Truck Painting

This tutorial only covers repainting of existing truck models. To actually create a 3-dimensional truck model from scratch is a mind-boggling and time-consuming task. I am not crazy and patient enough to attempt that yet.

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I don't quite follow the various online tutorials for painting trucks... I found a better way. Here's my method described as simply as possible.

Trucks are painted using several programs. You need:

Paint Shop Pro (or the art program of your choice)
Traxx 1.4 found at the Monster Truck Madness Guild
WinPod found at the Monster Truck Madness Guild
MTM Bin Texture Replacer found at the Monster Truck Madness Guild
MTM File Searcher found at the Monster Truck Madness Guild

PREPARATION: You must use WinPod to extract the basic truck parts. (This only needs to be done once. It creates sub-folders in your MTM2 folder and separates out the various truck components for easy handling.)

When you run WinPod, click the Open button and then locate Truck2.pod. Select it and click the Extract button. When prompted, select Extract ALL files. Repeat this procedure with Startup.pod.

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STEP 1) Decide what truck model you want to repaint.

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STEP 2) Decide upon an ORIGINAL FILE NAME for your truck that is 7 characters or less. (Old DOS programs require 8-character names, but we will need to NUMBER some parts later on, so if you are making a truck called "Freak Show" then you might use "FREKSHO" for the file name. This allows you to have "FREKSHO1" and "FREKSHO2" and stay within the 8-character name limit.)

From here on I will use FREKSHO as my example

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STEP 3) Open your TRUCK folder and locate the ".TRK" file for the truck you are repainting. COPY it (into the TRUCK folder) and then RENAME it "FREKSHO.TRK"

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STEP 4) Open FREKSHO.TRK in Notepad for editing.

Change the line under "MTM2 truckName" to "Freak Show". (This line is how your truck name will appear in the game. Try not to make it too long or it won't fit on the menus.)

Change the line under "truckModelBaseName" to "freksho"

Change the line under "tireModelBaseName" if you want different wheels. The codes for the stock wheels are as follows:

        bfc = chrome center with silver rim (i.e. Hollywood Hogan)
        sil = dark grey center with silver rim (i.e. Black Stallion)
        red = red center with white rim (i.e. Bear Foot)
        wht = black center with white rim (i.e. Boogey Van)
        grn = dark green center with green rim (i.e. Monster Patrol)
        yel = red center with yellow rim (i.e. Carolina Crusher)

Save FREKSHO.TRK

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STEP 5) Open the MODELS folder. Locate the 3 ".BIN" files associated with the truck you are changing. (i.e. HOGAN.BIN, HOGAN0.BIN, and HOGAN1.BIN) COPY these 3 files (to the MODELS folder) and RENAME them, substituting FREKSHO where appropriate. You will end up with FREKSHO.BIN, FREKSHO0.BIN, and FREKSHO1.BIN.

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STEP 6) Start MTM File Searcher. Locate FREKSHO.TRK in your TRUCK folder, and double-click it to select. Type "freksho" in the blue box in the lower-left corner. Click the big SEARCH button. When it is finished, click CLOSE. (You have just created a "list" in the LIST folder that will tell WinPod how to assemble your parts later on. This is the last time you will need to use the MTM File Searcher for this truck unless you decide to change the file name, wheel type, or truck name.)

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STEP 7) Start Traxx. Make sure that it is looking in your MTM2/ART folder to find artwork. (Click VIEW/OPTIONS/FOLDERS tab to change the default art folder location.) Click VIEW/TEXTURES. Click the LOAD button, and scroll until you find the 2 pictures that make up the truck you are repainting. Double-click the 2 pictures on the right to load them on the left. Now one at a time, you can RIGHT-click them to COPY them and then PASTE them into your art program.

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STEP 8) Paint your truck! The 2 pictures you have pasted into your art program are only 256 colors. It is easiest to increase the color depth to 16 gazillion colors and work on it. When you are done, you MUST reduce it to 256 colors again. I can't help you here, because I don't know what art program you're using.

Hint: Truck models tend to be pretty flat in actuality. The suggestion of subtle curves is often attained by the paint job, with the upper surfaces painted lighter shades and lower surfaces painted darker shades to suggest light coming from above. If you paint the whole truck one solid color, then it will look flat and cartoon-like. Look at the stock truck artwork closely and you'll see what I mean.

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STEP 9) One at a time, COPY your art (which should now be 256 pixels x 256 pixels x 256 colors) and PASTE it into your Traxx textures. Name them FREKSHO1 and FREKSHO2. (This will create 4 files in your MTM2/ART folder called FREKSHO1.ART, FREKSHO1.RAW, FREKSHO2.ART, and FREKSHO2.RAW.)

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STEP 10) Open the MTM Texture Replacer.

- Double-click the MODELS folder
- Locate your 3 .BIN files. Double-click FREKSHO.BIN
- Click SEARCH
- In the blue "Replace With" box, type "FREKSHO1.RAW"
- Click "UPDATE", then click "NEXT"
- In the blue "Replace With" box, type "FREKSHO2.RAW"
- Click "UPDATE" then click "NEXT" 7 more times.

Repeat this procedure for FREKSHO0.BIN and FREKSHO1.BIN

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STEP 11) Open WinPod

- Click OPEN
- In the lower-right corner, choose to open a Response File (.lst) instead of a .pod file.
- In the left pane, double-click the LIST folder to select it.
- In the right pane, find FREKSHO.LST and double-click it.
- Click MAKE
- In the green box under the right pane, type "FREKSHO.POD"
- Click the MAKE button.

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STEP 12) Your POD file awaits in the LIST folder! (There is also a "lst" file there of the same name.) COPY FREKSHO.POD from the LIST folder and PASTE it into your MTM2 folder.

YOU'RE FINISHED! POD your truck and test it!

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TROUBLESHOOTING

Make sure the various utility programs are looking in the same places for the ART, MODELS, and other folders.

If you have to touch up your artwork, you must DELETE the 4 old files from the ART folder (FREKSHO1.ART, FREKSHO1.RAW, FREKSHO2.ART, and FREKSHO2.RAW) Traxx will not let you overwrite them when it comes time to paste the updated textures. You must also CUT the old FREKSHO1 and FREKSHO2 textures from your Traxx texture list if you haven't closed Traxx. When your art is touched up, start again at step 10.

If you get no picture at the driver check-in screen, the most likely problem is that your file name is already in use or reserved. Go back to the very beginning and change every instance of FREKSHO to FRKSHOW or FREAKSH and try again. You will have to go through all the steps from the start including the MTM File Searcher.

Check your truck on various tracks... the lighting is different in each one, and sometimes it'll look pretty cruddy on one when it look great elsewhere.