The NEW War Paint Guide

In this guide, we'll go over the process of making a war paint for Team Fortress 2.
We'll look at everything from programs you'll need, to publishing it.

Programs and Software

First of all, you'll need some programs on your computer to get going.

These programs aren't optional, and are "must haves" when making war paints.
These programs are:

• VTFEdit[nemesis.thewavelength.net] - A program for importing, exporting and opening Valve Texture Files (.vtf) and Valve Material Files (.vmt).
  
• GCFScape[nemesis.thewavelength.net] - Software for opening .vpk and .pak files.
  
• An image editing program - Any (or most of them) will do, as long as you can make canvases with your own chosen dimensions, RGB channel layer editing and targa (.tga) saving. I personally just use Photoshop, so I'll use that in the guide.
  
• Any zipping program - Any zipping program thst can make and open .rar and .zip files. I use WinRar personally.

Once you've got these programs up and going, you're ready to proceed to the next step.

Your first textures

This chapter is about getting to the grub and about making your textures to your war paint.

Before we go into making the textures, we'll have to understand the textures (also referred to as .vtfs).

Textures are the skin of the creation you're making, and if you want the skin to feel and look good, you'll have to follow some guidelines or "points" as I like to call them.
The most important ones can be summed up in A.S.S.P - Artstyle, Size, Seamless and Phongmask.

• Artstyle - One of the most important points of A.S.S.P, is "Artstyle". As you may know, TF2 has a very unique artstyle and look than other game. If you go on and proceed to make a skin with hyper realistic textures, you'll not go very far.
  
  To understand the artstyle, you can go and study it in the guide linked beloe. The guide provides a very nice description of many aspects in the TF2 artstyle, especially in texturing. You can find the guide here:
  https://polycount.com/discussion/73559/texturing-for-team-fortress-2-a-short-guide
  Sometimes, a small nudge to TF2 in your textures can work. Many skins in the game has already done this, like a hidden Spycrab in the "Woodland Warrior", and "TF2" and a Balloonicorn hidden in the "Psychedelic Slugger" skin.
  
  

• Size - Another important part of making textures, is the topic on size. Size does matter! In war paints, you'll have to make a texture with specific dimensions. These dimensions are 512x512, 1024x1024, and 2048x2048.
  
  Take a note of how quality gets lower with the smaller size on the dimensions, and if you want the best results, you'd want to go on the highest possible size and settings.
  
  

• Seamless - The third part of A.S.S.P is "Seamless". Your design should be seamless, because otherwise it would create large visible seams in your war paint in-game. In order to get your project to live to it's fullest, we recommend you make your war paint into a seamless one.
  
  
  
  You can check if your texture is seamless by making a new project in your image editing program that is 2x bigger than your texture. Paste your texture 4 times, each one in their own corner. If you can see no visible seams, you've got a seamless texture. You can also check if it's seamless by testing it in-game, which we'll cover later.

• Phongmask - The last point of A.S.S.P is about phongmasks. A phongmask is an alpha layer located in the RGB layer channel that tells the game how reflective the texture is to light. This mask is very useful when you're creating textures, as this can make materials (like wood and metal) feel more like materials.
  
  
  To make a phongmask, duplicate your texture onto another layer. Make that new layer black-and-white. Move onto the brightness and contrast modifier to modify parts of your texture. Keep in mind the darker the phongmask, the less reflective it is to light. If it's light, it's gonna be very sensitive to light.
  
  Take this modified black-and-white layer, and put it in a new layer in the channels tab. This channels tab is the same place where the RGB layers are. Rename that layer to "Alpha" and delete the black and white layer in the layers tab. If you've done it correctly, you should have a coloured texture in the layers tab, and a black-and-white layer in the channels tab.

When you're done with your texture, save it as a TARGA file (.tga). In .tga, it keeps the phongmask in the channels tab unlike .png and .jpg. Depending on your war paint, you may need to create several textures. Some textures can be detailed and full of life, while others may be a coloured canvas with paint strokes. These coloured textured textures are often used in secondary with war paints and we call them "solid" textures.

When you have read about the main factors of A.S.S.P and understand them, you can move onto creating your first texture. Personally, I use a 2048x2048 canvas. I make the phongmask after I've designed the texture and told myself that I like that design. I fix the seam, artstyle and technical issues when I'm making the textures.

Extra Accessoies

If you feel like doing a war paint with an unique feature, like a sticker or wear masks, you'll have to choose the right war paint to do that.

Stickers
Stickers are present on weapon skins and war paints like "Mannana Peeled" and "Park Pigmented". Replacing the stickers is a bit like replacing the war paint textures, as it's really the same system. In the folders containing the original vtfs, there is always a folder containing the sticker textures named "stickers".


To replace them, simply put a "stickers folder" in the folder you're replacing the skins with, and put your sticker textures there. This works only on "yeti" (Jungle Inferno) skins, so you can't put stickers on something like Uranium.


If you want to put it in the .zip file for encryption, simply put a sticker folder there too and put it in there. I have not used stickers myself, so I'm not a professional about it 100%. If you still want help though, reach a hand out to me and we can try to find out what's the problem and solution.


Wear "Masks"
Wear masks (or just textures of the wear) give the user the ability to create an unique wear on the weapon, allowing for more effect on the weapon.


As shown above, you can see that the wear is changed to the wear texture instead of metal/wood like it would on war paints without. This effect is only available on the Coffin Nail skins though.
To make the wear mask, you'll therefore have to replace the Coffin Nail skin first, and then make the wear mask.


You'll have to replace the skin first, and then check if it's okay. Then you can proceed to make the wear mask. There's also possibility to use wear textures on other war paints like Park Pigmented.

Previewing it in-game

In this chapter, you'll learn how to put and test your war paint in-game. You'll learn how to make your targa files into .VTFs, and how to replace existing war paints textures with your very own ones. By replacing current war paints in the game, you can play with your own skin in-game.

Targa > VTF making

First of all, we'll make our targa files to VTFs (Valve Texture File). Open up VTFEdit and select File>Import. Select your .tga files and save it as something with a temporary name. You'll have to rename it afterwards.

Getting it in-game

Go the "custom" folder (steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\custom) and make a folder with any name (with no spaces, only "_"s if you want spaces). In that folder, you'll have to make a "materials" folder, and then a "patterns" folder, so the file locations are (steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\custom\yourfolder\materials\patterns).
In this folder, you'll have to place your textures. You'll have to rename them now for the skin you want to replace. Therefore, below this chapter, you'll find a list of filenames for warpaints. To replace a specific skin, all you need to do is follow the instructions.

For example, if you want to replace the war paint "Bamboo Brushed", you'll an additional folder in the patterns folder named "yeti". It's named yeti, as it was introduced in the Jungle Inferno update. You'll also need two textures, one named "bamboo_hut_wall01" (the main texture) and "bamboo_hut_roof01" (secondary texture). What this does is that it replaces the original skin textures with your own textures, a.k.a replacing existing ones with your own.

Looking at it - First Person

Once you've done this, you can start Team Fortress 2 and load up a map. Remember that you can't join a Valve server, and you'll have to load up a map on your own. You can do this by opening the console, and writing "map ". Select one of the maps that shows up.
Load up a class with a painted war paint. If you want to look at your war paint, you'll need to have the war paint that you replaced (If you replaced the "Bamboo Brushed", you'll need a Bamboo Brushed painted weapon).


Looking at it - Third Person

If you want to look at your war paint in third person, do the following. Start Team Fortress 2 and press "Items" and select the "War Paint" option. You'll be greeted to a place where you can preview any war paint, in any wear, on any weapon. Select the war paint you replaced and you're ready.

Feedback and critique

Before you put the war paint on the workshop pedestal, you'll need to get the people's opinion about your product. This step, while optional, is a big step if you're looking for an improvement to your work.

You can ask several communities, like the r/tf2 discord server or the TF2 Emporium discord server for their opinion, each one with people who can give good feedback. However, you'll need to be prepared for a harsh word or two if they come.

Once you've asked for feedback, be sure to listen to their tips and try them out. Once you've gotten the people's thoughts (or not) and done changes they've asked for, you can continue to the next step.

Encrypting to .zip

This section goes over how you can encrypt your textures in an encrypted .zip file so they'll be ready to submit to the workshop.

Make a new folder on your desktop with the name of your product. The name should have no spaces, and if there are spaces, they need to be replaced with "_"'s (Developer's Sin - developers_sin). In that folder, make a "materials" folder, and in that a "pattern" folder.
If you've done this right, you should have something like (yourskin_name\materials\patterns).

Put your textures in the patterns folder and give them some names. You can give them any name (but I don't recommend controversial words). For safety's sake, you can also include your texture original files (tga, psd, etc.), just in case Valve wants to fix something in your skin that may be inappropraite. I always give my main textures a name resembling the name of the war paint and secondary textures "solids", for example; "solid_gray".

Once you have done this all, you can start making them to .zip files.

Encrypting to .ZIP (WinRAR)

Take your skin folder and right click it. With the WinRAR program, you'll see an option named "Add to archive...". Press that one, and you'll be greeted to this:


Select the .ZIP option and press OK. In the same location where you have the skin folder, you'll now see a zip file, containing your folder.

Encrypting to .ZIP (7Zip) - Suggested by Vipes

If you want to encrypt your work into a .zip file, you can alternatively and easily do it with 7Zip.
What you want to do is to launch the 7zip program, which is either at your desktop or in the installation folder.
Once you have opened the 7Zip program, navigate to the place you have your skin folder, and select the skin folder. Press the "Add" button, and you'll be greeted to this screen:


To set the settings to make your skin folder into a .zip file, select the "zip" option at the Archive format tab, and press OK. Now, you should have encrypted your folder into a cool .zip file.

Promotional Material

Another part of submitting work to the Workshop is the promotional material you make to "promote" your thing. You can find these on almost every workshop item, so go now and look for yourself. I'm not gonna tell about my own methods of making them, so this part will be relatively short.
In my submissions, I usually divide the promotional material into two parts; the Thumbnail and the Posters.
Therefore, i'll part this section into two for each subject.

Thumbnail:

The thumbnails are squared pictures on the workshop pages, as shown above.
They're usually what people see first, and should make a good first impression.
These are a must-have when submitting a workshop item, as they're required when you publish it (as shown below on the publishing chapter).
Some weapons that are nice on thumbnails (in the case of War Paints) are the Black Box, Scattergun, Amputator and the Sniper Rifle.
Again, I'll not tell my own methods at making them as I have my own thing with them, and I don't want people to duplicate my style 1:1.

Promotional Posters

Posters:

The "posters" are pictures (with your own custom dimensions, I usually just use 1080p) showcasing your work. On workshop items like cosmetics and hats, people use SFM to make a promotional poster of them. You could do the same with war paints with this guide:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1373848280

What I'd recommend for honesty points is showing your skin, even if it looks bad on a certain weapon. You can't redeem those points though.

Submitting it to the Workshop

Before you submit it to the workshop, check if everything's ready with this checklist:

• An encrypted .zip file containing your textures (.vtfs and .vmts).

• Promotional material, like a thumbnail and some pictures.

• Some screenshots of it in-game.

Once you have everything ready, you can go and submit your work to the Workshop.
Launch Team Fortress 2 and select the Workshop option. The Workshop option has a wrench in the logo.


Note that I'm using a custom Hud, and that the locations of the options may be different for everyone.

When you press the option, you're greeted with two options.
Select the "Publish New item" option, and you'll be greeted with this view:


Write in the name and description of the war paint, and upload the thumbnail in the "Preview Image" section to the left. After that, you'll have to select the "Other" option and select your encrypted .zip file. After all of this has been done, select the tags that will appear on the right side of the page, and select "Publish".

Wait for it to be published, and you'll be sent to a workshop page with your submission. Your submission is private (only visible to you). Before you make it viewable to everyone, use this time to upload the promotional pictures. After this is done, you can continue and proceed to make it viewable to everyone.

Ending and conclusion

Congratulations, you've submitted your first war paint into the game, and now you know how to submit more of them.

If you have any other questions, or you want additional help, be sure to contact me by adding me on my Steam. Please do note that I'll treat you the same way you treat me, and that if you're harsh, i'll be bloody harsh too.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/handwatchtealoungebookspider/

[Astro The 5th]

ok thanks

[ガーフィールド]

uhh, i've uninstalled the game so i'm doing this out of memory

everything *should* be in the /patterns subfolder within that one vpk for materials, i dunno if the guide's gone now but it needs some digging - you'll find it surely

[Astro The 5th]

Hey, I couldn't find the list of file names anywhere. Got any help with that? I'm trying to replace the quack canvassed.

[ガーフィールド]

nah, valve's like a landlord for an apartment they never visit; it's in the back of their head, they'll maybe come around 3-4 times a year, but nothing much will come from those visits

they're still pretty good though

[tyefal]

yea, its probably a problem from the game that valve will forget for 5 years

[ガーフィールド]

uhh, both shouldn't be showing at the same time

custom wear usually overrides normal wear if i remember correctly (?)

[tyefal]

I can try disabling my hud but the issue is both the custom and normal wear are shown at the same time

[ガーフィールド]

i don't think there are others (probably are though, i forgot most skins in game)

however, what i do know is that some HUDs change on the warpaint viewer so that it displays the war paints better; you can also use CTRL, SHIFT and your mouse to move the weapon around in those viewers iirc

[tyefal]

what warpaint do you recommend for custom wear mannana and coffin nail are pretty expensive and the warpaint viewer is bugged so it doesnt show them properly

[ガーフィールド]

yeah, i sadly don't remember what we did for it

valve's probably not gonna add something officially for war paints like cs:go has with their skins at this rate, but i forgive them because Gaben took a trip to Tromsø once on his yacht and saw the beauty of Northern Norway