Post by Alfarjamie on Jun 28, 2008 12:58:28 GMT
Note: If any images when you click on them are unreadable, press the full size button, yes i know putfile sucks.
I deleted the old one due to people not crediting my guide, and GM's not linking to my guide like valefor said to ask experienced skinners for guide's when i had already made one since before it was allowed.
Anyway i revised the guide so here it is :
What you will need:
Photoshop
.DDS file plugin
A brain
A mouse or drawing pad
knowledge on photoshop
If you cannot find out how to do something i have not mentioned then you probably don't know how to use photoshop at all and it is a basic skill you should learn that i do not have to guide you for, So google it.
1. All of your UI files are located in your CABAL\Data\UI Directory.
The main files will be in the Theme1 folder of the UI Directory.
You need to open these files with photoshop with the dds plugin installed.
2. Depending on which one you opened it should look like the menu's of some part you will most likely instantly recognise everything if you play cabal often.
The black areas represent nothing usually unless there is some shape formed in the alpha layer (transparency) and the other areas are well.. part of the UI. Pretty obvious pretty simple, that is if your IQ isnt 10 or below.
3. Skin the menus to however you want, try and keep inside a border line, the border line you cannot see but you can make one by simply drawing a temporary 1 pixel line box defined by the outer corners of each part of the skin, basically a bounding box, the inventory menu you see is in the shape of a square which would clearly the edges of the bounding box, but for more complex shapes like the top left status menu showing hp etc its defined by the furthest edge of each side.
Like with the hot key bar you can size it by the sides at the bottom as maximum width to the last pixel of it and the top/bottom as the max height. Within this box radius it is editable and will show.
4. If your done editing to how you like, you may think you are done but you are not, If you want transparency you have to read this part, if you remodeled the skin as in changed any of the shape of it you will have to read this part.
Transparency:
In the layers box there will be a tab above it called channels, on that you will find, RGB, RED, GREEN, BLUE, ALPHA 1.
RGB is what your currently on for normal editing.
Alpha 1 however is a new channel, different from most images which basically contains transparency information.
Everything should be in a shade from white, grey to black.
White means it is not transparent and it fully shows wherever it is drawn inside the boundrys of each part of the UI image.
Black means it is 100% transparent, meaning it wont show in game.
And grey well, thats a shade of transparency, meaning you can see through it but it is still visible.
easy way to measure the % of transparency is to use a white/grey/black color and modify the K on the color tool. for example 63% K means 63% transparent. In the picture i showed of the alpha 1 channel it shows the color box im talking about below the channel box.
For reshaped UI basically you will want to select all of the edging around the part you edited in RGB channel, then go to the Alpha 1 channel and color it completely white or grey where you think transparency is appropriate.
Then within that same part of the UI, get the boundries and shade the rest black, otherwise the black parts within the parts of that UI will be shaded in game and will show black everywhere.
A easier way to do it i could suggest, is that if you first of all select the boundries with the rectangle tool, switch to alpha 1 then color the whole boundry white.
Then go back to RGB and use the magic wand tool to select all of the black color on the UI around the hotbar for example, which will select pretty much the WHOLE ui's black part, you will then want to use the rectangle select tool again and hold alt (i think) and it will subtract from the selection whatever you click on. So basically you will cut around the boundry of the part you edited so its only selecting the black parts of the part you edited.
For example around the hotkey bar the black area will be selected within its boundry and the rest of the UI will not be selected as you will have subtracted them.
Then you can simply go to the Alpha 1 channel and paint the selected area black so its basically cut around your UI part shape.
5. This is probably the most important part. This is to save your skin file without fucking it up like most idiots do, this is why STUPID tools like DDS TO BMP CONVERTERS DO NOT WORK!
Because they convert it to the wrong dds type, and you cannot get the alpha channel when you convert it to bmp anyway!
WHEN YOU SAVE IT, IT MUST HAVE THE SETTINGS OF ARGB 32 BIT WITH NO MIP MAPS.
You must also save it as a dds with the same file name, save it to a different location so you can back up the old ones and basically you should make folders of seperate skins you make unless your planning to only make 1 personal skin for yourself that you dont plan on keeping. However you should still backup your original UI folder.
The reason you must save it as ARGB 32BIT is obvious if you know anything or have listened to the channels talking part with transparency.
A R G B..
Alpha, Red, Green, Blue.
The 4 channels that make up the image, alpha being the transparency and the rest color.
Its obvious that if you save it in anything else you will loose the Alpha 1 channel, which means losing transparency, thats why i get idiots all the time emailing me saying "I SAVED FILE BUT IT NO WORK, EVERYTHING AROUND WHAT I CHANGE HAS TURN BLACK!!!11!"
Except in worse english that that, i just can't stand or be bothered to actually TRY to spell badly as they do.
Hopefully now that you saved it correctly, read the entire tutorial, and didn't fuck anything up yourself you should have a correctly working skin. If you don't its not my problem , i don't want to hear how you fuck up your skin in dds to bmp programs or in anything other than photoshop, or saving it in anything except argb 32.
If you have problems then you obviously didn't read the guide or you have only just started to use Photoshop to make skins, in which i would advise you take some tutorials on photoshop first.
I deleted the old one due to people not crediting my guide, and GM's not linking to my guide like valefor said to ask experienced skinners for guide's when i had already made one since before it was allowed.
Anyway i revised the guide so here it is :
What you will need:
Photoshop
.DDS file plugin
A brain
A mouse or drawing pad
knowledge on photoshop
If you cannot find out how to do something i have not mentioned then you probably don't know how to use photoshop at all and it is a basic skill you should learn that i do not have to guide you for, So google it.
1. All of your UI files are located in your CABAL\Data\UI Directory.
The main files will be in the Theme1 folder of the UI Directory.
You need to open these files with photoshop with the dds plugin installed.
2. Depending on which one you opened it should look like the menu's of some part you will most likely instantly recognise everything if you play cabal often.
The black areas represent nothing usually unless there is some shape formed in the alpha layer (transparency) and the other areas are well.. part of the UI. Pretty obvious pretty simple, that is if your IQ isnt 10 or below.
3. Skin the menus to however you want, try and keep inside a border line, the border line you cannot see but you can make one by simply drawing a temporary 1 pixel line box defined by the outer corners of each part of the skin, basically a bounding box, the inventory menu you see is in the shape of a square which would clearly the edges of the bounding box, but for more complex shapes like the top left status menu showing hp etc its defined by the furthest edge of each side.
Like with the hot key bar you can size it by the sides at the bottom as maximum width to the last pixel of it and the top/bottom as the max height. Within this box radius it is editable and will show.
4. If your done editing to how you like, you may think you are done but you are not, If you want transparency you have to read this part, if you remodeled the skin as in changed any of the shape of it you will have to read this part.
Transparency:
In the layers box there will be a tab above it called channels, on that you will find, RGB, RED, GREEN, BLUE, ALPHA 1.
RGB is what your currently on for normal editing.
Alpha 1 however is a new channel, different from most images which basically contains transparency information.
Everything should be in a shade from white, grey to black.
White means it is not transparent and it fully shows wherever it is drawn inside the boundrys of each part of the UI image.
Black means it is 100% transparent, meaning it wont show in game.
And grey well, thats a shade of transparency, meaning you can see through it but it is still visible.
easy way to measure the % of transparency is to use a white/grey/black color and modify the K on the color tool. for example 63% K means 63% transparent. In the picture i showed of the alpha 1 channel it shows the color box im talking about below the channel box.
For reshaped UI basically you will want to select all of the edging around the part you edited in RGB channel, then go to the Alpha 1 channel and color it completely white or grey where you think transparency is appropriate.
Then within that same part of the UI, get the boundries and shade the rest black, otherwise the black parts within the parts of that UI will be shaded in game and will show black everywhere.
A easier way to do it i could suggest, is that if you first of all select the boundries with the rectangle tool, switch to alpha 1 then color the whole boundry white.
Then go back to RGB and use the magic wand tool to select all of the black color on the UI around the hotbar for example, which will select pretty much the WHOLE ui's black part, you will then want to use the rectangle select tool again and hold alt (i think) and it will subtract from the selection whatever you click on. So basically you will cut around the boundry of the part you edited so its only selecting the black parts of the part you edited.
For example around the hotkey bar the black area will be selected within its boundry and the rest of the UI will not be selected as you will have subtracted them.
Then you can simply go to the Alpha 1 channel and paint the selected area black so its basically cut around your UI part shape.
5. This is probably the most important part. This is to save your skin file without fucking it up like most idiots do, this is why STUPID tools like DDS TO BMP CONVERTERS DO NOT WORK!
Because they convert it to the wrong dds type, and you cannot get the alpha channel when you convert it to bmp anyway!
WHEN YOU SAVE IT, IT MUST HAVE THE SETTINGS OF ARGB 32 BIT WITH NO MIP MAPS.
You must also save it as a dds with the same file name, save it to a different location so you can back up the old ones and basically you should make folders of seperate skins you make unless your planning to only make 1 personal skin for yourself that you dont plan on keeping. However you should still backup your original UI folder.
The reason you must save it as ARGB 32BIT is obvious if you know anything or have listened to the channels talking part with transparency.
A R G B..
Alpha, Red, Green, Blue.
The 4 channels that make up the image, alpha being the transparency and the rest color.
Its obvious that if you save it in anything else you will loose the Alpha 1 channel, which means losing transparency, thats why i get idiots all the time emailing me saying "I SAVED FILE BUT IT NO WORK, EVERYTHING AROUND WHAT I CHANGE HAS TURN BLACK!!!11!"
Except in worse english that that, i just can't stand or be bothered to actually TRY to spell badly as they do.
Hopefully now that you saved it correctly, read the entire tutorial, and didn't fuck anything up yourself you should have a correctly working skin. If you don't its not my problem , i don't want to hear how you fuck up your skin in dds to bmp programs or in anything other than photoshop, or saving it in anything except argb 32.
If you have problems then you obviously didn't read the guide or you have only just started to use Photoshop to make skins, in which i would advise you take some tutorials on photoshop first.