Well, after being badgered for awhile to write a Milkshape tutorial, I finally decided to take a break from my obsessive skinning behavior and write one for you. This is fully illustrated. I must thank Anaya (sorry I kept calling you Amara...it's been your ICQ nickname and I don't know which you prefer) for writing the tutorial that taught me the most of what I know about Milkshape, and for putting up with me until I figured out how to do bone assignments. I hope my tutorial will as helpful as yours has been.

First you need Milkshape, of course. Get it the official site at http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/. Install it.

Now, using Win-Zip (www.winzip.com,) open your Resource.nob file in your main Vampire directory. In case you're unaware, the path is usually C:\Program Files\Vampire the Masquerade - Redemption\. For this example, we're going to be putting Anezka's hair onto the Kazi model. So what you need to do is scroll down to the right files (AnezkaMod.nod and normalGirl.nod) and highlight them.

Extract them to your C drive, making sure you have checked the box that says Use Folder Names (the option will show up when you select a file and click the Extract button.) Yes, that's right...to the C drive. This will automatically make a new folder called 3d. Inside of it will be a folder called Models. That's where the 2 models have gone to when you extracted them. Go to the folder, and hold down Control and hit the "A" key. This will select all files. Go up to the properties button and click it. When the window pops up, uncheck "Read Only," click Apply, then click Okay.

Milkshape Setup

Okay, now that you've done that, it's time to open up Milkshape. My method of working on files might be a bit different from other people's so please understand that as you go you'll develop your own style.

First, you'll need to get Milkshape all ready to use, so after you've opened it, click Window in the top row of options, and make sure that the options are selected as in the picture below. You'll need the little information boxes above the big windows and make sure the Keyframe option is unchecked, otherwise you will have problems with some buttons being hidden. Something to note too, is that the left side of the little windows (next to the "65") is covered in gray for some reason in the version pictured, at least some of the time. Just click the gray spot and a pop-down menu appears so you can change orientations.

This next part probably differs from what other people do, but I like to right-click inside one of the big windows and choose Maximize. This makes it so just the one window is open, like this:

Editing

Okay, now you have the Anezka model open. If your model is on 3D view, go to the pulldown menu over the left side of the window and choose Back. Strange thing about Milkshape is Back is actually the front and vice versa, but oh well.

Okay, click the Groups tab on the right and select everything on the model except the hair. You'll just have to keep highlighting groups and hitting Select until everything but the hair is highlighted in red, or you can hit Control+A to select all, then deselect the hair in the groups tab by selecting the hair in the list and clicking the select button.

Press the Delete button or Delete on your keyboard to make everything but the hair disappear. Now save. Go to File, Export, Vampire the Masquerade NOD. Save OVER the AnezkaMod.nod. Now go back to Milkshape and close the model by selecting File, New. It will say the model has been modified and do you want to save. Since you just saved it, click No. Now import the normalGirl.nod. Using the same procedure I outlined above, select just her hair in the groups tab and delete it. Export back over the original file to save, and then clear the screen again through File, New.

Import the AnezkaMod.nod again. No, I'm not pulling your leg by making you repeatedly open and close these files. There's a method to the madness. With the AnezkaMod.nod (just the hair) open, click the Joints tab. Highlight Bone01 and press Delete on your keyboard. This deletes the skeleton.

Now that the skeleton is gone, you won't be able to save (that's why I had you save the hair before with the skeleton intact,) but no matter. You're about to give this part a new skeleton. Without closing this file, Import normalGirl.nod. You'll end up with something like this.

Now, I'm aware that this hair is taller and larger than the normalGirl model, but don't worry, we'll make it fit. Go back to the groups tab and select the hair. (It should be the first group in the list.) Now, go to the Model tab and click the Scale button. This allows you to drag your cursor across the window to resize it freely, or you can enter percentages as decimals in the X, Y, and Z coordinates text boxes to get an even resize. (1 is 100%, .95 is 95%, .5 is 50%...you get my drift.)

Scale the hair around until it is about the same size as the head on this model. Then click the Move button on the Model tab and you can move the hair to where you think it should be. Don't forget to check the side orientation, or else it might look fine in front and strange from the side. (Remember where I told you to select Back? Well just select left or right in the same list to check from the side.) Once your model looks like this, take a moment and export the file back over the normalGirl.nod to save it. Close this file by going to File, New. Reopen the AnezkaMod.nod (the hair.)

I know you're getting tired of all this opening and closing, but for now, just bear with me. Like I said, you'll come up with your own style and may figure out ways to combine or skip steps.

With just the hair open again, make sure that the skeleton is NOT showing by unchecking the Show Skeleton box in the Joints tab. Also, you'll probably want to be on Front view (Back in the pulldown menu.) Now, right-click the main window and choose Wireframe. You'll see this.

This is the part that confuses a lot of people (and if you've made it this far without being confused then congratulations.) Before you do anything else, open a graphic program where you can save screenshots. I usually go with Paint Shop Pro because all I have to do is press the Print Screen button (to the right of F12 in case you didn't know) then open PSP and hit Control+V to paste the shot in. Now that you have PSP or whatever program open, go back to Milkshape and zoom in on the hair as close as you can get. Just for your information, here are the zoom and move commands:

Zoom In/Out: Hold down shift and move the cursor up or down on the screen.
Move Left/Right, Up/Down: Hold down control and move the cursor left, right, up, or down.

If you need to see the entire model in the window, right click and choose Frame All. Similarly, if you choose Frame Selected while you have something selected, it will center the view to just that part of the model.

Now that we have that understood (hopefully) let's go back to the Joints tab. Scroll the list back up to Bone01 and highlight it. Now click the SelAssigned button. Probably nothing will happen, but it's best while you're learning to do this to all the bones (yes, all 40-48 of them.) Keep going with this, selecting different bones and clicking SelAssigned, until some of the little dots, or vertexes, turn red.

When these dots turn red, it means that these are assigned to this bone. Take a screenshot of this and paste it into your image program. You can either save this screenshot or just leave it open in the background. It's up to you. Keep going down the list, taking screenshots of any vertexes that light up, until you reach the end. Now close this file and open the normalGirl model back up.

Go to Groups tab and select everything but the hair. Hide it with the hide button. This makes it vanish, but don't worry, it's still there. Center your view on the hair and zoom in. Be sure that the hair is in the same orientation as when you were taking screenshots (front) and right-click the window and set it to Wireframe if it's not like that already.

Now, go to the Joints tab. Using a screenshot as a guide, highlight the same bone in the list that produced red dots when you clicked the SelAssigned button. Look carefully at the screenshot and select the same dots as you see on it. To enable select, you'll have to go to the Models tab and click the Select button, then go back to the Joints tab. You can select multiple vertexes at once by holding down shift while you click each dot, or you can drag selection boxes around the vertexes. Be aware that not all dots may be selectable. I'll tell you about this in a moment.

With at least some of the vertexes selected, go back to the Joints tab and click Assign. The reason some of the dots might not have been selectable is because they might be on the other side of the model. Yes, I know...thinking in 3d can get bewildering sometimes. Just change the orientation (you may even want to reverse your screenshot so you can get a more accurate view) and select the dots on the other side. Click the Assign button.

Now, click SelAssigned. It will make all the dots assigned to that bone turn red. This should match the screenshot. If it doesn't, you've either not finished assigning all the necessary vertexes to that bone, or you've assigned some that shouldn't be assigned. It's not that big of a crisis, really. If you've missed one, simply go back, select it, and assign it. If you've assigned one that should not be there, you can assign it to a different bone later by selecting it.

Repeat this process for all bones which have vertexes assigned. (See your screenshots...these are excellent helpers.) When you think you're done, click SelUnassigned. If you missed assigning anything, some dots will turn red, and you'll have to refer to your screenshots to see where you messed up. Don't worry if it looks like you assigned one and it still highlights. This just means there are actually 2 vertexes overlapping each other. Reverse the orientation and select the same point from the back and assign it to the correct bone. If nothing highlights, then you're done with the bone assignments. Go to Edit, Unhide All to unhide the complete model. Be sure to save your hard work by Exporting back over the normalGirl.nod model. Once you do that you should change the name of the file.

Once you've done all this, your model can be used in VTM, though I'd recommend you fix any gaps that are resulting. You can edit some details by moving vertexes around. You have to first be in the Model tab, and then you click the Select button so you can select a vertex. When you have one selected that you'd like to move, click the Move button. Now your selected vertex can be pulled around to wherever you'd like it to be. You can also select vertexes individually and delete them, though that leaves holes. This is useful under some circumstances, however.

A further note. If you're working on something like say putting a jacket on a character, you might want to delete the character's butt and backside so they don't poke out of the jacket when the character moves. It just takes practice and alot of patience to get it perfect. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it.

That concludes this tutorial. If there's anything I've left out, e-mail me and I'll update this page. Congratulations! You've just made your first new model for VTM.