How to: Edit Models

Tutorial By Aqua Dragon

hi there, for all you people out there who want to model, i decided to make this tutorial. this tutorial will be using War3 Model Editor. now here are the steps to becoming a succesful modeler (btw, here are a few pics of some of the models i've made for people who need them. I have made another tutorial on how to skin models, so if you read this already, hit the link underneath this.)

http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php?p=347576#post347576

(Image) >Mr.Game And Watch

(Image) >Samus

(Image) >Sub Zero (Mortal Kombat)

Now

STEP 1: Getting The Model Editor

Here is the site you can get it from.

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/resource.php?t=62876

Download it. congratulations, you completed the first step, now for you people who are "to #$#$ with this tutorial, i can figure it out on my own!", you go on and do that

STEP 2: How To Open Your Editor

first of all, go to the place you saved it. it should be a zipped folder with "War3ModelEDitor". click on it and keep clicking until you find "War3ModelEditor" inside a folder called "War3ModelEditor". unzip all the files and find the new folder. it should be a normal looking folder with the name "War3ModelEditor". click on it and click on the folder called "War3ModelEditor". Then inside that folder, click "War3modeleditor". Tada, you just got out the model editor. it should look like this if you did it right.

(Image)

IMPORTANT NOTE: About The MOdels You Can Make

now before you continue, you should probbally know this. you can only create models based off of other units in Warcraft 3 (or based off other models people made in other modeling programs). not only that, but some parts become black specifiying that they cannot be edited. thats why Sub Zero's face is black, and so are his feet. they couldn't be edited (by edited i meant as applying a different skin onto them). you could try finding solutions, such as me with samus. part of samus's visor was black so i overlapped it with part of the helmet and changed that part to the color of the visor. not only that but you need DirectX9. I also do not know how to import models into Warcraft 3 as of now. And finally, the War3 model editor might have undergone change sinec I last used it (since it's been a freakin long time since I made those models up there) so some things in this tutorial might be off a bit.

STEP 3: Getting The Model

most of you are probbally going "Hey What The @##$? it's a blank gray screen. well thats because you havn't chosen a model yet. click the "Window" button and find "MPQ Browser" at the bottom of the list. now most people will become more frustrated, cuss some more, and say it's a blank white screen. first of all to those people. calm down. Now click file and then click "Open MPQ archive". then try finding this spot on your comp.

C:\Program Files\Warcraft III

In other words, find your program files. then click on warcraft 3. then inside you should see alot of junk. ignore it all and find War3 and War3X. click on one. now your MPQ Archive should be filled with files. but get back to the program files and click on the other file. a note to keep in mind, (War3x are all the Frozen THrone units while War3 is all the Reign Of Chaos units). now that you have a gigantic list, lets go with someone easy, such as a footman. use War3 since thats where a footman first appears. heres a pic of where you should go to get it.

(Image)

(most units ONLY appear in the place they first appeared, such as Hydras only appear in the Frozen THrone, and how some like the paladin appear in both, but since it appeared in the Reign Of Chaos first, the model itself is only there.)

STEP 4: Proffeser/General Smartypants
now you should see a footman. now we can start playing around with it. first of all, it's best to put the entire thing to the right of your screen. then shrink it to make it like this.

(Image)

This will give room for the most important things, such as getting out paint and editing him. now we want to have a little fun so we're gonna make proffesor/general smartypants. go to "Windows" and get "Model Editor" out. It should look like this.

(Image)

Left clicking in with all those dots create green boxes (like when you wanna highlight lots of your comps desktop images at once). right clicking drags that screen places. that scroll thingy well, zooms in and out. it's about the same with looking at your model, except with a catch. left clicking rotates it. Now for the fun part. smart people ussually have big heads. thats one thing we're aiming for here. so drag a box to grab all the dots on the footmans head. It should look green when you highlight the dots. sorta like this

(Image)

Make sure you don't highlight the wrong thing, because then you have to click "Selection" and then click "Select None" making all your highligted things go away. also, there is one thing you must remember for the rest of your model making. ALWAYS SAVE. once you learn how to scale, it becomes practically impossible to change the size back to normal. in addition, when i teach you rotation, you're going to have to learn that radians don't fix themselves like degrees do. (Heck, i don't even know what radians are). it's a good thing that translation is very easy to fix though. now to make the general. now that you have his head highlighted, hit "Transformations" and then hit "Scaling". now in each of the Z, Y, and X things, list how you want to change each one (For Instance, if you only wanted something to become bigger up, down, left, and right, you would only change the scaling for Z and Y. now place "Centre Of Mass". I don't know what pivot point really does, but it never gave my results so I just use Centre Of MAss. Centre of mass creates a dot in the middle of all the dots you highligthed. usually the dot is invisible. But anyways, place 3 in for Z, Y, And X. then hit ok. BOOM! We got the proffesor part. if you're doing it right it should look like this.

(Image)

Now this general could give anyone a good laugh. of course, he has no neck and part of his head goes into his body. so heres the solution. Hit "Transformations" and then hit "Translations". now for a little mental note. you see that X, Y, And Z part underneath your model? Blue being Z, Green being Y, And Red being X?. well those are the Cartesian Coordiante System. Look it up if you dont' know what that is. it's the system used in all 3D programming. but anyways, Place "20" In the Z collumn and leave the others 0. Now we're talking, we just got him some more neck and it shows more of him. heres a picture if you're on the right track.

(Image)

Oh Yah. Now General Smarty Pants calculated that he probbally wouldn't need a shield. so lets relieive that from him. Hit "Selection and then hit "Select None". this should de-highlight all those head dots. now highlight his shield. whats this? the top right image appears to be on backwards :nuts: . So Click the top right one so the gray turns into a lighter gray. then hit "View" and then hit "Y/Z Front". there, now it's easier to tell where the shield is. Now that we have the shield highlighted, hit "Transformations" and then hit "Scaling". Now instead of placing "3" in each one, Placed "0" into each one. then hit OK. well now we took away General Smartypant's Shield. like he wanted it. heres a picture if you're on the right track.

(Image)

Well what do you know? General smartypants thinks his sword should be curved. Let us abide by his wishes. but how can we do it? he doesn't want us translating it. he says it won't suit him. So we use rotation of course. highlight the dot at the tip of the sword. then hit "Transformations" and then "Rotation". Now make it rotate around the Y axis by hitting that dot. then find radians and Degrees and change it to degress. now we gotta rotate it. rotate it by "20" degress. now hit OK. Voila, we just got him a curved sword facing down. and it looks deadly. this picture is General Smartypants.

(Image)

Step 5: CONGRATULATIONS!

you just made General Smartypants. now would be a good time to save. Hit "File" and then "Save". try not changing the name of the unit when you save, otherwise it doesn't save properly (or save it over a different unit with a different name, that works also). try experimenting with all the features of the model editor. I will make a Tutorial on how to skin units in the model maker. but that will have to wait. thx for reading all of this and i hoped i taught you everything you need to change proportions of units in mapmaking. use other units and find out what you can. post here if you have any questions or comments. and if you would like to learn how to skin go to this other tutorial i made

http://www.thehelper.net/forums/showthread.php?p=347576#post347576

good luck and see ya!)

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