Simviation Forums

OK, I have been using a tutorial to try and repaint a plane for the first time.  It says to start by making the window stripe and I did that but I find myself covering up the seams of the plane.  Do I have to make a layer of the seams and rivits and all that stuff (if so how) or can I simply make them show through the stripe on the plane?  Here's the page of the tutorial I'm refering too, about a third of the way down it describes how to make the window stripe-how do I make it so all the seams show through?  

http://www.calclassic.com/repaint2.htm

Thanks

Okay, let's start from the top.

What paint program are you using?

PSP7.  I thought I said that, lol.  

Alright.  Start with finding everything that is necessary for the texture, such as rivets, windows, and such and isolating them.  Make that a new layer on your texture, and after you have everything that matters, simply delete the old texture from the picture.  Now just paint over what you have, making the layers "multiply" over the others.  This will keep the prevalent parts on the texture, but change the overall appearence of the image.

I hope this made sense.  I've been to the pub tonight, so I might not be in the best form! (dumb-fool grin).

How would I issolate the seams and rivets?  I have isolated the windows and door edges by using the magic wand and creating a new layer with them on it.  Unfortuantely, I couldn't get this to work for the seams-they seemed to small to highlight with the magic wand.  I'm very new to PSP and I'm kind of stuck on this part.  If it helps, I'm trying to repaint the default FS2004 737, and I'm trying to use the default "American Pacific Airways" livery and repaint it to be an old United Airlines scheme.  Anyway, once I get the seams and rivets isolated (eventually   ) How would I get the seams and rivets to be the right color without painting over them?

First off, the default 2k4 737 is most likely just the one from 2k2 with a couple of extra lines in the aircraft.cfg, in which case you should be able to use any paint scheme from 2k2 in 2k4 on it.  I am not positive about that, but it seems awfully likely.  There might also be a painting template for that aircraft out somewhere.  I would search several FS sites, looking for 737 painting template.

Second, use the zoom feature that is part of the arrow tool to get a better view of the stuff you're working on.  Zoom in to about 3:1 or 4:1 and that will give you an easier time of isolating the rivets and such.

After you eventually do get the stuff isolated, select one certain part of the aircraft's rivets and seams and stuff that should all be the same color.  Now go up to where it says "colors" in the menu bar and select "Adjust" and then "Red/Green/Blue".  Now start fiddling with the values that come up in the viewbox.  The view on the left is what the picture looks like now.  The view on the right is what the picture will look like if you apply the settings you have entered.  Once you have the colors right, just click "OK" and it will be applied to only what you have selected.

Now, keep in mind: everything I have just told you is from a slightly older version of PSP, so it may not be the same as PSP 7.  If not, I would suggest looking at the repainting tutorial in my signature.