Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Custom Skins => Topic started by: jolly22 on January 06, 2010, 08:08:03 PM

Title: Skinning
Post by: jolly22 on January 06, 2010, 08:08:03 PM

Any progam that I can use that you dont have to pay for? I see everyone making these skins, and it looks really fun... <<S>> thanks


                               -JRjolly

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: potsNpans on January 06, 2010, 08:24:48 PM

A free program that is very capable that I use called Paint.Net. You can down load it free of charge, but you need Net frame 2 or 3  to do that. There are plenty of resources available as is, plus the user community have created many useful plug-in's to make the a very powerful tool. Just do a search of Paint.Net to find out if this will suffice, I believe it will.
    System Requirements for Paint.Net   http://www.getpaint.net/ (http://www.getpaint.net/)
Windows 7 (recommended), or Windows XP SP2
, or Windows Vista, or newer.
800MHz processor (CPU). 512MB RAM. 1024 x 768 screen resolution. .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (free download
from Microsoft).

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: The Fugitive on January 06, 2010, 08:41:02 PM

Gimp is a photoshop clone thats free and does very well also.

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: 5PointOh on January 06, 2010, 09:35:33 PM

It can be fun, yet it a pain in the arse sometimes.  Gimp is pretty good.  It will let you do almost everything Photoshop will

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: Stoney on January 06, 2010, 11:28:55 PM

I use GIMP for everything I do.  Fantastic community allows you to find tutorials and lots of help on how to do things. 

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: jolly22 on January 07, 2010, 05:57:55 PM

I tried GIMP for somethign a while back, for a project....and realized...that it was crazy hard!  would skinning be the same way?

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: 5PointOh on January 07, 2010, 06:34:13 PM

Can be, on my current project there is around 90 layers...I think you must be dedicated and well organized.

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: jolly22 on January 07, 2010, 06:35:56 PM

Then how do you start off Do you use a template? where do you get them?

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: Krusty on January 08, 2010, 12:05:07 AM

You use the default 1024x1024 texture for your template, and trace from that onto new layers (on top of it).

Regardless of the program used, you might find this helpful: a tutorial I put up a while back,

http://www.nakatomitower.com/skins/tutorial.html

(needs updating, but the beginning steps are present)

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: jolly22 on January 09, 2010, 08:41:36 AM

I can't find ANY planes that have a solid 1024X1024 size...Do you the planes off the top of your head?

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: Stoney on January 09, 2010, 08:59:39 AM

Quote from: jolly22 on January 09, 2010, 08:41:36 AM

I can't find ANY planes that have a solid 1024X1024 size...Do you the planes off the top of your head?

Jolly, you didn't read Krusty's tutorial if you're asking that question.  We're more than happy to give you advice when you hit snags, but we're not going to hold your hand.

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: jolly22 on January 09, 2010, 01:42:20 PM

Where do you see what planes are 1024X1024?? I don't see where it says what planes, or an example.

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: Motherland on January 09, 2010, 01:44:02 PM

All of them.
You need to download the HiRes texture pack and set texture resolution to 1024x1024.

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: 5PointOh on January 09, 2010, 01:55:25 PM

Some skins you may have to change to 1024x1024...

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: Krusty on January 09, 2010, 07:14:49 PM

There are about 30-or-so skins that are of "older" standards...

These skins usually look worse graphically, and may default at 256x256 (like the A6Ms, the P-40s, and some other ancient ones). Otherwise, if it's a newer generation of skin, it will have a 1024 default.

Title: Re: Skinning
Post by: 5PointOh on January 09, 2010, 07:23:48 PM

Special note, if you save from the skin viewer, it save as 512x512...