>>OUTDATED<< Example Hair Mod - Hairstyle Modding Tutorial >>OUTDATED<< 1.0

Sorry guys, I haven't been able to keep this mod maintained in a while. I'll be sure to let you know when I update it though. Thank you!

This mod will give you the basic assets and information needed to create a hair mod of your own. I've also included instructions in some of the main folders in the form of .txt files which will (hopefully) help you better understand how to make hairstyles of your own.

At the moment, this mod has been created for the 'official launch' release of Starbound. v1.1

CONTENT
Preparation
- What you'll need.
Learning Stage
- How to get a hold of what's going on.
Creating the Mod
1. Drawing the sprites.
- Steps 1-4
- Drawing Hairstyles For a Different Race
2. Adding the hairstyles into the game.
- Explanation
-
- Adding Hairstyles For a Different Race
3. Editing your mod's information.
The Cleanup
- Removing unnecessary files and renaming certain files/folders.



PREPARATION
Before you begin, you will need similar to the following:
1. A program which allows you to edit/view code.
- I recommend downloading Notepad++.

2. A program which allows you to draw (preferably one which allows you to
create layers).
- I use Gimp which is free, but as long as the program you're using can save drawings as a .png image with transparent background, it shouldn't matter what you use.

3. If you haven't already, I'm gonna need you to press that download button up there. I can't really help you if you don't have the base files ready to go before the instructions.

LEARNING STAGE
Learning the basics and understanding how files connect without drowning in confusion and unrelated text.
Excluding this little sentence here.

1. COMPARE EXISTING MODS!
To start, try having a look at other people's hair mods. Comparing multiple hair mods to view differences and similarities will enable you to see what makes what work. If you've never done modding in Starbound before, this stage will be incredibly helpful in learning how to mod in this game. Even if you've modded before, doing this might be something to consider.

2. VIEW THIS MOD'S FILES
Once you've done that, open up the folders included in this mod. Roam the files and the folders which contain them and take note of how things are laid out/structured. There will be a few text documents called "READ ME FOR INFO" which I've placed in the "hair" folders and another in the "species" folder. They will give a more detailed explanation of everything contained in that folder.

It would also be wise to try placing the mod in your Starbound\mods folder, running the game, and seeing what appears in the character creation screen after looking at all of the files. Do that, and you'll be able to see how the folders and files have affected the game. Hopefully.

CREATING THE MOD
Now that you have an insight into how things work, you've either gone ahead and figured it out for yourself (well done), or, you've waited patiently to keep up with this 'tutorial' (thanks, and good job).


1. DRAWING THE SPRITES
1. Firstly, you'll want to be getting your hairstyles done so that you can then add them into the game. So, where you've downloaded this mod to, open up: "Example Hair Mod\humanoid\human\hair".
To help you out, I've included a .txt 'info' file, a few base hairstyles, along with a base body template for you to use so that you won't have to guess where the head is aligned in-game.

2. Open up one of the existing .png images in your drawing program. This should set the canvas to the correct size.
If you have a drawing program which allows you to use layers, then open up the body template in a new layer. Now you should have at least two layers. With the layer containing the already existing hairstyle, clear it so that it's blank and begin creating a hairstyle of your own.

3. Repeat for as many hairstyles as you like. Do not worry about the naming convention of the .png files just yet; I'll be getting to that very soon.

4. Once you've finished making the hairstyles, it's time to name those image files.
You could always name them something like:
MyMod_hair01, MyMod_hair02, MyMod_hair03 etc.

or, you could do:
FemaleHair_1, FemaleHair_2 etc.
for the female hairstyles, then:
MaleHair_1, MaleHair_2 etc.
for the male hairstyles.

They don't really need to follow a structure like the above examples, but by doing so you're able to refer to them more easily. And quite possibly remember them.

Drawing Hairstyles For a Different Race
If you want hairstyles for a different race such as Hylotl, Novakid, Floran etc, then you need to add a few extra folders. First of all, go to the 'humanoid' folder located in the main section of the mod.
Now, open that up.
In there should be at least two folders, the 'human' and 'avian' folders. You'll want to add a new folder named whichever race you want to draw hair for. They should have all lowercase and no plurals so:
apex
hylotl
avian etc.

Inside the newly added folder, add another folder called 'hair'. This is where you will keep your .png hairstyles for that race.

2. ADDING THE HAIRSTYLES INTO THE GAME
EXPLANATION -
For this, you'll really want to have a look at the "READ ME FOR INFO.txt" file located in:
"Example Hair Mod\species" folders. There I've explained how everything works. But here, I'll be summarizing it.

So, what this file practically does is tell the game to add a few extra slots to the character creation menu so that your hairstyles can be seen and selected in the hair selection box when creating your character.

All you'll have to do is edit a few existing lines of code and copying and pasting them if you need/want a few more.

INSTRUCTIONS -
If you'll open up one of the .species.patch files please...
Thank you. Now, If you have a look, there are multiple lines with similar text. One should look like this:
{"op":"add", "path" : "/genders/0/hair/-", "value":"example_mhair_01"},
If you looked through the files closely in the second main step (Viewing the Mod's Files), then you'll notice that at the end of the line is:
"example_mhair_01"
Remember where that came from?
In the "humanoid\human\hair" folder (where the human hairstyles are located), one of the .png images was called "example_mhair_01".
If something clicked when you saw the line of code, I'm actually quite impressed that you were paying attention.

To explain properly, this individual line of code:
{"op":"add", "path" : "/genders/0/hair/-", "value":"example_mhair_01"},
adds another slot for your hairstyle to be added. All you need to do, is tell it what the name of your .png image is. I'll go over the basics:

EXAMPLE -
Let's say, one of our .png images for female hairstyles was called:
femalehair_1
If we want to add it into the game, we would have to put it into this format:
{"op":"add", "path" : "/genders/0/hair/-", "value":"example_mhair_01"},

In bold are the things you need to change. If you haven't read the "READ ME FOR INFO.txt" file yet, then '0' represents the male gender and '1' is for the females.
So what we'd need to do with this information, is change it from the above line of code, to this:
{"op":"add", "path" : "/genders/1/hair/-", "value":"femalehair_1"},
And that's it. If you wanted the same hairstyle for both genders, add two lines of code, only have one of the middle numbers be '0' and the other '1'. Simple right?

Adding Hairstyles For a Different Race
Adding hair for another race means adding another .species.patch file. It's the same as the other two patches included in the 'species' folder, only instead of it being 'human' it would be the name of the race you want. For example:

| apex.species.patch for Apex, |
| floran.species.patch for Florans, |
| novakid.species.patch for Novakids, etc. |

3. EDITING YOUR MOD'S INFORMATION (FINAL STEP)
Just one more thing to do and you're all done! It's really small, and even more simple than the previous 2 steps.

1. Open up the main folder which contains your humanoid and species folders. In there should be a file called "YourModName.modinfo". This contains your mod's information and can be seen in-game when you are in the mods section of the main menu. To make it even simpler for you guys, I've put asterisks (*) around the words/sentences which you should change. Remember to keep the double quotation marks though (" "), they're important if you want Starbound to not die.

THE CLEANUP
A few things you might want to delete/rename which I put in as extras in the beginning. Don't worry, deleting or changing them won't affect anything, promise.

1. Change that .modinfo file name before you forget. I doubt your mod's name is called 'YourModName'.

2. While you're at it, you can also rename the entire mod folder which is originally called 'Example Hair Mod'. Call it whatever your mod's name is.

3. Delete those "READ ME FOR INFO.txt" files. You won't be needing them anymore.

4. You can also delete those body templates which I put in the human hair folder. Unless you want to keep them for future reference. It's all good then.

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You are now done!
Test it out in your Starbound\mods folder and see how it runs. Sometimes it can be a bit of trial and error, but once you get the hang of it and understand how the system works, you'll be fine.​

Thank You

For Bearing​

With Me!
​

I really hope I was able to help some of you guys out with modding hair in Starbound. I may have gotten a little too in-depth with some of the explanations... Sorry.

If I did help any of you out, or if you have any questions, just let me know in the comments section. But make sure you READ EVERYTHING before you ask questions, as i'm pretty sure that I've put in pretty much everything there is to know. If you can't find the answer on this page, look back in the .txt files as they have a few extra tips.
​

Thank you;
To the Developers of Starbound for making such a fantastic game and letting us make creations of our own with your assets!

And the Starbound community who inspired me to make mods for this game and also for keeping me on my toes throughout the progression of my mods! (It would've taken me a much longer to get things done without knowing you guys were eagerly awaiting me to roll out the next update of my AMP mod!)

If you have time, you should check it out! I did everything I've stated in this tutorial, so that's how you know it works.

AMP - Another Mod Pack (Beak and Hair Collection)

Have fun modding!

Mod Pack Permissions:

Anyone can use this mod in their mod compilation without the author's consent.

Mod Assets Permissions:

Anyone can alter/redistribute the mod's assets without the author's consent.