The Screenshot.

Open up a deathmatch HL game, you don't need any other players.
Look around the map, see anything where you could set the scene
for your comic? If not, don't quit right away. Most of the maps
are quite useless, after all, they weren't designed to be used in
a comic. This is where you jump online, and start searching HL sites
for distinct maps. If you're a picky bastard like me, you'll most
likely end up downloading a mod.

A mod is the end result of a modification to the game code. At least,
that's what I tell myself. You have countless Mod's usually found on
HL sites, so if your after a specific theme for your comic, and for your
'set', try looking for that particular theme. The majority of CLOSURE was
"shot" on a Matrix mod called 'Existence', the ending will be "shot" from
a Vampire Slayer Mod.

The point is, you need a backdrop to put barney onto. so fire up HL and hit
F5 when you see something interesting. The below shot is from a mod called
Scientist Hunt". (Just so you know)

Righty-o Then. Looks fun enough, Hardly relevant, but anyway. The first thing
to do is get rid of everything that doesnt belong in the frame. Open up your
screenshot in photoshop or whatever, and get out your cropping tool.

After cropping out the gun barrel, and the ammo count etc, it looks pretty tidy.
One problem, you might not notice it, but you still have crosshairs in the frame.

The best way to get these out is by CAREFULLY using the smudge tool, crank the
hardness right up, but rip the size right down to 1. Then smudge it away.

Now, to complete the visual, go back to your model viewer program, open up barney
and change the background colour to lime green. If nothing seems to be happening,
hit the ALT key on your keyboard once, and all is well.

Now, go to your image program (I use Paint Shop Pro, sue me) and look for the a
capture function, aka Screenshot. Then "shoot" the modelviewer program with barney
in it.

So why lime green? You'll see.

Crop barney with his green background like this.

It is ESSENTIAL that you do not resize barney in any way at this stage. You can do
that later. Find your magic wand tool (could be called anything I guess) and select
green background. Then invert the selction, and cut.

No really, Cut.

Now paste the barney selection as a new layer on your Half Life screenshot that has
been cropped, and rid of the crosshairs. You should have this.

Yes it looks bad, it needs resizing, unless it's an "I'm thinking about something" pose.
But this is where you start your image magic, give him a shadow, let some light glint off
his pathetic helmet, and drop his opacity in the layer down to around 90 or less, and he
will fit right in.

It's rough, yes, but if you have it pictured in your head some time before, then it is a
lot easier. remember to keep your model in the pose you want (Barney had 77 animations)and
get good HL screenshots, remembering to keep your weapon out of the scene, or where it can
be cropped.

And yes, the lime green question, well, if you had a black background and tried to 'magic wand'
it, you would cut off half his helmet. Lime green is a colour that will roughly always be not
included in the model, so it's safe to use. Just like in the movies, for special effects shots,
it's the 'green screen' theory. :)