Skinning for beginners

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Idontneedaname's

SKINNING GUIDE

Skinning for beginners



In this guide I just want to help everyone learn skinning. It can be very, very useful for your own maps. Just take DotA's Invoker, who looks awesome. In this guide I will change Jaina Proudmores skin (just because she is the most sexiest woman in Warcraft.).


a ) Used Programms:

• Warcraft III Viewer [Link]
• Adobe Photoshop

In this tutorial I used Adobe Photoshop, but any other program with can edit .tga files also does the job. GIMP should be mentioned here.

b ) Overview:

1. Find Jaina
2. Export the file
3. Skinning
4. Change back to .blp
5. Importing it into the Editor
6. Jaina ingame
7. Advanced Skinning

Ok, let's start:

1. Find Jaina

Open Warcraft III Viewer and search for Jainas skin. You have to know that .mdx is the model, the 3D unit. .blp is only the skin laid over the model. Let's see... Jaina is a unit . The next step is that Jaina is human. Scroll down a bit and, olé, there she is.



As you can see, there are not all human units in the list. That depends on the .mpq-file you are using. The mpq used in this screenshot is found here: File --> Browse mpq --> C:\Programs\Warcraft III\war3.mpq

war3.mpq : All units from Reign of Chaos
war3x.mpq : Only the units from The Frozen Throne
war3Patch.mpq : Warcraft III Viewer can't use that
war3xlocal : Warcraft III Viewer can't use that

If you tried both mpq-files and still can't find the unit you're searching, it'll be in one of the two Textures-folders (one in each .mpq).


2. Export the file

Choose the option shown in the following screenshot to save the skin as .tga (instead of .blp). There are also the options .bmp and .jpg, but those can't read transparent pictures. Imagine a unit for player 1 as a red 3D-object which the skin is laid over. While skins made with .tga are transparent where the unit shall be red, skins made with .bmp or .jpg are black there. --> they won't have team colors.




3. Skinning

Open the just saved file in Photoshop (or the program you're using). Now you may change everything. In my case I'll change the white things on her arms and legs. This skin



gets changed somehow. Be creative!



Save it as .tga again.


4. Change back to .blp

Use the option - in Warcraft III Viewer - shown in the following screenshot [choose the just saved .tga file]:



The skin is finished, now you only have to import it in the Warcraft III Editor:


5. Importing it into the Editor

Open the Editor and press F12. When in the Import Manager, press Ctrl + I. Choose the .blp skin made in step 4. If you did so, it will look like that:



Now hit the "war3mapImported\Jaina Kopie.blp" 2 times, check "use own path" and replace the "war3mapImported\Jaina Kopie.blp" with "Units\Human\Jaina\Jaina.blp", which is the path where Jaina is found in the Warcraft III Viewer.

MIND THE BACKSLASH HERE!!

Hit OK and you are done.


6. Jaina ingame

Of course you have to place a Jaina in your map. Don't worry if she looks normal, if you did everything correct, it will be shown ingame first. Save your map and press Ctrl + F9 [Test the map].

Congratulations, you changed Jaina from this



to this:




Be creative, there are lots of possiblities:




7. Advanced Skinning (due to the lack of a better name Oo)


Well, that's what I said - but it's only one part of the truth. Let me explain it with this picture:



Strange, hm? This is another skin, of course, but a completely empty one (for those who don't understand what empty means; I erased everything). Let's have a closer look at it. Where the real skin has teamcolors, the skin is red; but the red parts are only there. That means that if I erase the ears (where is no teamcolor ingame), she won't have ears, because there ain't red parts and there ain't a skin.



This doesn't work with each model, you have to try it with the empty skin first.






I hope that you understood this tutorial and learned from it. Feel free to comment me.



© by Idontneedaname

It should be mentioned that such reskins with only minor edits won't be accepted in our Texture database.
Otherwise this is a good tutorial that explains the basic steps in creating a custom skin.

Sorry, didn't know that. I'll change it when I have time.
EDIT: Changed.
EDIT2: ... and now I see that i should have read your post more carefully, I thought that you meant my tut with your first sentence ...