- Joined
- May 3, 2007
- Messages
- 13
The purpose of this tutorial is not to teach people skinning techniques or how to skin overall. If that's what you're looking for, then I'd recommend these links:
- Wc3Campaigns skinning tutorials
- The Hive Workshop skinning tutorials
- World Editor skinning tutorials
This tutorial is, however, meant to a) give access to Macintosh compatible skinning tools, b) teach Mac users how to use them. After these two steps are done, then know that skinning on a Macintosh is exactly the same as on a PC.
REQUIREMENTS
For starters, you'll need a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. Keep in mind that these two programs are not the only two programs that can be used to skin. Anything that deals with graphics design should be satisfactory.
The other tools you'll need, are the Mac Art Tools which you can find here. Feel free to download them, now. The Mac Art Tools comprise of four different parts, including two applications and two files:
- One of them is the BLP Tools, which are used to change BLP files to TARGA files, or vice versa.
- The second tool is the MPQ2K, which is used to extract the skins from the Warcraft game.
- The other two text files are lists of path names that you will need to extract files from Warcraft.
EXTRACTING
1. Open the MPQ2K and click on the letter O on your keyboard. Now, a window from the Finder should appear. Navigate you way to your Warcraft III folder and if you want to reskin models in the Reign of Chaos game, then select War3.mpq. If you want to skin models that were released in the Frozen Throne, then select War3x.mpq. Once you've selected one of them, press Enter on your keyboard.
2. Now, if you chose to reskin a Reign of Chaos model, then open the Reign of Chaos pathlists file and find the model that you want to reskin. Do the same if you chose a Frozen Throne model, but use the Frozen Throne pathlists. Once you've found it, copy it (Apple + C) and go back to the MPQ2K.
3. Now that you have the path-name copied, hit the letter E on your keyboard (E stands for Extract) and paste (Apple + V) the selected model path. Now press Enter and a new window will pop up to ask you where you want to save the file. I'd recommend creating a new folder somewhere called Textures.
Results
By this point, you should have a BLP file saved in your Textures folder. If you do not have that, then back up and do the above steps again.
CONVERTING
1. In order to edit the extracted file, you need to convert it from a BLP into a TGA (TARGA). Only then will you be able to reskin it. Start by opening the BLP Tools. There should normally be two windows open; a big one with a blue background, and a smaller which should say:
Drag TARGA textures on this window to convert them to BLP and BLP textures to convert them to TARGA
2. Drag and drop your BLP file into this box and you should now have two files of the same name, one BLP and one TGA.
3. Now open your graphics design program, open the TARGA file, and get skinning. Now, I'm no skinning expert so don't ask me anything about it. If you need help with that, then I'd suggest you take a look at the above tutorial links.
IMPORTING
1. After you've saved your skin (make sure it's still in TGA format) then re-open the BLP Tools and drag the edited TGA into the small window to convert it into a BLP.
At this point, everything should work exactly the same as a PC.
I hope that Mac users who are still experiencing difficulties with skinning on Mac will find this tutorial useful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this thread, or by PM.
Also, should anyone have any corrections or suggestions, please tell me about them and I'll add the stuff giving you credits, of course.
--Archean
- Wc3Campaigns skinning tutorials
- The Hive Workshop skinning tutorials
- World Editor skinning tutorials
This tutorial is, however, meant to a) give access to Macintosh compatible skinning tools, b) teach Mac users how to use them. After these two steps are done, then know that skinning on a Macintosh is exactly the same as on a PC.
REQUIREMENTS
For starters, you'll need a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. Keep in mind that these two programs are not the only two programs that can be used to skin. Anything that deals with graphics design should be satisfactory.
The other tools you'll need, are the Mac Art Tools which you can find here. Feel free to download them, now. The Mac Art Tools comprise of four different parts, including two applications and two files:
- One of them is the BLP Tools, which are used to change BLP files to TARGA files, or vice versa.
- The second tool is the MPQ2K, which is used to extract the skins from the Warcraft game.
- The other two text files are lists of path names that you will need to extract files from Warcraft.
EXTRACTING
1. Open the MPQ2K and click on the letter O on your keyboard. Now, a window from the Finder should appear. Navigate you way to your Warcraft III folder and if you want to reskin models in the Reign of Chaos game, then select War3.mpq. If you want to skin models that were released in the Frozen Throne, then select War3x.mpq. Once you've selected one of them, press Enter on your keyboard.
2. Now, if you chose to reskin a Reign of Chaos model, then open the Reign of Chaos pathlists file and find the model that you want to reskin. Do the same if you chose a Frozen Throne model, but use the Frozen Throne pathlists. Once you've found it, copy it (Apple + C) and go back to the MPQ2K.
3. Now that you have the path-name copied, hit the letter E on your keyboard (E stands for Extract) and paste (Apple + V) the selected model path. Now press Enter and a new window will pop up to ask you where you want to save the file. I'd recommend creating a new folder somewhere called Textures.
Results
By this point, you should have a BLP file saved in your Textures folder. If you do not have that, then back up and do the above steps again.
CONVERTING
1. In order to edit the extracted file, you need to convert it from a BLP into a TGA (TARGA). Only then will you be able to reskin it. Start by opening the BLP Tools. There should normally be two windows open; a big one with a blue background, and a smaller which should say:
Drag TARGA textures on this window to convert them to BLP and BLP textures to convert them to TARGA
2. Drag and drop your BLP file into this box and you should now have two files of the same name, one BLP and one TGA.
3. Now open your graphics design program, open the TARGA file, and get skinning. Now, I'm no skinning expert so don't ask me anything about it. If you need help with that, then I'd suggest you take a look at the above tutorial links.
IMPORTING
1. After you've saved your skin (make sure it's still in TGA format) then re-open the BLP Tools and drag the edited TGA into the small window to convert it into a BLP.
At this point, everything should work exactly the same as a PC.
I hope that Mac users who are still experiencing difficulties with skinning on Mac will find this tutorial useful. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this thread, or by PM.
Also, should anyone have any corrections or suggestions, please tell me about them and I'll add the stuff giving you credits, of course.
--Archean
Last edited:
Screenshots wouldn't really add very much value to it in my opinion, and literally would only be "eye candy". Thanks for all of your hard work 
