The Definitive Team Fortress 2 Poster Guide

A guide following the process me and some of my friends use to make our Team Fortress 2 posters in Garry's Mod.

Introduction.

Hello, hello!

I'm Konakona[www.deviantart.com]. I've been doing Garry's Mod since January of 2009 as my main hobby.

I'm here with my good friends AGoJyt, and Panic; and we've decided that after a few years we'll be fixing up this old hunk o' junk. We're all gmodders with various skills -- Be it using Hammer, editing in post, or working in Garry's Mod.

We'll be going over all those parts too. We'll dumb down some of the more advanced topics like Hammer for those who are just learning it. With that, we'll be teaching it in the style of making maps for yourself, so a lot of important parts made for making full gameplay maps will be left out.

Now, if you're new to Garry's Mod poster making, don't fret! Like everything, it takes time and practice to get to where you want. Heck, my first day in GMod, I had to search YouTube on just how to rotate objects with the Physgun. Spoilers, it's the E key.

We all start somewhere, believe me! When I first made a poster of my Medic back in 2011, it looked like this.


And here is one of my most recent posters!



If you don't see the results you want at first, just keep trying!
There's also a community scene behind it, so anything you need help with someone can probably help you with.

Beginner - The tools you'll need.

Here are a list of community made tools that you'll need:

Bone Merge Tool - Lets you place cosmetics on your TF2 class models.

Ragdoll Mover Tool - Gives you more precise help with posing. It's pretty much just SFM posing tools in GMod.

Stand Pose Tool - Places a model in their reference pose. Great for learning heights, and using it as a base to pose off of.

Advanced Bone Tool - allows you to edit bones on a model specifically, adding more options and allowing the posing of hidden bones. (i.e. Toes, necks, etc.)

Hat Painter & Crit Glow Tools - Lets you add paint to cosmetics, and critical effects to anything.

Sub-Material Tool - Lets you edit specific textures on a mod.
--Invisible Material

Toggle Shadow Tool - Lets you turn model shadows on and off.

Particle Attach Tool - Lets you apply unusual effects to TF2 cosmetics.

Advanced Camera Tool - Gives you more freedom with your camera.

Redo Button - Lets you bind a key to "Redo". Reverses deleting an item with Z key.

Ignore Tool - Lets you make a model unable to be interacted with at all.

Easy Bodygroup Tool - Gives you the ability to edit bodygroups in a bigger menu.

No-Collide World Tool - Makes models not collide with the map.

Extended Spawn Menu - Gives you more options on your Spawn Menu.

Advanced Light Entities - Lamps, but better.

Set Light Origin Tool - Simplifies the process of the setlightorigin command into a simple tool.

Beginner - Learning the main menu and your options.

So, I'm taking it that you've already had GMod open, so congrats! You've passed the first step.

As of the current update I'm making this, your main menu should look like this:


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This is your base menu. You can customize it, but that's a guide for another day.
We'll go over the options here that are given to you:

• Start New Game - Lets you load up a map, and get right into the good stuff!
  
  
• Find Multiplayer Game - Lets you go over a large list of servers to join that deal with the many game modes Garry's Mod has to offer!
  
  
• Addons - Shows you all the addons you have installed through the Garry's Mod Workshop
  
  
• Demos - Shows you all the demos you and others have recorded.
  
  
• Saves - Shows you all the save sessions you have
  
  
• Options - Lets you customize how your game runs and looks,
  
  
• Quit - Take a guess.

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Lets go over your options now:
When you open it, there are a few things you should do right from the start.
Click on the "Advanced" button, and enable both options given.

• Developer's Console lets you work with a few cool commands to help you with your poster making.
  
  
• Fast Weapon Switch just allows you to scroll through your tools easier.

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From there, you can hit Okay and move on to your key binds. Set those however you'd like, but there's a few that we'll go over for safety reasons!

• R - In poster making, this can and will be a problem. If you hit the R key twice it will undo all your posing process.
  - If you press it once while your cross-hair is on a model/rag doll, it will also undo your posing for
  that specific item.
  
  
• Z - This key will undo the last item you spawned in.
  
  
• ` / ~ - This will open your developer console.

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Now you can adjust your mouse. This is all on you though, so I'll let you do that on your own.
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Audio is also all on you. I usually have my Garry's Mod muted, and listen to music.
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Video is where we get into the touchy stuff. Depending on your computer, you can't always have your settings set to the best.
Don't let this set you off from poster making, ever. Just because you can't have something really sharp and crisp looking doesn't mean you can't tell a great story with your rag dolls.

Your resolution is usually set for you, and it's your choice for full-screen, windowed, or borderless window.

After that, go to your Advanced tab again. This is where you can adjust your game's look.
I have all of mine set to the highest they'll allow. Your FOV is all a preference, so you set that to how you like.

For people with PC's that can't handle high graphics all the time, your best solution is to turn them down while you're making your poster. When you're finished and would like to render it, save your session and turn your settings to their max.

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Voice options are on you.
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The Other options will be all on you as well. From here you can add a spray, and adjust what files are downloaded when playing on multiplayer.

Beginner - Loading in a map, and navigating your spawn menu.

If you haven't already, go to Start New Game and pick a map to load.

For me, I'll be loading up David The Coffee Craver's map, "No Light Complex".
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Now, this is where you'll find a new key. Your Q key!
Q will open your Spawn Menu. This is where you access all your tools, rag dolls, props, filters, etc.

Your Spawn Menu will change with addons you download, such as the one I use that turns it into darker colours.

On the left you have:

• Search bar - Lets your game search through your files for a specific model. It's times like these you'll like to learn model names to make this easier on yourself. (I.E. - Say you want the Siberian Sophisticate for Heavy. In the game files it's called "hm_shirt")
  
  
• Your Spawn Lists - This will hold all your models. Easy navigation all around! Just click on the folders to access them.
  
  
• Browse - These let you go into more specific areas to search for models, like TF2 only, CS;GO/CSS only, Garry's Mod only, or all of them in one giant folder. This is also where you access your workshop add-ons in the Addons folder.

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Up top you have:

• Spawnlists - Where all your models are
  
  
• Weapons - Where all your weapons are. Including workshop downloaded weapons.
  
  
• Entities - Also models, but it contains some cool tools as well!
  
  
• NPCs - Where your NPCs are. (Includes workshop downloads.)
  
  
• Vehicles - Where your Vehicles are. (Includes workshop downloads.)
  
  
• Post Process - Filters and visual customization for your screen. We'll touch more on here later.
  
  
• Dupes - Where you can save dupes, browse other's dupes, upload your own too!
  
  
• Saves - Where you can save your sessions, browse other people's saves, upload your own too!

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To the right you have: Tools and other options.
Your tools are exactly that. They're tools you'll use for every day GModding. Some you might use, some you might never use.
I can promise you, there are a few tools that I have no idea how to use, or never have used.

Your options give you options regarding add-ons you have that allow them.

Utilities are a larger list, which allow you to edit server settings, clean up specific items, or remove all items as a whole. I recommend using the server settings to disable spawning with all your weapons.

Basics - Console & Keybinds.

So now we're here, the moment you've all been waiting for!
Before we do anything though, I'd like to go over some console commands and key binds to help make this all easier for you.
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Console commands: Press `/~ and put sv_cheats 1 into console.

• r_lod -2 - Makes sure your models keeps the most detail they can from any distance!
  (This helps with face and hand posing.)
  
  
• mat_picmip -10 - Adds a better crisp to your textures.

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Key binds: You use your console to also keybind some options you can't in the options menu.
(where I have [key] you put any key you'd like. I.e. - bind k "poster 1" )

• bind [key] "mat_fullbright 1"
  bind [key] "mat_fullbright 0"
  -These turn on and off the map lighting. It helps for working in dark areas.
  
  
• bind [key] "poster [#]"
  (replace [#] with any number from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6+)
  -This will render a higher quality screenshot.
  (These save in this location: :\Steam\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\screenshots )
  
  
• bind [key] "vcollide_wireframe 1"
  bind [key] "vcollide_wireframe 0"
  -These commands show where you can grab a ragdoll with the physgun.
  
  
• bind [key] noclip
  -Lets you enable and disable noclip at will.
  
  
• bind [key] kill
  -If you get stuck, just use this to kill your character.

If you use all these commands at once (excluding kill and noclip) you should see this:

Basics - Using your tools, and posing tips.

Now that we're finally at the stage of actually doing something, you might be wondering.. "How do you pose something good, even?", and that's a simple answer.

POSING REFERENCES ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND.[www.google.com]

I can't stress this enough.
If you can't get a pose right, open your preferred search engine and search up "[pose type] reference".
While you're at it, make a folder full of pose references. Take screenshots from movies or games, do the pose yourself IRL, buy a figure for that exact use and recreate it from there.. There are so many ways to do this! It's not that hard, and it only takes practice.

But for the sake of this guide, I'll be using this artwork of Doctor Strange:

A little tip from me if you have a phone with a large screen and Discord.
Make a discord server for yourself, and upload your references there.
Keep your phone on that image while you're working inside Garry's Mod so you can always check it.

It's a lot nicer than you'd think!

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So now that we have this all set up, we'll hop back into GMod to pose the model!
For this we'll use a combination of the Physgun and Ragdoll mover.

First thing's first, we put the ragdoll in stand pose.
And after than, we'll use the Advanced Bone Tool to get rid of the glasses and backpack.
Last, we use the Shadow Toggle Tool to remove the model's shadow.

So far, this is what we have:












We'll then use the ragdoll mover tool with the IK Legs L & R enabled to get a proper weight and spacing, without disturbing the torso or cape. It will look like this afterwards:












The rest we'll be using the ragdoll mover for, besides the cape, arms, and head.
And never be afraid to adjust the pose for yourself to fit what you want. Going off a reference doesn't have to be the exact same thing.

Anyways, once it's all sorted out, it should look close to:












Now we'll move on to Finger and Face posing! As well as the eyes.
Those are able to be done with the Finger and Face Poser Tools.

The face poser works off of sliders, unlike the finger poser which works off of little squares you pull around. Play around with them both and see if you can get them to your liking! You can always look up references for these as well. Hands are tricky, but they're fun! Why not try to find out what you want IRL first, and recreate what you saw? It helps a lot!

Eyes on the other hand rely completely on you to pose them. This is where things such as NoClip become a massive help to achieve that perfect position! Just get in the area you'd like them to look, and right click on the model! - Try staying somewhat close to the mode too, so the eyes don't set in some weird position. You just want them looking in the general direction of.. whatever it is you want them looking at.

But when I finish off mine, it will look like so:

Basics - Using more tools, and learning more commands.

So your pose is finished, and you want to get rid of those ugly model shadows on the ground. I already did it as you saw in the previous displays, and you might've too.

Now this works well, but as of recently a problem has risen with the TF2 Paint Tool that will get in the way of keeping this clean. (This could be a problem for just me, IDK. But either way, I'm putting it here.)
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So it's time to put items on your model! Congrats, we're getting close to finishing the posing stage!
Find and spawn any items you'd like, and use the TF2 Paint tool to.. well.. paint them? lol
From there, use the bone merger tool to apply them to your class.

Now, some of you might've just spawned an effect, painted it, and when you bonemerged it, had the model shadows appear for that item. There is a way around this!

Open up your console and put in: prop_dynamic_create
Now, go right click on the item you want in your Spawn Menu, and hit "Copy To Clipboard."

I'll be using the Quadwrangler (qc_glove).

When you go back to your console, paste in the model path you just copied, and remove "mode/" from the start of it.

It will look like this:
prop_dynamic_create player/items/medic/qc_glove.mdl

NOT, this:
prop_dynamic_create model/player/items/medic/qc_glove.mdl

From there, you can remove the shadow, and bonemerge it just fine!.

Now make some final adjustments to your pose, and right click on the model. Hit the button "Make Persistent." - This will make it so you can't accidentally grab this model with the physgun.










Once I have all the items I want on my character, It will look like this:

Basics - Using your environment and what's given to you.

--WIP--

Intermediate - Scenebuilding.

So sometimes you'd like there to be some kind of scene to your pose, and that's always wonderful!
Scenebuilding is an option, and always great to learn. So lets give this little poster something special to make it look a bit nicer!

I'll finish up mine an get this:

But what did it take to get to this?
Well here's some things I did:

• I spawned a slate from the general building tab.

• Used the Map Retexture Tool to give it a wooden floor look.

• Raised it off the floor, and moved the Medic back onto it with Ragdoll Mover.

Made the floor persistent, added my props, and moved my camera. That's where the top image comes from. Now lets go on to lighting!

Intermediate - Lighting.

Now here comes my favourite part! Adding the lights, setting the feeling, and finishing up.

Lighting can differ in complexity depending how you go with it.
We have things such as the simple Three Point Lighting a lot of people use that only use three lamps, or we can go all in and make something that has attributes like SSS!

That's not to say three point lighting isn't good. That's quite the opposite. It's a very nice way to light a model! - It's not my personal preference, but to each their own. You do you.

Mainly what I'm saying is that you should figure out your own style of lighting. Play around with them, and see if you can come up with something you find attractive!
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So for my personal way of lighting, lets dive in!

First thing's first, we want the main spot light. This is what will pin-point the main part of the poster.
Mine will look like this:









Now we'll change the colour to find where we want the base of the poster's colour to go.




This should do just fine. But there's a problem! There's too much dark space, so we'll need to use a shadowless lamp to fill that in.

We'll place it below the stage facing upward. It will look like this when all set up:





So now we need to add a rim light to have the Medic stand out. These can be hard to learn, but it's all in your style, and where the main light is coming from. Rims lights come from behind.

You don't really want a large rim light coming from a space with the least light, and you don't want something soft and small coming from where the most light comes from. So when I finish mine, it will look like this:

The rimlights are the three across the bottom ^



Now that those are done, we'll move on and add a volumetric light to fill in the black area above.
We'll take this fancy little model that mimics a volumetric light, and position it where we need it:

Once we get that done, we'll stick a light at the end of it facing to the other side of it. We'll adjust the sliders of it to make sure it doesn't catch anything we don't want it to.
That leaves us with this:

Now we'll make another kind of rim which is usually called a "hair light". They are lamps that face down from the top, and don't do anything other than light the hair of a person. Now we're going to break that rule and have it cover the whole top area of the model to even out the rims we made into a fine line!


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We'll now need to think ahead to if we want to add anything in post that would possibly cast a light. I will be, which is a magic orb that will project some red light coming from the Medic's left hand. So lets set up some lights to create that:


Ta-Da! Done and done.

I won't be lighting the whole scene here, as this is mainly for just lighting ragdolls.
There is a nice tip here for lighting scenes and ragdolls I have for you though, which is to use this resource here: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Team_Fortress_2_Sky_List

This list shows all the RGB for lights each map uses. They work along with these advanced lamps, and can get you some nice outcomes like these few examples:


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There are tons of lighting guides around the internet, and with those it's always a smart idea to learn/practice other people's style! It could help you a lot.

And with that, I'll link a few lighting resources here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1672569410

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-twIWD02Gcg

Extras - Using your tools in other ways.

With these workshop tools, we'll try out a few new ideas to give you some inspiration on what you can do with what Garry's Mod and the community give you to play with. -- Sometimes, it's even more than just Garry's Mod. Source FilmMaker has some pretty neat models you can bring over to use.
--(Quick warning; most, if not all models brought over straight from Garry's Mod without extra work will cause them to become effects. Even ragdolls.)--

There is a way to use these effects still, such as working with their bones and other options, and that's all in with the console command "prop_dynamic_create". This will give some slightly new properties to a spawned effect, and I'll give you a quick rundown on what it can do, and some small options for this.

Example:
Say we've got this hunky looking Heavy Weapons Guy right here, and you want him wearing the Siberian Sophisticate while also this hunting coat. You can't just bone merge these together because the shirts will clip on the arms. So what do you do?!


Well, open your spawn menu and search for "hm_shirt". This will give us the Siberian Sophisticate.
We then right click on the spawn icon, and click "copy to clipboard". That puts the model path onto our clipboard.


Open up your console (`/~) and type in "prop_dynamic_create", then put a space.
After that, you need to paste your model path, so it should look like:

prop_dynamic_create models/player/items/heavy/hm_shirt.mdl

But this isn't all we need to do yet! You need to remove "models/" from the path, or it will just spawn in an error. Do this every time you spawn something!

So now you should have:

prop_dynamic_create player/items/heavy/hm_shirt.mdl

This will spawn in the hm_shirt effect.. but you'll notice the green circle is removed! It's now able to be used as a pseudo model / effect hybrid. Now you can use the Advanced Bone Tool to scale down the arm portions and bonemerge the hm_shirt to the Heavy. Now he has his cool shirts on!

Extras - Better finger posing.

Now it's nothing that ever really occurred to me, but my Danish pal, AGoJyt, showed me some other ways to pose fingers. One of these is a little more advanced, so if you're not used to working in your game's files, get some help from a friend or just hold off on it. I wouldn't want you to mess up something you shouldn't have and break your game.
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Trick #1: Use the Advanced Bone Tool to pose fingers

It's as easy as it sounds! Just using the advanced bone tool to pose fingers!
Better yet, that tool works without needing it open, so you can work around with it while in your camera tool. It doesn't require much more of an explanation besides that you can do it.

It gives unlimited ability and range, and is most likely the best way to pose fingers in general.
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Trick #2: Editing your files to allow your Tool Gun more range

Location: Steam\steamapps\common\GarrysMod\garrysmod\lua\vgui\fingervar.lua
You'll be working in this folder, on this file.

Once you open it in NotePad++, find:

local MAX_ANGLE_X = 100
local MAX_ANGLE_Y = 100

Change the 100 to 120. -- Or whatever number you want. Note that the higher you go, to more delicate your finger posing tool gun will become.

This is the perfect numbering for TF2 hands. You can adjust more if you feel the need to do so, but it's all up to you. This change will allow the Finger Poser Tool to move more.

The End!

At this point, you should have everything finished. You can use the post processing tab in your spawn menu from here and do whatever you'd like. I personally use SuperDOF for the majority of my posters.

Then, render this as a poster. In console put in the poster command mentioned previously (or press the key if you have bound) and go from there! Use any of the editing programs you have available for the rest. My recommendation is Photoshop.
(It is morally okay to pirate Adobe products!)


We hope you learned something from this guide! Thanks for your time!!
So long, and thanks for all the sandviches.

- Madcap Medic, AGoJyt, Panic