About the brightness and contrast of skins...

[Kweassa]

A while ago, Krusty posted a very valid point on this subject which I think would be worthy of repeating.


 Many of the skins are very excellent in quality, and when looking at the default skins of the upgraded planes I can see that the skinners are getting better and better with each release. A great big kudos to them for their hard work.

 However, like Krusty mentioned, I am also noticing a tendency that the skins are getting darker and darker. Before I got a new monitor, I was also pretty accustomed to using 1.15~1.2 gamma settings for the game, but for skin work I always toned it down to default and submitted the final results according to the contour and brightness of default gamma settings.

 Maybe it's a small overlook on the part of the skinners, or perhaps, maybe they really thought it should be that dark. But without any exaggeration, on a 1.0 default gamma setting it is pretty difficult to makeout and appreciate the subtle features such as mottling patterns and various highlights/shades - which I am sure the skinners took so much time to get it to look right.

 
 So I repeat the prior suggestion: when before submitting a new skin, please, revert the game to 1.0 default gamma and check and see if the tone and brightness, contrast is alright.

[Krusty]

Also, try a gamma correction software or use a calibration image to properly set the bright/contrast of your monitor itself, and/or adjust colors from your 3D card options to set a Windows baseline, then inside AH use 1.0 gamma.

I might be able to hook folks up with the "Adobe Gamma" corrector that came with my (legit) copy of Photoshop 5.0. This is a small screen that lets you adjust gamma, then saves a color correction file. You can then load this profile in your 3d card settings for color correction and it works like a charm. I think it's a simple .cpl file.

[ramzey]

Originally posted by Kweassa
A while ago, Krusty posted a very valid point on this subject which I think would be worthy of repeating.


 Many of the skins are very excellent in quality, and when looking at the default skins of the upgraded planes I can see that the skinners are getting better and better with each release. A great big kudos to them for their hard work.

 However, like Krusty mentioned, I am also noticing a tendency that the skins are getting darker and darker. Before I got a new monitor, I was also pretty accustomed to using 1.15~1.2 gamma settings for the game, but for skin work I always toned it down to default and submitted the final results according to the contour and brightness of default gamma settings.

 Maybe it's a small overlook on the part of the skinners, or perhaps, maybe they really thought it should be that dark. But without any exaggeration, on a 1.0 default gamma setting it is pretty difficult to makeout and appreciate the subtle features such as mottling patterns and various highlights/shades - which I am sure the skinners took so much time to get it to look right.

 
 So I repeat the prior suggestion: when before submitting a new skin, please, revert the game to 1.0 default gamma and check and see if the tone and brightness, contrast is alright.

its not come form alpha settings

whoever is doing skins and use RLM palettes ( or other)  as reference made mistake often done by newbie scale modellers.
For scale modelling paints should be som % lighter then oryginal for diferent scales to look similar to oryginal look.

If you guys remember old AH1, all skins was much more brighter allmost look cartonish  special blue corsairs.
New one looks a lot better

[Kweassa]

whoever is doing skins and use RLM palettes ( or other) as reference made mistake often done by newbie scale modellers.
For scale modelling paints should be som % lighter then oryginal for diferent scales to look similar to oryginal look.

If you guys remember old AH1, all skins was much more brighter allmost look cartonish special blue corsairs.
New one looks a lot better

 A very good point!

 The color tabs and codes from various sources(mostly from modellers) usually correspond to only a specific type of represantation. Usually a certain mix of colors that look proper on a real life model under real lighting conditions, will often look totally different when it is represented in the game, and something else altogether when represented on 2D pictures.

 I'm not so sure if the current skinners made such mistakes (since such mistakes are usually very obvious; with no disrespect to the skinner, the colors of our 'green' La-5FN or 'orange' N1K2s is of such example), since the overall color balance looks very good, and the only problem is the brightness of the overall scheme....

 ...but nevertheless, it should be also a point the skinners should be aware of. Use the color references only as a point to start with, not as an absolute result.