Creating Custom Villagers for SFM (Animal Crossing: New Horizons)

This guide is intended on providing as much info as needed to help you create a custom AC:NH human villager using assets from several addons.

A Brief Introduction

So you want to create a custom villager that isn't a preset? Well this is the guide for you!

This guide contains information on several models, their materials, and their important properties needed for customization. Brief instructions on material overrides and model attachment is also included. Some tips, when necessary, are included, too.

This guide will also likely be updated occasionally, so please share some of your tips you've found helpful so others can use them too!

Important Addons

Human Pack: The base addon with preset villagers and assets/models exclusively used by humans.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2347078991
Complete Clothes Material Pack: Contains ALL clothes textures for tops, bottoms, and socks.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2318359205
Hat and Glasses Pack: Contains almost all hat and accessory models.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2336156520
The AC:NH data spreadsheet: Extremely useful for finding clothes textures and accessory names.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13d_LAJPlxMa_DubPTuirkIV4DERBMXbrWQsmSh8ReK4/edit#gid=1226103356

Raw clothing texture download: Useful for finding clothing textures. Just replace (dot) with . for the link to work.

https://mega (dot) nz/file/VZ5WyApY#417TpxD6wa3GMVTy4CX-MPfYowX3caAKYRpFwQYDzxw

Material Override and Attachment

Several models heavily rely on material overrides for customization, mainly painting and texture replacement.

To begin a material override, right click any model and select "Add Material Override", then right click the model again and open the model in element viewer by selecting "Show in Element Viewer > Model". Afterwards find the "materials" tab and expand it to find a list of all materials used by the model, such as mTops_D, mSkin_D, and mHair_D.

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Painting

Several materials allow for painting, such as skin and hair. To start a color override, add a color attribute by right clicking on the material and select "Add Attribute > color". Then for the attribute name, set it to "$color2". If done correctly, the material should now be black, since black is the default color. Now all you simply need to do is click on the color to the right of the attribute and change it to what you want.

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Texture Overrides

Clothes models use texture overrides to replace their base texture and bump maps to match certain clothes. The process is similar to painting, begin by adding a string attribute by right clicking on the material and select "Add Attribute > string". Then enter an attribute name, this varies depending on what you want to replace. In this guide, the only attributes we'll be using are "$basetexture" and "$bumpmap"

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Model Attachment

Attaching a model onto another works the same way as standard TF2 cosmetics. Begin by left clicking and dragging the base model onto the model you want attached in the animation set editor. The model you dragged it over should now have some locked bones. Note that not all of the bones have been locked, this is important. Select ONLY the locked bones of the model and simply drag the preset slider "Zero" all the way to the right. The attached model should now be in the correct position and now all you need to do is disallow the model from being selected by graying out the arrow icon next to the model.

The Base Model

There are several important parts that can be customized within the base model. There is a completely blank body without eyes or a mouth but you can also use any of the existing presets as a base. For the presets you may want to disable some parts, like clothes and hair, to replace them with something different.

All presets, including the base model, are located in catcraze777\animal_crossing\humans_acnh\presets.

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Bodygroups

The base model has several bodygroups for customization.

Noses

There are three noses that can be selected, as well as no nose to prevent clipping with some accessories. The following image shows the noses in order, with mNose being the left and mNose2 being the right.

Cheeks

There are only two cheek patterns used, one more sharp with the other more blurred. You can also disable the cheeks.

Ears

Some hats and hair clip with the ears, so you can individually disable each ear when necessary.

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Materials

There are several materials used by the base model that can be customized, below is a list of them and how to change them with material overrides.

• mSkin_D: The skin of the model. Use $color2 to change the skin color to what you'd like.
  
• mCheek_D: The cheeks of the model. Use $color2 to change the color of the blush.
  
• mSocks_D: The normally invisible mesh where sock textures go. Use $basetexture and $bumpmap for changing the socks. (See Clothes Textures)
  
• mPaint_D: A normally invisible mesh for face paint. Meant for advanced users with an understanding of convertion to VTF files and material overriding. Usage of this material is not covered in this guide.

Skin Colors

A list of RGB values for skin color are below and listed in reading order of the color sample image.

1. 248 192 154
   
2. 245 181 136
3. 238 174 128
   
4. 215 147 98
   
5. 195 136 80
   
6. 161 108 57
   
7. 131 85 43
   
8. 97 59 39
   
9. 225 228 228
   
10. 131 158 108
    
11. 97 154 193
    
12. 131 117 224

Eyes and Mouths

Eyes and mouth models, located in catcraze777\animal_crossing\humans_acnh\eyes and catcraze777\animal_crossing\humans_acnh\mouths, are attached to the base model. The models have bodygroups for changing to any possible expression. Eyes also have a paintable layer for changing eye color.

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Eyes

There are a total of 26 different eye models that are named by number. Below is each eye model listed in reading order.

Eye Colors

Below is a list of eye RGB colors listed in reading order. To change eye color, use material overrides to paint the "mEye_DP" material.

1. 52 52 52
   
2. 81 59 39
3. 39 93 97
   
4. 76 89 65
   
5. 39 65 117
   
6. 81 81 89
   
7. 190 59 93
   
8. 150 85 52
   
9. 214 136 52
   
10. 164 97 195
    
11. 117 117 133
    
12. 65 123 108

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Mouths

There are only 4 different mouth models that are named by number. Below is each mouth model listed in reading order.

Hair

Hair models are stored in catcraze777\animal_crossing\humans_acnh\hair and include the basic hair models, hair models used with hats, and all hats/wigs that use hair for coloring. The hair models are a bit interesting to deal with largely due to hats. Hair is also painted using material overrides.

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Models

There are a total of 36 unique hair models. Below is a list of the models in reading order.

Using Hair Models with Hats

There are several ways you can change the hair models in order to wear hats. If you plan on putting a hat on the villager, follow the list for tips on how to choose/change the hair models.

1. Is there a specific hair model? Some hair models do have a separate model used for hair. For example, if you wanted to use hair09, look to see if haircap09 is an existing model and use it instead.
   
2. Are there parts of the hair model clipping through the hat that are attached to bones? Some hair models have bones you can use to move parts of the hair, such as ponytails. You can scale these bones down or move them inside the head to prevent model clipping.
   
3. Can only the skin blending part of the model be seen normally? Some hair models use a second material to blend with the skin color, such as shaven parts of hair. If you only see these parts of the hair model, you can make the other part of the hair model invisible using an alternate skin in the hair model.
   
4. Does shrinking the hair model help with clipping? A last ditch effort would be shrinking the hair model slightly. Might not be useful for all hats but can be helpful in some cases, such as the cat cap.

If none of these tips helped, you may need to change the position of the hat or change hairstyles unfortunately.

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Materials

All hair models will contain a "mHair_D" and/or a "mHairSkin_D" material. These can be painted to the desired hair color you'd like. Normal hair models also have a "mTransparent_D" alternate material useful for using hats that can be changed to using skins. Other wigs/hats with hair may also contain additional materials for non-hair parts and may have skins to switch color variants.

Colors

The following is a list of hair RGB colors listed in reading order from the sample image.

1. 45 45 45
   
2. 59 43 39
3. 82 46 46
   
4. 125 59 39
   
5. 164 123 55
   
6. 154 152 95
   
7. 97 97 97
   
8. 153 153 140
   
9. 43 97 154
   
10. 109 137 145
    
11. 39 103 56
    
12. 63 148 133
    
13. 167 58 58
    
14. 185 97 59
    
15. 162 112 156
    
16. 202 119 133

Clothes Models

Clothes models, located in catcraze777\animal_crossing\humans_acnh\clothes, are some of the most complicated models apart of human pack, with 17 unique types of tops (not including models for separate sleeve lengths) and 7 bottoms. Each clothes model contains two variants that can be switched between using bodygroups: A simple model that moves with the base body bones and a complex model that uses the physics bones for cloth movement. By default, the simple model is used and the physics bones aren't used. When attaching a clothes model to a body, make sure you don't zero the physics bones if you intend to use the complex model!

Tops also have a letter at the end that determines sleeve length. The three variations are:

• N - No Sleeves
  
• H - Short Sleeves
  
• L - Long Sleeves

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Tops

There are a total of 17 unique clothes models with variants depending on sleeve length. Below is a list of them in reading order with the reference picture.

1. Aline
2. Along
   
3. Balloon
   
4. Blong
   
5. Box
   
6. Coat
   
7. Dress
   
8. Kimono/Robe
   
9. Marinesuitnormal
   
10. Outer
    
11. Overall
    
12. Puff
    
13. Rib
    
14. Salopette
    
15. Tshirts
    
16. Yshirts

In case you need help with determining the clothes model a clothes item uses, here are some tips:

• Aline/Along and Box/Blong: The bottoms of Aline and Along flare outward while the bottoms of Box and Blong continue straight down.
  
• Box and Coat: Box is a onepiece dress (CAN'T wear pants) while coat is a top (CAN wear pants).
  
• Outer and Rib: Rib is longer than Outer and you can wear pants with Outer.
  
• Overall and Marinesuitnormal: Marinesuitnormal is exclusively used with wet suits and not any other texture type.
  
• Overall and Salopette: The bottoms of Salopette are wide while the bottoms of overall are skinny.
  
• Tshirts and Yshirts: There isn't really a good way to differentiate the two, but yshirts tend to be used for more fancy clothes, like suits and dress shirts, and tshirts tend to be used for more casual clothes, like tshirts and tank tops.
  
• Kimono and Robe: These seem to be identical models, but kimono is mainly used for, you guessed it, kimonos.

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Bottoms

There are only 7 models for bottoms. Below is a list of them all in reading order with the reference picture.

1. Pantshalf
   
2. Pantshot
   
3. Pantsnormal
   
4. Pantswide
   
5. Skirtaline
   
6. Skirtbox
   
7. Skirtlong

Clothes Textures (Tops, Bottoms, and Socks)

Finding clothes textures is easily the most difficult part of creating a custom villager. Due to the large amount of textures and the strange file names, you'll likely want to either use the AC:NH data spreadsheet or download the raw PNGs of the textures to help out with finding the clothes you want. The spreadsheet is easily the best way to find them since you can search for the ingame clothes names and find the filenames used by the clothes textures in the source engine to quickly locate materials. The raw images can also be used to not only quickly view textures in the file explorer but also search within the textures. The raw texture names are identical to the texture names used by Complete Clothes Material Pack.

AC:NH Data Spreadsheet

The AC:NH data spreadsheet is extremely useful for not only finding clothes textures but also any accessories, hats, shoes, and other things you may want for villager customization. Using ctrl-F you can search through the cloths by the in-game name and scroll to the right to find the filename, which is used in the naming format for the textures of the source engine versions.
EX: Blossom Tee (Pink) > TopsTexTopTshirtsHFlower0 > tops\flower0_tshirtsH_D
A link to it can be found here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13d_LAJPlxMa_DubPTuirkIV4DERBMXbrWQsmSh8ReK4/edit#gid=1226103356

Raw Clothes Textures Download Link

Just replace (dot) with . for the link to work.

https://mega (dot) nz/file/VZ5WyApY#417TpxD6wa3GMVTy4CX-MPfYowX3caAKYRpFwQYDzxw

Some Tips for Finding Textures

• Use the AC:NH data spreadsheet to find clothes quickly, if you can't use it then resort to the next tips with the raw textures.
  
• Determine the clothes model first then search through the raw files for textures using the same model to find your desired clothes. Ex: A jacket uses Outer L, so I'd search for textures with "outerl" in the name to find my desired jacket.
  
• Search by a word to find textures with it. Sometimes effective with simple clothes, such as suit and star.
  
• Visibly scan through the files using file explorer image previews.

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Format and Path Names

Clothes models have a "mTops_D" material that can be overridden using the string parameters "$basetexture" and "$bumpmap". Socks should override the "mSocks_D" material on the base model using the same parameters.

Clothes textures for tops, bottoms, and socks have the following base material paths.

• Tops: models\catcraze777\animal_crossing\clothes_textures_acnh\tops
  
• Bottoms: models\catcraze777\animal_crossing\clothes_textures_acnh\bottoms
  
• Socks: models\catcraze777\animal_crossing\clothes_textures_acnh\socks

After the base material paths, the textures are named in a certain way. The normal (bump) map is named similar to the base texture, but doesn't use a number for variants.

$basetexture: nameVar_model_D
$bumpmap: name_model_N

• Name: The raw filename of the texture.
  
• Var: The color variant of the texture. 0 is the first variant.
  
• Model: The clothes model used by the texture. Includes sleeve length.

Socks use almost the same naming format but lack the model portion of the name. (nameVar_D)

Underwear

For quick reference, the textures and models used by the player when not wearing pants and/or a top are the following:

• Top (TshirtsN): Under0_TshirtsN_D
  
• Bottom (PantsHot): Under0_Hot_D

Below is an example of a complete material override for a tops model that changes the textures to a suit:

Hats, Shoes, Bags, and Accessories

All hats, shoes, bags and accessories are located in the following locations:

• catcraze777\animal_crossing\humans_acnh\hat
  
• catcraze777\animal_crossing\humans_acnh\shoes
  
• catcraze777\animal_crossing\humans_acnh\bags
  
• catcraze777\animal_crossing\humans_acnh\accessories

All of these clothing items are attached to the model and should automatically line up with the base model. Hats and accessories may need to be slightly adjusted afterwards to prevent clipping and other minor issues. If one of these clothes items has color variants, you can change them using skins.

For hats, see "Hair > Models" of this guide for determining how to choose/change the hair for the base model.

[Kris360]

how do I connect the hair to the head?

[LunaVTF.bsp]

you alerted the donkey horde

[CheeringAtom]

I don't know whether I've been searching things wrong, but I can't find the model for the Outback hat or for the Stellar Jumpsuit? Have you added both these things to your packs or am I just going on a wild goose chase?

[IvanPetrvs]

It worked! thank you so much!

[IvanPetrvs]

ok, i will try it

[catcraze777]

wait i think i see it, the path you pasted in to me has a typo in it, it should be "clothes_textureS_acnh" you have "clothes_texture_acnh" without the s in textures

[IvanPetrvs]

the complete clothes material pack? yes i subscribed to it

[catcraze777]

hmm do you have the full material pack installed? clothes textures are not apart of the base human pack due to their size

[IvanPetrvs]

override materials is also on

[IvanPetrvs]

the missing texture does appear