D3Dmesh editing using Blender Tutorial (WIP)
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create your own character for Telltale Games using Blender.
DISCLAIMER: You may use different 3D software, such as Autodesk Maya, Cinema 4D, etc., but I recommend using Blender 5.0+ because it is free and very useful for modding other games.
Table of Contents
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Finding Your Desired Character Models on the Internet
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Choosing Your Favorite Telltale Character for Editing
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Setting Up
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Weight Painting
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Testing In-Game
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Issues & Error Solutions
Want to find your favorite character model from a movie, TV show, or video game on the internet? Go for it! For example, let's say I wanted to replace Luke's model from The Walking Dead: Season Two with Richter's model from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. To do this, I would visit the Models Resource website and download the Richter model.
After downloading the ZIP file, I will extract it. Next, I will extract Luke's model from The Walking Dead: Season Two using Telltale D3DMesh Editor.
I wanted to get the Luke model exported from the game. How do I do that? It's simple! Open Telltale D3DMesh Editor, which was created by Heitor. You can download the latest version of the tool from this link! There are two options for finding a d3dmesh. On the left side, "Open Folder..." allows you to open a folder that contains d3dmesh, d3dtx, and skl files. You can select the folder where the model is located, and the model will appear in the viewer on the right side. You need to extract the ttarch files (...txmesh.ttarch) and (...data.ttarch) from the game into your created folder. OR You can open the archive by clicking "Open Archive...". This lets you extract the ttarch files and load them immediately. (However, it can take about 5–10 minutes to extract them.) What am I doing? I want to open an archive!
I’m going to open these two ttarch files: WalkingDead_pc_WalkingDead201_data and WalkingDead_pc_WalkingDead201_txmesh. But how do we know that they contain d3dmeshes and d3dtx files? Well, this is something you need to understand when working with ttarch files: "_txmesh" is the archive that stores textures (d3dtx) and models (d3dmeshes), and "_data" is the archive that stores prop files, landb files, lua files, and skeleton bones (skl). But we’re only looking for skeleton bones (skl), right? Now select these two files and open them.
After it extracts the models inside the editor tool, every model from the game will be displayed. There are so many models that you can see what they look like! Now I want to find Luke's model. Go to the Search Files bar on the left side and search for "luke".
And... there it is! You may notice that Luke's models are separated and that there are different versions of them. It's because the models change during events in the game. So, I want to export it as a GLTF file. Select "Extract Selected..." from the top bar.
OR if you wish to combine all the model parts, you can! Click "Combine Parts" on the bottom bar. It will automatically combine the character/object model parts into a single model.
And look! Luke’s model already has the torso part back! I want to extract this combined model.
I will create my own folder where I want to store the extracted models. I named it "luke" and clicked it, then selected "Select Folder". It will convert the model/combined model you selected into a GLTF file.
There! Now you have a model and armature as a GLTF file, ready to be opened in Blender or any other 3D software!
Now, we have Richter's model and Luke's model is ready to open them up in a blender. First import both the models
Note: the settings from the left side doesn't matter, you don't have to worry about it.
Now you noticed that Richter’s model is smaller. So we need to scale him up.
Before doing that, If the custom model (Richter’s Model) has armature and bones then this is good because you can rename their skeleton bones with the skeleton bones from telltale games that are able to read skeletons. First I want to select any model part. If named bones appear in their vertex groups then we don't have to use a weight painting tool! But if your model doesn't have bones appearing in their vertex groups, you're going to have to use weight painting unfortunately.
Now I want to delete Richter’s armature since he already has named bones ready to go.
Richter’s armature is deleted, but their model base ending up changes scale as bigger, So we’re going to have to rescale to make sure he is the right scale as the original telltale character scale.
After you rescaled the Richter’s model. He looks as good as the original telltale character scale. Before we parent them to armature, first you must apply all transforms to every richter’s model parts. Why? Because this is important you have to. If you don’t apply all transforms, the d3dmesh tool would likely automatically convert Richter’s model to an incorrect scale (Smaller or bigger) as edited d3dmesh and ending up glitched. So please always apply all transforms of your model parts every time after you rescaled.
Once you applied all transforms. Now it's ready to parent between Luke’s armature and Richter’s models. First Select the Luke’s armature, then hold Ctrl and select Richter’s model parts. Press Ctrl + P and Click Armature Deform with empty groups
Your model is now parented with Luke’s armature, it should be like this. (you can may hide Luke’s combine model)
After model & armature got parented, we are doing the last part before exporting as gltf. The last part is we’re going to rename every bone Richter has. Moving on Weight painting!
Now we’re going to weight painting mode, first select any model parts, and then go the weight paint mode
When you’re entering weight paint mode, but there is something you may notice on the right side, You see their vertex groups have surprising telltale skeleton bones names that appear along with Richter’s Original bones? This is because you parent Luke’s armature with Richter models, so the telltale skeleton bones from Luke's armature will be copied and transferred to every Richter model parts!
Now it's time to rename original bones! I will try to select the “Head” from Richter Original bones in vertex groups and you see Head was already weight painted. Now i want to rename it as the telltale bone name, thel telltale bone name is “head”. So rename From “Head” to “head”.
After this is renamed, let's pose the head to see if it works.
It worked! Now… i want you to try rename every Richter’s original bones name to telltale bones name.
NOTE: when renamed one of his bones, “Head” to “head”, but it’s written as “head.001” instead. Why is that happening? That's because the original telltale bone name “head” has already appeared in their vertex groups. So we need to remove the original telltale bone.
Once it's removed, you can rename from “head.001” to “head” again. So it will work. (Please always check your character model’s vertex groups, and make sure that isn’t “.001”, otherwise the tool would confuse where to find the original telltale bones.)
Now, I've renamed every one of their bones. He is now ready to be exported as d3dmesh! Select the Luke's armature and Richter’s model parts and export it as a gltf file.
Before exporting the model, please tick this “Selected Objects” because you are supposed to select only the armature and model parts you want to export as.
Your model has been exported as gltf, Let’s head back to the D3Dmesh editor.
Go open the folder where did you extracted the ttarches before (i have extracted Walking Dead Season Two txmesh & data), find the Luke again. First Click the luke’s model, and then Click the “Reimport selected”.
Import the gltf where you exported before.
Create the folder where you want to save it as edited d3dmesh, I’m going to name it “Richter Replaces Luke” and click the “Select Folder”.
Now the new d3dmesh has created the same name as Telltale's model (sk54_luke_body). It also automatically created your textures as D3Dtxs!
Now, copy these files into your telltale games’s archives folder (Archieves or Pack)
And…. Here's the result!
If you having issues or error with D3Dmesh editor, Don't worry! I'm here to help you what's the problem with it!
If you tried reimport your edited model gtlf and got error message like this, It's look like you haven't painted weights some missing parts on model
So How to find the problem in model? To do this solution, Go back your blender file and move your armature to further (do Pervis or spine1) if you spot some parts aren't painted, fix it!
For example: Uh oh! It look like my model apron part haven't have painted weights! (This is how i got my first issue). Let's paint this model to your chosen bones.
Hope this should solve your issue!
If your model look like inside out like this, that's because its inverted/flipped normal of your model by mistake.
To do this solution, return to your blender work. Its seem you model looks fine in 3D viewer but there something missing you must turn on always...
Go to Viewport mode and Tick the "Backface Culling" box.
You see how this model is flipped normal just like in-game? It's really important to turn on backface culling in viewport if you're modding the games before export back to gltf.
Go to Edit Mode (TAB) and Select all models and Press Shift + N to recalculate the normal of models. If some part is still inside out, Tick the "Inside" box
Now your model looking good! but we still not yet.
Some of faces are not normal recalculated properly, please select these faces and then do Shift + N again (and Tick the "Inside" box if its still inside out)
Now you recalculated normal everything in model, Let's export it back to gltf and do editor normally!
The model is fixed!
When i was making Medic (From Team Fortress 2) model replaces carlos in TWD S2, but there something i have noticed is that character's model is A-pose
to do this solution, before parent the armature, repose Carlos's armature as a-pose match as character model, then parent model and Carlos's armature as normally, I'm going to renaming 3 bones (shoulder, arm and elbow) as telltale bones names as testing. (note: look how character's arm is changed after renamed bones, we're going to fix that)
After renamed bones, Go to Pose mode, on the tab, go to Pose -> Apply -> Click the "Apply Pose as Rest Pose"
There! Its rested character's model arm to original position! Now you can do same thing to other arm.
