• 🏆 Texturing Contest #33 is OPEN! Contestants must re-texture a SD unit model found in-game (Warcraft 3 Classic), recreating the unit into a peaceful NPC version. 🔗Click here to enter!
  • It's time for the first HD Modeling Contest of 2024. Join the theme discussion for Hive's HD Modeling Contest #6! Click here to post your idea!

Skinning on a Mac

Level 2
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
 
Last edited:
Level 2
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
13
It should be really easy to follow if you have a Mac. Very straightforward, actually. But if Mac users complain that the tutorial is not clear enough or difficult to follow, then I'll gladly redo with screenshots. But to do that, I would need Mac users to tell me that my tutorial isn't clear enough.
 
Level 32
Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
5,291
The main difficulty in evaluating this tutorial (for most users) relates to the fact that very few people operate a MAC OS. That's just a normal fact of life. I have contacted Ralle who has a friend that may be able to confirm the validity of this tutorial's content (no promise on the time frame though).

In the mean time, EVERY tutorial benefits from images that provide eye candy to the reader: the slicker the better!
 
Level 2
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
13
I realize that very few people use Mac... which is exactly why I'm breaking my back to release Mac compatible tools and writing tutorials to help those few poor souls out there.
Anyways, if the tutorial isn't up to standards, then tell me what I need to change and I'll take care of it.
 
Level 2
Joined
Jun 17, 2006
Messages
18
Hey, there are those mac users... I'm one of them. Thank you for this tutorial Archean. Been looking for something like this all over...

I owe ya one!
 
Level 11
Joined
Aug 16, 2007
Messages
847
there is no error message yes i do mean the BLP tools, what happens when i double click it is it appears breifly on the dock (barely long enough to catch) as if it was starting then the icon disappears (like what happens when u close an application that isnt permenent on the dock or remove an item from the dock). but i guess in simple terms yes nothing happens
 
Level 1
Joined
Aug 22, 2007
Messages
1
Awesome! Tutorial is great and the tools work :) 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 :)
 
Level 2
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
13
ardnived - I've had a look at your problem but I can't figure out why it's not working. What Mac are you using?
I'd suggest you send an email to BahamutZERO. He'll probably of way more help than I possibly could with the technical issues.
Sorry I can't be of anymore help.
 
Level 2
Joined
Oct 24, 2007
Messages
21
I also want to say thanks on behalf of the Mac community.

Unfortunately, however, I am getting this error when launching the MPQ2k app:

Application Launch Failure!
The application "MPQ2K Mac Edition" could not be launched because of a shared library error: "<MPQ2K><MPQ2K><StormCarbon><>"

Have no idea what that means exactly. I am running 10.4.10 on a Pre-Intel PPC 2.7ghz dual proc G5 Tower. I'm going to poke around and try a few things. Appreciate any insight. Will update post if I get it to work. :/
 
Level 2
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
7
How do you open BLP tools? When I click on it it pops out at the screen like other apps when you open them but then nothing happens. Nothing in the dock or anything. What should I do?

Thanks for the whole post and walkthrough and stuff I looked all over the place for some months trying to find mac stuff :D
 
Top