Author Topic: P47 (Read 900 times)

mensa180 · « **on:** September 17, 2006, 06:11:59 PM »

I am currently working on a p47 skin with GIMP. I need to make a triangle for it that looks like this...

Also I have been looking and can't find any other pictures; anyone find any?

EDIT: Found a great one of the nose art!

http://www.rollmodels.net/ncontest/firefly/1214.htm

The blue triangles on the tail. Does anyone know how to do this?

Work so far:

Not much done yet but it's a start.

Also anyone know how I could move this over?

Also how do you do the lettering? Like the "military" type numbers and such.

Also does anyone have any tips on how best to use GIMP effectivly?

Stoney74 · « **Reply #1 on:** September 18, 2006, 01:04:15 AM »

Mensa,

I use GIMP for my skins...

Go to this website: http://www.gimp.org They have a tutorials section that will show you all the basics.

Concentrate on selections, drawing with paths, layers, etc.

The triangle should be able to be added by just painting it on. If you click a spot on the image, the hold [shift] + mouse click, it will draw a straight line between the original spot and the mouse cursor. Do that three times and you have a triangle with 3 equal sides. You can use the angle finder to determine if they're all 60 degree angles...

mensa180 · « **Reply #2 on:** September 18, 2006, 07:17:49 AM »

Ah, thank you.

Krusty · « **Reply #3 on:** September 18, 2006, 08:40:40 AM »

1) Make sure that skin isn't already in the game. We have a yellow tailed P47N with a blue triangle on it already (yes, there was more than one, just double check what we already have).

2) Make sure you're working in 1024x1024 resolution. It looks like you're working in 512x512 (but I could be wrong)

3) Make sure you're anti-aliasing your fills. The anti-glare on the nose is quite jagged and stands out.

4) You make new layers and put your own national insignia (stars and bars) on their own layer. Then when you need to you just move that one layer. That's how you move individual things around without ruining the rest of the skin. This will come in handy for the blue triangles, too. Put them on their own layer.

Lots of work ahead of ya, but you've got a good start.

Stoney74 · « **Reply #4 on:** September 18, 2006, 11:55:09 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Krusty

3) Make sure you're anti-aliasing your fills. The anti-glare on the nose is quite jagged and stands out.

I usually put a slight gaussian blur on my objects to get rid of the jagged effect. Usually a setting of 2.0-3.0 is all that is needed. You can find that in the filters/blurs menu

mensa180 · « **Reply #5 on:** September 18, 2006, 03:50:59 PM »

Thank you all; yes I know Krusty. At the moment I'm just trying this as a beginning skin for my own personal accomplishment and not to send into the game. You're right, it is at 512 but right now I don't mind SO much. If I ever do another skin (which I probably will) I will use 1024, but as of right now I'm just trying to learn the basics.

Edit: More Progress!

Krusty · « **Reply #6 on:** September 18, 2006, 05:19:47 PM »

That's perfectly understandable. We've all got to learn somewhere, right?

One tip/trick for doing the triangles on the tail:

Make a new layer. Choose the lasso selection tool, but the one that's got a rectangular lasso (it's a point to point lasso), and select 3 points in a triangle, ending up where you started. THEN hit the modification key (ALT in Photoshop, whatever it is in gimp) that deselects an already selected area, and make a smaller triangle inside the one you just made. Match the shape and placement as best as you can.

What you've done is create a shape, then cut the center out. Now take the paint bucket and fill! Viola!

That way when you do a triangle you get sharp edges instead of round ones, and the look and feel come out a bit better.

Stoney74 · « **Reply #7 on:** September 18, 2006, 05:41:23 PM »

He should be able to do it by just drawing (with a thin brush, like the 1 pixel wide) straight lines to connect the dots. Set up a second line inside at an equal distance from all the corners, and then fill. Looks like he just used the paintbrush tool in GIMP--it makes rounded edges. The 1 pixel brush makes sharp edges. Then, once its finished, do a 1.0-2.0 blur on it and it should snap...

Krusty · « **Reply #8 on:** September 18, 2006, 06:04:32 PM »

Depending on the tool, the paint sometimes spills out of brush outlines, and the line-selection-tool will (depending on the tool) anti-alias it for him making it look even better.

Stoney74 · « **Reply #9 on:** September 18, 2006, 06:27:42 PM »

The only way to get anti-alias lines in GIMP (at least that I know of) is by using the "path" tool to draw with. It's a bit more advanced a tool than the straight line, so I just recommended the easiest to use. Plus, since the lines made by the path method are smoothed out, the "fill" function has a hard time finding the edges. Anyway, I guess its a GIMP-ism. But, with the 1-pixel brush, you won't get any "spill"--just an aliased line, hence the recommendation for a small blur...

mensa180 · « **Reply #10 on:** September 19, 2006, 03:42:52 PM »

I'll try those techniques. I had to make those numbers (the 126 on the side) by hand by copy and pasting a pattern and manipulating it to how I wanted it. Do they look "real"/ok?

EDIT: I just tried the paths idea and the triangles look great imho. Let me get this straight though; I apply gausian blur to the triangles? Does the nose need it? Is it "too" shiney or something?

EDIT: More Progress!

Another EDIT: Fixed the under elevater triangles to be more "even"

mensa180 · « **Reply #11 on:** September 19, 2006, 05:55:19 PM »

I don't like double posting;but it's been over 3 hours so I can't edit.

I made the colors match the actual thing better.

EDIT: Actually I think it might supposed to be brownish green and now light blue. I think the picture I was going off of had bad lighting.

Edit again! From the picture of the nose I have up there in the first post it looks brownish green in that one so I'm going to edit it to look like that....

Oh and this is one of it having its wings ripped off and is now torpedoing into the water.

Who says we don't have subs?

Stoney74 · « **Reply #12 on:** September 20, 2006, 12:57:42 AM »

The triangles look great. Maybe a little thin, but the right size anyway. You might try making them a little thicker. Also, check the orientation of the triangles on the horizontal stab. It looks like (on the model) that the base of the triangles are parallel to the long axis of the fuselage instead of how you have them.

Basically, you want to use a blur anytime you want to anti-alias something. If you drew the triangles with the path tool, it automatically anti-alias's the lines for you, so you shouldn't need a blur. But, if you did blur them, they still look pretty good as is--maybe a little weathered even.

If you get good at the path tool, you'll hardly use anything else for drawing lines...It makes awesome curves...

mensa180 · « **Reply #13 on:** September 20, 2006, 07:32:31 AM »

You're right. I'll fix that. Yeah I used the path tool to draw them and then just gave it 1.0 gausian blur.