NewChallenger
Smash Cadet
MODEL 3D MELEE IMPORTS FOR TOTAL DUMMIE NOOBS!!
(like me :D)
So I made a few other guides (first version, and second version), but they didn't really end up working.
But I finally got it to work, so this is my FINAL, MOST SIMPLIFIED GUIDE
MAAJORRR shoutouts to Bizzozeron & VanCity Primal
Download these:
BLENDER - https://www.blender.org/ (3D Modeling Editor)
Source Plugin 4 Blender - http://steamreview.org/BlenderSourceTools/ (Blender plugin for Melee models)
mExTool - https://github.com/akaneia/mexTool/releases (CSS / Char imports / Organizer)
HSDRaw - https://github.com/Ploaj/HSDLib/releases (Main extractor for Chars, etc)
Melee Toolbox - http://toolboxcdn.lmao.rip/libzip/MeleeToolbox-5.0.1.7z (Tool pack with Dolphin etc)
Original YT Video from Bizzozeron: https://youtu.be/qAIsq7M9paI
Melee 1.02 iso (Google it)
=========== STEP 1: DOWNLOAD MY CHAR START FILE ===========
You have NO IDEA AT ALL how many steps you are saving by using these. They save approximately 17 quadrillion human hours of cumulative time.
I only have like Falco and maybe Puff, and part of Marth done so far, so PLEASE HELP ADDING THE PREP FILES, modders!!!
Start.blend files
Falco Lombardi - or - Falco Smallhead (for replacing head with other heads)
Jigglypuff
Marth
(gimme a sec, I'm getting those .blend files from my other pc, but use the Falco Lombardi one for now ok)
![]()
And here's how you can use it, like I ripped Sandy from Spongebob's head right off and stuck it on Falco Smallhead, for an example of how to use it
Needed:
Mario - Peach - DK - Bowser - Yoshi - Doc - Shiek - Zelda - Roy - Ganon - Falcon - Pika - Luigi - Link - Young Link - Kirby - Ness - Pika - Pichu - Mew2 - G&W - Icies
============== STEP 2: ADDING MODELS ==============
Basically, you just download a whatever model, and break it into parts. Say we want to add Sandy Cheeks to Falco.
So you google "Sandy Cheeks 3d Model" and choose one from Sketchfab or anywhere.
Download your Sandy Cheeks model (this one was lowest poly one I could find) and open your NEWSTART.blend Falco blender file.
![]()
(Note, if yours looks purple like this too, I am uploading a zip with Falco textures, so in Blender, go File --> External Data --> Find Missing Files, go to the Falco Textures folder I gave you, and then Select, so all the textures should show up with his clothes colors corrected.)
Now import it into Blender (File --> import --> obj file).
The best thing to do now, is to cut your Sandy into different parts, because each part will attach separately.
Now you attach one at a time. Honestly, for your very first time, just remove the head, and do that, then test it in game first.
So in blender, you would press TAB, to go to Edit mode, turn on wireframe view, select all vertices for the head so they turn yellow, then hit G then X then slide the head over to the left or right for a minute. Now click and drag all other Sandy body points so they are highlighted, and delete them. Now you just have the head like in the pic.
Now, go to object mode, and select a Falco object, like joint_object_10 (his nametag).
Hit G then Y then drag it up. Now in Edit Mode with wireframe view on, select and X (delete) all vertices except for one.
Now go object mode, click your new Squirrel head, then SHIFT and click the final point in nametag, then CTRL + J to join them.
Now in your collections area, the Sandy_object_skin or whatever name should be gone, and when you click joint_object_10 it should select the head.
Now click the head, G then X to slide it back to Falco's head area.
Congrats! Now you added a new 3D model part to Falco! Just one big step left before playing it!
======= FINAL STEP 3: HARDEST PART - WEIGHT PAINTING =======
This part isn't really hard with just a head, but it gets harder when doing a whole body
NOTES: Falco's skeleton joint ID's:
JOBJ_39 - HEAD
JOBJ_9 - LEFT FOOT HEEL
JOBJ_10 - LEFT FOOT TOES
JOBJ_15 - RIGHT FOOT HEEL
JOBJ_16 - RIGHT FOOT TOE
JOBJ_19 - TORSO
JOBJ_25 - LEFT ARM
JOBJ_27 - LEFT HAND
JOBJ_50 - RIGHT ARM
JOBJ_55 - RIGHT HAND
JOBJ_13 - LEFT LEG
JOBJ_7 - RIGHT LEG
(Note: you can find these by selecting Falco_Skeleton and then going into Pose Mode, and clicking the different gray joint dots to see ID in top left corner)
So these are all the joints I used in importing Sandy fully. So since we are just doing the head first, in Object mode, select joint_object_10 and the Sandy head should get highlighted. Now, go to (TAB) Edit Mode, then turn on Wireframe View, and hit A to make all the vertex dots in Sandy's head light up orange selected. Wireframe reminder below:
![]()
Now you can click on Vertex Groups in the picture below (the green triangle menu on sidebar under collections), and set all the head vertices to JOBJ_39 so that they will be properly weighted to the Falco head skeleton joint.
![]()
Now you can test it by selecting Falco_skeleton, going to Pose mode at the top, (see mode change spoiler reminder below), and clicking one head joint gray dot (JOBJ_39) in the middle of falco's head area and hitting R, then dragging the mouse around to see if the head is properly moving. If Sandy's head moves when you do this, then great, everything should work, then do Ctrl+Z to set it back to original position.
Congrats! Now you are all set! That's all there is to adding objects! Now you can go to TESTING section below to play with your model in Melee!
========= FINAL FINAL STEP 4: TESTING & PLAYING ========
Now that you're all finished with the hard Blender stuff, put your model into the game and play it!!
To do that, with Blender still open, click File --> Export --> FBX, and under "Include" area, click Armature, then SHIFT click Mesh, so that only those 2 are highlighted in blue, then on "Scale" set it to 0.01 and then scroll down, and click the Right Arrow to open up "Armature" dropdown area, and UNcheck "Add Leaf Bones" and then UNcheck "Bake Animation" and then export as "Falco_Sandy_Head_Frankenstein.fbx" and save it.
Now make sure you have a PlFcNr.dat saved somewhere (if not, take it out with DAT Texture Wizard by opening your ISO, go to "Players" dropdown, open Falco folder, and extract PlFcNr.dat), and open HSDRaw and then File --> Open your PlFcNr.dat with it. Now, double click the text area that says "SKELETON_VIEW" etc and things like that, and Ctrl+C to copy all text in that field. We need that for later. Then double click the area that says Ply5kFalco_ShareJoint so that you can see 3D Falco in the right area. Now in the MIDDLE MENU AREA (not the main left side menu), hit File --> Import Mode from File... --> and select your "Falco_Sandy_Head_Frankenstein.fbx"
![]()
Now wait a long time for it to import :D Once it's imported, and you can see it to the left side with Sandy's head, go back to the "Property View" tab and click the area where you copied the SKELETONVIEW etc text from, double click it and Ctrl+V to paste the original text data. Important. Now, double click PlyFalco5k_ShareJoint area again so the 3D Sandy Falco opens back up, and click on Objects tab. Scroll down and see where it says "Textures: 1" for each one. Make sure that all of them say the same thing, and nothing like "Textures: 0" or "Textures: 2" for each object. That will crash your game, happened for me many many times and I had no idea what the dam issue was. If one says "Textures: 0", then you need to fix your textures in blender, but just for now, you can add in any random png image with "Materials" --> import --> select any PNG, so that the object will say "Textures: 1" again. Once all work, move on.
Now that your FBX is imported, go File --> Save As... --> Falco_Sandy_head.dat on desktop or wherever.
Now open DAT Texture Wizard and open your ISO, then scroll down to Players, then Falco folder, then for PlFcNr.dat import your Falco_Sandy_head.dat
Now open Dolphin and select Neutral Falco and play as Sandy!!
Now you know ALL THE BASICS!!!!
From here you can import anything!!!
=================== EXTRA CREDIT Notes, tips, tricks:
If you want to add more objects, like Sandy's whole space suit or any other whole body object, do the same steps, which is adding your new model, cutting the piece you want (spacesuit), pulling a Falco object up, deleting all points except for one, SHIFT+click it and the new model, CTRL+J, then dragging it into Falco's (or whoever's) body into position, then weight painting. But for weight painting, in Edit Mode with wireframe view, you select like parts at a time, so you would ASSIGN all the Space Suit's arm points to JOBJ_50, all spacesuit hand vertices to JOBJ_55, all Spacesuit left leg vertices to JOBJ_13, etc etc, until every part is assigned correctly to the skeleton.
The main reason for slicing objects up is that Melee only allows for one material per object, so if you really want to get into that, check Materials tab below, and edit materials in Texture Paint area at top. make sure only 1 texture is attached to each object.
![]()
This is what I ended up with at the end of my steps.... works though!!
![]()
Need help on how to properly minimize / remove original falco textures properly. apparently....
(like me :D)
So I made a few other guides (first version, and second version), but they didn't really end up working.
But I finally got it to work, so this is my FINAL, MOST SIMPLIFIED GUIDE
MAAJORRR shoutouts to Bizzozeron & VanCity Primal
Download these:
BLENDER - https://www.blender.org/ (3D Modeling Editor)
Source Plugin 4 Blender - http://steamreview.org/BlenderSourceTools/ (Blender plugin for Melee models)
mExTool - https://github.com/akaneia/mexTool/releases (CSS / Char imports / Organizer)
HSDRaw - https://github.com/Ploaj/HSDLib/releases (Main extractor for Chars, etc)
Melee Toolbox - http://toolboxcdn.lmao.rip/libzip/MeleeToolbox-5.0.1.7z (Tool pack with Dolphin etc)
Original YT Video from Bizzozeron: https://youtu.be/qAIsq7M9paI
Melee 1.02 iso (Google it)
=========== STEP 1: DOWNLOAD MY CHAR START FILE ===========
You have NO IDEA AT ALL how many steps you are saving by using these. They save approximately 17 quadrillion human hours of cumulative time.
I only have like Falco and maybe Puff, and part of Marth done so far, so PLEASE HELP ADDING THE PREP FILES, modders!!!
Start.blend files
Falco Lombardi - or - Falco Smallhead (for replacing head with other heads)
Jigglypuff
Marth
(gimme a sec, I'm getting those .blend files from my other pc, but use the Falco Lombardi one for now ok)
And here's how you can use it, like I ripped Sandy from Spongebob's head right off and stuck it on Falco Smallhead, for an example of how to use it
Needed:
Mario - Peach - DK - Bowser - Yoshi - Doc - Shiek - Zelda - Roy - Ganon - Falcon - Pika - Luigi - Link - Young Link - Kirby - Ness - Pika - Pichu - Mew2 - G&W - Icies
============== STEP 2: ADDING MODELS ==============
Basically, you just download a whatever model, and break it into parts. Say we want to add Sandy Cheeks to Falco.
So you google "Sandy Cheeks 3d Model" and choose one from Sketchfab or anywhere.
Download your Sandy Cheeks model (this one was lowest poly one I could find) and open your NEWSTART.blend Falco blender file.
(Note, if yours looks purple like this too, I am uploading a zip with Falco textures, so in Blender, go File --> External Data --> Find Missing Files, go to the Falco Textures folder I gave you, and then Select, so all the textures should show up with his clothes colors corrected.)
Now import it into Blender (File --> import --> obj file).
The best thing to do now, is to cut your Sandy into different parts, because each part will attach separately.
Now you attach one at a time. Honestly, for your very first time, just remove the head, and do that, then test it in game first.
So in blender, you would press TAB, to go to Edit mode, turn on wireframe view, select all vertices for the head so they turn yellow, then hit G then X then slide the head over to the left or right for a minute. Now click and drag all other Sandy body points so they are highlighted, and delete them. Now you just have the head like in the pic.
Now, go to object mode, and select a Falco object, like joint_object_10 (his nametag).
Hit G then Y then drag it up. Now in Edit Mode with wireframe view on, select and X (delete) all vertices except for one.
Now go object mode, click your new Squirrel head, then SHIFT and click the final point in nametag, then CTRL + J to join them.
Now in your collections area, the Sandy_object_skin or whatever name should be gone, and when you click joint_object_10 it should select the head.
Now click the head, G then X to slide it back to Falco's head area.
Congrats! Now you added a new 3D model part to Falco! Just one big step left before playing it!
======= FINAL STEP 3: HARDEST PART - WEIGHT PAINTING =======
This part isn't really hard with just a head, but it gets harder when doing a whole body
NOTES: Falco's skeleton joint ID's:
JOBJ_39 - HEAD
JOBJ_9 - LEFT FOOT HEEL
JOBJ_10 - LEFT FOOT TOES
JOBJ_15 - RIGHT FOOT HEEL
JOBJ_16 - RIGHT FOOT TOE
JOBJ_19 - TORSO
JOBJ_25 - LEFT ARM
JOBJ_27 - LEFT HAND
JOBJ_50 - RIGHT ARM
JOBJ_55 - RIGHT HAND
JOBJ_13 - LEFT LEG
JOBJ_7 - RIGHT LEG
(Note: you can find these by selecting Falco_Skeleton and then going into Pose Mode, and clicking the different gray joint dots to see ID in top left corner)
So these are all the joints I used in importing Sandy fully. So since we are just doing the head first, in Object mode, select joint_object_10 and the Sandy head should get highlighted. Now, go to (TAB) Edit Mode, then turn on Wireframe View, and hit A to make all the vertex dots in Sandy's head light up orange selected. Wireframe reminder below:
Now you can click on Vertex Groups in the picture below (the green triangle menu on sidebar under collections), and set all the head vertices to JOBJ_39 so that they will be properly weighted to the Falco head skeleton joint.
Now you can test it by selecting Falco_skeleton, going to Pose mode at the top, (see mode change spoiler reminder below), and clicking one head joint gray dot (JOBJ_39) in the middle of falco's head area and hitting R, then dragging the mouse around to see if the head is properly moving. If Sandy's head moves when you do this, then great, everything should work, then do Ctrl+Z to set it back to original position.
Congrats! Now you are all set! That's all there is to adding objects! Now you can go to TESTING section below to play with your model in Melee!
========= FINAL FINAL STEP 4: TESTING & PLAYING ========
Now that you're all finished with the hard Blender stuff, put your model into the game and play it!!
To do that, with Blender still open, click File --> Export --> FBX, and under "Include" area, click Armature, then SHIFT click Mesh, so that only those 2 are highlighted in blue, then on "Scale" set it to 0.01 and then scroll down, and click the Right Arrow to open up "Armature" dropdown area, and UNcheck "Add Leaf Bones" and then UNcheck "Bake Animation" and then export as "Falco_Sandy_Head_Frankenstein.fbx" and save it.
Now make sure you have a PlFcNr.dat saved somewhere (if not, take it out with DAT Texture Wizard by opening your ISO, go to "Players" dropdown, open Falco folder, and extract PlFcNr.dat), and open HSDRaw and then File --> Open your PlFcNr.dat with it. Now, double click the text area that says "SKELETON_VIEW" etc and things like that, and Ctrl+C to copy all text in that field. We need that for later. Then double click the area that says Ply5kFalco_ShareJoint so that you can see 3D Falco in the right area. Now in the MIDDLE MENU AREA (not the main left side menu), hit File --> Import Mode from File... --> and select your "Falco_Sandy_Head_Frankenstein.fbx"
Now wait a long time for it to import :D Once it's imported, and you can see it to the left side with Sandy's head, go back to the "Property View" tab and click the area where you copied the SKELETONVIEW etc text from, double click it and Ctrl+V to paste the original text data. Important. Now, double click PlyFalco5k_ShareJoint area again so the 3D Sandy Falco opens back up, and click on Objects tab. Scroll down and see where it says "Textures: 1" for each one. Make sure that all of them say the same thing, and nothing like "Textures: 0" or "Textures: 2" for each object. That will crash your game, happened for me many many times and I had no idea what the dam issue was. If one says "Textures: 0", then you need to fix your textures in blender, but just for now, you can add in any random png image with "Materials" --> import --> select any PNG, so that the object will say "Textures: 1" again. Once all work, move on.
Now that your FBX is imported, go File --> Save As... --> Falco_Sandy_head.dat on desktop or wherever.
Now open DAT Texture Wizard and open your ISO, then scroll down to Players, then Falco folder, then for PlFcNr.dat import your Falco_Sandy_head.dat
Now open Dolphin and select Neutral Falco and play as Sandy!!
Now you know ALL THE BASICS!!!!
From here you can import anything!!!
=================== EXTRA CREDIT Notes, tips, tricks:
If you want to add more objects, like Sandy's whole space suit or any other whole body object, do the same steps, which is adding your new model, cutting the piece you want (spacesuit), pulling a Falco object up, deleting all points except for one, SHIFT+click it and the new model, CTRL+J, then dragging it into Falco's (or whoever's) body into position, then weight painting. But for weight painting, in Edit Mode with wireframe view, you select like parts at a time, so you would ASSIGN all the Space Suit's arm points to JOBJ_50, all spacesuit hand vertices to JOBJ_55, all Spacesuit left leg vertices to JOBJ_13, etc etc, until every part is assigned correctly to the skeleton.
The main reason for slicing objects up is that Melee only allows for one material per object, so if you really want to get into that, check Materials tab below, and edit materials in Texture Paint area at top. make sure only 1 texture is attached to each object.
This is what I ended up with at the end of my steps.... works though!!
Need help on how to properly minimize / remove original falco textures properly. apparently....
Last edited:
