A Bold Project

[orangesrhyme]

Okay, you're all going to probably call me foolish (or a variant of it) but my aim is to make one or two characters somewhat from scratch.

"It's been done before," you say, "why would you insult yourself in such a manner?"

Well, because (as you may have inferred from my post count) I'm a noob to pretty much every flavor of Brawl hacking. I have a decent grasp on most of the concepts, from 3D modeling to texture modding (in other games) hex editing to ISO patching to computer programming to... Well, you get the point. What I'm saying is, though I know I have the skill to do it, I need some help with the more Brawl-specific concepts that I've been unable to find an answer to in the forums.

1. If my intention was to have a character with various different weapons, such as a sword for the FSmash or a golf club (that is [with the exception of the FSmash/USmash/etc] always in hand) for a basic jab move, would that be impossible? I know characters like Lucas and Ness and Peach have weapons that only appear when they're doing a smash attack, and Peach even goes as far as having three different weapons for the price of one move, but what I want to know (aside from whether it's an accomplishable feat or not) is A. Where the "extra weapons" would be contained (only model data? only move data? both?) and B. if it would be possible to have the "default weapon" stored in (hammerspace/a sheath/ magical pocket) when special/smash moves are used, i.e. the aforementioned golf club disappearing only when the character does a smash attack and uses a sword instead, or uses a special and shoots a laser gun, and so on.

2. Costumes. I've noted that Wario can be played using his WarioWare biker outfit, or his "classic" overalls outfit-- I want to take it a step further and have a different costume for every single recolor of the character, such as a bowler cap for the black recolor, a beanie cap for another, et cetera. Now, I think this is possible, (as I recall you can replace each character's color with a different model, like, FitMarth00.mdl0 ["standard" Marth, I think?] is an entirely different in-game model from FitMarth01.mdl0 [...red Marth maybe?]? I think I could be wrong there, in either example or theory or both) but I need some confirmation there.

3. Now for the "from scratch" part. The character(s?) I intend on creating aren't very similar in build to any of the available humanoids... The closest I could think of would be Marth (who has a not really similar moveset, but that shouldn't be a huuuge problem) and a shorter, faster Ganondorf (whose moveset is a lot more similar, from the final smash to a lot of the special/melee/smash attacks). Would it be easier to score just a generic human 3D model and edit that into the desired shape(s), or take the aforementioned characters and edit their models to taste? Aughhh this part is the most intimidating to me! I know there isn't an "easy way out" at all when you're doing model hacks, but I'm not sure which would cause less hassle in the long run. Any advice there would be appreciated.

If you need any information, besides a reason as to why I'm doing this (the answer to that would be "I currently have no life and want to do something neat to impress the bros"), I am more than happy to provide it.

tl;dr dumb kid wants to put his OC characters into Brawl and needs help with the stuff he couldn't research himself, would be quite appreciative of help

[ABloodyCanadian]

1: Yes it is possible. In Peach's case, her Side Smash weapons are actually part of the Peach Model, and is changed using Model Events in PSA. But some weapons are Articles, and have a separate Model to them. Also called with PSA.

2: Yes, you can have very different looks for different Character Colors. Each Recolor is its own PAC file.

3: Ask somebody who knows about modeling for I am clueless in this area...

Also, Welcome!

[Gamma Ridley]

My goodness. A help thread that isn't "OMG I CANT HAX HELP ME PLZZZZZ"

I am delighted to say the least. Now on to the answers:

1.) It wouldn't be impossible at all. Characters such as Ness and Lucas and Peach use events called "model changers" to toggle each weapon on and off depending on when it is used. The latest version of Brawl Box can add new model changers, so the sky is basically the limit for how many weapons you want to have, though filesize is much less cooperative. Now, how one would go about adding and editing model changers is waaaay beyond me, but I believe there is a tutorial written up somewhere. In the case of Peach, Ness, and Lucas, their weapons are attached to the actual character model itself, so you'd have to import it into 3DS Max and add it in there, unless you want to employ some fancy object importing magic, which doesn't actually work all the time. As for having a "default weapon," I suppose you could have it so that the weapon in particular is visible all the time then toggling it on and off in PSA.

2.) Yes you can have a different outfit for each slot. Just make sure the amount of bones is the same, or at least greater.

3.) It would probably be easier to start off with an existing model rather than to go from scratch, especially if you don't have any experience modelling. I would say start off with just a simple texture of your character and slowly work your way into modelling.

[orangesrhyme]

Sweet! This project just got a good bit less overwhelming... If it's not necro'd by the time I finish (I sure HOPE it doesn't take three months) I'll be sure to post screenshots! Thanks again!