Skinning

[carrick58 23]

Well I am going to try it ( Skins)

 

If I understand correctly , there are a number of Steps. 1. from the game: take and a/c template, copy to Gimp ( Graphics Tool) Follow instructions for skinning numbers to profile. ( Skinners Paint Shop)

Place new template back in game. Does this procedure sound right ? Any Help or Advice, I would appreciate . Thanks,

[Olham 164]

Well, I think someone wrote a tutorial for that in the skinning section, Carrick - you should have a look there.

 

http://combatace.com/forum/212-off-photoshop-and-paint-shop-help-for-skinning-and-3d-modeling/

 

To get to the skins and for browsing through them, I recommend IRFANVIEW, a free download program.

You can go through all the ace skins as well as the default basic squadron skins.

 

If you found one you like to use, save it to Desktop as a bmp file.

Now you can open this with any graphic program.

 

When you have finished your work, you need to save it as a .dds file. For that, I use the free program "DXTBmp".

Install that, and then open your skin BMP file, and save as DDS-format DXT1.

 

Now you can throw it back into the big pot here:

 

CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields > campaigns > CampaignData > skins

 

Good luck!

[carrick58 23]

Thanks, Here goes nothing

[Olham 164]

How do you mean?

[Burning Beard 14]

Olham, you speak English so well that no one would think an old idiom would trip you up. "Here goes nothing" is just an expression that means, I'll give it a try.

 

Beard

[von Baur 54]

Rule #1 of "Skin Club" is listen to Olham.

 

Rule #2 of "Skin Club" is...LISTEN TO OLHAM!!!

 

 

With as many as he's done and the quality of all of them, if he suggests it, do it.

[NS13Jarhead 6]

Rule #3 of "Skin Club" is you don't talk about "Skin Club"

[carrick58 23]

23 skid do and Tyler Too

 

We are The last of the Mohicans

 

He was" Gas Lighting " her to believe wrongly

 

It was the" Cats Meow"

 

It certainly was " High Time "

 

Its " Boss "

Edited February 22, 2012 by carrick58

[Bullethead 12]

Well I am going to try it ( Skins)

 

If I understand correctly , there are a number of Steps. 1. from the game: take and a/c template, copy to Gimp ( Graphics Tool) Follow instructions for skinning numbers to profile. ( Skinners Paint Shop)

Place new template back in game. Does this procedure sound right ? Any Help or Advice, I would appreciate . Thanks,

 

Well, how goes it so far?

 

There are 2 main paths to follow when making a skin:

 

1. If your graphics editor can work on DDS files directly, then copy any existing skin to a new name, make whatever changes you want, save it, copy it to the appropriate folder, and then select the skin in the game.

 

2. If your graphics editor doesn't do DDS files, then you need to convert the DDS file to something like a BMP. Because BMPs don't really support multiple layers, you then need to open the BMP file in your graphics editor and save it as its native file type, so you can use all the editor's features. Once you've done that, save it as a BMP, convert it back to DDS, put it in the appropriate folder, and select it in the game.

 

Note that the skin you copy from the game is basically good only to show you where the various parts of the airplane are on the overall graphic. You have to make your own template using the original skin as a guide. By template, I mean getting all the ribs, panel lines, openings for control cables, etc., set up. Once you've got that, it's a simple matter to apply a new paintjob to the template you've just made. This is why you often see multiple paintjobs for the same airplane type by the same skinner. 90% of the work in making a skin is creating your own template. Once you've got that, it's all easy.

 

However, if you're only making a minor change to an existing skin (adding a personal symbol, applying winter cammo, etc.), then you don't have to go to all this trouble. Just draw your stuff on top of the existing skin.

[RAF_Louvert 101]

.

 

23 skid do and Tyler Too

 

Umm, Carrick, it's "23 Skidoo. Oh, you kid!" and "Tippecanoe and Tyler too."

 

 

Now back to our regularly scheduled Skin Club.

 

.

[Olham 164]

Olham, you speak English so well that no one would think an old idiom would trip you up. "Here goes nothing" is just an expression that means, I'll give it a try.

 

Beard

Thank you, BBeard. Well, when it comes to idioms, it gets difficult. I only know a few.

Like "there's a fly in the ointment" - in German we say (translated): "There is a hook attached to that thing".

Tricky!

 

Thank you guys, but as for skinning, Gous and several others have done so much more over at the skinning site,

where I never am. I make skins for the community, but those guys really wrote tutorials.

 

.

Edited February 22, 2012 by Olham

[sandbagger 1]

Hi all,

During a break in skinning for OFF2, I started a 'Skinner's Guide', which when completed will be a PDF document giving step by step instructions on skinning OFF aircraft.

It will contain text and associated illustrations and should cover basic introductions, software and it's use plus Chapters devoted to creating a starting texture file, adding layers, detailing to final testing in-game.

 

As you can imagine it'll take time to complete and right now I'm tweaking all of the Sopwith Camels for OFF2 - so don't hold your breath.

 

I will let you all know when it's ready to download and where it can be obtained.

[carrick58 23]

Tippecanoe, Forgot about him ! How about " Its the Bees Knees" or" Beat me daddy to the Bar. " I know a lot of Idiots.

 

Bullethead: I installed and ran Irfanview then collected 3 templates from the game . I was able to transfer and install on Gimp. That when the templates hit the Fan, I downloaded a collection of emblems and numbers to add to the basic skin, but they don't seem to transfer I added a layer on the template and used the Paintbrush and bucket but the effects were terrible. I will try again later and see what develops.

 

Thanks everyone I do appreciate the help and advice.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Hi all,

During a break in skinning for OFF2, I started a 'Skinner's Guide', which when completed will be a PDF document giving step by step instructions on skinning OFF aircraft.

It will contain text and associated illustrations and should cover basic introductions, software and it's use plus Chapters devoted to creating a starting texture file, adding layers, detailing to final testing in-game.

 

As you can imagine it'll take time to complete and right now I'm tweaking all of the Sopwith Camels for OFF2 - so don't hold your breath.

 

I will let you all know when it's ready to download and where it can be obtained.

 

That will be a Bible Sandbagger!!!!....I'm looking forward to that, like I am OFF2!!!!! :drinks:

 

Rule #1 of "Skin Club" is listen to Olham.

 

Rule #2 of "Skin Club" is...LISTEN TO OLHAM!!!

 

 

With as many as he's done and the quality of all of them, if he suggests it, do it.

 

Ah yes..The beauty of being a Graphics maestro!

[DukeIronHand 8]

I would recommend PaintNET instead of Gimp.

 

Much easier to use to me.

 

It's the cats pajamas.

[carrick58 23]

I got a lot done but cant seem to get the template back in the game. Copy from Gimp ( reads bitmap ) then OFF Icon ( right Click ) on the Desk Top -location of files-Campaigns -Campaign Data - Skins then I tryed to pate, it didnt work.. Maybe it should be a dds file or JPEG ? Thanks from a want be Skin Clubber.

 

I would recommend PaintNET instead of Gimp.

 

Much easier to use to me.

 

It's the cats pajamas.

 

I will try Paint Net next. Thanks

[Olham 164]

Ah yes..The beauty of being a Graphics maestro!

Thank you guys, and cheers!

No wonder I can use Photoshop quite well - it's my job.

Please have a look at the skinning site, guys - there are other skinners, who wrote helpfull stuff down there;

skinners like Gous, RAF_Louvert, Widowmaker, Bullethead, BurningBeard and others more.

Edited February 23, 2012 by Olham

[nbryant 8]

Damn you Carrick!

 

After reading your post I dug up a SPAD template I had been constructing and spent 3 hours on it again last night...... and I am not anywhere near done. It has a gazillion layers already and I haven't begun to add markings and paint!

[carrick58 23]

Ha Ha Ho Ho

 

Nbryant : U kinda get the Bug Hun? As for me, I did switch to Paint Net and it does seem to have less steps. However, my skins still dont come out right.. I found the way to put the skins in the game then bad things happen The whole skin is Dark ( Its not like that in the Template) and in quick combat (OFF) when u scroll down to see the aircraft skin i.e., N-17 or Early mode Albatros D III theirs the letters Pdn after the name ( I never saw that before) I didnt put it there. I will try again later kinda puzzled right now.

Edited February 23, 2012 by carrick58

[DukeIronHand 8]

I am hardly a pro here...mainly modifying existing skins...but it sounds like your work is not being saved correctly? I.e., in the correct format?

 

Edit: In reading another of your posts yes you definitely need to save in .dds format.

With PaintNET I work and save in a .bmp format.

When it is finally done I use PaintNET to convert to .dds and viola.

Edited February 23, 2012 by DukeIronHand

[Burning Beard 14]

The trick is, once you have the skin the way you like it and the proper size, save it as a bmp. Then open it in DTXBmp and the save it as a dds texture. You should save it to some name like OFF_SPAD13_ace_t_US94_Ben Jones_Zig Zag.dds, as you can see the name can be very long but just look at the name of a plane similar to the one you are doing and make sure it is the same up to and through _t_ then it should show up. Make sure the file is in the skins folder in the campaigns/campaign data folder.

 

Beard

[Olham 164]

Carrick and all - if you save the skins, you should keep the name like it was written for OFF,

with only the addition of your pilot name - like this example:

 

Name of the default skin in OFF: off_Alb_DIII_early_t_Jasta 15 1917.dds

 

My own name for the personal skin: off_Alb_DIII_early_t_Jasta 15 1917 Olham.dds

 

If you have finished a skin, you must save it as a BMP (24 bit).

I recommend to reduce the work to one layer before.

(Save the work with the layers first, so you keep them for changes; then reduce to one layer

and save it to desktop as a BMP 24bit.)

This BMP-file must now be converted to a DXT1 file. Select the correct filetype: DDS DXT1 (NoAlpha)

See my example here, screenshots from DXTBmp:

 

 

Edited February 23, 2012 by Olham

[sandbagger 1]

Carrick and all - if you save the skins, you should keep the name like it was written for OFF,

with only the addition of your pilot name - like this example:

 

Name of the default skin in OFF: off_Alb_DIII_early_t_Jasta 15 1917.dds

 

My own name for the personal skin: off_Alb_DIII_early_t_Jasta 15 1917 Olham.dds

 

If you have finished a skin, you must save it as a BMP (24 bit).

I recommend to reduce the work to one layer before.

(Save the work with the layers first, so you keep them for changes; then reduce to one layer

and save it to desktop as a BMP 24bit.)

This BMP-file must now be converted to a DXT1 file. Select the correct filetype: DDS DXT1 (NoAlpha)

See my example here, screenshots from DXTBmp:

 

 

 

Hi Guys,

Save the bmp file in DXTbmp as 'DXT1' (not as DXT1 no alpha). Also when you open a bmp in DXTbmp, open as 'extended bmp'. When saving your 'merged' single layer texture file, save as 'OS/Windows bmp'.

Edited February 23, 2012 by sandbagger

[carrick58 23]

I did it. It takes awhile to get it right. U can barly see it ( the # 6 on the top wings) Thanks fellows I will be trying (over the weeks) camo and last painting.

 

[carrick58 23]

I did a second one with numbers on the tail then filled in with white color and " Waa- La " a nice little rectangle on the Tail of the S E Viper. Found some good number downloads at simmers paint shop. But where to fine the different looking numbers the French painted on their a/c ?