|
Post by jafo777 on Aug 20, 2006 8:57:19 GMT -5
generally, how long does it take to paint an airplane??, is there a program you need to do it?? can an average guy like me that doesn't know much about comp. do it???just interested who love to be able to paint, and i have to say i start with the aardvark md-80 retro's,, any replies welcome.
|
|
|
Post by Christian Page, RAI on Aug 20, 2006 10:25:04 GMT -5
Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop make it easier because the can handle the layers in the paintkits, but you can do repaints with only the Windows Paint program all Windows-based machines come with. Paint Shop Pro I know offers a 30-day free trial that you can download, and then buy if you like it - it's not terribly expensive, about $80, as I recall. Software prices elude me sometimes, because of who I work for, I don't really pay for any, so I could be way off. You will need a program called DXTBmp, which is freeware, and allows you to convert DXT1 or DXT3 textures to BMP files you can paint and back - you completed paints have to be in the DXT format in order to show up on most AI planes. For some of the older files, there's another program called TXT2BMP (I think that's the name) that does the same thing - both are found on Avsim or Flightsim.com. Painiting is easy, but it takes practice. Go for it - it's worth the effort, and if you run into problems, many here have been doing it for over a decade, going back to FS5, so there's plenty of experience hanging around.
|
|
|
Post by brentblackburn on Aug 20, 2006 11:07:11 GMT -5
generally, how long does it take to paint an airplane??, is there a program you need to do it?? can an average guy like me that doesn't know much about comp. do it???just interested who love to be able to paint, and i have to say i start with the aardvark md-80 retro's,, any replies welcome. As Kris says, PSP is quite good for doing repaints. I don't have any experience with Photoshop, but I assume that one is just fine, too. A good paint program will allow you to utilize logos and text from scans such as those at Airliners.net,, to incorporate into your repaints. I'm using PSP 7. A typical repaint presently takes me approximately an hour, on average, by the time I make whatever revisions are necessary after loading up FS9 a few times to take a look in the aircraft selection menu. But that's after doing a couple hundred of them at this point. It takes practice to develop your own method for doing them most efficiently. I can knock out an Aardvark DC-9 in 15 minutes, but that's because I have so many "master" paintkit files I can cut and paste what I might need (i.e., "white" and "metal" parts of the fusilage) from any of the previous ones I've done. Then the only real work that remains is doing the cheatline, a title, and the tail, and adding any extra details. Fortunately, the paintkits are very user friendly in this regard--you can add a cheatline in just a few clicks of the mouse, for example. The Aardvark 737-200s and 727's are more work for me because the paintkit is structured differently, and you have to transfer your work from the paintkit to a template which houses the BMP which is actually used. Those probably take a good couple of hours from start to finish, once you get in the rhythm of it. I learned this the hard way--to keep repaints from looking blurry in FS9, I use DXTBMP to 1) create an alpha channel, and 2) save as an extended BMP without Mip Maps (uncheck that box). That discovery came through lots of trial and error.
|
|
|
Post by Christian Page, RAI on Aug 20, 2006 19:39:03 GMT -5
Adding on - Photoshop is really not a "newbie" program, it's rather complicated and frustrating in comparison to Paint Shop Pro. There is one area, however, where I believe Photoshop has a distinct advantage over PSP, and that is in resizing detailed images - such as logos or titles. I use PSP for the primary repainting, but if I have to resize a detailed object, I'll do that in Photoshop and then paste it into PSP. I've been using PSP since 1999 - Version 5 originally, now using Version 7 - I'm quite pleased with it, it's easy to pick up, even if you've never used it before. You might also want to check out the tutorials Tom Gibson has on his site - www.calclassic.com - they are centered on PSP and give a lot of insight into creating alpha channels, light effects, etc. Tom has launched many a repainter's career - I know it was his old Classic Airliners site that inspired me in the first place and he gave me several pointers back in the "old days".
|
|
swag
Ramp Rat
Posts: 37
|
Post by swag on Aug 22, 2006 2:52:52 GMT -5
I'd suggest having a look at GIMP at www.gimp.org/. It's free and pretty good.
|
|
|
Post by Mike on Nov 29, 2006 12:28:12 GMT -5
I too need a few pointers on how to repaint an aircraft for AI use. I only have MSPaint and DXTBMPX on my PC. What else is necessary to repaint?
Mike
|
|
|
Post by Dee Waldron - HJG on Nov 29, 2006 22:09:36 GMT -5
Time, patients and willingness to experiment.
|
|
|
Post by Mike on Nov 30, 2006 16:25:54 GMT -5
I was just trying to find out whether one can re-paint with just these programs or not?
|
|
|
Post by jetstar on Dec 3, 2006 6:46:17 GMT -5
I was just trying to find out whether one can re-paint with just these programs or not? Hi Mike. Only if it is an old paint kit without layers. MS paint cannot handle PSP layers. All new paint kits are layered. If you get some of the old AIA paint kits they do include non layered BMPs for painting but none of the new kits do. Hope that helps Paul
|
|
|
Post by jafo777 on Jan 7, 2007 1:15:02 GMT -5
well anybody out there willing to make money,if there a good painter make we can work out a deal, i'd like to see alot of repaints come along, let me know
|
|