Submit

Tutorials

Basic Modeling: Creating, skinning, and compiling a block
By Matrixfan  Last changed Aug 15, 2006

This simple tutorial will guide you through creating a block in 3D Studio Max, unwrapping the model, creating a skin in Photoshop, and finally, getting the model working in Counter-Strike Source.

Before you begin there are several plugins you will need:

MAX SMD Exporter

Photoshop VTF Plugin

Textporter

Step One: Creating the cube

Start 3DS, and create a box. Set the length, width, and height to 10. Set the length, width, and height segments to 1.

(click to enlarge)

Right click the box and choose "Convert to>Editable Mesh"

Go to the modify tab and add an "Unwrap UVW" modifier to the editable mesh.

On the Unwrap UVW modifier, click edit and then select everything,

Click  "Mapping>Unfold mapping...", leave the default settings and click Ok.

(click to enlarge)

What we have now is the UVW map that we will need to paint  with the texture.

We needed Texporter so that we can save this as a jpg that can be opened in Photoshop.

Close the Edit UVW window and go to the 3DS Utilities tab. Click "More..." and double click Texporter. Change the image width and height to a size that is a power of 2. For this tutorial I will be using 512x512. Click "Pick Object" and then click on the box in the view port, a render window will pop up with the UVW map. Save this file as a jpg to the location of your choice.

(click to enlarge)

Step Two: Texturing the cube

Start Photoshop and load the file you just created. At this point you can paint whatever you want onto the box. I chose to make it an alphabet block.

(click to enlarge)

Once you have finished making your texture, save the file as "blockskin.vtf" in your "counter-strike source\cstrike\materials" folder. Save another copy of your file as blockskin.jpg.

Step Three: Creating necessary files

Go back to 3DS and open the material editor by pressing 'M'. Select the first material slot and click the button next to diffuse. Double click the bitmap option and load blockskin.jpg that you created in the last step. Apply the material to your block by dragging the textured sphere onto it.

Now we need to create the two SMD files. Select "File>Export" and put in block_ref for the file name, change the file type to "Valve HL2 SMD" and save it in "sourcesdk\cstrike_sample_content\model_sources". You will be presented with a popup menu, choose "Reference" and make sure "Flip all normals" is unchecked. Now we need to create the skeletal SMD. Follow the same steps as before except save it as block_still and on the popup menu choose "Skeletal Animation".

The next file we need to make is the VMT. Start notepad and put this in:

"VertexLitGeneric"
{
"$BaseTexture" "blockskin"
"$model" 1
}

Save the file as "blockskin.vmt"  in "counter-strike source\cstrike\materials"

Now we need to create a QC file that will tell the compiler what to do.

Start notepad again and put in:

// Output .MDL
$modelname "block"

// Directory of .SMD
$cdmaterials ""

// Write textures into a ???T.mdl
//$externaltextures

$scale 1.0

// whole body
$body studio "block_ref.smd"

// sequences: all sequences are in $cd
$sequence idle "block_still.smd" loop fps 15

$collisionmodel "block_ref.smd" {
// Mass in kilograms
$Mass 1
$concave
}

Save this as "block.qc" in "sourcesdk\cstrike_sample_content\model_sources"

This is the last time you need to open Notepad, I promise. Put in:

studiomdl.exe ..\cstrike_sample_content\model_sources\block.qc
pause

Save as "block.bat" in "sourcesdk\bin"

Step Four: Compiling the model

Start the Source SDK and make sure your game is set to Counter-Strike:Source

Go to your sourcesdk\bin directory and run the block.bat you created.

Once Studio Model has finished running, start model viewer and if you did everything correctly, the model will be there under the name "Block".

(click to enlarge)