Human Female Expansion is Done! (only my second skin, woohoo!)

[Amidala from Chop Shop]

My Human Female (Jaden) Skin Expansion Mod is finally finished and available for download:

http://www.pcgamemods.com/5176

http://www.lucasfiles.com/index.php?...on=file&id=538

http://www.jk2files.com/file.info?ID=26787
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*


Features:

• It can be used with both the SINGLE-PLAYER and MULTIPLAYER games
• It adds 4 additional heads, 5 variations of the standard torsos plus the Hoth torso, and 2 additional legs plus the Hoth legs
• All of the torsos and legs support color-tinting and team colors, including the Hoth clothes
• One of the heads has hair and earrings that are tinted the same color as the clothes (including team colors)
• All of the original heads, torsos, and legs remain available in the menu
• Includes bot support (not that it's needed, but just to show how to create bots that use the custom characters)
• Fixes a bug in the default and Siege human female skins that specified mis-matched face and hair textures

The additional heads, modified torsos, additional legs, and Hoth clothes, when combined with the nine standard color tints provide 1,332 additional non-team and 296 additional team-color combinations beyond the standard combinations (I'm not even counting using the standard heads with the Hoth clothes).




Additional screenshots (the forum said this post had too many images):
http://www.uploadit.org/Amidala/yavin2_1024.jpg
http://www.uploadit.org/Amidala/sp_composite1_1024.jpg
http://www.uploadit.org/Amidala/sp_composite2_1024.jpg
http://www.uploadit.org/Amidala/sp_composite3_1024.jpg
http://www.uploadit.org/Amidala/h14.jpg

Multiplayer is fully supported, including team colors and bots. If the multicolor\team color head is used, the hair and earrings are team colored:




Team colors:
http://www.uploadit.org/Amidala/team_colors_1024.jpg


Four bots are included, named after some (female) regular players on my servers:

Bots:
http://www.uploadit.org/Amidala/bots_1024.jpg

Why it took me so long

I knew skin tones and hair are hard (especially for a noob like me) but they were harder than I thought. Once I decided to lighten the standard skin tones, it was hard not only to get realistic skin tones but also to get them to reasonably match. For instance, most of the face was on one file, and the rest of the face and the neck was on another file.

Same thing with the arms, not only were pieces of the arms on different files, but even on the same file different parts of the arm were on separate parts of the image. And then, the hands were on yet another image, and it all had to be reasonably close to the tone of the face and neck. The only way to look at the arm or head as one piece was to make a change, load it up in ModView, figure out where there were still problems and what image(s) had the parts that needed work, and then repeat. That took a lot of time. Here is a before and after shot of the left upper arm on torso_c1, notice how the bottom of the arm hole didn't line up:


I made one change in the neck because the default skin showed a muscle that was in the wrong place. I moved the muscle to the anatomically correct position (and added diamond earrings!):



I noticed errors in the model_default.skin and model_siege.skin that specified mis-matched face and hair\head textures, so I made the bugfix part of the mod:


Finally, I decided to add shader effects, even though I knew nothing about them (and still don't know much). Part of the problem was I was learning how to use Photoshop at the same time I was making the shader effects, so it took longer than it should of. I added shaders to the Hoth clothes and to the two new leg options so they could be colored, and added shader effects to one of the head's hair and earrings. I added shaders to the fingernail polish on the torsos with bare hands, and I also added a navel piercing to torso_c2 and made the jewel in it color-tintable with a shader:



Finally, thanks to all of the people who encouraged me to tackle this project. I never would have done it without you all. Here is a quote from the readme file:

== Thanks/Development Credits ==

First of all, thanks to the Raven Software artists who created the excellent source material that I reworked:
Les Dorscheid, Nick Choles, Joe Koberstein, Isaac Owens, Todd Rueping, Derek Smith, Jason Smith, Andrew Trabbold, and Gina Garren.

Thanks to jp-30 for his excellent skinning tutorial, and razorace for his icon tutorial.

Special thanks to all of those who gave me advice and encouragement at http://www.lucasforums.com/showthrea...hreadid=125913
Without your support and kind words, I never would have started and completed this project:
lassev, wedge2211, GothiX, keshire, Zappa_0, Prime, Antizac, Lei Hng Wei, Ro'Nin1968, t3rr0r, Lil Killa, Godzilla, Autobot Traitor, {JE}IceStorm, {JE}Sinna, {JE}DougHChrist, and {JE}RED-5.

[jon_hill987]

Good work, I can see this being a popualar download.
You did the improved Tavion aswell didn't you?

[Amidala from Chop Shop]

Originally posted by jon_hill987
Good work, I can see this being a popualar download.
You did the improved Tavion as well didn't you?

Yes, that was my first skin, this is my second.

Here they are together for the Battle of the Hotties:

[lassev]

Amazing work. The skins are truly beautiful, and artistically sound. The colors are spot on. And it's even more impressive considering that you had to correct the initial errors in the original skins.

EDIT: What is Rosh studying so intensively in the first one of your external image links?

[Lei Hng Wei]

Great work Amidala.

<HUUUUUG>

Now if you'll excuse me, a certain redheaded hottie and Tavion need to lounge around Blenjeel in briefs.

[Kengo]

Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
Yes, that was my first skin, this is my second.

Here they are together for the Battle of the Hotties:

To quote Lister "I don't care who wins, I'm just praying that it goes the distance"

This is great work, obviously a huge amount of time and effort was invested into it, and its really paid off. This is the kind of file skinning needs to give it some more credibility; there are some amazingly talented skinners out there who create wonderful projects - but too often they are underated because of all the terrible Reborn re-skins we see. This should help to redress the balance. Congrats

[Zappa_0]

Looks really good, keep up the awesome work!

[ronbrothers]

You've done good!

[Tysplo]

Very nice work!

[wedge2211]

bejeezus.

(oooooh, she used my map! *big hug*)

Those are REALLY good.

[Mex]

Very nice work indeed! Maybe now you could try touching up the Human Male Jedi, it gets a bit boring being them since they're costumes lack variety.

[El Sitherino]

*adds this to favorite skins*

very nice.
might wanna tell Rosh to stop staring at your chest though see

the filthy bugger

still, very nice work.
I'm diggin the purple hair

[jon_hill987]

Originally posted by Michaelmexp
Very nice work indeed! Maybe now you could try touching up the Human Male Jedi, it gets a bit boring being them since they're costumes lack variety.

Or you could ask for a job at Raven! the default skins are not exactly brilliant so they could probably do with a better skinner.

[Amidala from Chop Shop]

Originally posted by lassev
Amazing work. The skins are truly beautiful, and artistically sound. The colors are spot on. And it's even more impressive considering that you had to correct the initial errors in the original skins.

EDIT: What is Rosh studying so intensively in the first one of your external image links?

Isn't it obvious? He's admiring Jaden's "shaders"!

[Lei Hng Wei]

Mmm... shaders... I like a bot with well developed shaders.

[wedge2211]

Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
Isn't it obvious? He's admiring Jaden's "shaders"!

[Lei Hng Wei]

Hmmm, in the bot files Jen is supposed to use Katarn's saber, but she's not.

[keshire]

Someone bought Hoth clothes from Old Navy. Fleece pullovers.

[Lei Hng Wei]

And with OJP you get a better selection of RGB colours than the default.

[Amidala from Chop Shop]

Originally posted by Lei Hng Wei
Hmmm, in the bot files Jen is supposed to use Katarn's saber, but she's not.

Yes, apparently the "Katarn" hilt might only be available in single-player:



If a non-available hilt is specified for a bot, it gets the "default" hilt, which I think is this Reborn hilt:



What I should have done is specify the same hilt that the Kyle Katarn bot uses, which is saber_1:



But jen herself didn't really care which hilt I used:

id like e2 b2 or c2 b1, dark powers, single red saber katarn hilt is fine, as for sayings though...how vulgar can i be? :P entrance : ALL BOW TO THE FILTHY PANDA GODDESS OF GARBAGE

Originally posted by Lei Hng Wei
And with OJP you get a better selection of RGB colours than the default.

That is true, although I described in the readme how to change color tint in the console to any color desired.

[Azrael]

At this time, do you plan on making a male human version of this mod?

[Amidala from Chop Shop]

Originally posted by Azrael
At this time, do you plan on making a male human version of this mod?

At this time, no. I happened to be looking at the Human Male skins last night and I think overall they're not that bad, and better than the standard Human Female skins. Besides, there are so many other male human\humanoid skins, players who want that already have many many choices. There were far fewer choices for female skins.

Mostly, I'm exhausted from this project. I've had dark circles under my eyes for at least two weeks. Even just doing the screenshots took almost a week. Open up the jedi_hf_expansion.pk3 file and look at the Modified date\time stamps on the files and you'll find times like 12:43AM, 1:35AM, 2:17AM, 2:45AM, 3:13AM......

[Lei Hng Wei]

Originally posted by Azrael
At this time, do you plan on making a male human version of this mod?

Human male in leopard print briefs?

[Amidala from Chop Shop]

Originally posted by Lei Hng Wei
Human male in leopard print briefs?

Hmmm, a Tarzan skin could be interesting.

How about mix-and-match heads, torsos, and legs to make all of the members of the Village People? (See what lack of sleep can do to your mind )

[Lei Hng Wei]

Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
Hmmm, a Tarzan skin could be interesting.

How about mix-and-match heads, torsos, and legs to make all of the members of the Village People? (See what lack of sleep can do to your mind )

It's fun to stay at the J-K-J-A.
It's fun to stay at the J-K-J-A.

They have everything for padawans to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the Jedis...

And ya don't wanna hear about my JA related dream. Spectating my own dream?

[lassev]

Originally posted by Amidala from Chop Shop
Mostly, I'm exhausted from this project. I've had dark circles under my eyes for at least two weeks. Even just doing the screenshots took almost a week. Open up the jedi_hf_expansion.pk3 file and look at the Modified date\time stamps on the files and you'll find times like 12:43AM, 1:35AM, 2:17AM, 2:45AM, 3:13AM......

That's real dedication! And the results certainly speak for themselves! I'm happy now that I got your permission to use the skin in my SP map. Have a break, but please come back to skinning. This area of modding certainly got a lot more fresh and interesting with your arrival at the stage

[Amidala from Chop Shop]

Originally posted by Lei Hng Wei
And with OJP you get a better selection of RGB colours than the default.

I guess one thing I didn't emphasize enough is that you aren't limited to the nine default colors for clothing and hair tint (if you use head_b5). You can use RGB settings to create any wild hair color that you want.

You can use any graphics program, even MS Paint, to get the RGB values.

Open MS Paint and click Colors -> Edit Colors... -> Define Custom Colors >>

You will see a rectangular color spectrum and a vertical brightness slider. Set the brightness slider in the middle, then move the crosshair around the color spectrum to get the color that you want. Adjust the brightness slider up and down to get the brightness that you want, then read the values for Red, Green, and Blue shown in the boxes below the brightness slider, and write them down.

For instance, Red 203 Green 46 Blue 159 makes a magenta color.

Then open the console (shift and ~) and for single-player enter

playerTint 203 46 159

For multiplayer you have to enter a command three times, or make config files for each color. For instance, make a file called magenta.cfg and put it in your base folder. The file should have:

set char_color_red 203
set char_color_green 46
set char_color_blue 159

Then open the console in multiplayer and enter

/exec magenta.cfg

and it will tint your hair and clothes magenta. You can make as many color config files as you like. Doing it that way means you have to enter only one command instead of three in multiplayer.

[keshire]

Most people just play the game and expect others to do the work for them. Its like leading around the blind and deaf. a dump of the cvar/cmd list would have shown all the fun stuff.

[Kengo]

Forget the village people I say! I draw your attention to...

Originally posted by Radd
Damn, now I really want to see someone tackle some Dune inspired skins and models for JA.

Come on, now that means there are two people in the entire JA community who want to see that.

My favourite part of a project is the period of having a rest after finishing and releasing it into the public domain. Enjoy it, and I recommend excessive amounts of sleep!

[Lei Hng Wei]

Which version of Dune? The books? The movie? The mini-series? Finger puppets?

[boinga1]

*Declares Amidala Queen of JA skinning.

Amazing for a second skin job. Props for your use of shader effects.

[jp-30]

Hi Amidala,

I've tried PMing you, but the screen keeps hanging when I hit submit, so I don't thing they're getting through.

Thanks to jp-30 for his excellent skinning tutorial, and razorace for his icon tutorial.

As you may have read in another thread, I'm going to reformat my JO skining tutorial and post in on the main editing sites for download.

I've never specifically edited for JA, and so I'm wondering if you would like to contribute to the tutorial and help bring it up to date, by adding JA hints & tips / changes (I understand the .surf files may be slightly different? Are the Icons also different?) in amongst my existing text, and adding a new chapter about skinning for the various JA model body parts & how to do the shaders / alphas for the colour variations?

What I would do is clean my whole tutorial up in Word, email you the Word doc or post it somewhere for you to download, you'd add your bits in, then email it back to me & I'll run it through acrobat distiller to convert it to a pdf & I'll submit it to massassi, jk.net, pcgamemods etc.

JP

[Amidala from Chop Shop]

Sure jp-30, it's the least I could do. My email is adminamidala@comcast.net. I also have a full version of Adobe Acrobat (I used it to make the manual for the Asteroids mod).

There are no more .surf files in JA, that information is in the .skin files now (it simplifies things). Normal icons are the same, but the icons for the customizable characters (Twilek, Zabrak, Rodian, Human, etc) often have shader effects to show color changes.

[jp-30]

Awesome! I'll try and do my bit over the forthcoming weekend & send it out to you for the JA additions next week.

[[FotF]Maddog]

If you would like to add my tutorials on MODVIEW and Custom sounds you can get them here http://www.jedimovesfiles.com/site/f...w/modview.html http://www.jedimovesfiles.com/site/f...tomtaunts.html and be sure to check out the rest at the site www.jedimoves.com

You can get my messenger info from here http://www.clanprimal.com/forum/pop_...e=display&id=2 if you need to get in touch with me, i also have all of the pictures from the tutorial without the jedimoves logos on them.

[Kurgan]

Originally posted by Lei Hng Wei
Which version of Dune? The books? The movie? The mini-series? Finger puppets?

In terms of aesthetics I would think the David Lynch film version would be the most inspired. Scary/ugly/weird vs. the more bland and generic (ripped off from Japanese Opera?) Sci Fi miniseries costumes/looks.

That's just my opinion though, do both if you want to. I just think that the movie version has cooler/more interesting looking characters in general. Plus since it's been around longer the characters have more instant recognition than the recent series's.




The finger puppets would be quite good though, I hope those come out soon.

[RoxStar]

Trruly amazing...

[Lei Hng Wei]

Originally posted by Kurgan
The finger puppets would be quite good though, I hope those come out soon.

Once someone weights the skeleton, I'm sure there would be a glut of Reborn finger puppets. Makes feeding them to the Sand Worm Sock Puppet a treat.

[Wanderer]

Very nice Good documentation of screenshots.

[jp-30]

Thanks Maddog, I'll take a look at those - the sounds tutorial would be great to add, though I cover off modview reasonable well in my basic tutorial (I'll certainly link to your modview tute from my one though).

I'll be in touch!