Preset Help?

[Hanny2704]

I created a preset for a character, but I have found when I try to apply the preset, the body goes white and the wings I made for the character are only visible. I cannot export the character itself as a preset, so I am lost... How can I save my character without having to make the fur and all and only have to do the wings (which I have made)??

[Morgra]

If you are asking how to make a preset of just wings, from what I've seen I don't think that is possible. People have wondered if it's possible to just create a mane for the preset as well and that isn't doable much like a wings-only preset isn't. You will have to create the fur and the rest of the character on the preset as well. If you would like some instructions on how to get your preset's fur to look almost exactly as it does without the preset, that is possible and I can walk you through that. I have a few tricks and it involves using the masks of the game. But, you can also opt to create a unique design for your preset instead while you're at it.

[Hanny2704]

If you are asking how to make a preset of just wings, from what I've seen I don't think that is possible. People have wondered if it's possible to just create a mane for the preset as well and that isn't doable much like a wings-only preset isn't. You will have to create the fur and the rest of the character on the preset as well. If you would like some instructions on how to get your preset's fur to look almost exactly as it does without the preset, that is possible and I can walk you through that. I have a few tricks and it involves using the masks of the game. But, you can also opt to create a unique design for your preset instead while you're at it.

That would be very helpful! I have gotten pretty attached to the design I currently have for the character. ^^

[Morgra]

Okay, I will do my best to explain what I do to get characters to look the same as they do ingame on presets.
This took a long time to make but i'm hoping it provides thorough enough information to set you on the right track. I was planning on eventually making a tutorial like this anyway. With time I'll transfer it over to the Tutorials board.

I use Photoshop. If you use Gimp, you should be able to accomplish the same thing as I know Gimp works with masks as well. The process in doing this might be a little different however. I might be able to help you if you get stuck on how to do all of this in Gimp.

For easy navigation, the body and head masks are located in
C:\FeralHeart\media\textures\masks

The markings masks are in
C:\FeralHeart\media\textures\markings

Create a folder for organization
Create a folder where you can store all of the mask files that you need for your preset. Place it somewhere where you know it will be easy for you to access and open.
You will need to write down the colors of each of the body parts of your character and also what markings you used for each body part.

1) Write down the RGB values of each of each body part somewhere organized and easily accessible.

2) For the markings, you will need to go to the markings masks folder C:\FeralHeart\media\textures\markings and find the markings that you used on your character. Copy and paste all of the markings mask files that you will need into the folder that you created to store all of your mask files for this preset. Don't be discouraged if you don't find the right markings at first glance. This part might take a while as the markings might be difficult to find within this folder, especially if you have Legendary Markings.

3) Lastly, you will need to collect all of the masks out of the body and head texture masks folder C:\FeralHeart\media\textures\masks. This might be a bit overwhelming but looking at the files within that folder you should see what you need. On the canine character i'm creating to walk you through this, these are the files I collected within my folder. This is everything I was going to need to recreate my ingame character for a preset:

► cbodyShade (body fur texture) ► cheadMask1 (mouth, eyebrow and eye outline shade) ► cheadMask2 (head underfur mask) ► cheadMask3 (above eye mask) ► cheadMask4 (under eye mask) ► cheadMask5 (nose mask) ► cheadShade (head fur texture) ► ctailShade (tail fur texture) ► fbodyMask1 (paw texture) ► fbodyMask2 (body underfur mask) ► fmarkCheetahBody (body marking mask) ► fmarkCheetahHead (head marking mask) ► fmarkCheetahTail (tail marking mask) ► fmaneMask (mane mask) ► fmaneShade (mane texture) ► feyeMask1_0 (eye texture)

Keep in mind that this list is completely subjective. You may need different mask files than what I have. It depends on the species of your character (feline or canine), what markings are on your character, what body part colors are visible (such as above eye, under eye, tail tip) and what eye texture you used.  <- This is the character I will be recreating Colorful for a reason xD

In the end, this is what my masks folder I made looks like:

Begin to use these masks in the creation of your preset
In this step, I will show how to use the masks that you collected to create a duplicate of your ingame character on a preset. Like I said before, I will be doing this in Photoshop but to my knowledge this can be accomplished just as well if you use Gimp as Gimp has mask capabilities as well.

Above, I included all of the masks for the body, the head and the tail as a guideline for you but for the rest of the tutorial, I will instruct you using the body only as an example as the body, head and tail are all done the same way anyway.

Step 1: For my body preset Photoshop document, I will create a 512 x 512 document with the base color the same as the RGB Pelt color on my character ingame with the cbodyShade file ontop of the color with the blend mode Multiply so that the fur texture shows ontop of the color, much like it does ingame.


Step 2: This is the part where I add in the underfur mask into Photoshop. In the screenshots below, I am dragging and dropping the fbodyMask2 file from the masks folder we created before into Photoshop.
     
Now that the mask is in Photoshop as a new layer, we can then begin the magic of making it into the actual underfur.

Step 3: To begin, image editing softwares only work with black and white masks. As you can see above, the current mask for the FeralHeart underfur is orange and transparent. There is a way to turn this mask into something workable within Photoshop and Gimp. To do this, you will need to first create a pure white colored layer and place it underneath of the fbodyMask2 layer. After you are done, click on the fbodyMask2 layer so it is highlighted. The fbodyMask2 layer's transparent pixels will have to be locked. This is done in Photoshop by finding the "locks" in the layers panel as shown below:

If done succesfully, you should see a lock symbol on the fbodyMask2 layer.
Okay, so with that layer's transparent pixels locked, you can now color over the orange with black as shown below. You must completely cover the orange in pure black.
   

Once this is done, merge the black layer with the white layer below by right-clicking the black layer and then clicking Merge Down:


You should now have a single black and white layer.

Step 4:With this single black and white layer you will now need to form it into an actual mask, rather than a regular layer.

To do this, highlight the black and white mask layer in your layers panel. Then select the entire layer by using the hotkey Ctrl + A. Then with that layer completely selected, copy it as shown below


Now for a location to paste this copied layer to! You will need to paste it within a mask in order for it to work as a mask. Add a brand new layer to your document, keep it highlighted and find the button that says "Add layer mask" Click this button and you will see that a layer mask has been added to that layer.


Next, hold Alt and left click on the layer mask (the new white box that just showed up). This will let you view just the mask and allow you to paste the black and white layer mask into the mask's contents and not the actual layers. Paste what you copied from before into the selected mask. Now in place of the plain white mask, you will now have the black and white mask that we need. You will see why this is needed layer when we add in the color.


Alt + Click that mask area again to exit the "mask" and go back into editing the regular document.
Also, hide the visibility of the black and white layer that is outside of the mask, or simply delete that layer as it is no longer needed. You will see what I mean by that in the image below. The layer that is invisible doesn't have an eye icon next to it:


Okay, now we get to add the color for the underfur now that the mask is in place. Take the Paint Bucket Tool or a brush and fill in the entire layer (the layer that's next to the black and white mask) with the color of your character's underfur. It should turn out like this

And we're done!

Congrats, you now know how to use FeralHeart's default masks in image editing software to make a preset that looks identical to the ingame characters.

For the markings masks, you pretty much follow the same instructions as I provided above for the underfur. But, skip the first part of Step 3 since the markings are black and transparent, rather than orange and transparent you will not need to color the orange parts black. You will simply need to add a white layer underneath the black & transparent layer and Merge down as I had you do before in Step 3.

Do this for any and all masks that you need to use on the head, body and tail and you should be good to go. If you have any questions, let me know. This tutorial is lengthy but I wanted to be sure to explain it properly.