, you basicly continue this and paint your marine. BUT THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, DO NOT LET THE X GET OFF THE SQUARE OF CAMO.

Yes it is annoying. So you have to right click back on the center of your square EVERY TIME the X comes NEAR THE EDGE. Dont let it come too close to the edge, like the type righters, put it back. Right click on the center of your camo square often.

KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE X, MAKE SURE IT DOESNT LEAVE THE CAMO SQUARE.

11. Ok, now just keep putting camo on your marine untill he's all nice and pink.

BUT, do not put camo on the gold frame of the marine (Not my suggestion) Here's what i do for the frame, first click on the eye dropper tool.

Got that? Now take a nice sample of your camo, im gonna take a nice dark pink.

Now use your paint brush tool. The paint brush tool is intresting, you should get a nice pink with it, it looks a bit transparent. Its like real water paint just like kindergarten!

Notice how when the brush strokes overlap they form a darker pink. This shows its transparency. This is useful for the gold frames, because they already have shading. And since our paint is transparent, Blizzard just did our shading job for us! Yay laziness!!

Use the paint brush with your transparent paint to color the Gold frames and other parts of the marine (Like the tan gun thingy with holes..).
But dont over do it, put camo on the shoulders and chest and main body pieces. Remember, try finishing and painting a gold frame with one stroke, because overlapping it twice will make it darker and screw up your shading.

12. After your done putting camo, and editing the skin. Save it and open it in paint again.
Make it smaller again. Back into its 256X256 Form. Just press CNTRL+E and an image attribute menu should appear, change the Number values of Width and Height to 256 And 256.

There you go!

13. Now to put it back into BLP format... Open Warcraft 3 viewer again. Go to convert again, this time go to TGA, JPG, Blah blah > BLP. You want to convert it back into BLP.

AND YOUR DONE! FINNALY! Now import it and...

14. END RESULT:

Straight from the land of carebears.... MR. CUDDLES...


Dont wanna mess with this bad boy...


Well, your done, congratulations!

Note: I made the skin quickly to fit the tutorial.

Have fun making camo!!

 

[Arab4life]

You dont nesscarly have to make it in paint. But you can if you want to... I make my camo's in paint shop. I just arrange both the skin picture and the Camo square together in paint... its alot easier and less complicated.

 

[Deleted member 126647]

Basically you're showing how to CnP?

 

[Arab4life]

Well, people asked how i do it... it was a request. So i did. Not nesscarly CnP... There are other methods but using a similiar process. Just an example.

And besides, this is for the beginner skinner, or an easy simple way. If its fast, easy, and simple to understand and still give decent results.

Does it matter?

 

[Kaitech[SanD]]

Very good, I just recently repped hom for his awesome skins, any chance of a mod adding +2 to his rep? This tutorial will help new skinners learn how to "cnp" and make an approvable skin form it!

 

[Arab4life]

Thanks Kaitech.

Its not nesscarly CnP guys, you can do it anyway you want after the camo. Make the frame chrome! Like i did with my Urban Marine. And some dirt particles and extra effects like in my Desert Marine.

Its not all CnP. Well kind of...

 

[SuPa-]

instead of wc3 viewer, get image extractor to export blp's
Mr. Cuddles is the pwnage... ('''\()/''')

 

[Odin]

Not nesscarly CnP... There are other methods but using a similiar process. Just an example.

And besides, this is for the beginner skinner, or an easy simple way. If its fast, easy, and simple to understand and still give decent results.

Does it matter?

show these other methods in the tutorial then -_-
in addition, it should be shaded and highlighted more

and yes, it does matter

This tutorial will help new skinners learn how to "cnp" and make an approvable skin form it!

in my opinion "new skinners" should learn how to skin real (not cnp/recolor that is) by following tutorials and practice. cnps will NOT be approved (at least they shoulden't)

 

[Chaos Overlord]

Aww crud Arab thats how you made them so fast. No wonder mine took forever; I was drawing every little bit out and makin gmy own custom camoflauge, not CnPing. Still, they do look nice.

 

[Arab4life]

I didnt CnP all of them. The other methods is actually doing the camo yourself, there's not much to be said about it. The CnP thing is more of an example thing. Because i dont want to re-draw a whole new camo just for the tutorial. And the pink one isnt highlighted and shaded more because, AGAIN, i made it for the tutorial, i also said that it was made quickly just to show the method.


And besides, even if it was made this way, they look fine and many map makers could benefit from the skins. Why not approve them because the process that they were made in? A matter of pride?

Talent isnt just in artistic effieciency, its in resourcfulness to meet the challange being faced. In this case (Or in the case of the person that is CnP'ing) This is an easy, simple and effective way to meet it.

The end result shows a good process. And as long as its not stolen from someone elses skin, or made completly with no effort.

Then the end result speaks for itself and for the process in which it was made.


And if you read the entire tutorial, and do the steps, theres more effort put into it than "CnP". Infact, only one part is really CnP. I made this tutorial to show a simple overview in general of an easy method to do so. The rest is for the author to figure out, shading, other tools and yata yata yata. This combined is alot more than just CnP.

And for your information, I do put all the effort in my skins, i do shade them, and i do make most of them. I dont just CnP.


Again, i repeat myself. The End result speaks for itsself and for the process.

Now be quiet Odin, i dont see your comment as much creative critisim. Its thoughtless comments which you didnt contemplate before typing.

 

[Odin]

oh... you're right my post diden't add anything constructive and yes it's kinda thoughtless comments which i didnt contemplate before typing.

And for your information, I do put all the effort in my skins, i do shade them, and i do make most of them. I dont just CnP.

i beleve you, but i did not speak about your skins, but the actual tutorial.

show these other methods in the tutorial then -_-

what i meant was that you should show how to draw it... you would not necessary need to re-draw a whole new camo, just paint it on the skin (i also think that would make better relults as well)

in addition, it should be shaded and highlighted more

i mean you should show people how to best shade/highlight the camo

Because i dont want to re-draw a whole new camo just for the tutorial. And the pink one isnt highlighted and shaded more because, AGAIN, i made it for the tutorial, i also said that it was made quickly just to show the method.

later, you are speaking of effort, but from what you said here, it doesn't look like you've put very much effort in the tutorial

it's not up to me to decide tho.

In this case (Or in the case of the person that is CnP'ing) This is an easy, simple and effective way to meet it.

maybe, but i dont think it a good way to meet real skinning because you dont learn much about skinning that way.

Why not approve them because the process that they were made in?

well because it is not you who made the work. if you made it it's different ofcourse but again, i think the end results will be better if you draw directely onto the skin. and again, it's not up to me to decide

Again, i repeat myself. The End result speaks for itsself and for the process.

very true

sorry for the long post, and i hope you can extract something constructive out from it

 

[Kaitech[SanD]]

Please Odin, every new skinner should "CnP" until they are ready to make a proper skin for themselves, I have done stamping with gimp at first, but now im doing more freehand skinning!

 

[Odin]

good! keep on practice

 

[Arab4life]

Please Odin, every new skinner should "CnP" until they are ready to make a proper skin for themselves, I have done stamping with gimp at first, but now im doing more freehand skinning!

Kait understands exactly the concept that i was wishing to bring up with this tutorial. This isnt really a tutorial that would benefit experianced skinners, this is for people who either are new, or dont have the time to learn and practice precise and artistic skinning.

I will admit it, i did use this method for my first skin. (The urban one). But the rest i actually drew myself.

This tutorial was made hoping that it would encourage people to start skinning. Contributing more usefull skins to this site. I only used this method for my first skin.


And also, the part in which you use the clone brush isnt really a CnP as long as you have had made the square camo yourself. Its just saving time.

I add detail AFTER doing this method, shading, lighting and such.

And i also started making other skins than camo.


This is a message to all expert/long time skinners.

This tutorial will not benefit you much as it will the beginner skinner. If you see it through his perspective, as an introduction to skinning this is an excellent foothold (In my opinion) To start. I used this method to begin with, i slowly expanded it, now i hardly use the same method at all. I developed from it.

And so will the other beginners that start from it. So Odin, what you say is true, this will not teach much. But it will inspire and give skinners a good foothold to begin with.


We all have to start somewhere. And this tutorial gives any new skinners a chance.

 

[Odin]

youre right yes, i guess we both are... kinda...

 

[Chaos Overlord]

I don't underastand how to CnP. I tried and all I got was the square picture of what I was trying to cut and paste. THen I couldn't see it and ther whole thing got messed up.

 

[Arab4life]

I don't underastand how to CnP

Well then thats a problem....Lol..

CNTRL+C...

And CnP is Copy and paste...

Atleast i think it is.

 

[Chaos Overlord]

Yeah but it just appears as the whole image and I can't get around that. If i try to get only one part, I section it off and copy that section, yet it still copies the whole thing. Oh well, maybe it is a goo dthing I can't CnP =)

 

[Kaitech[SanD]]

Hey, Arab, maybe you should make a quick easily understandable summary at the bottom? Some people just dont have the time to read massive tutorials, just a suggestion, you don't have to.

 

[Arab4life]

Yeah but it just appears as the whole image and I can't get around that. If i try to get only one part, I section it off and copy that section, yet it still copies the whole thing. Oh well, maybe it is a goo dthing I can't CnP =)

I apologize chaos but i just dont understand your problem or question.

Your trying to copy a section of something but it copies the whole thing?

 

[Kaitech[SanD]]

Well Arab, now all you need to do is download Adobe PSP, Gimp, Others and use paint and show us how to do it in those, Gimp is easy!

 

[Massive_attack]

This tutorial fails at gimp. it also fails at showing how to make real camo... i do like your marine skins though.

edit: (by "real camo" i meant how to do it without CnPing)

 

[Kaitech[SanD]]

This tutorial fails at gimp. it also fails at showing how to make real camo... i do like your marine skins though.

edit: (by "real camo" i meant how to do it without CnPing)

Making real camo is long and slightly tricky, I tried it and it didn't look right.

We know it fails at GIMP.

I make my camo's in paint shop... its alot easier and less complicated.

 

[Chaos Overlord]

I was working on some real camo and it kinda looks ok. No CnP at all. Yeah it actually looks decent and presentable, although I have not finished it because I can not figure out the unwrap right now. Ill post a picture after school tommorow.

 

[camel's_hump]

This tutorial encourages cnp, and it has very little use. It would be better if you had actually demonstrated how to freehand camo or something more useful. Graveyarded.