I can answer PSP/Photoshop questions

Reading this tickled me.

Team colour is part of the model. The skin goes over the model, so by alphaing parts of a skin that cover team-coloured parts of the model, you reveal that team colour.

Alpha channels only change transparency. In varying levels. So, you can use ranges of grey to give the effect of shaded team colour sections.

Some parts of a model still show up when the skin is alpha'd, and it doesnt show team colour, just a plain white colour. You can usually find out what parts can be alpha's by deselecting parts in the image viewer.

how can i skin an armor i dont know how ive made one but its kinda choppy also give me an advice so i can get the same color twice cuz i always lose the first color ive used

thx

You stared a thread for that BlackSpear , please look there so I don't have to answer you twice.

man i want to know how to do it i know have to use the dodge and burn stuff i know i have to use a light grey what i want to know is how to coordinate these tools so i can effieciently make my armors


whitehorn and the starter of this thread do you want to join the trm mod as skinners??

Check your other thread, I linked you a tutorial.

What is TRM?

TRM (Ten Races Mod) is a mod in which im working on along with a some guys and i wanted you to join along with the starter of this thread pls post message me

astronaut890: As for making an alpha channel:
Masks->New->New show all.
Then
Masks->Save to alpha channel
Call it Alpha 1.
Now you've got an alpha channel.
If you want to edit it do this:
masks->view mask
Masks->Edit mask
Now use black to create alpha areas and white to remove them. Greys can be used for transparencies. When you are done save the alpha channel over the Alpha 1.

BlackSpear: I don't quite get your armor question. As for the same color thing, use the eyedropper tool. Just click the color you want and it will be your primary color. In addition in PSP hold control to bring up the quick eyedropper or alt in PS while a painting to is selected.

I've got my own project right now so I can't join but if you need icons or some simpler skins let me know via PM.

Whitehorn: Thanks for the team color stuff. Had I known that in the begining it would have solved some problems.

As this is an advice thread please discuss mods on another forum. Thankyou.

i wanted to learn how to make an armor how should i coordinate the photoshop tools so i can make it you know how much should i burn and dodge or where to highlight also i didnt got your answer about the colors that well ill explain you my trouble with more details

my problem:
lets suppose im using the brush i click in the place where the two squares with primary and secondary color are selected then i have kind of a graphic where the colors appear and you need to find the color you want by moving the cursor then i find it ok now i use it but then i say i need to switch colors is there a way i can make some custom colors so i have them there always??

BlackSpear: For your color problem: I'm assuming that you are using PS. In my experience I haven't found a way to make a custom color list. That's not to say it can't be done, I just don't know how at the moment.
One solution is to select the color you want in the color picker (by clicking the primary color box). Then click custom color button. Now make a note of the panitone number. Next time you want that color just find it in the panitones. And as I said in my previous post it is easier to just hold alt and click the color you need. It will become your primary color.

As for armor here are two ways low quality and higher quality.
Low qual:
1. Set your foreground to a dark grey (almost black but not quite). Make a new layer over your skin.
2. In the new layer draw the outlines of the armor around the arms, neck, waist, and what ever other places are necessary.
3.Fill the out line with a light grey so you have a visual template.
4.Now around the neck, arms and waist draw another line a few (2 or 3. pixels in from the first out line. This will be the rounded edges of the armor. With a lighter grey than your out line draw any highlights necessary (pecks, abs, etc.).
5. You should now have a basic outline of what your armor will look like. Make your foreground color a grey that is a bit lighter that the outlines and your background color a grey that is darker that your fill color.
6. Now use the gradient tool to fill things in. Picture the armor in your head. The parts that stick out more should have lighter color. So for the chest make it so it is lighter than the waist.
7. From here on out it is up to you. When you are done you can play around with the contrast to add a bit of shine. Or mess with the curves abit. Both of those can be found under Image->Adjust->

High qual: If you want more of a brushed metal look do this-
1. Do the above steps 1-3 but don't do the fill in. Instead click on the armor layer and drag it onto the New Layer button to duplicate it. Hide the top layer
2. Hold ctrl (command on mac) and click the remaining armor layer. This selects everything in the layer. Make your foreground color the basic grey your armor should be. Hit alt+delete to fill the selection. Deselect. You should now have a armor shaped grey spot. If you need to fill some areas go ahead. Now under the select menu save the selection. Name doesn't matter.
3. Under the filters menu select Noise->Add Noise. Give it a good amount of noise (about 20%) and make sure that Monochromatic is checked. Hit OK.
4. Under the Blurr filter use the motion blur with a 20 pixel distance and at a 45 degree angle (top right to bottom left).
5. The armor should look like brushed metal now.
6. Unhide the top layer. With the metal layer still selected go to the select menu and load the previously saved selection.
7. Invert the selection and hit delete to clean up the edges. Deselect.
8. hide your skin layer. Go to Layer->Merge visible. Unhide your skin layer.
9. Now the hard part. Make a new layer above everything. With the lasso select areas that should be shining on the armor. Once that is done from the select menu feather the selection. The amount varies on the size of the selection. Set your foreground color to white and hit alt delete to fill the selections. Set the opasity of the layer to about 30% and there you go. I should look somewhat like armor. Use the burn tool to darken necessary areas and dodge to lighten. Use both at low opasities.

When your armor is all done go to Layer->Flatten image.
You are done.

Every time I save as a tga in PSP v.8, adn then try to import it via wc3 image extractor, I get a message that says it has an unsupported compression.

(another problem)

Sometimes when I'm saving as a tga in PSP, I get a message saying something about having only one alpha channel and turning it into a merged image.

sorry im noob another question so i can follow your excellent tutorial what is a layer??

For the PSP8 thing, in the image extracter u have click convert at the top and do it that way u cant actually open TGA files.

Quetz2: I have psp 7 so this might not solve your first problem but when you save click the obtions box and make sure that uncompressed is selected.
As for the one alpha channel thing, that means that you have edited the alpha channel. If you have edited the alpha channel make sure you save it over the existing one. If it gives you that message then just click whatever will let it save. You shouldn't have any problems but let me know if it messes you up.

BlackSpear: I assume your using Photoshop? The answer will be the same either way but the methods will be different. In Photoshop:
In the bottom right corner of your work area there should be a palette that includes three tabs: layers, channels, paths. In the layers tab you should see something that says "background" if you have an image open. That is the background layer. A layer is basicly a new piece of see-through paper to work on. In that palette near the bottom there is a trash can button. Next to that is the "New Layer" button ( looks like a page being curled). If you click that it makes a new layer over the current one. You won't see anything because there is nothing painted on it. To see how it is used select the layer you just made in the layer palette. Now paint on the image. Once you have painted, in the layer palette find the top layer and click the eye next to it. That hides the layer. Each time you click the layer is hidden or unhidden. Layers are a way paint on your image without affecting the origional. Does that make sense?

Here is a final input update about team color from R2D2 at warcraft maps and mods.

_ _ _ _ _
The team color is a texture layer in the .mdl. The parts of blizzard models with team color are a seperate geoset using the texture. It is easy to add tc to a geoset, but then none of it can be alphaed (which is why it's on a seperate geoset).
So if there are parts of the skin that are black in alpha channel, to keep them invisible you would have to alter the geosets of the model.

...but if there is already tc in the shoulders, you just need to paint black in the alpha channel.
_ _ _ _ _

Hope that clears up some issues. :)

How to make something "invisible", for example a priestess of the moon so only the mount is visible, or the staff of a priest? Im confused o_O