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Post by davjones on Apr 15, 2008 19:47:22 GMT -5
I'm wanting to start on a whole mess of sixties repaints and am looking for shortcuts. Many AI aircraft textures are done in sections and working with these and trying to get each section to line up with the next has given me fits in the past. I know it can be done with enough determination though. My question comes down to this: Has anyone had any success by combining all of the sections into one long .bmp, painting that, and then splitting it back into sections? It probably doesn't matter, but most of the aircraft in question are from CalClassic. My apologies if this has been asked before -- my search technique didn't find anything. Thanks for any help or suggestions! ...Dave Dave Jones Fort McCoy, Florida USA
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Post by chrisP on Apr 15, 2008 20:20:11 GMT -5
imvho, the best way is to align the wireframes... I strongly recommend using layers: it makes the splitting up much easier in the end.
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Post by ElliottD on Apr 16, 2008 10:06:12 GMT -5
I paint for HJG and all of Dee's DC-8s have the fuselage split into 5 sections. The paintkit however is one long PSD. This (as you've rightly realised) makes it alot easier to paint. I do the fuselage, then cut out the 512x256 sections and paste them onto a targa that I save for the actual paint. It would take ALOT of trial and error otherwise. Im not sure what way CalClassic are set up for repaints but it shouldnt be hard to combine textures to allow you to paint in this way (I think )
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Post by davjones on Apr 18, 2008 12:38:38 GMT -5
Thanks for these comments! Couple of things:
First, like Dee's AI DC-8, the CalClassic propliners are split into four or five sections. Not sure if it's all of them or not. And there aren't any paint kits that I know about. To make it even more interesting I've worked with some textures that have a 10% or so overlap (although I don't remember if that applies to CalClassic or not.) So painting is not that easy -- but they sure look great in the end!
Now, if I DO go ahead and combine the sections into one long targa or psd or or bmp or whatever, and strip the paint so it's all white, I guess I'd have the start of a very basic paint kit. But what would be the means for splitting these up at the end of the process? Chris mentioned lining them up on the wire frames, but what are they?
I think I've created a few decent repaints, but to be honest my methods are pretty primitive, and I do rely on trail & error a lot more than I want. And although I've used layers in a pinch, I'm not to the point of being entiely comfortable with it. So I'm at the point of needing better ways of doing things if I'm to do all the repaints I have in mind. My thanks go to Tom Gibson for his help -- and his tutorial -- in getting me started!
...Dave
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Post by ElliottD on Apr 18, 2008 12:57:41 GMT -5
Assuming theres not overlap (which would probably complicate things a bit) it shouldnt be to difficult.
I would combine all the left fuselage sections into one long PSD and the same with the right, then paint over the top of them.
To seperate them all that is required is a bit of simple arithmetic. Take a note of the length of fuselage sections, then subtract it from the length of the full PSD, so you can work out where one starts and another begins.
Merge all the layers, then use the selection tool to select a section of the right size and paste it onto the texture you're going to save.
Hope this helps, I havent been very specific, Ill gladly explain in more detail if you need.
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Post by davjones on Apr 19, 2008 20:31:49 GMT -5
Thanks Elliott!
You pretty much explained it in enough detail and what you've said is already helpful. The one part that isn't quite plain is the bit about merging all the layers after you're finished painiting. Now do you mean layers that you've created for convenience in painting -- say windows & doors for example -- or a layer for each section?
But I'm thinking as I'm typing -- what if you made a layer for each section, and then saved each layer as its own file after you painted it??? Then you'd have it! But I don't know if my graphics program (or any) allows you to do that, and of course any overlap would frustrate the idea.
I think I need to start messing with it -- then maybe I can ask more sensible questions...
...Dave
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Post by ElliottD on Apr 20, 2008 5:32:46 GMT -5
Basically, I save the full left/right side PSD with all the associated layers/vectors in it so I can edit it again if need be. Every paint kit is different but with HJG the fuselage is made up of 5 512x512 squares, so i merge everything in my fuselage side, cut it, then paste it over the top of everything on the square. Assuming all the detail was in your left/right fuselage you should get the right result.
Once again hope thats not too confusing
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Post by davjones on Apr 21, 2008 20:17:32 GMT -5
Okay, I started fooling with the Convair (720 delivery scheme) and made one long psd, and it seems to be working out alright. I've not been able to use the layers very effectively, but that's a more of a limitation of my graphics program.
The worst part is having to split the image back into pieces and then save all four of them just to see what you have. It'll take several iterations of this before I'm done. What I did to make it easier was to put hash marks on the psd to show where each section begins and ends. I'll remove the hash marks at the very end. The simple arithmetic method would surely work also, but this is a little faster IMO.
A quick glance at FS Repaint looks pretty inviting for doing this kind of stuff, but deeper investigation suggests that it would be a waste of money for serious work.
I'll let you know how it goes from here but meanwhile any other suggestions will be welcomed. I have A LOT of work to do. ...Dave
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