Moderate/Advanced Help. Model Alpha channel editing.

[Hyrist]

I'm running into a slight snag in some of my AF editing...

In an attempt to redo the Hume Female WHM AF (My fiance's af >.>;;) We decided to remake the "hood" aspect. But when editing the model itself I ran accorst a problem I couldnot seem to change. The Model's Alpha Channel in relation to the hood's location.

In short, I'll present a picture.


How can I edit the model's alpha channel in order to show more of the hair/face to accomidate for the hood's changes?

Thanks a bunch.

[Gulkeeva]

Unsure exactly what ya doin... trying to make a transparent area between the hood and the hair? O_o

For that kinda transparency to work (that I seen) is using multiple ???.dds files (think this is done in metasqoiya)

Not sure how to make .dats work properly combining multiple thigns in that program however.... or inserting them and ahving them look even halfway decent ;;

[Hyrist]

No, I am trying to REMOVE the transparent area between the hood an the hair. It already exhisted in the origonal .dat Tunic file and I want to learn how to change it so I can change the shape of the tunic without getting what I got on the picture shown above.

[Monet]

No idea, but Alpha Mapping is giving me a problem, also. I went to make a "cutout" area of a shield and it looked fine in Viewer. The back was transparent as was the front, giving it a see through appearance. Unfortunately, in game, only the bacvk stays transparent, while the front of the shield reverts back to normal color... makin me mad...

[Gulkeeva]

Ah I dunno about editing/changing area's... when I try it it seems to just make things all messedup looking ;;

hat program are you using to make a custom hood?

[Hyrist]

To be honest I am using the "Tunic" formation to recreate the WHM AF, in a means to attach the hood to the cloak, like in every FF title besides 11. SE only seperated them simply because all AF's have 5 armor peices to them. Gloves Boots Body Legs and Head. In my humble opinion, they could have just as easially made a Crown or a circlet they could have added to the outfit's headpeice and kept the origonal image, which is what I am trying to do.

Unfortunatly editing the hood itself is proving to be a problem. I might not be able to 'draw it back' like my fiance and I origonally intended, which will upset her quite a deal. However, I might still find a way around it. However before I devil too deeply, I wanted to ask more expirenced members.

[Stromgarde]

The Healer's Cap has a special attribute that removes polygons from the face model, such that only the ones visible from the perspective of the players can be seen. In order to achieve what you want to occur, you need to make the hood make contact in the same locations as would the actual hat. If you equip the cap in the model viewer and rotate around a bit you can see what I mean.

In short, it has nothing to do with alpha channel- I ran into the same issue while trying to remodel my Crimson Leggings only to find parts of my legs missing.

[Hyrist]

So there is no way to effect the actual removl section then? Rats.

Ok, I shouldent have too much of a problem then, it just means I have to alter my plans for an addional head peice, and my fiance will be pretty upset that I cant pull back the cap for her.

[Stromgarde]

Well, that's not entirely true. If you deform the body piece as shown in the first SS and replace the actual AF hat .DAT with like a hairpin or something, you might be able to make it work with extensive use of reskinning on the UV.

Double Post Edited:
Alright, after some more checking I think I've found a solution. Maybe. Could I get a picture of exactly what you want this to look like? You should know as well that your fiancee's ponytail may complicate things and necessitate the need for a hat type that removes it.

[Hyrist]

I cant give you an exact picture as there is none currently. The best thing I could possibly use as refrences is FFX-2 Yuna's WHM sphere outfit, with the hood pulled back a little. Most of the forhead and part of the front hair above the forhead exposed. And the Detailing on the hood somthing reminicent of FFT's WHM job class.

As long as the shape is down pat, I can work with the skins.

[Stromgarde]

Mmm... well, there really is no way to pull back the hood with currently known techniques. However I can remap the UV on the 'Cloak' model to bring the hat more in line with what the real AF's map is.

[Hyrist]

I think there is a slight missunderstanding.

The cloak and hood is a single peice right now I dont see much reason to change that. Granted the AF is a 5 peice set, I was thinking of replacing the .dat file for the 'cap' with somthing more along the lines of a silver circlet. This is why I wanted to draw back the hood enough to expose the circlet in the viewer.