tutorials?

[The Dreaming Dragon]

I want to try my hand at making my own custom skin,but I have no idea where to research the subject. I'm basically will take the green one and add stuff to it,but I can't get q2 to see a finished product. Can anyone who recommend a How-To site ?

[spikeq2]

I don't know of a site off hand however I can try to help since I have made a few skins myself.

First off, search the web for a skin editor called nphernos skin tool. This is an awesome skin editing tool that actually lets you paint the skin on the model.

Next, (after you paint your skin) save the skin as nameofskin.pcx. (nameofskin being the name you choose for the skin) Then the skin is saved. However if you try to load this up in quake2 you will find that it doesn't work. Why? Well a skin in quake 2 has two parts. The normal skin that you wear and the icon that you see when you look at the scores.

How to fix this:
a full skin set in Q2 looks like this...
quakeskin.pcx         <---- the actual skin you just painted.
quakeskin_i.pcx      <---- The skin's icon.

As you may have noticed the skin and icon are named the same..the only difference is the _i.pcx at the end...this tells quake2 that this is the icon that corresponds with the skin with the same name.

How do i get this icon?:
There are two ways basically...
1. you can steal an icon from another skin..copy it rename it to match the skin you made then load it up.
or
2. if you want your own unique icon you can load up any paint or photo editor that can read and edit pcx files, and supports indexing. (this you will have to research else where unfortunately) Anyways, load one up..paint your own icon, then save it as nameofskin_i.pcx. Then check it out in Q2 and viola! It should be there... if not email me. (look below for help)

I hope this helps some. Also i assume you know how to saves skins in the model's folder which you are making the skin for..if not email me at spikeq2@yahoo.com and i will try my best to help you out.

Good Luck,
Happy Fraggin,

SpikeQ2

[The Dreaming Dragon]

Thanks,but I have Photoshop and all I want to do is alter an existing skin. I remember that q2 has a limited pallette,and the problem I'm having may be that I'm using too many colors with the skin I'm making...I just want to make the head part of the fun model into an eyeball and the smile from my avatar here on its belly,with some shading and such.What I've attempted so far q2 won't let me see in game,so I assume it's a pallette problem...

[[BTF]EyEsTrAiN]

I was wondering something similar in a way, I was going to use photoshop to also edit an existing skin. I took the colormap.pcx file and opened it in photoshop because that the one that hold the q2 palatte (right?). However, whenever I opened it, it was stuck in black and white. Is there any way to get it to open in color instead?

[The Dreaming Dragon]

I found this site that has a tutorial of sorts,and a link to the q2 pallette...

http://www.planetquake.com/ceptos/

The side art is confusing but look for the Tecniques link.The link to the pallette is in the introduction link.I have yet to fathom what's going on but I'll figure it out.I have that same problem with the skin looking black in PS.I also found an earlier attempt of mine in the model's folder,and even though it looks blue in PS,it shows up red in game.I'll keep looking for more info...

And more info found! I'm reading the Painting in High Color section now

http://www.studio-erebus.com/studio/tutorials.html

[{TNP}Dukie]

couple more links

http://www.planetquake.com/skindom/faq/quake2/

http://www.planetquake.com/pandemonium/html/skintut1.htm

 

[{TNP}Dukie]

In photoshop you have to convert the image to
"indexed colour" from the Image -> Mode menu, then from the
same menu I think near the bottom there is an option to "Load Colour Table" ...
click that and then load the q2.pal palette file!

I have loded up the black and white skins and then done the above and have had succes, but
tonight it is not working for me for some reason.

[The Dreaming Dragon]

The funny thing is,even if I apply the q2 pallette to an already functional skin,it turns black too! I'm getting frustrated already.I even tried painting a skin using only the pallette colors and no matter what I do it refuses to show up in game.Happily I have a vacation coming up I can spend frustrating myself even more with this...and my concept would look so cool too :<

Make some progress just now...something I SHOULD have merely read about above.....

[Art]

....Make some progress just now...skins won't show up ingame if there isn't a corresponding <filename>_i.pcx created along with it. ....

Didn't I read that somewhere around here

[{TNP}Dukie]

I've put the import/export q2 palettes for photoshop and the .pal for PaintshopPro up for download on this page

http://dukieskinz.homestead.com/dukiesskinzq2.html

[The Dreaming Dragon]

Version 1 is done!

[LtColumbo]

I like the one with the giant eyeball.  OOOOOhh Veeeery scarrrrry. I hope you make more skins on this model or others. The Cyclops Gumby lives.