My real First try...

[Club508]

I know you guys may find layers helpful, but I just like painting on just the one layer of texture and the alpha channel, that way I can see the entire texture at once so I can know how it will look instead of having to switch through layers and try to imagine what it will look like.  I've created multiple repaints that turned out amazing (in my opinion) (you can look on pg3 of the topic I started to see them), and each one only took me about 30 minutes to use DXTbmp, edit, and put back through DXTbmp and use them in FS due to keeping them down to just the single layer and the alpha.  (sorry if that got confusing)  I'm not really saying you're wrong, I'm just stating my opinion.

[todayshorse]

Interesting reading. Layers really are the key.

I imagine a paintkit to be the following:-

Imagine lets say 10 layers of glass all lined up on top of each other but separated by say a few inches each. The bottom piece of glass is the bare fuselage. The second is the fuselage painted, lets say white for this example. The third is all the lettering, both livery and aircraft name, exits, emergency stuff, you know. The fourth is the windows. The fifth is all the panel lines rivets and doors and so on. The sixth is the weathering, dirt, general aircraft 'muck'. And so forth...

So i want to paint the colour of the fuselage...i pull out piece of glass 2, paint it and put it back. i want to alter the weathering, using contrast, or even multiplying the layers by copying the original and adding more layers of the same effects, which darkens it and defines it more. so i pull out that piece of glass and change it or copy it then put it back.

Once im finished, i can merge all these pieces into one to see the final result. As long as ive saved all my work i can go back and edit some more if im not happy.

Alphas are another matter entirely and i found them most difficult....trail and error trail and error. Try and try again!

Simple really!!! But without layers i don't believe anything realistic is possible without hours of work. Layers makes it easy.

I started by altering reg numbers of the default aircraft then changing the hue of a colour on some textures of a posky 767. I soon realised by the advice of a few on here ( Gary Russell, he was an enormous help to me!) that a multilayered

[garryrussell]

Club 508

When you're painting with layers you're seeing the whole image unless for some reason you want to turn the other layers off :-?

There is never a time where you are painting on a layer and having to imgine how it will look on the paint.

Layers always make it easier and never makes it harder.

At worst you can paint on a new layer over the top of the whole doc just as you would a BMP, but the advantages are that you can be painting on a layer of choice, like the livery layer that is under the detail layer.

[Club508]

Club 508

When you're painting with layers you're seeing the whole image unless for some reason you want to turn the other layers off :-?

There is never a time where you are painting on a layer and having to imgine how it will look on the paint.

Layers always make it easier and never makes it harder.

At worst you can paint on a new layer over the top of the whole doc just as you would a BMP, but the advantages are that you can be painting on a layer of choice, like the livery layer that is under the detail layer.

Oh, never nknew that! to be honest, I've actually never even bothered to try a paintkit or layers.

[garryrussell]

In that case why are you giving bad advice on something you've never bothered to try :-?

[Club508]

In that case why are you giving bad advice on something you've never bothered to try :-?

Correction, just stating what I find easy.

[garryrussell]

Oh, never nknew that! to be honest, I've actually never even bothered to try a paintkit or layers.

No...you said you never bothered as the quote shows, yet  in the post I questioned you speak up for the less useful method backing up up with nonsense comments like about only seeing one layer.

Some might read that and get put off trying.

That is the problem.

[Club508]

There. I made a few edits.

[Capt.Propwash]

i gave up on the this paint anyways.  Patchz was gracious enough to do one for me on the FSX Default Baron 58, so I fly HIS paint instead of my half-ass paint job.  Paint kept spilling all over my .bmps and I didnt know how to clean it up.  oh well.

[garryrussell]

Sorry to here that........but why not have another go

Just start with changing the registration or titles.....then perhaps chage the colour of the striping.

Build up in stages

A lot of folk get put off because they try too hard and jump too far in.

Give it a go, step by step.....you know where to come if you get stuck

Garry

[Capt.Propwash]

striping is not the problem.  its the .BMP that the "texture" is painted on.  certain areas "bleed off of the plane" into open nothingness.  Ill take a pic of it and show it to you.

notice how the red paint "spills" off of the plane above the cockpit and to the left.  THIS is what is putting me off in painting.

Ultimately, I want the top of the Baron 58 to be default red, with a blue stripe dividing the red from the Untouched bottom of the craft. (leave the bottom as it is defaultly painted)  {there is a logo that goes on the tail, but that is simple to put on}

[garryrussell]

You need to create a new layer and make a selection of just the area you want

Make the new layer a 'Multiply' layer and fill the selection with colour.

By being a separate layer you can adjust it without altering the base layer in any way.

[hyperpep111]

What's A paintkit for? People Have painted without them So why are they needed? I'm Really confused :-/


[center]Ren

[garryrussell]

It's usually the maps split into layers which makes it easier ang quicker to do a good job.

[todayshorse]

When painting a real aircraft, they would 'mask' off areas that they didnt want the paint to be on. In the virtual world we cannot do this, so a multilayerd paintkit allows us to paint 'behind' and 'on top' of various parts of the aircraft using a seperate layer for each part of the aircraft, be it the windows, the doors, the rivets and panel lines and so on.

Although we can use selection tools to pick out parts we want to paint also, i thought id better add