How do I create Paint-Kit from scratch

[ronh]

I have pictures of an aircraft I am trying to model. I have created the basic gmax model and I would like to give it some textures.

The wings, rudder, fin and horizontal stabilizer don't seem too difficult (I maybe in for a surprise). It's the fuselage. I have side views and top views and bottom views etc.

Can anyone suggest how to make a paint kit? Should I try to combine the pictures into one texture say the left and right halves of the fuselage with the top, side and bottom all connected as one texture. Should I try to split the textures as top side and bottom and apply them separately?

Is there a way to flatten out my gmax model fuselage into a template I can use to fit my photos to?

Any help/suggestions appreciated. The only thing I have done is apply bmp textures to scenery items like apartment building and houses. Nice and square and simple.

 

[lionheart]

Hey Ron,

I use screenshots. As a matter of fact, you can save your project as a special, like mapping, then go in and cut the fuselage apart into top/bottom/sides. Then hide all but one piece, screenshot it, paste into your new fuselage material. Do this will all sides/areas.

What I do so that only the 'fuselage' is in the layer, is to crop the area down to the edges of the screen-shot of the fuselage. Then I use magic-wand selector and click on the gray around the fuselage, and delete that also. Then I have 'just' a side, or top, or bottom. I repeat until all area's of the fuselage are in there.

Then I move them all around and join 'only those' layers into one. Then I lock it, and map it to the fuselage in a 'normal' level save. I now create proper color/shading zones on top of that layer.

Also, if you photograph/screenshot the parts of the fuselage with the Mesh being visible, you can use that as a helper when mapping the texture/material back onto the planes fuse.

Also, alot of guys make their materials 2048 in size (double the usual) and then compress the final bitmaps (not the PSD's) down to 1024 or smaller later when testing in FS. This way your resolution of art is immense and rich.

I use the 'screenshot' method massively now. I'll hold down Shift and drag out a copy of the part away from the plane, go to the view that I need, like side, etc, capture a screenshot, delete the part, then paste into a new layer in the texture in the graphics program, crop it, adjust it into the texture, done.. You can do dozens of parts in perhaps min's this way. (The main idea is to crop away ALL gray or black 'surrounding' area's from the part so you can scrunch it up against other parts in the texture layers). Then now and then, weld sellected layers together (such as parts for landing gear, etc) so they are their 'own' layer. I will 'always' keep shading though and other detail layers (which can be adjusted for different colors later) keeping those all seperate and thus infinitely adjustable.

Here is a 4 sided texture sample of the Bucker Bestmann. This has the top/bottom/left/right. Note that I only needed one side for the left and right, then drag down a copy. However, with assymetrical door sets, you may wish to do a left and right seperate mesh screenshot set.

Note the panel lines that I 'tried' to align so they would cascade down from top view to belly view in alignment.. I mapping wasnt 100% perfect, so they still had to be aligned later in making panel lines. But when mapping, I sought to make those all line up (using the mesh lines from the model to map back onto itself). This is something the greats use like Milton. Then make your base colors on the next upper levels on the master texture.

Notes for handling primary master textures; keep copies somewhere in case you accidentally compress all layers or accidentally make it smaller, like 1024. This way you have a fall back. Always keep your bottom 'mesh' layers so you can locate the windows and door lines later when refining/finishing various liveries.


Hope that helps,

Bill
LHC

 

[lionheart]

Here is a close screenshot of those rib panel lines on the Bucker Bestmann. Note that the lines continue up accross sides over the top texture. You cant see where they meet because I went bizerko getting them aligned. I would bounce back and fourth from Gmax to Photoshop, moving the lines 'pixel' moves at a time until they were just right. Takes patience, but it feels good when its done.

Then, leave them as a upper layer in your master texture, and in making other liveries, all your panel lines are pre-done and all you need to do is make the under layer base color changes, and adjust shading darkness/opacity for the new color hues..

Bill

 

[ronh]

Bill,

WOW, thanks for this detail. Look's like I'll have to go seclude myself for a week and digest this.

Very nice job on the model. I am beginning to appreciate the time and effort required to do this stuff.

I'll try your suggestion. It will fit the way my project is structured.

Thanks again.

 

[lionheart]

Hey Ron,

No worries. I love helping out and if you have questions, just let me know.

It looks complicated at first with paint kits/master textures, but once you learn that its just 'one layer at a time' (sort of like 'one day at a time') then with patience, you learn all the bits.

Basically, screenshot the mesh, map it back onto itself, then create layers, starting with base color, panel lines, rivets if any, exhaust openings and things, chips and dents, mud if any, scrapes and chippies if any (not on new planes), shading, highlights, and before you know it, its done.

But for now, you only need to worry about mesh and base coat layers (2).

By the way, I learned alot on mapping from Fr. Bill, and from doing chippies and scratches (wear) I learned from the many tutorials at Simmerspaintshop.com. Great bunch of painters there. Enormous info.


Bill