Character Portraits

[Neville 19]

For a recruit mod, I am trying to create character portraits for Sarna, but the largest image of her face I can get might be 320 x 320. Can someone help?

[Sith Holocron 2,553]

Provide me with a save where the PC can engage in conversation with her. I may work on this but you'll have to be patient as this'll go by my schedule, not yours. Lack of patience will negate the request.

[Neville 19]

  On 5/7/2021 at 1:24 AM, Sith Holocron said:

Provide me with a save where the PC can engage in conversation with her. I may work on this but you'll have to be patient as this'll go by my schedule, not yours. Lack of patience will negate the request.

I sent you a message with a save attached.

[Sith Holocron 2,553]

We have several issues that need to be taken care of before you even get to the portrait stage:

1) Though I was sent a save and some 2da files, I don't have an updated UTC file for Sarna. Now to everyone else out there that isn't currently aware of this, I don't work with UTC files in my mod.  I'm mostly a texture only mod type of guy.  (loadscreens.2da being an exception in my TSL loading screen packs) As such, I wouldn't even be able to begin to explain how he can adjust Sarna's UTC file to have her wearing a Republic Trooper uniform. Which leads to the next problem...

2) From what I gather, Sarna's head just doesn't have a mask hook on it.  So will Neville tackle that issue so that Sarna can wear that helmet?

3) That helmet is from @Sithspecter's Republic Helmet mod.  Not sure if you've received permission to use that. How are you planning on dealing with that? Note that I've tagged SS in this post so he sees this.

When you requested portraits for this mod you've been discussing lately, I thought you'd be - um - further along.  If the mod isn't ready enough to show the character in the uniform you want her in, it's too early to have portraits done.  Unless you want her looking like she did in the cantina - in civilian clothing.

Edited May 7, 2021 by Sith Holocron
Forgot a word. Added it in.

[Neville 19]

  On 5/7/2021 at 4:32 AM, Sith Holocron said:

We have several issues that need to be taken care of before you even get to the portrait stage:

1) Though I was sent a save and some 2da files, I don't have an updated UTC file for Sarna. Now to everyone else out there that isn't currently aware of this, I don't work with UTC files in my mod.  I'm mostly a texture only mod type of guy.  (loadscreens.2da being an exception in my TSL loading screen packs) As such, I wouldn't even be able to begin to explain how he can adjust Sarna's UTC file to have her wearing a Republic Trooper uniform. Which leads to the next problem...

2) From what I gather, Sarna's head just have a mask hook on it.  So will Neville tackle that issue so that Sarna can wear that helmet?

3) That helmet is from @Sithspecter's Republic Helmet mod.  Not sure if you've received permission to use that. How are you planning on dealing with that? Note that I've tagged SS in this post so he sees this.

When you requested portraits for this mod you've been discussing lately, I thought you'd be - um - further along.  If the mod isn't ready enough to show the character in the uniform you want her in, it's too early to have portraits done.  Unless you want her looking like she did in the cantina - in civilian clothing.

On LucasForums, SithSpecter stated his mods were free to use if given credit. Most portraits display characters in generic clothing. I am able to give Sarna new clothing and an equipped weapon. I can notify you when I have everything ready.

[N-DReW25 1,469]

  On 5/7/2021 at 4:32 AM, Sith Holocron said:

We have several issues that need to be taken care of before you even get to the portrait stage:

1) Though I was sent a save and some 2da files, I don't have an updated UTC file for Sarna. Now to everyone else out there that isn't currently aware of this, I don't work with UTC files in my mod.  I'm mostly a texture only mod type of guy.  (loadscreens.2da being an exception in my TSL loading screen packs) As such, I wouldn't even be able to begin to explain how he can adjust Sarna's UTC file to have her wearing a Republic Trooper uniform. Which leads to the next problem...

2) From what I gather, Sarna's head just have a mask hook on it.  So will Neville tackle that issue so that Sarna can wear that helmet?

3) That helmet is from @Sithspecter's Republic Helmet mod.  Not sure if you've received permission to use that. How are you planning on dealing with that? Note that I've tagged SS in this post so he sees this.

When you requested portraits for this mod you've been discussing lately, I thought you'd be - um - further along.  If the mod isn't ready enough to show the character in the uniform you want her in, it's too early to have portraits done.  Unless you want her looking like she did in the cantina - in civilian clothing.

I've been meaning to say this for a while but now might just seem to be the best time to say it:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

When a new person first gets into modding, as sad as this sounds, you may have to "abandon your hopes" and dreams when it comes to modding.

The reason for this is because, as a new modder, you don't properly know how to do anything and it is usually new modder's who have big visions for their mods. When I joined Deadlystream in 2016 about 5 years ago, I also didn't know how to make mods... at all, and I also had big dreams. I began developing my dream mod, the K1 Gameplay Improvement mod, and back when I first published Demo version 1.0 to the public on July 4, 2016... IT WAS TRASH! It contained the Endar Spire modules alone and was buggy and weird as hell! So when did I finish the K1 Gameplay Improvement mod? When I fully finished the mod, I had added the Star Forge content meaning I had an entire games worth of content by November 1, 2020.

 

I worked on my big mod for 4 years, 4 months & 28 days!

 

And by no means was it easy! I had my ups, my downs, I had many, MANY bugs and glitches I myself had to fix MYSELF! You might see a mod like @Logan23's Revenge of Revan mod who have a Team of Modder's making it and you may think "I can make my mod if I have a team like that" and I can assure, THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!

I am part of Logan's team, and what does his team do? They write dialogue, LOTS of dialogue, it is @Logan23 who is doing 90% of ALL WORK. 

The reason why no one joins or makes teams is because everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. The reason Sith Holocron can't help you is because he cannot do UTC and 2DA modding, his strength is textures and textures alone. If you asked me, I couldn't do scripting because my scripting skills are weak, cut content is my strengths. If you are a new person, you wouldn't have strengths, you are new and as such if you did have a mod team you wouldn't do 90% of all work like a professional modder would, you'd put 90% of all work on other modders and other modders don't want to do 90% of all work for a mod which technically isn't even there's.

 

And usually, modders have a "rule" in which for us to get the best out of our mods we have to do things in a very specific order. For a recruitment mod, you'd create your character first (create a utc file for the character, create the recruitment script and begin dialogue) and usually what you'd do LAST is appearance, portrait and voice acting. If you got @Sith Holocron to make you a portrait first, and then you give up... you've wasted HIS time, the same goes for voice actors and texture artists. 

 

 So how will YOU make the mod you want? First, you abandon all hopes and dreams and start learning how to mod from the ground up!

 

My personal first mods where basic as hell, with mods like "Dark Jedi Robes Icon Fix" and "Davik's Upgradable Armor Mod" being very basic and simple UTI and texture modifications that where as basic as basic gets.

 

When I did bigger mods like GenoHaradan Legacy, when I first created my WIP thread... I didn't know how to make the mod, from 2017 to 2018 I continued to make the mod and proceeded to learn and learn new skills. My original goal was to complete another GenoHaradan mod but I went overboards and decided to make my own story, it was so cool and badass, it was in the Jekk Jekk Tarr, I had a whole backstory, I had cool Sith and an awesome duel... but cool ideas takes effort to make, and when I kept trying and trying to make a mod I couldn't make, I ended up learning more and more.

 

Whilst I couldn't make my cool and badass GenoHaradan mod, but by that point I did learn enough to do my original GenoHaradan mod which is the GenoHaradan Legacy mod I have out today.

 

Honestly, I think you should stop making the recruitable Sarna mod and instead focus your time on learning how to even make mods for Kotor in the first place! Take inspirations from other mods, there have been brilliant mods which have been made by Rookie Modders:

 

You've probably seen many HD textures made by professional graphics artists on Deadlystream and Nexus, but mods like "Taris NPC Overhaul" is a modders honest attempt at creating more diversity on Taris. Whilst his skins are beginner level, his efforts to implement a TSLPatcher to make his mod compatible shows that he is willing to learn they things to make his mod work and if he keeps up with leaning new things he may yet just return to his Taris NPC Overhaul and update it with better textures at some point.

https://deadlystream.com/files/file/1877-taris-npc-overhaul/

 

You probably don't know how to create cool and badass armor items as well, as do most new modders, but Czerka Armor and Appearance fix is a modest attempt by a Rookie Modder to create cool and badass Czerka based armor whilst still keeping in-line with the vanilla style of the game. He has taken the vanilla style of armor, as most modders do, and has done everything he can do to make it Czerka armor. As such, he strategically chose the yellow Cinaggar Combat Suit and yellow Echani Battle Armor textures to make his job easier. Again, with a TSLPatcher, he has demonstrated his willing to learn new things to ensure things work and is willing to make strategic decisions to ensure his texture is the best while he himself is a Rookie Modder.

 https://deadlystream.com/files/file/1776-czerka-armor-and-appearance-fix/

 

 

And the best mod that I can use as an example, is Recruitable Maxis! 
https://deadlystream.com/files/file/831-recruitable-maxis/

 

Recruitable Maxis is a mod which started off as "Tatooine Merchant and Quest". It was a really basic quest mod which was the modder's very first mod and a test to improve his skills, it was very basic which used vanilla heads and poorly skinned Jedi Robes. But that would not be the end of this modder, he improved upon his work, expanding it into a recruitment mod which gave Maxis a unique head. It was a basic recruitment mod, I remember the early versions of the mod stating it wasn't very in-depth but was better than what T3-M4 had to offer (Which is not a lot).

Then, he expanded it even further, improving his skills and adding it sidequests and actual content into the mod in the form of Rodian gangsters... eventually, these Rodians got unqiue textures and these textures where good... because the modder who made the mod learned from his past textures and the more and more he made bad textures, he learned how to make decent textures. 

He learned and he learned and eventually he was able to make fantastic content! A game spanning sidequest with those Rodian gangster's, multiple cutscenes, a Sith Ghost scene and a badass Jedi training bit! And I assure you, that modder couldn't have made a mod so good overnight.

 

My point being, you cannot make a good mod when you start! No one has, and if they have, I assure you, they've been modding other games for years before coming here. To sum it all up, I think you should stop the Recruitable Sarna mod, start from scratch, spend months or years to learn what you are doing and only once you have done that can you take a professional and mature approach to creating the mod you want to make.

 

[Neville 19]

  On 5/7/2021 at 6:08 AM, N-DReW25 said:

I've been meaning to say this for a while but now might just seem to be the best time to say it:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

When a new person first gets into modding, as sad as this sounds, you may have to "abandon your hopes" and dreams when it comes to modding.

The reason for this is because, as a new modder, you don't properly know how to do anything and it is usually new modder's who have big visions for their mods. When I joined Deadlystream in 2016 about 5 years ago, I also didn't know how to make mods... at all, and I also had big dreams. I began developing my dream mod, the K1 Gameplay Improvement mod, and back when I first published Demo version 1.0 to the public on July 4, 2016... IT WAS TRASH! It contained the Endar Spire modules alone and was buggy and weird as hell! So when did I finish the K1 Gameplay Improvement mod? When I fully finished the mod, I had added the Star Forge content meaning I had an entire games worth of content by November 1, 2020.

 

I worked on my big mod for 4 years, 4 months & 28 days!

 

And by no means was it easy! I had my ups, my downs, I had many, MANY bugs and glitches I myself had to fix MYSELF! You might see a mod like @Logan23's Revenge of Revan mod who have a Team of Modder's making it and you may think "I can make my mod if I have a team like that" and I can assure, THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!

I am part of Logan's team, and what does his team do? They write dialogue, LOTS of dialogue, it is @Logan23 who is doing 90% of ALL WORK. 

The reason why no one joins or makes teams is because everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. The reason Sith Holocron can't help you is because he cannot do UTC and 2DA modding, his strength is textures and textures alone. If you asked me, I couldn't do scripting because my scripting skills are weak, cut content is my strengths. If you are a new person, you wouldn't have strengths, you are new and as such if you did have a mod team you wouldn't do 90% of all work like a professional modder would, you'd put 90% of all work on other modders and other modders don't want to do 90% of all work for a mod which technically isn't even there's.

 

And usually, modders have a "rule" in which for us to get the best out of our mods we have to do things in a very specific order. For a recruitment mod, you'd create your character first (create a utc file for the character, create the recruitment script and begin dialogue) and usually what you'd do LAST is appearance, portrait and voice acting. If you got @Sith Holocron to make you a portrait first, and then you give up... you've wasted HIS time, the same goes for voice actors and texture artists. 

 

 So how will YOU make the mod you want? First, you abandon all hopes and dreams and start learning how to mod from the ground up!

 

My personal first mods where basic as hell, with mods like "Dark Jedi Robes Icon Fix" and "Davik's Upgradable Armor Mod" being very basic and simple UTI and texture modifications that where as basic as basic gets.

 

When I did bigger mods like GenoHaradan Legacy, when I first created my WIP thread... I didn't know how to make the mod, from 2017 to 2018 I continued to make the mod and proceeded to learn and learn new skills. My original goal was to complete another GenoHaradan mod but I went overboards and decided to make my own story, it was so cool and badass, it was in the Jekk Jekk Tarr, I had a whole backstory, I had cool Sith and an awesome duel... but cool ideas takes effort to make, and when I kept trying and trying to make a mod I couldn't make, I ended up learning more and more.

 

Whilst I couldn't make my cool and badass GenoHaradan mod, but by that point I did learn enough to do my original GenoHaradan mod which is the GenoHaradan Legacy mod I have out today.

 

Honestly, I think you should stop making the recruitable Sarna mod and instead focus your time on learning how to even make mods for Kotor in the first place! Take inspirations from other mods, there have been brilliant mods which have been made by Rookie Modders:

 

You've probably seen many HD textures made by professional graphics artists on Deadlystream and Nexus, but mods like "Taris NPC Overhaul" is a modders honest attempt at creating more diversity on Taris. Whilst his skins are beginner level, his efforts to implement a TSLPatcher to make his mod compatible shows that he is willing to learn they things to make his mod work and if he keeps up with leaning new things he may yet just return to his Taris NPC Overhaul and update it with better textures at some point.

https://deadlystream.com/files/file/1877-taris-npc-overhaul/

 

You probably don't know how to create cool and badass armor items as well, as do most new modders, but Czerka Armor and Appearance fix is a modest attempt by a Rookie Modder to create cool and badass Czerka based armor whilst still keeping in-line with the vanilla style of the game. He has taken the vanilla style of armor, as most modders do, and has done everything he can do to make it Czerka armor. As such, he strategically chose the yellow Cinaggar Combat Suit and yellow Echani Battle Armor textures to make his job easier. Again, with a TSLPatcher, he has demonstrated his willing to learn new things to ensure things work and is willing to make strategic decisions to ensure his texture is the best while he himself is a Rookie Modder.

 https://deadlystream.com/files/file/1776-czerka-armor-and-appearance-fix/

 

 

And the best mod that I can use as an example, is Recruitable Maxis! 
https://deadlystream.com/files/file/831-recruitable-maxis/

 

Recruitable Maxis is a mod which started off as "Tatooine Merchant and Quest". It was a really basic quest mod which was the modder's very first mod and a test to improve his skills, it was very basic which used vanilla heads and poorly skinned Jedi Robes. But that would not be the end of this modder, he improved upon his work, expanding it into a recruitment mod which gave Maxis a unique head. It was a basic recruitment mod, I remember the early versions of the mod stating it wasn't very in-depth but was better than what T3-M4 had to offer (Which is not a lot).

Then, he expanded it even further, improving his skills and adding it sidequests and actual content into the mod in the form of Rodian gangsters... eventually, these Rodians got unqiue textures and these textures where good... because the modder who made the mod learned from his past textures and the more and more he made bad textures, he learned how to make decent textures. 

He learned and he learned and eventually he was able to make fantastic content! A game spanning sidequest with those Rodian gangster's, multiple cutscenes, a Sith Ghost scene and a badass Jedi training bit! And I assure you, that modder couldn't have made a mod so good overnight.

 

My point being, you cannot make a good mod when you start! No one has, and if they have, I assure you, they've been modding other games for years before coming here. To sum it all up, I think you should stop the Recruitable Sarna mod, start from scratch, spend months or years to learn what you are doing and only once you have done that can you take a professional and mature approach to creating the mod you want to make.

 

I joined in 2015. Porting rules were the biggest problem. I have created mods of my own in the past. In KotOR, I modified .uti files, .utc files,.utm files, .utp files, and .2da files. For TSL, I modified many .uti files to restore KotOR weapons and added to itemcreate.2da files. I modified textures, SithSpecter helped me create a new helmet, and I added properties. I have had difficulty with dialogue, but I know the script to assign to a node.

[Thor110 566]

For creating a portrait I think most people load the model up in Blender and place a simple shaded / coloured background behind them.

Though you could always use gimp or photoshop to edit it and give it a similar background to the other portraits in the game.

As far as I know portraits are listed in the portraits.2da file

and then referenced by the associated number in .utc files by PortraitID

I use K-GFF Editor and 2DA Editor to access these filetypes, the above is an example of the Yuthura Portrait added in my port of KotOR1 to KotOR2.

This should be everything you need to add a custom portrait besides the making of the portrait itself.

Perhaps you could edit one of these.

  Reveal hidden contents

Hopefully that helps, you may need to edit it somewhat.

[Neville 19]

I added to line 1 of appearance.2da. While I hope to create new armor, Sarna in standard Republic armor is a selectable appearance. I tested it. I am able to change base clothing with the file and add weapons with the .utc file. This post includes a .2da file that creates Sarna in a Republic Officer uniform, though most portraits are intended for three possible classes. Sarna's dialogue includes plans to leave the Sith, so I was considering a portrait in standard clothing or showing the upper portion of a Republic Officer uniform. The neck and shoulder pads of the Republic Officer uniform may be the closest. I am including the .utc file for Sarna. This should give Sarna the appearance specified in the .2da files I sent (Republic Soldier/Republic Officer), and give her a Mandalorian Blaster.

appearance.2da.ZIPFetching info...

Sarna.utc.ZIPFetching info...

[Neville 19]

  On 5/7/2021 at 8:21 AM, Thor110 said:

For creating a portrait I think most people load the model up in Blender and place a simple shaded / coloured background behind them.

Though you could always use gimp or photoshop to edit it and give it a similar background to the other portraits in the game.

As far as I know portraits are listed in the portraits.2da file

and then referenced by the associated number in .utc files by PortraitID

I use K-GFF Editor and 2DA Editor to access these filetypes, the above is an example of the Yuthura Portrait added in my port of KotOR1 to KotOR2.

This should be everything you need to add a custom portrait besides the making of the portrait itself.

Perhaps you could edit one of these.

  Reveal hidden contents

Hopefully that helps, you may need to edit it somewhat.

Party member portraits are in portraits.2da, but three images are required. Party selection, party equip, and another portrait for selecting other party members in normal gameplay.

Character models are in appearance.2da

In appearance.2da, a body and clothing are assigned, and a head must be assigned by a number. A name assigned in appearance.2da becomes a selectable character appearance model in .utc files.

[Sith Holocron 2,553]

Done.

You'll have to rename the files to what you'll need yourself.  This concludes the transaction.

 

 

Sarna TGA.7zFetching info...