Warcraft 3 Mods: Skinning and Modelling Tutorial:
Required Files:
• DaishiOfDeath's OBJ -> MDX Converter (24kb)
• Darky's Warcraft III MDX -> OBJ File Converter (47kb)
• Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro
• MPQ Viewer (325 kb)
• MoPaQ 2000 (700 kb)
• Yobgul's MDX <-> MDL
Milkshape, Aztec, or any other NON-NURBS 3d modelling program
Notepad
Preface
This tutorial will cover the basics of Skinning - and even a little model modification. This mainly focuses on style - whcih means that it may be relevant the people of more advanced levels, as well as novices.
Obtaining the Files
Alright, we'll start by getting the files we can edit. Open Warcraft III Image Extractor II and navigate the tree unit you find the skin you want to edit. Generally speaking, the skins are pretty easy to find. (i.e. the Grunt skin is units\orc\grunt\grunt.blp) If you can't find it there, check the Textures\ directory. Right click and save to TGA. Now, if you so desire, get the corresponding model. Open MPQ View and set the filter to *.mdx and extract the model. (i.e. units\orc\grunt\grunt.mdx) Now open a Command/DOS prompt and go to the folder where you extracted my wonderful modelconv.exe to. Also put your newly extracted model file in this directory. Heres an example of what you should be typing:
C:\>modelconv.exe
Warcraft III MDX -> OBJ File Converter - Jeff Gee 2002
Enter MDX Filename: InFile.mdx
Enter OBJ Filename: OutFile.obj
Now its time for some fun.
The Skin
Hue / Saturation
The concept of skinning is quite simple: Editing the colors and textures of a Unit to give it a unique and different feel. This can be acheived through many means. Color modification is by far the simplest. Open photoshop and select the Lasso tool and trace around what you want to adjust. (See Near Right) Then select image>Adjust>Hue\Saturation and modify the settings until you get the desired effect. (Far Right) You can accomplish a great deal by doing this, but if this doesn't suit your needs, we can move on to Step 2: The Airbrush
Airbrush
A good time to use the airbrush would be when you want to change a character's style of clothing. Or Modify Facial Features. Or do advanced skin-tone changes. So take out that Rectangular marquee and do a rough rectangle around the area you want to edit. (this will prevent you from getting marks on the other parts of the skin) now take out your Airbrush and set the pressure to something less than 50%. Now lightly Outline what you want to change with your desired color. Now comes the shading. You'll want to bring down the Pressure of your airbrush once again. use a darker version of the same color for shadows, a lighter version for highlights.
Alright so far? Good. now look at the four images above. Note the color change on the stomach. The muscle definition becomes greater each time. I CANNOT STRESS HOW IMPORTANT MUSCLE DEFINITION IS! Without definition, your character is vertecies and edges - Nothing more. Now look above that. Notice how the remainder of the clothing is redone. Clothing effects how the body is shaped and therefore effects shading.
Now edit the rest of your model with these steps, but remember: The basic form must remain the same. ALWAYS!
Transparency
Have some teamcolor in a bad place? Maybe on a cape or a sholder? Easy enough to fix. Click the Channels tab and slect Alpha 1. This determines Teamcolor and Transparency. Anything Black is subject to this. Fill the area with white, and the teamcolor or transparency goes away. Many times, however, places with teamcolor have no texture. That causes a model to look tacky, so add some.
The Model
Currently, the 3rd party applications do not allow for a great deal of modification. You cannot change polygons, or create vertecies. So we are left with very minor modifications. This is pretty simple. You can move, rotate and scale without ruining the model. If you do not have a 3d program, i suggest Aztec. Its a freeware program released under the GNU Public License over at Sourceforge. There is really only one basic I can stress. That is to look at it from all angles, make sure it looks right.
To load the model, use the import function and select the one you extracted with the skin.
To Export the model, use the export function, making sure that .OBJ is selected in the Dialog.
Finalizing
Congratulations! You have all of your files. To convert a skin back to a BLP, open up War 3 Image Extractor II and open your Targa. Use the save option to save it to a BLP. Now open your MPQ2K directory in Command Prompt. Use this format to insert the skin into your map:
C:\>MPQ2k a yourmap.w3m yourskin.blp pathtoskin
Now to insert our model. Open it in Notepad, Emacs, etc. (thats right, an OBJ is a text file) and remove EVERY line that does not have a format like "v 0.0000 0.0000 0.0000" and save it. Now your file only has vertex data.
"Now open Daishi's OBJ -> MDX converter. Click the Load MDX button and select the model that you initially extracted. Go to File>Import... and select the file with the modified vertex data. Now click Save MDX and your model is ready."
open up the Command Prompt again. This time you should enter somethign similiar to:
C:\>MPQ2k a yourmap.w3m yourmodel.blp pathtomodel
Alright. Almost done. In order for your model to work in a map, you must also include all of the textures it uses. To find what texture it uses, convert the MDX to MDL format using Yobgul's MDX <-> MDL. Open the MDL and do a search for .blp. Extract all of the files that you find from war3.mpq and include them in your map. (with the same path, of course)
Hopefully you've done everything correctly. your map should now be playable. Good Job.
