|
| Skinning Tutorial | |
|
Modifying the Images | |
| Blank Corvus Images (149kb ZIP file) | The link to the left is to a ZIP file containing blank Corvus skins. |
C_blank.bmp is a naked Corvus with all his usual weapons and armor. C_damage.bmp is for creating the damaged skin (usually the last thing you do). There are also various masks used for copying and pasting things from the damaged skin that will be explained later. These skins are full-colour bitmaps. I suggest saving your own works-in-progress in a file format that preserves full-colour and does not alter the image. Bitmap (BMP), Targa (TGA) or PaintBrush (PCX) images are fine. Try not to save as a JPEG, since the format introduces compression- related artefacts into the image. GIF requires you to convert the image into just 256 colours. You will need to do this eventually anyway, but wait until you are sure you have finished before doing so. I usually keep a full-colour bitmap version of all my skins as well as a 256-colour bitmap version (which I name _skinname.bmp and skinname.bmp respectively). That way you always have a full-colour version available if you want to modify the skin some more.
The simplest way to create a new skin is to copy and paste from existing skins, and altering a few details here and there. Often the best way to make a pair of boots is to copy them from an existing skin, then alter their colour to match the new skin. Several M8 skins are supplied with Heretic II, and if you have a program that allows you to save M8s as image files, you will have a wide range of body parts, armor types and clothing to chop and change. QuArK allows you to view and convert M8 files, and is the main program I use for doing so. Game File Explorer allows you to extract M8 files from the main Heretic II PAK file. The PAK file, as the name suggests, is a file that has all of the necessary graphics and models 'packed' into it. It is located in your Heretic II/base/ directory (called Htic2-0.pak). The same M8 files are also located separately in the Heretic II/base/skins/ or Heretic II/base/players/male/ directories. You don't just have to use existing Corvus skins to copy from. It is possible to convert the skins used by various other monsters and characters in the game (see examples below). The leg guards for the Soultaker skin (which comes with the game) have been copied from a statue model used in the game. You'll find the monster skins in the PAK file, in the models/monsters/ directories. They will all be named !skin.M8 or !skin.pcx.M8, so if you want to save more than one as images you'll have to rename them. I have converted several of the monster skins for the male player model, which you can download on my Converted Monster Skins page. There is also a female model (Kiera) for which I have converted the hive priestess, although I'll only be discussing the male model on these pages. If you want to change the colour of the blank skin evenly, there is an image file called C_skin_mask.gif that can be loaded onto the skin image as a mask (see the next page), so that the entire skin colour can be altered in one go. | |