Okay... so many people really do not how to make 3D characters yet it is so easy... All is in perspective... I am going to teach here in this thread on how to either CREATE your own original 3D model within a 3 DAY PERIOD even for beginners but also how to rip sprites from ANY GAME ANY WHERE ON ANY SYSTEM! And not just my method but all methods... However, I will go through MY method first... Also in this tutorial I will explain HOW TO MAKE A CHARACTER WITH MORE THEN 256 COLORS and still look good for mugen. And even how to do ANYTHING with cheat engine on any rom or game.
First... Ripping.
Anyone can rip... But some people just do not know how to rip sprites from games with LOTS of colors and backgrounds so irritating to remove from your image. BUT!!! Now I will help you know how to do this. =} First off we need a game as a example... For my example I chose Tobal 2 for the PS2. And a particular version. Here is a link that has a link to a site with the english translated rom http://www.emuparadise.me/Sony_Playstation_ISOs/Tobal_2_%28Japan%29_%28v1.1%29_%5BEn_by_Infinite_Lupine_v1.00b%5D/53877. Do not use the 1.0 version for this tutorial we need the 1.1 version which that link directs you to. 1.1 has different data structure and is easier to mod. Now get your favorite PS1 Emulator. Next step... Download Cheat Engine. http://cheatengine.org/download.php You may ask.. why do I need cheat engine? Well, with it we are going to remove the background completely and even modify the game to do anything we want. =) Literally. And I will explain how as well. Next step is we need Animation Shop Pro. Why animation shop pro? For it will help us with pals that have more then 256 colors and will make everything VERY easy for ripping. But there are other applications you can use. Just for this tutorial we are going to use Animation Shop pro. You can get the pro version free. Search on youtube. I can not link directly for.... many reasons. You will need a recorder of a sort. I recommend fraps full version which also you can get free but again I can not give you a link to that. But other recorders are fine. As long as you can record in AVI format. Lastly a freeshare application called Infran View. It is free and best of all it can "morph" pals with more then 256 colors with NO color loss. =) And is better in MANY ways then using adobe photoshop especially if your a beginner mainly with pals. Here is a link that gives links to download. I can not give direct link for many reasons. http://www.irfanview.com/main_download_engl.htm Okay... Now we shall start ripping!!!!
Start up the game Tobal 2 on your emulator. Once started, give the game a look and see who you want to rip. Does not matter who. Once you see who you wish to rip, look at his colors. We are going to remove the background and replace it with a color that is NOT on the character you choose. Put the game in window mode if you have it full screen. Never have it full screen for this. Hit Enter and Alt or shift and alt... it varies on different emulators. that should put you in window mode if not already. While it is in window mode open up your cheat engine. Click on process which is on the top. Then choose your emulator. PSX or such. Next, click on add address manually on the right side mid way down. I already hacked this rom JUST for this tutorial. I will teach how to do so yourself later but for now lets stay on track. Add in the following addresses. Make sure you set them up as 2 bytes for value.
all 2 bytes and all values 0
006af73f
006af740
006af7b7
006af7b8
006b93a9
Post is too long so I will be making this tutorial in segments... =(Added (2011-12-24, 6:26 PM)
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What that will do is remove all in the background. The above cheat engine codes. Now you should have a blue or black screen whenever you go to fight or such except you can still see your character. The reason each of those addresses remove a part of the background that area of data is for active graphic movements for the stage and stage image layers. Setting them to 0 means no layers or active graphics. Now... to the ripping yes? Go into training mode or such. Hit pause and remove all training information and bars or go into verse. Now you have a clean screen with your character. WOOT! But wait.. it is 3D? When he moves his size changes... how do we keep all size in perspective? Well, for one you can hack the camera... Or two, keep the character in general distance of P2 as to which all size is the same.. Or three, Size modifier. You can choose which ever. If size modifier, there is a actual cheat you can use when selecting a character to which you can adjust size for the character whenever. =) Another reason I choose Tobal 2 so ANYONE can rip these sprites from these characters easily. Now.. when you go to record NEVER EVER record for longer then 10 seconds. Why you may ask? Animation shop pro can not handle long segments of video. And it complicates things. So record each animation from the character in small 10 second or less videos. Such as standing, crouching, walking. Make a small test video of a stand. Next, open that video in Animation shop pro or a application of your choice that allows you to separate frames from the video into images. Your FIRST image MUST be a BMP for this... Post is too long.. another part will be added.. =/
Added (2011-12-24, 6:26 PM)
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Why again you may ask? For Tobal 2 characters may have more then 256 colors... We need a morph pal. We only need on image now... we have to make the pal first for ALL the rest of the images we will be ripping. Open up infran view. Crop your character from the image. Now when you have just him in a small image... you need to choose if the color you already have in the background will be your translucent or not. If you choose no then open up your paint options and select a color. Pick fill and have the tolerance set to 1. We do not wish to hurt the character. Fill it in with your color of choice leaving your character UN-damaged. Now, save it as original folder. The options should already be set up for your image. DO NOT PICK TO HAVE ANY COLOR TRANSLUCENT WITH INFRAN VIEW!!!!! Okay.. exit out of infran view when you saved your image. Open up the ORIGINAL fighter factory. Add in your image to a blank set up to any number NOT 0,0.... Now click to save that image as PCX.... You may ask why did we not just start out in PCX format with Animation shop or save it as PCX with infran view... They cause color distortions and more so change the image format segments and data structure. We need perfection on this and I NEVER had a error using Original Fighter Factory in this method. We need to make a morph pal starter.. Not a standard pal.. I will explain this later. Now.. with your fresh PCX image...
Added (2011-12-24, 6:27 PM)
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We need to open ORIGINAL fighter factory again or if you still have it open delete that old image. Now, click on the pal image above. It will be under sounds. Click the brown folder on the left side that says open when you highlight it. Open your PCX image you just made. Walla!!! It now shows a color pal though rather distorted sometimes pending on the image. DO NOT SAVE THAT PAL! It is not right. We must fix it. Do you remember what color you choose for your translucent color? Well... whatever color that is find it in your pal. It can be placed anywhere in it. Move it to the right side using the transfer color. So it will be on the other side. Does not matter where. Now... Look at the bottom right square of the pal it has for your image on the left side. Move that also to the right side BUT NOT OVER THE TRANSLUCENT COLOR YOU CHOOSE! Okay, now that you have both those colors on the other side. Highlight the bottom right square of the pal on the left side and in the right side highlight your translucent color. Put your translucent color to the left pal in the bottom right square. Now go to where the translucent color was else where in your pal and replace it with the other color you put in the right pal box. BINGO!!! You just made a starter pal! But, not over yet.... Save your pal. Make sure you keep it. Also insert the pal you currently created into your image you have that is PCX. KEEP THIS IMAGE but do not use it.
Added (2011-12-24, 6:27 PM)
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Okay... now we have a starter pal and a starter image to make a morph if we have more then 256 colors. If not no worries then but still do this process. Now open your animation shop pro and take out each frame of the standing animation or whatever of the character you choose to rip. BUT!!!! You need now to save each image as PCX. This is a must. Directly from animation shop pro. Okay... next step, we need our morpher or just a general pal adder. Open up your starter image that you inserted the original pal you made with infran view. Click on image. It is on the top. Then look at the bottom of the list for the word Palette. Click export. Name it to something you will remember for you will be using this CONSTANTLY from here on out. And no.. you can not insert the pal to a group of images directly for some will have color changes and more so like with attacks that have special effects you will ruin your image. Do it the way I suggest in this tutorial for good performance. This is the beginner method. easiest way. Okay.... Next step, close the last image and open up your first frame of your standing animation, crop the character. And then, pending on which color you choose as translucent, click on the image and then palette. Click import pal. Select the pal you made with infran view earlier. Walla! Your image should look perfect. Save in original folder. Options should be preset. If not message me here and I will fix this tutorial or add in what each option means and how to get best image quality... Do the next image in infran view, import the pal after you crop... Do this with all your next frames of all your animations one at a time.. For with certain games there ARE color changes... now, you may ask.. Did you not mention morpher? Well, yes. you can actually have colors in your pal to which are not there... How do you do this? We morph. I will explain this part later. If you know how to make a character, then you should know how to make a definition file and put your first pal you made with the original fighter factory in there and start adding in your new images. The background should be translucent if you did it correct. If you choose a different color... use infran view and the fill option with pain and your color to each image. that way all will be translucent. Also, in the first image you choose to make a pal starter with, lets say that character has dust effects when he walks or when he throws a projectile he has some light color changes on his body... The first image use a frame to which has these minor changes in it but not to the whole character. Just partials... that way the color changes can be included into your original pal. And it makes it easier to morph. I am trying to make this tutorial as easy as can be... =/ This is not exactly how I rip nor make ripped sprites but is one of the EASIEST ways to do it... I will add more posts here for more on this tutorial soon.
Added (2011-12-24, 6:32 PM)
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I can not fix the many typos and misspellings in this due to limit of the post size... sorry.. I will add more to this tutorial soon and explain more.
