PowerPuff Girls addon

'blossom' PPM for Half-Life
'buttercup' PPM for Half-Life
'bubbles' PPM for Half-Life

I have a dream where I go back in time and stop myself from doing this project.

O, sure every loves the Powerpuff Girls, they're adorable, they're always are polite, they always play nicely, they always ... shoot you with the egon?!?!? O, Ms. Bellum, what am I to do?

As I learned more and more about making a plug-in player model (or ppm, as Scarecrow puts it), I found that time is the only limiting factor.

So, here's what I learned on this project. If any of this helps even *one* person, my work here is done.

msg me (inmancom@vnet.net) if you've got any good feedback, comments, statements of love for your favorite powerpuff, a visa number from your mom's pocket book that looks like it'll work, etc....

things I learnt about modeling half-life ppms
--------------------------------------------------------
by djmarko
mark s. inman

1) Gotta be attached, not linked. Gotta be physiqued. Can't do the individual primitive thing. I've got some dope models made of primitives that I had to attach. This my first painful lesson.

2) Gotta be indexed colors. "Save a copy " your image in photoshop as a 24 bit bmp. then open it up and change the mode into indexed color. Save it and you're good to go. Ok, you knew this one.

3) When bipedding your reference frame character, just go with a new biped, don't use valve's

4 spine links
2 fingers (thumb, fingers)
3 finger links
1 toe
3 toe links
gordon was 73.104 tall

OR

Open one of the source .max files, save it under a different name, throw away the mesh and go with that bip.

3.5) Make sure to test your model in Half-Life under the dev mode - the half-life model viewer ( available at Swissquake.ch ) is A LOT more forgiving than the program and will not uncover defects in the model and physiquing.

4) Your material has got to be in a multi-subobject or else it won't get compiled onto your character.

How ill is that? The developer tools will nag you for a file called 'null.bmp.'

So, in Max, just take your material and change it into a MSO material, with the number of materials set at 1.

5) When model building, go ahead and make new anatomy bits from primatives ( I tried to clone Bubbles' ponytails from her arms. Failed to physique. They worked just fine one I made them out of capsules).

6) If you customize the biped in your reference frame model, you'll have to save off a .fig file and apply it to EVERY biped that makes up the 140+ shared animation .smd set.

In a word - ugh.

7) If you flow your model into HL and none of the leg animations show up ... that means that you're using a bum biped. Toss the Physique that you're using, 86 the biped, then merge your model into the files that has agood biped (see note above) rename it and Physique it from there ...

to install:

unzip the zipfile into the path: Sierra/half-life/valve/models/player
it will automatically createa folder called 'ppgs' with sub folders called 'Bubbles' 'Buttercup' and 'Blossom '
make sure that you place each model's folder into the 'player' folder by hand.
you won't be able to use the models if you keep them in the original 'ppgs' folder!
whew! glad that's over! I'd hate to send Buttercup over - she hates drilling down thru folders ....

skins: 1x255x255x255colour bmp.
Chrome: no
Team colors: yes (hair on Bubbles and Blossom, dress on Buttercup)
Triangles: under 525 each
Animations: Every animation is derived from a valve loop, very heavily tweaked

Thanks to:
Craig McCracken - for being the man
Scarecrow for the constructive criticism.
My buddy Katina, aka My Pretty Pony, for having my back during the nightly 'dethmatches'

dj cam, dj vadim, the go soundtrack, de la soul, everyone at mo wax and ninjatune for the background noise =)

Also, don't forget to dl my Batman Beyond PPM, available prolly everywhere by now, but at the veryleast, at CF ----

COLD FUSION --- THE HARDEST HL SITE ON THE NET, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYY!

Please feel free to e-maul me with questions, advice, complaints etc ... offers of $$$, invitations to go out on a date with your cute, frisky sister, y'know, the usual

djmarko

is

inmancom@vnet.net

Like my friend Scarecrow says
'Please note - I don't have time to make clan models or to commit myself to a mod or TC unless you are offering large sums of cash =)'