AlGeorgeRomo: Tutorial on making custom CSPs

How to make your own CSPs and Battle Portraits

Hello there! This is AlGeorgeRomo. Many of you have asked me how I make my CSPs and what programs I use. And since the process is too long to put it in a single message, I made a tutorial to show you how you can make your own CSPs.

What programs to use

I use BrawlBox v0.73 to pose the model. To edit the portraits I use (and strongly recommend) Photoshop, but you can also use The Gimp.

Getting started

Open BrawlBox and preview the model.

Now, position the camera so that the model looks like this.

This angle is perfect because of the lighting. Go to the top bar, and save the camera.

Now, each time you preview a character model, the camera will start from that position. Next, go to “Options”, “All Settings”, and “Export”.

You MUST do this. BrawlBox, or even you may accidentally clear the camera coordinates, which will completely ruin your future portraits. If this happens, you can import these settings, select “Reset Camera” and the camera will return to the custom position.

Models appear white in BrawlBox

Some objects, or even the whole model may appear white in BrawlBox instead of rendering its regular textures.

This is how you fix it. Expand the model menu and go to materials.

Expand the menu for a texture and select it. To your right there are a bunch of words and numbers, but these are the ones you need.

You must change “MinFilter” to “Linear.”

Now, the model will show its regular textures. Do this for the rest of the materials. You don’t need to change the materials that end with “ExtMtl.”

Not all materials will be white, but check just in case.

Removing unnecessary objects and textures

Objects like Sonic’s ball, Mario’s facial expressions, or Peach’s blood instruments, are not needed for your CSPs (unless you want them). To remove polygons, go to the model, and expand the “Objects” folder.

If you scroll down, you will see the polygons to your right. Press “ctrl + delete” to delete that object. You may get a message that says “Do you want to remove this object’s vertex node?” Just choose “Yes.”

*NOTE: Make sure you save often. Deleting certain polygons may cause BrawlBox to crash. Some characters have way too many objects, and losing that progress will be tedious.

Just like objects, there are some textures, like Toon Link’s facial expressions that you don’t need for your CSPs. To delete these, expand the TextureData[0] menu, and press “ctrl + delete” to delete the selected texture.

Posing the model

Here comes the second hardest part. Preview the model, and open the bottom, top, and right bars.

Make the bones visible. Now, start posing!

*POSING TIPS:
The model may look too small on the viewer. Simply select the “TopN” and change the scale until you get the size you want.

If there are some textures that you don’t want to see in the CSP, open the left bar, and un-check such texture.

And there you go! Your model is posed, and ready to become a portrait.

Editing the portrait

This is where Photoshop comes into play, and this is easily the most complicated part. Take a screenshot of your render (maximize the model viewer window for more detail), and paste it to a Photoshop or Gimp document.

Delete the background.

Add a new layer. Here, you will put the eyes, the pupils, or any other details that do not render in BrawlBox.

There are many ways to fix the eyes. The way I do is take a screenshot of the pupils, and position them so that they look correct.

Add another layer. Here, you will put shadows. Use smooth brushes, and other tools to make the shadows. You need a little bit of skill for this part. With the selection tool, select an area to lock edges. For example, Mario’s face and cap need 2 different tones of shade.

Do this until you are satisfied with the results. Adjust the transparency, smoothness, and all that stuff. Save the document.

Add another layer, and this time to add shines and highlights. Select the white color and start painting.
Save the document again. You don’t want to lose all that work!
Do some final details, like color correction, smooth shadows, eye highlights, etc. There you go! Your portrait is finished!

Making the CSPs

Apply the textures to your model, and take screenshots of your recolors and costumes. Paste them into the Photoshop or Gimp document as a different layer.

Now, save each costume picture as a PNG document.

Open a new Photoshop or Gimp document, but this time use the dimensions of a Brawl CSP. Open your PNG pictures, and copy & paste them into the new document.

Select all layers, and use the transform tool to re-size them.

*NOTE: I strongly recommend you to lock the dimensions so that the portrait keeps its original proportions. Then, before you finish the transformation, unlock the dimensions.

This will allow you to shrink a future render EXACTLY as the rest of your costumes.

Save this as a Photoshop or Gimp document.

Now, save each costume as a PNG file. These will go to your common5.pac file. There! You have your CSPs.

Making the battle portraits

You will repeat the same process as when you made the CSPs, but this time a little different. Open a new Photoshop or Gimp document, but this time in the dimensions of a Brawl Battle Portrait. Open all your CSPs, and copy & paste them. Re-size them however you want (using the same technique I mentioned before), and save this as a separate Photoshop or Gimp document.

Save each portrait as a PNG file.

And there you go! You have your Battle Portraits!

Alternate costumes

Now I’ll show you how to make a CSP for an alternate costume in the same pose as your character. Open the posed model and the alternate model in BrawlBox. Preview the models. Remove polygons, fix textures, correct the whiteness, etc. When your other model is ready, open the right and bottom bar in each model viewer.

Select a joint on both models from the list to the right.

Copy from your posed model and paste to the alternate model. Keep going like that until the last bone. Now your alternate model is ready for its portrait!

Repeat the process to edit it in Photoshop or Gimp.

When you are done giving It shadows and stuff, save the render as a PNG picture. Copy it to the CSP document, and re-size it. Repeat the process of making a CSP and a Battle Portrait.

*NOTE: if the costume has a larger area than the original, just crop it to fit the dimensions of the original render. If the costume has a smaller area, draw a black square on 2 separate corners.

That way, when transforming it, the figure will keep the dimensions of the original render.

You are now finished!
Now you know how to make your own custom CSPs and BPs for your hacks and costumes. Thank you for reading, and I hope this has helped you.

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