Author Topic: First Skin.... questions.  (Read 1811 times)

Offline Stoney74

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First Skin.... questions.
« Reply #30 on: January 10, 2008, 09:07:11 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by Angrist
Is it a difference in the free downloaded version, and the purchased version?


No, its free to download.  There is no purchased version of GIMP.

Offline The Fugitive

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First Skin.... questions.
« Reply #31 on: January 10, 2008, 09:53:35 AM »
maybe it something simple like "selecting" the layer you wish to edit with a "select all" kind of thing.

Offline Motherland

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« Reply #32 on: January 10, 2008, 12:26:34 PM »
I dunno... all I did was make a new layer ('exhaust'), draw some dark lines with the pencil  (so I could get a feel for what I was actually going to do when it came to the exhaust), went up to the Filter drop down list and put my cursor over blur... and everything was greyed out. I know I must be missing a step.



The exhaust layer is selected... I have 8 layers including the base image and the exhaust.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2008, 12:33:45 PM by Motherland »

Offline Stoney74

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First Skin.... questions.
« Reply #33 on: January 10, 2008, 07:41:15 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Motherland
The exhaust layer is selected... I have 8 layers including the base image and the exhaust.


Disco!!!

Go to Image/Mode/RGB.  You can't do Blurs in Indexed Mode...  You always want to work on your master skin in RGB mode...at least I always do.



You may want to set up your desktop like I have mine, where you can access the image and the tool dialogues simultaneously.  Prevents a lot of flipping back and forth when you want to change tools or layers.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2008, 07:54:11 PM by Stoney74 »

Offline Motherland

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« Reply #34 on: January 11, 2008, 02:14:03 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Stoney74

You may want to set up your desktop like I have mine, where you can access the image and the tool dialogues simultaneously.  Prevents a lot of flipping back and forth when you want to change tools or layers.

Hey! Thats a good idea. thanks.

Offline Motherland

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« Reply #35 on: January 11, 2008, 10:48:03 PM »
A little fun with blur got me this...



Offline Motherland

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« Reply #36 on: January 12, 2008, 06:52:49 PM »
Got Gelbe 7 a bit dirty.



I've only worked on the wings so far, as you can tell.
« Last Edit: January 12, 2008, 06:55:13 PM by Motherland »

Offline Motherland

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« Reply #37 on: January 12, 2008, 10:40:19 PM »
I present to you...

Gelbe 7, flown by Oberleutnant Viktor Bauer, Staffelkapitaen of 9. Jagdgeschwader 3.








Coming to skies near you...


Also, inevitably, coming to skies near you;





Still have some minor detailing to do, but the bulk is done.





Big thanks to Stoney74 and Fencer. I would have been screwed without you two :aok
« Last Edit: January 12, 2008, 10:53:06 PM by Motherland »

Offline The Fugitive

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« Reply #38 on: January 13, 2008, 10:08:03 AM »
very nice! I think the underside "black/oil/mud" is too dark. I think it should be a bit more opaque, thin it out a bit so it doesn't stand out so much.

Offline Motherland

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« Reply #39 on: January 13, 2008, 10:55:55 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by The Fugitive
very nice! I think the underside "black/oil/mud" is too dark. I think it should be a bit more opaque, thin it out a bit so it doesn't stand out so much.

The... burn/oil behind the oil cooler, as I look at other's skins, is a bit dark. The mud though, is intentional. Mud was notorious in Russia, of course. The big mud streak behind the gear comes from a 109 with the same mud pattern. Saw a photo of it in a book... the 109 had been upturned. Apparantly this was a common pattern because they had to taxi at walking speed during muddy periods to prevent the mud from the wheels flinging up into the radiator.

Offline Xasthur

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« Reply #40 on: January 13, 2008, 08:05:08 PM »
Outstanding for a first skin, well done.

My nit-picks with it so far are:

Your yellow 7 looks very pixelated and blurred. Maybe that's to do with the distance at which it is being viewed and your graphics set up.

This brings me to a side point. Have you got the Hi Res pack installed? Having that installed will give you a massive improvement in the way your computer displays rivets and panel lines on the skins you're using in-game.


If your computer is not up to the task of running the Hi Res pack on a usual occasion I suggest you do what a squadie of mine suggested to me when I started on my old computer.

Install a seperate version of aces high and name it Aces High Skin or something. Set up your graphics (at the splash screen when the game starts, not in-game) to the maximum your computer can handle (even if it only runs at 6 FPS or whatever, you can still get screenies) and install the Hi Res pack.

The trick is, every time you start up the game and change graphics settings the game rebuilds the graphics cache which takes a long time and would get very tedious if you had to do that all the time. Do all of your skinning in the AH Skin directories and take your screenies there and use your regular copy of AH for playing.

The second is that you have a fairly dramatic cut off in dirt on the underside of the fuselage immediately after the rear section of the wing joins the fuselage.

I've never seen marks like that before and I would suggest that the aft fuselage could do with a few flicks of mud and assorted dirt and what-not. Not as severe as right behind the the wheel tracks, of course... but this is Russia, after all. :aok


Also, you've missed a few of the spars on your canopy. The front and rear sections are white, the openable section is black.

Excellent job though, mate. Really done well.
Raw Prawns
Australia

"Beaufighter Operator Support Services"

Offline Motherland

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First Skin.... questions.
« Reply #41 on: January 13, 2008, 08:21:50 PM »
I am, infact running the HiRes pack with 1024 textures with... 1280x980 or something like that screen resolution(for some reason it still looks crappy in screen shots! Im running the highest I can to get this thing and it still doesnt look as nice as others. :mad: )I need to fix the 7... when I was running GIMP in indexed mode none of the layers were mixing with those below them (my panel lines looked horrible on the upper wing surfaces from the cockpit, I had to redo them). I didnt even notice the 7, thanks.
« Last Edit: January 13, 2008, 09:08:59 PM by Motherland »

Offline MotleyCH

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« Reply #42 on: January 14, 2008, 12:27:50 AM »
Keep at it...it's looking good.

Offline Stoney74

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« Reply #43 on: January 14, 2008, 02:32:12 AM »
Another thing when taking screen shots for folks to review...

Make sure you take shots with the sun behind the camera, so the exposed surface of the aircraft has light on it, and is easy to see.  Some of those posted above have some dark shading, and its difficult to tell how exactly some of the detail would look in full light.

I typically roll inverted to turn the belly up for a shot, for example.

Offline Rogue9Volt

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« Reply #44 on: January 14, 2008, 04:24:30 AM »
Nice Job, 7!    Can't wait to try it out.:D
InGame:  SW9volt

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