Alyx skinning

  • Thread starter Thread starter SparedLife
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SparedLife

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Hello all,
After a few hours of popping blood vessels in my head I now have a headache the size of Manhatten and a few skins made for Alyx in the same retexturing procedure I have done with other game characters.

I'm not even sure how I got to the final process of getting the skins back into VTF format but they are there. :thumbs:

Alyx

alyxpose1.jpg
 
cool that you did it... but I reccomend a career other than fasion design for you.
 
How did you get the texture out?
I know how to get it back in
 
Getting it out was the easy part, getting it back in was a pain worth the finest masochist.

I used GCFScape to unpack the GCF file. Then VTF2TGA to convert to an edible content.
My trouble came in trying to get Vtex to put it back.
 
SparedLife said:
Hello all,
After a few hours of popping blood vessels in my head I now have a headache the size of Manhatten and a few skins made for Alyx in the same retexturing procedure I have done with other game characters.

I'm not even sure how I got to the final process of getting the skins back into VTF format but they are there. :thumbs:

Alyx

alyxpose1.jpg
Click to expand...

heh good job on the Alexx skin.. she looks like a character out of No One Lives Forever now. :)
 
Lol, I like that look... except the jacket, make it a different color from the shirt :D
 
SparedLife said:
Getting it out was the easy part, getting it back in was a pain worth the finest masochist.

I used GCFScape to unpack the GCF file. Then VTF2TGA to convert to an edible content.
My trouble came in trying to get Vtex to put it back.
Click to expand...



Woah!

I don't know WTF you just said, but I'd like to be able to do this too. :E

Actually, all I'd really like to do is look at the character's UV texture sheets just to see how they unwrapped the characters and stuff.

If you can post .jpg versions of the different characters, like the Gman and Alyx and such, I do believe I'd worship you. :upstare:
 
heh good job on the Alexx skin.. she looks like a character out of No One Lives Forever now.
Click to expand...

That character is so easy to skin, almost any pattern works on Cate.

Lol, I like that look... except the jacket, make it a different color from the shirt
Click to expand...

There are plenty more choices; 32 in all so far, feel free to use any you like.

I'd really like to do is look at the character's UV texture sheets
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't do UV's for the most part. I break down the default skin into highlights and shadows then separate each part of the skin into layers. From this I am able to replace the original textures with a variety of custom textures while not losing the original skin. I have 3 Alyx PSD files at over 100 meg each. The templating takes about 4 hours to complete.

In case you didn't get to my site for the other Alyx skins here are the links:

6 Alyx Skins

and

6 more Alyx skins
 
Uh... You know you're supposed also to do the part with the duct tape over it, right (left shoulder)?
 
Uh... You know you're supposed also to do the part with the duct tape over it, right (left shoulder)?
Click to expand...

Uh... no I'm not "supposed" to do anything. I purposely left that section intact but thank you for your observation. I thought about removing that piece but decided to use it as a sort of trademark piece.

I see you have a tutorial on skinning. Do you have anything done yet (skins) or are you just into critiquing and tutoring?

I would like to see more user made skins, especially from the mod section of an HL2 forum.

Have I bumped into you before on another game forum?
 
SparedLife said:
Sorry, I don't do UV's for the most part. I break down the default skin into highlights and shadows then separate each part of the skin into layers. From this I am able to replace the original textures with a variety of custom textures while not losing the original skin. I have 3 Alyx PSD files at over 100 meg each. The templating takes about 4 hours to complete.
QUOTE]


Can you post a smaller version of that default skin you have? That's what I meant by "UV texture sheet". (I wasn't sure how to describe it.) I want to see what the flattened out, 2D skin file looks like.
Click to expand...
 
shouldnt you just be able to pull it out of the gcf and stick it into the models folder on cs:s or hl2:dm? the data is all there in a compiled mdl form. is there somethign im missing?
 
shouldnt you just be able to pull it out of the gcf
Click to expand...

That's correct, all the skin files can be extracted from the game. I'm assuming he doesn't have the game yet.

Just a little bit on alpha, gloss, and bump mapping for you guys. The VMT files tell the engine what texture to use and how to render it. The default render for gloss mapping is the alpha channel in the default skin.
Looking at the Alyx_sheet.tga's alpha channel you can see why there is no gloss. You can change the alpha channel to get more gloss or as I prefer you can use the game's default external file. You will note that there is no bump mapping defined for this model either.
If you prefer to use the external default name then just add the _normal to the end of the skin file or as in Alyx : Alyx_sheet_normal.tga to get a bump and gloss. The bump and gloss map I have uses the default skin map. So you are welcome to play around with them. They also work on every skin I have made.
The bump map was done with Nvidia's NormalMapFilter for Photoshop and the alpha channel is just blackandwhite.

I have a few more skins made and when I get a chance I will post a link to them. For now here are 3 downloads'.
The 2 bump maps have more and less bumps. skin 38 has the internal gloss map and no bumps.
lowbump

large bumps

internal gloss

You can just unzip this one above and use it with no extra bump files.

Here is a skin using my external bump and gloss :
alyx_sheet_sparedLife37_GB3.jpg
 
hmmm... I think im missing something then. I must be placing the files in the wrong folder. any time I try and load my model as alyx.mdl it ends up crashing the game.

note: these are files straight from the gcf
 
Oh my bad I thought you were referring to tactmasterzero post. You need help getting your skins to work.

I have my skins in this folder....

steam/steamapps/sparedlife/half-life 2/hl2/materials/models/alyx/

Of course your folder will not be SparedLife
 
I have the game, but I don't have any experience with 'modding'.

I know a little about 3D graphics by way of Maya, but nothing about how to use the Source SDK.

I'm clueless about all the technical information having to do with software developement that experienced folks would consider 'common knowledge'.

I guess that about sums me up.
 
I can understand that, working with some of these game developers and programmer's tools can be very frustrating. Especially when their knowledge level is so high.

If you can download, install, and run a program without to much trouble (no disrespect intended) then you should download GCFScape. I don't know what the SDK uses but this one is very simple and does just what you want without all the other garbage I went through. It installs and runs just like any other Windows program. The GCF files can be found on your HD by doing a file search through explorer or in a similiar spot as mine:

../Program Files/Valve/Steam/SteamApps

Below is a 256 JPG of the Alyx skin which doesn't even begin to help you with seeing the UV's not to mention there are many other files for this model such as the eyes, teeth, head, and others. I highly recommend you download GCFScape to see everything. No SDK to do and it will allow you to extract only the files you want in case you are low on HD space.

alyxskinsmall.jpg


From this you can use the VTF2TGA converter, I actually did a google search and found it with a interface on some EDU site before noticing it in my HL2 files.
 
 
I wasn't questioning your abilities, no need for a resume. :cheers:

I was just wondering what work you have completed in HL2. I didn't see much alpha use in the Alyx skin for bump mapping but with a little experimentation I got the bump mapping to work as well as the gloss mapping. Now I'm trying to figure out how to control the glow mapping (specular). This was trying to use the default base map but doesn't work.
specular01.jpg


Any ideas?
 
SparedLife said:
Uh... no I'm not "supposed" to do anything.
Click to expand...
Well, I was just trying to help, but you were a bit arrogant, so I felt I'd to show I've been skinning for a while, so you knew I was knowledgeable about it and not just some guy talking out of my @$$.
I understand about you wanting to leave the duct tape part intact, but there's a piece of the original skin under it that clashes with the rest of the texture and would make a pattern look misaligned. I like the leather jacket. ;)
 
Fragger, you haven't done anything for Farcry have you? Your name is very familiar.
 
I have. Sexy Valerie and Sexy Valerie - Cleavage edition come to mind.
 
Well alrighty then I got the glow mapping and specular down seems they are handled separately sort of. Anyway the diffuse map replaces the specular map by default but I fixed that :D

I glow mapped the logo and then specularated (I know no such word) the devil out of the jacket. Added a little not much bump mapping. From this I can mask only the logo and get a really reflective iron on logo without effecting anything else.

Glow-Gloss-Specular-Bump01b.jpg
 
Looks like she has some laser shield on her clothes.
 
Looks like she has some laser shield on her clothes.
Click to expand...

Well that's partially due to the JPG screenshot but also since it's a still shot it's hard to see the reflection movement. That shot was only meant to show how to make the decal plastic.

I made a few more skins with the lambda symbol on the jacket so you could see how to use the alpha channel to mask out everything but the decal to be shiny. There is a normal file that makes the entire jacket shiny but without it only the symbol is shiny.

Also I did a mask with the pants making them shiny with plaid design jackets.

Shiny jacket

More shiny jacket

Plaids with shiny pants
 
How are you getting these skins back into the game?

I can get then out and to tga, then edit them....I can compile them to vtf but have no idea how to get them working from there.
 
Import them into the GCF...otherwise, just put them into the HL2 materials folder :P
 
How do I put them back into the GCF, as GCFScape seems to only export?

Also, how will putting them into the hl2/materials folder allow them to appear on the npc_alyx in-game....?
What is meant to be put into the .vmt files when you convert the edited textures from tga?

Cheers
 
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