VPTemp

Okay, so to obtain models and textures from Viva Pinata: (Original game (PC) only, Xbox versions are outta luck. So no TiP assets unless someone can get Ninja Ripper to play nice with the Xenia 360 emulator. I've tried and failed on that account).

Forewarning: I recommend that you make a backup of your Viva Pinata install before trying this, it's unlikely that much can go wrong but if it does then it's better to be safe than sorry.

Go find Ninja Ripper (I'm using 1.7.1. Options may differ in other versions), extract it to it's own folder somewhere, open the "Ninja Ripper.exe" under the correct folder (You're most likely going to want the x64 version, if it doesn't work try the other). Then set the first field ("Exe") to your Viva Pinata.exe (Not the launcher .exe), leave "Arg" blank, "Dir" is to be set to your VP install root folder (The folder that contains the .exe files), and finally the last field ("Dir", under the output section) should be set to wherever you want to have files extracted to, just make sure you have enough space because it can fill up fast. Last thing to do is to set the dropdown selection to "Intruder inject", then hit run.

Provided that it doesn't throw any errors at you, your game should start.

Important: Ninja Ripper basically takes ALL the textures and models loaded into memory and saves them. For example, if you're in Costalot's shop and you try to extract you'll not get anything from your garden. Same goes for pinatas/plants/items/characters that aren't present in your garden. Best way to get exactly what you want and keep clutter to a minimum is to open your diary and navigate to the entry (E.g if you want to extract a Ruffian's model and textures, go to their diary entry and then proceed to the next step). Also make sure you're as close as possible to the model you want, I've had LODs be extracted when I've been too far away.

By default to extract textures you will want to hit "F9". You'll know if it works when it freezes the game, for me it takes a second for textures. If you want models AND textures, hit "F10". This can take longer, but it is working in the background so don't worry if it's frozen for longer. (Hotkeys can be changed via the Ninja Ripper.exe)

Either option will put files into the output directory that you specified earlier. You'll have texture files (.dds) and models (.rip)

.dds files can be opened by many third party programs, some may need plugins to work however. If you want to edit them then I personally recommend Photoshop, I'm sure GIMP/Paint.net can support .dds though. For easiest viewing I use Windows Texture Viewer by Nvidia, lightweight and simple (Does crash sometimes but I think that's a me issue).

.rip files are a bit trickier to work with. Ninja Ripper comes with a couple of plugins for 3D software (3DS Max, Blender), but I personally don't use Max so I don't know if the plugin still works. The Blender plugin works on Blender 2.7, but not the new 2.8 (There is a 2.8 plugin available, I've not tested it however. Google "ninja ripper blender 2.8 plugin"). I'll leave the installing of plugins for these programs to you, there's plenty of forum posts and videos showing you how to do it. Anyways, using the installed plugin in Blender you now have to option to import .rip files, I recommend that you select ALL .rip files from a single extract (CTRL-SHIFT-LEFTCLICK, on the import file window). This is because NR doesn't know what models are called, so it just names them via number, meaning you have to sift through all the models to find the one(s) you want. If you don't know what you're doing then it's not going to make any sense, and if you do then it's mainly going to be tedious. There's also a couple of options in the import page to help reduce duplicate models, use them to make your suffering less so.

Most of the models will be broken into parts. Some seem intentional by Rare, some are from NR's extraction process. For example the FireBrand is broken into 4 different objects, in game if you destroy the FireBrand it breaks into these separate parts. Pinatas are also separated, but it's usually eyes,eyelids,mouthbag then a seemingly random breakage of the mesh. I suspect that shaders play a part in pinata destruction. If you don't know how to fix this then follow some basic Blender tutorials to get a general idea of how to join things together)