Hello again... this is Brian Cummings, Technical Artist at UWE. This post is to bring up a few things that I am working on to help those interested in getting custom models and animations into their mods for Natural Selection 2.

Last year I made a blog post that had four video tutorial guides explaining how to export your own custom models for the Spark engine. I explained how to use Launchpad and the Viewer, how to setup and use Builder, how to export models from 3Ds Max 2009, and how to build your own .model_compile and .material files.

Since then, we've added some new features to Launchpad for publishing mods to the Steam Workshop. And also the format of the .material file is quite different now. I've added an annotation to the tutorial video to show this new format.

Soon I will be continuing my video tutorial series to include the process we use to get custom animations into the game. This will include exporting custom animations from 3Ds Max 2009, a guide to adding animations to the .model_compile file, and a guide to using the animation graph system.

Next I want to direct you to a couple of threads that I have started in the modding forums. The first one links you to a very useful download which includes skinned models, the export skeleton, the animation rig, the complete .model_compile files, and many of the animations for every character (except the exosuit), view model, weapon, and building currently in the NS2.

There is also a link to a text importing guide that goes over the basics of exporting models and animations which should help with understanding these files, but the plan is to go over these things in my future tutorial videos.

The second forum thread is for a mod project that I am starting called Gorge Race! which you can find listed in the Steam Workshop. I want Gorge Race! to be used as a guide for new modders to get started. And instead of bugging some of the other devs to help me, I'd like to ask the community for it's contributions and collaboration in the project. See the thread for more details about the mod and how you can contribute!

Thanks for modding, and feel free to ask questions related to this post in the comments.