Monster Jam Truck Making Tutorial

I've heard this from so many people... "Hey, can you make me a truck?" The answer is normally, "Figure out how to do it yourself." But there are no good tutorials out there to get the job done. This tutorial will give you all the skills you need to make a nice-looking Monster Jam style truck.

What You Need:
Binedit 2.2.8
Paint Shop Pro 7
FlyRawGui
Superman
King Krunch
TMNT
WinPod
WinRar(Download the first one)
Some time, patience, and trial and error.

Getting Started

Make sure Supermn2.pod, 04KNK.pod, and TMNT.pod are in your mtm2 directory. First, open up WinPod, click open, and browse to where you have Supermn2.pod.  Select it and open it. Click Extract, check "Extract All Files" and extract it to where you want to have all the files located to make a truck. It'll create the Art, Models, and Truck folders for you. Do the same thing with 04KNK.pod and TMNT.pod. Now open up Binedit. It'll ask to set the folders, set them to where you just extracted the 3 pods. This is mine, just as an example...

The rest of the options are pretty much up to you. Now, click open, and open up 04knk2.bin. Go up to view. Make sure Show Only 3D View is checked, if it's not, check it. This makes it easier to work with.

Deleting Faces, Changing Views, Etc.

Alright, now, just move around the view with the arrow keys, and use + and - on your keypad to zoom in and out. Now, we want this sexy 2004 Chevy Silverado body, but there's some other stuff in the way. First, click the button that looks like a wireframe box. It should look like this now.

Alright, zoom in, look around, whatever you need to do to get a good view of it. We need to delete everything except the body, here's how to do it. Press Space Bar to cycle through the faces until you come to something that ISN'T the body. If you missed a face, hold SHIFT and press space to go back one space. You can hold down space to cycle through the faces faster. Once you get to that face that isn't on the body, hold CONTROL and press DELETE. You can hold down delete to go faster deleting faces. Do that until you have deleted everything but the body. This is the result.

So there's our body (if you see little dots everywhere, go to Vertex>Delete All Unused to get them to go away). Pretty sweet eh? Now is the time to come up with a name 'cause you need to save this body. Go to File>Save As... and save it as _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.bin fill in the blanks. I saved mine as Tuttruck.bin. It CANNOT be longer than 8 letters before the .bin or else it will mess things up later on down the road. Also, don't tell it to center vertically. Now, we don't want this to stay King Krunch, we want to make something else. So now let's paint this body.

Painting The Body

This is probably the hardest part. Open up FlyRawGui. Click Convert .Raw to .Bmp and find 04knk1.raw. Click open and it'll be converted. Do the same with 04knk2.raw and 04knk3.raw. Now open up PSP 7, if it's your first time using it, it'll ask what files to associate with, it's all up to you, same with tips. Now open up those 3 files, 04knk1-3.BMP. Go to File>New and create a new 500 width, 300 height image. Find 04knk1.bmp and select the top side of the truck using the selection tool (6th from the top on the left column thing). Use Ctrl+C to copy it, go over to the new image, and press Ctrl+E then move it around towards the right side then click to place it. Press Ctrl+D to unselect it. Now do the same with 04knk2.bmp to get the rear fender onto the pic, be sure to line it up perfectly with the front end. It'll look like this.

If you messed up, press Ctrl+Z to undo it. Now, we need to make a base coat. See that little thing that says Layer Palette? Scroll over it and it pops up. Click that first button there and name the layer Base Coat, the rest doesn't matter. Keep that window open and click Layer 1. Now use the Magic Wand tool (The one that looks like a magic wand) and click anywhere. It should select the entire image (if not, look at tool options and make sure it's set tolerance to 200). Then click on just the truck part to select the truck. Go back to the layers box and click Base Coat. Now select the Flood Fill tool (looks like a pouring paint can) and go up to the top right-hand corner. There are two little boxes with colors, click the one on the left. Find the color you want to be your base, I like mine black for this, and click on the truck part, it should turn it the color you chose, then use Ctrl+D to unselect it, it'll look like this.

We're getting there. Now, I like flames, so we're gonna do some flames. Make a new layer and name it flames. Make sure that layer is selected. Go to the tool that looks like a drawing pencil. Go to tool options and set it to Freehand line and width to 1. Check antialias, don't check create as vector, and check close path. We want to do this in proportion to King Krunch, so go to the layer box and click the little sunglasses next to Base Coat so you can't see it anymore. Use the mouse wheel, or the zoom tool (magnifying glass) to zoom in and out. Go up and set your color, I chose red because it looks good on black. Make sure the second color is the same as the first color. The boxes below that color wheel thing, make sure both are the same color (click the arrow and set solid color if they're not) Now click and hold the mouse around to make flames (you can trace King Krunch's flames, but be original). To make points, go over the line you already drew a little bit then pull out. Go from the side (about where the top of KK's flames start) out, around, down, and just go to the side, the tool should close it for you. This is what mine looked like after I was done (to see it on the base color, go to the layer box and click the sunglasses with the x over them...).

Now it's looking like a truck! Let's put a name on it. Mine is Tutorial Truck, but yours can be whatever you named it. So create a new layer, and name it Text. I used a custom font I downloaded. Remember you can move around the layers to see where it's going. To go to the Text tool, click the one with the big A on it. Just click anywhere and the typing box shows up. Have Floating selected, colors can be whatever you want, and just type the text. Set the size to about 22 or so. Move it around to make it fit (on the KK part, make sure it's above the solid blue part where the wheelwell is or it'll get cut off). This is mine.

Looks like a truck even more now. Hell, just throw a window on and it'll be done enough for me. So create a new layer and name it window. Select layer 1, and find the freehand tool (looks like a lasso). Set tool properties to Point to Point, feather 0, and no antialias. Now click around the window multiple times until you select the window. Ctrl+C to copy it, go to window layer, and press Ctrl+Shift+L to paste it in there. Ctrl+D to unselect it. Here's what it should look like...

Alright, we're pretty much done there. We just need to get it onto those texture files. Go to layers>Merge>Visible. Select the first half of the truck and copy it. Go to 04knk1.bmp. Go to colors>increase color depth>16 million colors. Paste it back in the right place. Do the same with the back half and 04knk2.bmp. Now go back to the truck image and undo the selections and the merging until you have all 4 layers back. Unview the text, and merge visible again (you have to be on a different layer than text to merge visible). Now go to Image>Mirror. View the Text again. Use the magic wand tool to select all the text and move it to the back of the truck. Go over to 04knk1.bmp, select that weird white part, and flood fill it the base color of your truck. Go back, Merge visible, and split up the truck onto the different textures. This should be 04knk1.bmp.

Go to colors>Decrease color depth>256 colors. Now save that in the directory all the other art files are as _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 1.bmp for me, Tuttruc1.bmp. This should be 04knk2.bmp.

Use the flood fill tool, turn the tolerance way down, and pick the base color of your truck. Fill the outline of that windshield. Now use your knowledge of layers, text, etc to edit the bumper. This is what mine looks like when it's done...

Now decrease color depth and save as tuttruc2.bmp. Now open up 04knk3.bmp. You know how to paint now... paint it, decrease color depth, and save it. You'll probably want to flood fill the area around the grill the same color as your truck or flames, pending your preference... here's mine.

That's pretty much all there is to it, now it just all needs to be put together on the truck, easy enough. Go to FlyRawGui and convert bmp to raw on the 3 files you just made. Go back to binedit and have that body model open. Go to textures>replace. Click View All Textures, and find the 3 you just made. Replace 04knk1.bmp with tuttruc1.bmp and so on so forth. Save the body.

There you go! You just painted a truck! But it's missing something... everything.

Getting a Frame on there!

Open up Supermn2.bin. Mmm, good looking stuff. Well, delete the body and cape. Leave the frame, engine, fuel cell, radiator fan, and shocks. (Delete the sponsor panels if you want, I personally like it like that). Save it as tutframe.bin. Now, go to face>select all. Go to Groups>Face Groups. Type Frame and click Save. Go to Face>Deselect all. Cycle through the faces until you get to the shocks. Select the faces by pressing F once on them. Do that to the back shocks, and save a face group as back shocks... do the same with the front shocks.

Save it again. Now open up tuttruck.bin. Go to insert>model and insert tutframe.bin. It'll look a little off. Go to the face groups and load the frame one. Go to model>translate and move it on the Y axis using positive or negative numbers to recieve the desired height effect. Z is back and forth, and X is side to side. Make sure Selected Faces is checked when you're doing this. Use Model>Resize to change that stuff, not hard to figure it all out. Again, make sure selected faces is checked. Get your shock face groups and move the shocks around to desired positions. Here's mine...

There you go, you just made a truck! Press i and make sure that vertex number is UNDER 1600 to prevent lag. Save it as tuttruck.bin. But wait, it's not in game yet, and it has no wheels, axles, etc! Let's fix that.

Putting It Together, Podding, and Uploading.

CLOSE THE BODY!!! If you don't, when you pod it, it'll mess everything up. Go to tools>Truck Editor. Open Supermn2.trk. Double click names and stuff to change them, So set truck name to Tutorial Truck, or whatever you want it to be In-game. Model basename is tuttruck.bin, tire basename is TMNT, axle is axle3.bin, and the rest doesn't matter. Zoom in on the preview box and move the front and rear tires on the 3rd axis there to line up those gray things coming out of the axle with the shocks, this just makes it look more professional. Move the Axle bar on the 2nd axis around and blah blah there.

So there's an example for you. Save As... tuttruck.trk. Click pod truck... Click Pod, and name it tutorialtruck.pod. Pod it up in whatever pod program you use, and YOU JUST MADE A TRUCK!!! Wanna share it with the public, here's the rest you need to know...

Make sure WinRar is installed. Find the .pod file in your MTM2 directory. Right click and click "Add To Archive". Check .zip and click ok. You need a Readme to go along with it. So right click somewhere in the folder and go to New>Text Document. Rename it *your truck name*.txt. Open it up, write a little bit about the track then do
Credits... for this truck, it's the following:
Body - Slickster repainted by runt9 (or whatever your name is)
Axles - TRI
Everything Else - Slickster

And drag and drop it into the .zip file. Now to get it out to the public. Go to www.mtm2.com and go to trucks. Click upload, type the truck name, type in your name for maker, set the type to Custom, and find the zip. (Don't worry about a pic, it'll come later.) Click Upload! and you just got your first truck to the public! Also, go HERE to upload it to KC's MTM2 Place. Fill out the info and boom! you're done. Now you can explore more fun and advanced ways to make trucks, congrats!

If you have any questions or comments, contact me at runt9@runt9.com or runt9ab on AIM.