I have created a mod package which includes all the files necessary to for creating your custom posters. You will need an image editing program such as Photoshop or whatever you are most comfortable with for resizing, cropping and cutting etc etc.

{LINK REMOVED}Custom Poster Template

You will need to download the following tools:

GCFScape[nemesis.thewavelength.net]
VTFEdit[nemesis.thewavelength.net]

The files you will be editing are located within the pak01_dir.vpk which you can open and extract the following files using GCFScape[nemesis.thewavelength.net]:

materials/signs/

poster_midnight_riders_01.vtf
poster_midnight_riders_album.vtf
poster_midnight_riders_dusty.vtf
poster_midnight_riders_jake.vtf
poster_midnight_riders_ox.vtf
poster_midnight_riders_smitty.vtf
sign_fairground_billboard02.vtf
sign_fairground_stage1.vtf



After you Ctrl+Click each of the files you can drag them to your project folder, or you can Export to the project folder. The final mod structure will need to be the same as structure within this folder, thus you will need to have the same files structure as the pak01_dir.vpk:
...\materials\signs

This is the tedious part of this entire mod process. In order for you custom pictures and posters to look good, they need to fit within the original dimensions of the original .vtf files. Simply "resizing" will not work most of the time as it will either be too large or too small cause the image to appear distorted.

poster_midnight_riders_01.vtf = 512 x 1024
poster_midnight_riders_album.vtf = 512 x256
poster_midnight_riders_dusty.vtf = 256 x 512
poster_midnight_riders_jake.vtf = 256 x 512
poster_midnight_riders_ox.vtf = 256 x 512
poster_midnight_riders_smitty.vtf = 256 x 512
sign_fairground_billboard02.vtf = 512 x 256
sign_fairground_stage1.vtf = 1024 x512

The second hardest part is locating images that are viable for use in the mod. For example an image you may find on Google may look great but if the dimensions of that image are 1024x768 (I.E. wallpaper background) and you attempt to use it in a 256x512 poster, it will neither look good nor as you intended. As for locating your images, that is entirely upon you, but don't forget that Google Images has a search by size tool:



For this guide I will be making custom posters for my Fancy Iggy Concert Mod:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=292843250

Note: I use Photoshop for resizing and removing backgrounds and layers. I will not provide details on how to use Photoshop or Advanced methods related to image modification. I am not an avid Photoshop user, thus I will only show you the basics within this guide.

The four Midnight Riders, Jake, Smitty, Ox and Dusty have their poster dimensions at 256 x 512. So let's do a Google Image search for that size or images close to it:



You will see there are some viable pictures I could use here. There are also irrelevant pictures such as pictures from The Sims, Christina Perri, Katy Perry and some other things I really don't want to know about...

So after browsing through the specific image search if you don't find one that is suitable, do a "medium" size search. I did this with "Iggy Azalea" with quotes so the search returns images specifically tagged in a page with her name, and I found this 500x500 photo[media.cmgdigital.com]. Right Click, Save Image As and save it to your project folder as whatever, since it doesn't matter until you finalize all the poster images for packing.

Note this image was .png, you may come across all type of image types, they don't matter in the editing process, just in the final packing in which they will be converted to .vtf.

After saving that image, I opened it in Photoshop:
Remember the original dimensions for the posters are 256x512, so I will need to increase the image size (resize keyboard command/shortcut in Photoshop is: Ctrl+Alt+i or Image > Resize from the menu) from the original 500x500 to 512x512 keeping the proportions as to not warp the image even though it's only 12 pixels:


Included in the package are the Photoshop templates from my Lana Del Rey Concert Mod, I opened up the dusty .psd template:


After opening the template you will see Lana with her logo at the bottom. You can simply turn these layers off by clicking the eye icon next to the layer or Right Click the layer and delete it.

Go back to the image you resized before opening the template, select the image (Ctrl +A) and Copy (Ctrl+C). Then open the dusty template tab and paste the image (Ctrl+V) my result was this:


You will see the borders and stars are missing even though they are 'enabled' which means that you need to re-position the image in the layers. Simply click and drag your image so that is is behind the border and stars layers. Also the image is not centered, simply choose the selection tool (left toolbar, top icon) and drag the image to the correct position:


Notice the purple lines that indicate the photo is "centered" which is this case my image is slightly too far to the right, so I just drag it to the left until I find it fits properly. Use your judgement but remember you are your worst critic.

If you want a logo at the bottom, do a Google Image Search for one, in this case I did a "iggy azalea logo" (without quotes) and found one that will work well as it is a .png with a transparent background! You may not have such luck:


As you did with your poster image, open it in Photoshop and resize it. You may have to experiment with the resizing until you find the dimensions that look the best, in this case a resize of the width to 128 (keeping proportions) did well:

Resize:


As you did with copying your image to the template, Copy (Ctrl+C) the logo image to your poster template and paste (Ctrl+V). You will need to move the image into the correct position or wherever you think looks best, note in this case the purple alignment indicators show it's aligned with the stars, perfect:


That looks good to me, so let's save it. File Save As (Alt F+A) and save the image as .targa for easy import into VTFEdit. After you click save, it will ask what Targa Options you wish to use, choose 32bits/pixel and click ok:


That's one of the four posters, now simply rinse and repeat for the other 3 posters!

Open VTFEdit[nemesis.thewavelength.net].

You are going to Import your poster image into VTFEdit, choose File > Import (Ctrl + i) and browse to where you saved your .targa poster image:


A dialog box will appear with options, do NOT modify them, simply click ok and let VTFEdit load your image:


After the image loads in VTFEdit it should appear as such, you will Save As a .VTF to your project folder, making sure the filename is the same as the original filename from the pak01_dir.vpk. Also remember this .VTF image will need to be either saved in or eventually moved to models\signs before you pack your poster .vpk:


As previously stated, be sure the filename matches the original otherwise the image will not appear in the mod/game:

Remember the image dimensions:
sign_fairground_billboard02.vtf = 512 x 256[/b]

Refer to the package for the billboard Photoshop template:

This will make this image editing process much easier. If you are not using photoshop, I have included several image types in the folder for you to use. I removed the Midnight Riders Logo and filled in the background so you can simply paste your image over it:




Common sense here, just resize it so it looks good. The Magic Wand Tool can be both your friend and enemy...in this case I decided to use this picture:



Which I then used the Quick Selectrion and Magic Wand, along with the eraser, and resized it:

The Stage Backdrop

sign_fairground_stage1.vtf = 1024 x512

You will find the stage backdrop template in the template package.

This will be the easiest of all the files to modify. Simply find an image equal to or larger than 1024x512 on Google and tweak it:


After you have you image set where you want, repeat the same process as all your other custom images and Save As .targa in the project folder\materials\signs and be sure to name it the following:

Adding a picture in Word:

(poster_midnight_riders_01) and file type (.vtf).