Using Blender to test skins (TUTORIAL)
A bit of a storytelling, last time I was active in this forum, it was 6 years ago. With the revival of AoTTG and the upcoming sequel in development, it seems aotskins has not died out yet as well. I have also decided to contribute to its development and I want to regrow the aottg skinning community with it.
This tutorial was first posted in the
AOTSKINS Discord Server. Click that to join. The resources that we will be using will also be there as well as this exact same tutorial. So let's proceed.
Ever wanna make skins using blender? Well, this post is perfect for you.
Why use blender though? Well, first things first, I think it's easier to use blender as you just slap textures into it instead of opening AoTTG every single time. Another pro to using blender is you can draw straight into the model itself. I'll show you a trick on how to use this in your advantage. I will make this tutorial as easy as possible so that even with no knowledge in blender, you'd be able to use it yourself.
First off, download blender (
https://www.blender.org/download/)
Then, download "SkinModeling.blend" (from the discord server #resources channel)
I spent hours trying to organize this to make it easier to slap textures with.
Now open SkinModeling.blend with Blender, you should be met with this. Do not panic! That's normal because you haven't applied skins yet.
Make sure your layout is set to "Skinning" and the workspace is in object mode by pressing "Tab" (toggles from Object mode to Edit mode) <= Check the top left dropdown menu.
Now let's change the body parts. At the rightmost part of the layout, you'll see the hierarchy of the models. You should be able to see 2 collections namely "Human" and "AHSS HUMAN".
In this tutorial, we'll be using the human collection so make sure the AHSS HUMAN is not visible by clicking the eye on the right side.
Now expand the Human collection by clicking the arrow
You should be able to see this
A better way to see what to change is by opening Hair, Male Body, and Female Body.
So, how do you change the body parts exactly? Well, it's not that automatic but it should be easy to understand.
Changing the hair would just mean turning on one of the hair's visibility and turning off all the other ones. So in this case, I'm using hair_sasha, this means I need all of the other hairs turned off as well to prevent them from overlapping.
The same goes for the body. If you're using Male Body, make sure you have the character_body_blade_keeper_m_0 visible at all times, and choose one of the Male costumes (e.g. Casual Male A, Uniform Male A). Same goes for the Female Body.
In my case, I used hair_sasha with Casual Female Body.
At this point, you should be able to understand the concept of object's visibility so you try messing with it 'til you get the hang of it.
Now let's get to the exciting part and change the textures
Make sure blender is in object mode by pressing Tab to toggle between Edit and Object Mode.
To change textures, I have it already set up for you that all you'd need to do is press the cube behind the model, and make sure the properties panel is in the Materials tab.
Now you'll see all the materials get listed. This will only show when you have the box selected, now let's proceed to changing the textures.
Let's use cape as an example.
Make sure the cape material is selected.
Now change its texture by pressing this folder icon to browse a texture.
Now you should be able to see the change. It's that easy!
Now do the following for all the materials.
Tada!
Using Blender's built-in Texture Paint to your advantage
Aight, the new SkinModeling.blend on #resources should be updated to add an extra panel to the left side.
For example, you want to draw a simple straight diagonal lines but damn UVs ruin it and you get disappointed when you check it in game.
Here's a trick! Make sure you're on object mode, then select the object you want to draw on, in our case, the boots.
Now move to Texture paint.
Draw over the boots in the 3D viewport.
but, I don't wanna use blender to paint textures
Easy, just export the image and open it with your favorite editor, you have the lines as a guide now so it should be easy.
Save it, go back to blender and press Alt + R to reload the image, or browse again if you saved it as another image.
There you have it folks. Good luck! Hope you learned a thing or two in this tutorial. If you find yourself not understanding something, feel free to ping me in #skin-discussion.
(this tutorial is taken word by word from the discord server)