[TUTORIAL] Skin Mod - How To

[Raisin Bran]

Thanks GrinningMonk !

[andrew_yaweb]

Yes, thanks Monk.

[Half Fast]

Ok every time i click open it tells me the file could not be found. When i look in the assets folder i see both the art0.fpk file, and i get all four of those assets.fpk files. It doesnt matter which one i try to open with my computer tells me the file could not be found. I do have the 1.52 patch installed. Does is have to do with what file i tell it to look at the top of the box? Do i have to try to open all of them at the same time? Thanks in advance.

[Lord Neil]

ok i have a question... i opened up the DDS Converter 2.1 and went to the folder the i put PakBuild in and all it says below it is "circle"???

[Tholish]

OK, I've got gimp with dds converter. I unpacked the fpk and rearranged them all into one logical structure instead of four sets. I want to reskin a unit. I look at the correct DDS. I see a rectangle with various parts of the unit's surface all laid out in a crazy way like, well, an animal that has been skinned. Is there some systematic way to know what part is what other than just guessing and trial and error?

[woodelf]

Trial and Error sadly enough, at least at first. A lot of loading your skin into a test mod, looking at it, making a small change, repeating. It is cool to see your changes though.

[Elit3]

downloaded pakbuild. tried to "unpak" art0.fpk everytime i try it says "extracting to folder" (the folder i selected art0.FPK to be unpacked to) and then the program doesnt respond. so i uninstalled and tried again.... same thing. This is just not my day.... week..... year...... life.

[woodelf]

I created a "Skin" folder on my C drive that I extracted to and had no issues. Maybe it's that easy?

[Elit3]

lol thanks woodelf that worked.

i got one more question.... are you following me?

[woodelf]

I'm like a Guardian Angel to noobs.

[seady]

I'm trying to create an interface button, but i can't find a template for the border. I'm using gimp and i vaguely recall working in animation (over a decade ago!) and using 2 layers, then combining, but everywhere i've looked, i cannot find one. Does anyone know if a template button has been posted or is already in the civ directories?

Looking at the original atlas files for the buttons, i think they just used circular canvases(?) and plonked them onto the atlas file, as it's more efficient to load that into memory and then index the button you want. I can't find any guides on how to set up an atlas file, alas... there must be some way of automatically aligning the new images. Configure grid? I know nutheeeenk! Nutheeenk!