WIP Guide: How to edit PSD layers to create new skins

Note: I've put as much of the below information as possible into the wiki as that is where most people will hopefully first look. It also allows other experienced modders to make their own additions or changes.

Hi,

This is my attempt to create a guide on understanding and using the PSD layers provided by Relic for skin modding in COH2. It will start off rough and be improved as I experiment. If you are an existing modder who can provide input and corrections, please do in the comments below (or message me). I would greatly appreciate it!

To get to this point of creating a skin, the modding wiki is very well written. However, it provides no information on how to use the provided PSD layers beyond links to Wikipedia on what the names of each folder means.

The guide so far:

There are several folders in each PSD file, depending on the type of layers involved. The number of layers is easily overwhelming to a beginner. The following information will hopefully help you understand it.

Many of the layers found in the PSD files may be optional. For example, some layers are clearly based on snow, and will not be relevant to summer skins.

You can choose which layers in each folder are important to your skin by hiding (or deleting) others before you export each folder as a separate input file (as covered by the modding wiki).

Each layer is displayed as a single flat texture for the whole vehicle, which can be confusing at first. Different areas of the texture are mapped to their respective parts of the vehicle in the game. 3D painting is also possible.

LAYER GROUPS:

Layers for Beginners

HELPERS - Flattened out polygons that help you determine which areas to paint for each section of the vehicle. This group does not get exported. It is purely there to help you identify the constraints of vehicle painting areas (i.e. when you are just painting over unused gaps). Not present on some DLC units. Consider 3D painting if you need more help understanding the image in 3D context. Other programs such as 3D Max can also help you examine your progress in a 3D context if you prefer 2D painting.


DIFFUSE - How a surface looks from all angles (The standard colours and patterns of your skins). This is your main editing area.

This group often contains a huge number of layers, many of which appear to add 'age' and realism to the vehicle. I recommend turning them all off at first, importing your custom layer, and then turning them on one-by-one afterwards to see which effects you want. Sometimes they have slightly useful names, but a lot of the time they appear to be named in Chinese (I think), so you may find that you have to visually examine them to determine their purpose.

There is almost always a layer that will accentuate most features on the vehicle with shading, which I strongly recommend using.

Layers for Experts Only

NORMAL - These are the bump mapping layers. They make low polygon models look more detailed by displaying reflection of light the way a higher polygon model would.

Unless you are a seasoned pro, you probably don't want to edit these layers. You should select which ones are applicable to your skin, however. The main one you may want to enable/disable is the 'snowbuildcrunch' layer, depending on whether you are making a winter skin. Not all files will contain snow/mud normal data (usually light vehicles), so either leave it off or create your own.

If you do want to edit a 'normal' layer, you should use a program such as Substance Painter 2 that has useful paintbrushes (such as basic shapes and dirt/snow patterns) and creates height data automatically.


SPECULAR - Determines which parts of the skin reflect light in specific directions relative to the camera angle (like a mirror). Areas of lighter grey are more probably more likely to reflect light as they often correlate with areas of scratched paint and exposed metal.

These layers appear to define small features on the vehicle, such as rivets and vents. Including them probably determines which features of the vehicle reflect light, and which are matte.

Changing this is probably best achieved with a program like Substance Painter that paints multiple corresponding data types at the same time (so that scratches and stuff line up between all layer types).

If you are applying mud/snow to your vehicle, check for possible corresponding layer additions in this section.


GLOSS - These layers are almost identical to Specular. They determine how much light the specular layers actually reflect (ie, How glossy are the tanks? Factory new paint? Covered in dirt and mud?). Areas of lighter grey should be glossier as they often correlate with areas of scratched paint and exposed metal.

Changing this is probably best achieved with a program like Substance Painter that paints multiple corresponding data types at the same time (so that scratches and stuff line up between all layer types).

If you are applying mud/snow to your vehicle, check for possible corresponding layer additions in this section.


ALPHA - Transparency. Can be used to make certain areas of the texture transparent so that you can see the vehicle parts behind them. This can be useful for styling things such as side skirts. White should mean transparent (most vehicles have completely white alpha groups), and black areas mean transparency. Greys are probably inapplicable to COH2 vehicles.

3D Painting

Want to experiment and see the results in real time on a bump-mapped model? Of course you do! Note: Photoshop (or a similar program) is still fairly important to achieve the final product.

Go to https://www.allegorithmic.com/blog/substance-painter-2 and get yourself a month long trial version of Substance Painter 2. You'll need to create a free account quickly first.

Then download the meshes for the army you want. The links are all on the Skin Pack Wizard wiki. They don't take long to download.

I recommend using Photoshop to save a copy of the 2k normal file for your respective vehicle.

This video will show you what you can do from there. Enjoy! (Please note, this video is due to be updated with much more comprehensive information, but can still be a useful starting point for beginners.)



(I strongly recommend watching in 1080p if possible in order to see the UI clearly)

Vehicle Complexity

Not all vehicle models and skins are of equal complexity due to a mix of design on Relic's end, and the limitations of community-extracted vehicle meshes which contained broken parts that were fixed with estimations. This list will hopefully give you some good starting points for easier vehicles to paint as a beginner, and which ones to leave until you have more experience. It will grow as I examine the output of each vehicle I mod.

LIST SO FAR

Easy:
Panther
Luchs
Tiger - Good 3D and 2D output.

Moderate:
Panzer IV - Tricky 3D map. Good output.
Ostwind - Difficult to 3D paint due to surface variation, but very friendly 2D map. Good output.

Difficult:
Elefant - Incredibly broken 3D model, and insanely complicated 2D map.
Sturmtiger - Very poorly aligned 3D model, particularly with circular textures. Use Photoshop for those.

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Got any tips or corrections? Please let me know!

Wrong info below, I was corrected by eliw00d.

Hi,

A few points about the extra folders in the game: The only part of the texture that gets built into the game is the DIFFUSE (pure texture, no gloss, no bump, just the colors), since when you save you are only given the option to save TGA over.



So in my opinion it's better to just delete those extra folders when you start working in the PSD. It will reduce the file size drastically, make saving faster, and make it easier in general to work with other software that needs to update the skin ( ex: checking the texture in 3DS max ).



I also think you should keep the snow folder. Even if you make a summer skin, you might still want to make a winter variant for it, and it's just a matter of hiding/showing the layer.

The only part of the texture that gets built into the game is the DIFFUSE

That's not true. You can have specular, gloss, and alpha files as well. You just need to change the burn settings to allow for them.

https://www.coh2.org/topic/38334/question-for-skinners/post/379558

That's not true. You can have specular, gloss, and alpha files as well. You just need to change the burn settings to allow for them.

https://www.coh2.org/topic/38334/question-for-skinners/post/379558

I stand corrected, just took a closer look at Grump's Hellbound skin in-game and it looks like the rest of the layers are applied to the tanks too, not just diffuse.

That's not true. You can have specular, gloss, and alpha files as well. You just need to change the burn settings to allow for them.

https://www.coh2.org/topic/38334/question-for-skinners/post/379558

Ooh, that alpha example is very nice. Thanks for that!

Do you have a quick link to your skinning videos that you mentioned in that link? Polycount had a link to some on the official forums, but that's broken with the migration, so I'm gonna go digging.

well there no much left at polycount after the contest , but some had create nrm'ls to promote the depth of the skin , a very nice result , on the other hand old school like me edit only dif;s and alp's

well there no much left at polycount after the contest , but some had create nrm'ls to promote the depth of the skin , a very nice result , on the other hand old school like me edit only dif;s and alp's

Yeah, they can look pretty sexy. I love a good bit of bumpmapping. I've just edited that section to reflect the very useful tools programs like Substance Painter have for editing normal files. I don't know if Photoshop has any tools for painting 'height' data.

Finally worked out (most) of how to use Substance Painter to supplement Photoshop today! Had me some sexy random painted panthers running around in COH2. Will try to write up a decent guide tomorrow. Made some structural edits in the mean time.

Made a Youtube guide for the Substance Painter stuff. It just would have been much more intensive to screenshot and write. The result seems pretty good for something unscripted. Enjoy (and watch in HD if you can)!

Thanks for the video, looking awesome. So far I've only used Photoshop for editing while comparing result in 3ds max. Using Substance would be nice.

Nice video. Thanks for posting that. I may have to look into trying Substance out. Like shpongle, I also use PSD with 3dsmax.
Btw, another tip is to use layer masks...a lot.

Thanks for the video, looking awesome. So far I've only used Photoshop for editing while comparing result in 3ds max. Using Substance would be nice.

Ah, I was wondering how people modded skins without 3D painting. Loading COH2 to check every paintstroke that crossed detached polygons would be soul destroying.

Nice video. Thanks for posting that. I may have to look into trying Substance out. Like shpongle, I also use PSD with 3dsmax.
Btw, another tip is to use layer masks...a lot.

I do indeed use layer masks a lot now I've come a *long* way in the past week or so, and that video probably now looks like child's play with what I know now I've been keeping notes for an improved video, so with this bit of encouragement, I'll probably go ahead and make that now.