Heya tenacious,
When I download .res skins and put them in my skins folder, example p51d_3 they dont work. I cant get any .res skins to load. BMP's are OK. Why not?
I assume you are referring to the Skin Viewer here. The skin viewer will only pull up a .bmp file. It is all it was ever designed to do. The .res files are to be read by the AH2 engine, not skin viewer.
Will HTC accept skins for plane models that are not in The Hanger...lets say a BF110E skin painted on a BF110D templete or an FW190a4 skin painted on an FW190a5 b/c HTC doesnt have a Bf110e or 190a4 to paint them on but their airframes are about the same?
It has been accepted in the past but the difference in the models were generally internal (engine, ect.) Call or E-Mail Skuzzy at HTC to ask about a specific model you are thinking about doing.
How do you create templates....some guys have 2 page templates or different layouts on their templetes...are there any good links or info on this?
2 page templates are the old models that have not been updated yet. As the models become modernized, they become a single 1024x1024 graphic. In the most basic of outlines to create a template...
o Have the original .bmp as the background.
o Next Layer..White paint over the surfaces you will be skinning.
o Next Layer..Black Lines, 1 pixel thick, to make the panel lines.
o Next Layer..Black pencil dots to create the rivets.
After those layers are complete, you have a template.
The best advice to give when starting out in skinning is to just dig in with both hands. The learning curve is steep but you have a lot of resources here to help you along the way. Use the forum search feature to find previous topics that cover your questions. For those that do not answer the question, bring it here.
Look through AHSkins.com - Simmerspaintshop.com for example templates and tutorials on specifics of skinning. Lots of good stuff out there.
ReDhAwK
