Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Films and Screenshots => Topic started by: aknimitz on October 17, 2002, 06:21:52 PM
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Any of you skilled skins gentlemen care to step forward and give a brief tutorial? (or has that already been done)? Is this something that you need be artistically inclined for, or just know what you want and where to put it?
Nim
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Heh, I seem to have seen something about this Looooooooooong ago...
http://www.users.nwark.com/~grimdude/
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aw c'mon voss. making AH skins in POV-RAY would be very impractical. I am a POV fan myself, we're not raytracing "mirror spheres over water" here. this is fairly low res 2d work for which MS paint would be far more appropriate. POV is for photo-realism (http://www.irtc.org/ftp/pub/stills/2000-04-30/gt_city.jpg). ;)
you want to use the right tool for the job, and for this the best way is using a 2d program that can do layers. Something like Photoshop, PaintShop pro, or gimp (http://www.gimp.org)--my choice. Check this tutorial (http://www.sturmovik.com/il2skins.htm) done for IL-2 to get an idea of how the layers get put together.
the easiest way to do it is if someone else puts together a template with panel lines, rivets, dirt and grime on separate layers. Then you just add the base color, insignias, etc on the lower layers. I guess it wouldn't be too long before we start seeing those kind of templates for AH planes. (maybe ND and SF can help out with this :D )
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You can GET a template by converting the original texture to b/w, inverting if needed, and using it as a layer mask.
there are two things you need to know to create skins,
First is how to create a basic terrain, fairly simple, read the help file.
The second is knowing how to use a good graphics program, which is not nearly as simple.
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"get the gimp"
"but the gimp's sleeping"
"then i guess you better go wake 'em up"
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Sancho, there's easy and then there's awesome.
Which do you prefer?
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Nimitz, do you have a three view of the plane you want to work on? Post it.;)
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I dont even know what a three view is :) I am a complete idiot when it comes to computer graphics. I think this post clearly establishes that I do not even need to think of dabbling with skins ;)
Nim
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Since, I don't have web space right now I'll have to make this a multiple post reply.
Well, when I do anything like this I always try to get the best results possible. I usually end up doing much more work then it's worth, but I don't mind and that's all that matters. For those less inclined, this method is probably too involved, but here goes.
To start with you need a 3-view image.
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After I have a 3-view (or more then one usually) I rasterize the image into AutoCad format (.dxf). This can be done with several different utilities available on the internet. Rasterization allows you to import the drawing as a form of plans into your favorite modelling program (in this case TruSpace, although I have them all), so that you can 'build' your model directly over the plans.
Now, for AH I don't know how well the models follow the true lines of the original aircraft, so you would probably need to use the original AH skins as a filter. Still, this is how I plan to go about making skins and creating them with the scale panel lines and such.
Here is the over the plan view as seen in TruSpace following rasterization of two 3-views.
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And finally, here is a 3D model rendering (inside of TruSpace again) of the Prop and Spinner assembly, so that you can see the effect.
The results we have already seen from other users has convinced me that this is a sound approach, but will require effort. I believe the end result will be quite effective.
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damit voss nice p 51 !!! , u made it ?