This is my very first item submission to the workshop. I just want to say thanks to Hell jumper and many others who helped me in the modeling community.

Here's the link enjoy!

Well everything worked great! I created a bite model and used the QC you provided. The bodygroup looks good as well as the skin families. One thing I did notice though was HLMV was using really low resolution textures for my model. In game it looks great but for some reason HLMV is lowering the resolution. I have done some looking around on the web and could find very much. So do you know of any other programs I can use to grap a decent shot of my model for the backpack Icon?

Do you know of any other ways to test my item other than the itemtest map? I am still having that animation problem.

Also should I create a LOD for my model? I based it off the fishcake which is 1240 tris and has no LODs. My model is 1400 tris. What do you thank?

Ok great thanks I will test out this QC then. I used the Itemtest map. So I will test it in the HLMV as well.

Hey no pressure, answer when ever you want. It's not that important. It's just a fun project I have been working on in my spare time. So don't worry about it :)

Sorry to ask some more questions so soon but I ran into a few more snags with my item.

First when testing my item in the item test map, I found that the skin families weren't working properly. The textures would not change depending on the team. Instead texture remained consistent. I found that the only way to change this was to export my model from blender again to an SMD with one of the two textures selected. Below is my QC file.

Secondly I seem to be having problems with firing my weapon. My weapon is a food item for the heavy. When I load it in game the weapon is in the right position. The only problem is when I click the fire button nothing happens. The heavy doesn't eat it. So I am not sure what is wrong.

Again sorry to ask for more help so soon I just had a lot of free time today to work on this project.

Let me know if I need to provide more info.

Hey thanks a lot for responding! I am using photoshop CS5 to create my textures. This really helps my understanding of Alpha channels. I will just ignore the blender transparency then.

I understand that valve doesn't add weapons very often. Which is kind of sad since I usually see a few great weapon ideas in the workshop that dont get added. Anyway I was just making this weapon more for the experience and for getting through the learning curve of actually creating an item for the game. The next project I plan to do is a hat. So hopefully I will have better luck getting that accepted in game.

I also just want to say thanks for your tutorials. They have been an enormous help. I knew nothimg about 3D modeling and texturing before I watched your videos. For some reseason they sparked an interest in me to learn more about 3D modeling. Now I feel very comfortable modeling in blender and somewhat comfortable in photoshop. I learn more everyday and I just want to say thanks for getting me started. It has turned into a fun hobby, maybe even more some day.

Hi I'm new to this group and want to see if you guys could help me with some questions I have about alpha channels. I have been through both of hell jumpers tutorials and I noticed that he touched on Alpha channels for a little bit. And now I want to see if I can learn more about alpha channels which still confuse me today.

Previously I tried to follow the old tutorial that hell jumper made. Everything was going smoothly until I had to export my texture with an alpha channel. I duplicated a RGB channel for the alpha channel then saved the texture as a targa with 32 bits per pixel. I looked at the saved texture and I found that it was partly transparent. Any blacks or grays have become clear. I noticed that this wasn't what happened in the tutorial which, is what brings me here today.

So I have some questions:

Why did my texture turn transparent? And how do I fix this? ( I asked this in the old thread as well).

Do weapon textures have to have alpha channels or is it only for paintable hats?

How are alpha channels used in phong mask lighting for models?

I am just mainly trying to figure out how to use an Alpha Channel for my weapons phong mask.

Any advice or comments on these questions would be great!

Thanks