Skin tutorial : Quake2 skin with Nst and Paint Shop Pro

Tools needed:

  1. NST (I use 0.76 but 0.9b3 is available): here
  2. Paint Shop Pro : here

I'll use Ogro ppm for this tutorial (just the head, to have smaller images and to have a quicker tutorial to do). But you can apply the technique to any model.

1.creating a wireframe skin.
  1. launch NST, open the tris.md2 you want. Create a temp skin if asked. Now:
  2. Skins/New (shift+N) (checkerboard :no, gridded : no, mesh outlined : yes).note: you need a dark color for the background and a light one for the foreground color (wireframe).
  3. You should have
    the skin
    applied on the model
  4. Save the skin as wireframe.pcx (or whatever you want)
2.preparing the surface.
  1. Launch PSP, open the skin. (Nst still running)
  2. double click on the background color (just under the palette), and pick a mid brown.
  3. use the selection tool and select a half of the head:
  4. use the del key
  5. Save your skin
  6. go back to NST, hit F5
3.painting shadows and highlights (sketching the skin)
  1. pick a dark color (black, or any dark one (trying weird color combinations might give a good result).
  2. click on "pencil brush"
  3. set opacity to 15/20 %

  4. paint the shadows/dark area in3D (don't hesitate to use the space bar to switch from camera to painting mode. Left mouse button: rotate, right: move, both: zoom. Also, play with the different animations to access hidden areas (if you don't have an exploded frame).
    the skin
    applied on the model

  5. save your skin
  6. pick a light brown, and paint the highlighted areas (don't hesitate to play with the opacity if needed)
    the skin
    applied on the model

  7. Save your skin
  8. switch to PSP.
  9. close the skin and reopen it to have the latest version
4.smoothing/adding details
  1. Well, it looks a bit pixelly:
  2. First, save the palette :Colors/save palette (save as quake2true.pal).
  3. Now Colors/edit palette. double click on the last color (255), the pink bottom right of the palette. click on the black color/OK.(why? because this last color is fullbright and it's really ugly to have some bright pixels on your skin)
  4. save this palette as well, you'll use it often.(save as q2.pal)
  5. then: Colors/Increase color Depth/24 bit (ctrl+shift+0)
  6. use the finger(retouch ) tool. select soften as retouch mode. opacity 40, size 1 or 2
  7. Smooth the gradients where it's needed

  8. select the painted half of the skin. copy(ctrl+C)/paste as new selection (ctrl+E)/mirror(ctrl+M). drop it to fit the wirerame half of the skin.
  9. smooth the middle of the skin to hide the mirror effect (and other areas you think you forgot)
  10. use the lighten retouch mode, size 1 or 2 (sometimes 5 or 10 for big areas (ex: top of the head), opacity 15 or 20 (13 minimum for small brush sizes). and highlight where it's needed.
    You can also use the airbrush tool (size 1 or 2, opacity 2) if you want high lights to be a specific color.
  11. smooth the gradients with the soften tool and copy/mirror/paste/hide the mirror effect:
  12. Use the darken retouch mode tools (same settings as lighten in 10) to paint shadows, and soften to smooth gradients:
  13. load the quake2 palette: Colors/load palette (shift+ O) and select q2.pal:
  14. Oh my god...I've benn a bit heavy with the lighten tool :). go to 24 bit again, pick the color you want and fix the problems with the airbrush (opacity 2 or 5):
  15. load palette, save your skin, go back to NST and hit F5
    skin
    on the model
  16. if some areas are badly shaded, don't hesitate to fix it in NST, then to use PSP to smooth everything .
  17. Repeat this process with all the parts of the model.
    note: the mouth should have been skinned in the same time.