How to make scenes and models with custom palettes

[Shootfast]

Ever wondered how HMC makes his beautiful scenes? Follow this quick tutorial and you too can make scenes with briliant colours, normally outside the range of 3dmm. To complete this tutorial you will need Adobe Photoshop, v3dmm, 7gen and Pencil++ and THIS. Download and save the file.

Preparing the Image.

Firstly, pick your source media. Whether it be a 3d model texture, Scene background or 3d word texture. Open this up in Photoshop.

What you are firstly going to make, is a palette for your image. The palette contains colour information. Click Image>>>Mode>>>Indexed Colour.

In the box that appears, select

Palette: Local(Perceptual)
Colours: 236
Forced: Custom

When you pick custom a box will appear, click load, and load the .act file you downloaded earlier. Click OK.

Do not select the transparancy box

In the Options below, select Dither: Noise

Click OK.



Your image should look pretty similar to what it was originally. Things can get pretty warped in the zoomed view, so take it to 100% magnification and look for any problems. If there are noticible artifacts, try toying around with the Dither options in the previous menu.

Once you are happy with the image, click Image>>>Mode>>>Colour Table. Click save, and select a location for the file.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you select Microsoft Palette® (*.PAL) as the file format


Now you can save your image, Click File>>>Save As. Save it as a *.BMP and make sure it is saved in 8 Bit.

OK, we are finished with photoshop.


Making the Scene.

Run 7gen and select Background2vxp. Give your VXP a unique name, and create a plain black image for the background. You can use the plain black for the preview as well, but keep in mind that if you have multiple palettes, it will be hard to find the right one in the preview screen. Better to use a picture you will associate with the palette.

Do not select install vxp. After creating your vxp, open it with winrar or winzip and unzip it somewhere. Now, open the .3cn file in Pencil++.

Here's the tricky part. Find the Quad: GLCR and click View/Edit.



Now, Here you will find 2 palette screens. Do not change the button from 236 Colours. The one on the left shows what the current palette is. It is currently showing the default 3dmm one. The right side allows you to toy with your own.

Underneath the left hand side, Click Import Palette and open the palette file you saved from photoshop. Click OK, Apply Changes and Save your .3cn

Now that the scene is completed, you can re-compress your .3cn, .3th and .cfg files in zip format, making sure to change the extension to .vxp.


Finishing the textures.


Now, depending on how your image is to be used, your steps might differ a little here. Open 7gen, and use your image in the option of your choice. Either Bmp2vxp, Obj2vxp, Md22vxp. USE UNIQUE FILE NAMES! If you are using it as a Scene background just wait a tic.

Make your vxp, and then extract it to a folder. Open the .3cn in pencil. (If you are using a background then open the same file as we did earlier). Find the relevant TMAP to replace (MBMP for background people). Click View/Edit and select import BMP. Open your BMP you saved from photoshop and click ok. If your texture is to big to see the buttons (I frequently have this problem) just click Tab 3 times, hit enter, choose the BMP, then hit Tab twice and enter again. Your image will no doubt look like a weird display of Pinks and Greens, but dont worry, it will look fine when used with your palette. Apply Changes, Save and exit.

Final Steps.

Re-Compress your files as a vxp and install them. (make sure you also install the palette scene if you havnt already). Find them in the v3dmm expansion menu and activate them. Load up 3dmm and click new scene. Select the scene you made and open it up (If you chose not to use a preview image, yours will be the Second black scene). If you made a background... TADA! You're all done, you should be admiring your handywork already. If you made a model or texture, bring it into the new scene and it should look fantastic. For a laugh, try opening your model in a regular black 3dmm scene and you should see the same pattern of pink and green as you did earlier.






I hope your Texture has worked out, and if something dosn't work, or I missed something, do tell and I shall fix it. Happy 3dmming!

[HMC]

I think you're overcomplicating the process of selecting which colors appear in the palette. Instead of guessing, just load your image, go to Indexed Color, set the colors to 236, and for 'Custom' load 3DMM's palette in .ACT form. That way you'll get the default palette and 90 additional colors.

[Shootfast]

But surely by loading 3dmm's palette into photoshop, you are eliminating any colours in the image not already on the palette. This method allows you to keep colours not on the 3dmm palette, by loading the extra colours in afterwards. Unless there's a way for photoshop to fill the extra 90 colours with colours from your image.

[HMC]

The file I posted is an .ACT file, so it's just 3DMM's palette as opposed to the .PAL file which is 3DMM's palette plus a bunch of colors you want to replace. If you select Local(Perceptual) or whatever and select the .ACT file with Custom, it will create a palette that loads 3DMM's palette first, and then the additional 90 colors from your image.

[Shootfast]

Ah, Now I understand, thanks alot!