1. Quake 3 Arena. duh. . . .  ( c'mon. . . you know if I didn't say that, the e-mails would be flying in! )

2. WinZip or PKZip is a must. I say this because you'll want to unzip your Quake 3 Arena pak0.pak file into a cool folder with whatever name you like. It should look something like this:

3. Some form of "paint" program is a must for viewing the actual skin ( .tga ) files. Although it is possible to use the game itself to view custom skins and models, I recommend Paint Shop Pro for many people simply because it works good and it's free for the downloading. I currently use Adobe Photoshop 4.1 and 3D StudioMax as well, but they cost an assload of money.

Next are the NON-essential, but FREE items you'll want.

1. Java MD3 1.2 is an excellent model viewer. It has great features and it's a fairly small download. So I strongly suggest running over to http://fragland.net/md3view and picking it up. Now this is a Java based application and installation SOUNDS alot more complicated than it is. This program makes mixing models a helluva lot easier. Here's a few shots of it in action:

as you can see it sure helps to have it.

PaintShop Pro and WinZip 7.0 are readily downloaded at many locations, my favorite is

http://www.winfiles.com . . . so go there and get em'.

And for you really broke dicks out there, although it would be a "technical" no no, you can download the Q3Arena Demo and work with the limited models in it. The EULA prohibits you from even expanding the pak0.pak file, but if it's in the privacy of your own home, without the intent to post or distribute, I'm sure id Software wouldn't care if you did this to hone your skillz until that RETAIL version shows up at the house :^)                                                                                                   Besides, there aren't enough models in the DEMO to really get the feel of the possibilities :^P

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS. . .  

     Well having said all that, and getting the required programs out of the way, I am going to go through the mixing model process acting like we have ONLY the game itself to use. This will make the whole tutorial easier by covering the absolute basics on this process. Are you ready?!?! Me neither, but lets do it anyway :^)

1. After unzipping our pak0.pak file into the directory/folder of our choice, go directly to your Quake3 Arena folder ( usually C:\Program Files\Quake III Arena\baseq3 ) and right click in it and go to new, then select folder and name it "models". Open the new folder and follow the same steps to create a folder named "players". All your finished models will go here. I know your thinking "Duh. . . if you don't know how to make a models directory. . . " but you would actually be suprised how many people don't know how to make models work. This is what your folder should look like:

Please take note all the files that are in this folder. You will need all of these files to make your model work. As strange as it may sound, even leaving out the small   64 x 64 pixel icon .TGA will make your whole model unable to be chosen from the Model Menu.  Pretty damn funny, aint it.

So, let's get browsing first for a cool looking combo. Lets say we're sick of ANARKI's hover board. So lets put him on some SKATES instead. The real cool thing about Q3Arena default models is the fact that EVERY model has a red and blue skin, making the whole mix em'/ match em' process pretty easy. So let's make a cool looking folder named Skarki ( skate - anarki ). This is where all files will end up for this model. To make this work, we will need to open up Slash's model folder and copy the lower.md3 and the slash_lower.skin as well as the Red.tga over to our new Skarki folder. Now before we move on, lets take care of the things that need to be done with these file first. First of all, the lower.md3 can remain unchanged. The file Red.tga needs to be re-named to Skarki_lower.tga. The last file will need a little more altering, but it MAINLY consists of "name changes" so dont worry. So, having said that, open up slash_lower.skin after re-naming it to Skarki_lower.skin. It's going to look like this:

tag_torso,

What needs to be done here is the /model/modelname.tga  need to be changed to reflect the folder it now resides in. It will now look like this:

l_skatel,models/players/slash/slashskate.TGA

tag_torso,

Easy enough. . . you have now created the lower half of your model. The animation file will have to be copied to the Skarki file because the way this model will move his legs is totally different than the way the original model does. The only drawback to this is that it will cause your new model to have the characteristics of the Slash model. . . No biggie. . .

Now let's get started on the top of our model. This process is almost too easy. Crack open the Anarki model and extract all the files we'll need . We'll need the upper.md3, head.md3, head_anarki.skin, upper_anarki.skin, red_h.tga / red.tga / red_g.tga, icon_red.tga. Once we have all these files in place, We start the whole renaming process again. The *.skin files will look like this :

Head:

tag_head,

Upper:

tag_head,

Now, remember what I said about that pesky little icon.tga?? Before we run off and fire up Quake3 to see how spiffy our model looks, you'll need to create this file. Now if you have all the fancy PhotoShop 5 and a nice modeling utility, it's as easy as taking a screenshot of your new model via the modeling utility and then opening it in PhotoShop, resizing it to 64 x 64 saving it as a .TGA and your set. Now, let's pretend we don't have any of those things. . . . lets fire up our plain old PaintShop Pro ( that cool free program mentioned above ) make a 64 x 64 .TGA with plain text on a plain background that simply says "Skarki". . . it'll look generic, but you'll now be able to select your cool new model from the model menu, the file might look something like this:

Pretty darn simple wasn't it?!?!? Oh yeah, your cool new model looks like this :

Wow. . . .  not bad for "re-arranging" a few files. Even better, everyone will marvel at your amazing modeling skillz. Paul Steed must PHEAR the MAD talent about to unleashed upon the hapless Q3A community. All B.S. aside, I have had few correspondences with Mr. Steed back in 97-98 when I was in the Quake's Sexiest Male contest on Siren's Pic Page. I won, and suprisingly enough the man with the SUPPOSED big ego even congratulated me. . . .  pretty damn cool if ya ask me. Wow, my brush with fame and greatness. Didn't seem to have an ego to me. Even took the time out of his day ( Quake 2 hadn't shipped yet ) to write a cool e-mail to me, a nobody.