After much lurking I think Ill give it a shot...

[TexMurphy]

Ok Ive been here in this forum for quite some time giving feedback... Ive been doing that because I have basicly no tallent what so ever with art.. but Im tempted to give it a shot...

If found a skin Im interested in doing... so now some questions..

Basicly do you guys always start from scratch with plane lines and everything or do you share resources?

If you just do it all from scratch then thats fine but... how do you know exactly where the plane lines where located and how do you know what part of the image is what part of the plane? Trial and error????

Tex

[JB73]

con't find the addy, but there is something called ah-skin-hangar (spelt hangar IIRC)

there are templates there, and i share what i have, and have borrowed. seems most other do the same, though they dont want you basically changing a marking and calling it your skin.

you can also extract the default skin in-game with a right click in the hangar. it then gives you a look at where stuff is.

as for lines and stuff, they are a personal thing. myself i took the work truekill started, then tweaked it according the to documentation i have. i then have erased pretty much everything except the default stuff (the gear, wheels, gear brackets, and guns)

i plan on making the guns over myself, and mostly everything else.

if you want my 190 d9 template it should be fully complete in about a week. when i say complete i mean all you will have to do is the camo job, weathering, and markings. all the panel lines, rivets, bolts, and general markings (like over gas cap) wil be in place.

[rogerdee]

there is a place called ah skin department,this has some outlines and otherthings  for some planes which  the guys have been willing to share,if you have any problems  the guys are a great bunch and  are willing to share informantion via the  bb or direct by email.
 i had   a problem with a b26 i am doing  and raptor01 kindly helped me via email like wise  kev has helped me  in other ways.

  dont be afraid to ask for help and  or opions or  in my case  a dictionary.
you will find that what  one person doesnt know  another useualy does  so instead of getting frustrated   post a message and see who can help.

by the way what skin are you doing?

rogerdee

[Knite]

Heya Tex! welcome to the dark side. Any questions you have man, you know you can ask me too =)

As far as the panel lines, I create mine from scratch. generally what I do is I take the default panel lines from AH, and make that a 33% opacity layer so that you can mainly see through it, and then I don't touch that layer again.

I start a NEW layer, and then begin on my panel lines. I use the stock panel lines as a reference, and at the same time I look at any picture I can find of the plane in real life to see what lines may be right or wrong. Basically to try to explain it better, I use the AH Default panel lines as a visual reference so I know WHERE to put my own panel lines based on the pictures I have available to work from. Sometimes my lines line up with AH's, sometimes they don't.

I also typically make a different layer for each "surface" I create panel lines on. For example, the fuselage of a plane will be 2 layers for me, left and right.

After I make the lines, I then copy each "set" of panel lines, make them white, and put them UNDER the actual panel line layer, and move them towards the back of the plane 1 panel. That gives a sort of visual illusion that the panel lines are recessed into the plane.

Hope that helps some.

[JB73]

here's the site:

http://www.ah-skins.com/