Can somebody help me with some questions about skins.

ThatRacingGuy · Dec 14, 2015

Hi all.

First of all.

This is my first experience with making skins for cars in any (Sim) Game.

I don't want to pay for Adobe Photoshop so i installed GIMP and Paint.NET (Free Photoshop Programs)

So After installing some plugins on paint.NET To open The PSD Templates.

I started to paint some simple lines just to see if it worked In-Game.

I Noticed that those lines are really shiney.

How Can this be caused?

Please help so i can finally start skinning some cars at me own.

Thanks.

Tume · Dec 14, 2015

You can adjust the shinyness by utilizing alpha layers/channels (don't have experience on them in GIMP, sorry) https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-alpha-add.html

You don't have to control the shinyness for the whole painting area, you can in fact make other parts more shiny than others. Black means minimum shine and white maximum. That is, if you want to mix the shines, but if you don't, just go for a darker color in the channel.

ThatRacingGuy · Dec 15, 2015

Tume said:
You can adjust the shinyness by utilizing alpha layers/channels (don't have experience on them in GIMP, sorry) https://docs.gimp.org/en/gimp-layer-alpha-add.html

You don't have to control the shinyness for the whole painting area, you can in fact make other parts more shiny than others. Black means minimum shine and white maximum. That is, if you want to mix the shines, but if you don't, just go for a darker color in the channel.

Is there something like this for Paint.NET to?

Tume · Dec 15, 2015

gilles13 said:
Is there something like this for Paint.NET to?

Did I quick Google search and found there's a plugin for Paint.NET named Alpha mask (seesh, 3rd term for the same thing

) but not 100% sure if it's the same thing. Absolutely no experience on Paint.NET.

Tume · Dec 15, 2015

Oh, and more thing I forgot to mention, once you're finished with the alpha channel and are about to export the skin as .dds, HIDE the channel (so that it's invisible). At least that's how it worked with rFactor...then obviously upon saving choose a saving format with alpha included.

ThatRacingGuy · Dec 17, 2015

Tume said:
Did I quick Google search and found there's a plugin for Paint.NET named Alpha mask (seesh, 3rd term for the same thing ) but not 100% sure if it's the same thing. Absolutely no experience on Paint.NET.

MMM i've added the alpha mask plugin thing but i didn't have any affect.

Any other ideas??

Tume · Dec 17, 2015

gilles13 said:
MMM i've added the alpha mask plugin thing but i didn't have any affect.

Any other ideas??

Could you elaborate? That doesn't tell all of it...

But do note some cars may not have alpha channels at all, so if all the other kart skins shine too alpha channel won't work.

But I'd wanna hear more, how exactly did you do it?

ThatRacingGuy · Dec 17, 2015

Tume said:
Could you elaborate? That doesn't tell all of it...

But do note some cars may not have alpha channels at all, so if all the other kart skins shine too alpha channel won't work.

But I'd wanna hear more, how exactly did you do it?

Ok.

Like i said.
These are my first karting skins.

I wanted to skins some international karting skins, like Birel, CRG, Kosmic, Intrepid.

But due to my lack of talent in skinning car i searched Stickersets from these brands.

(These are karting stickersets. )

I did the basic thing to paint the templates.

I just cut the bumper out of the picture and pasted it into shape on the template

.
I know it aint the prettiest way to skin but i does the job for now.

I just save it as a DDS.
And as a DXT5.

And that's about it.

Tume · Dec 17, 2015

@gilles13 So yeah, you didn't do what I said then. You merely installed the plugin but did nothing with it...read my original post and try again. ^^

ThatRacingGuy · Dec 17, 2015

Tume said:
@gilles13 So yeah, you didn't do exactly what I said then. Read my original post and try again. ^^

Sorry i'm not really a computer geek when it comes to photo editing programms so could you please explain in a easier way?

Thanks

Tume · Dec 17, 2015

gilles13 said:
Sorry i'm not really a computer geek when it comes to photo editing programms so could you please explain in a easier way?

Thanks

Well I said you need to go into the alpha channel and color it darker so it would decrease the shiny-ness...you installed the plugin yes but you didn't use it. You need to add the alpha channel(mask) separately, like you would do with a regular layer. Once you've added it, make it darker and then hide it and save the skin as DDS. Oh, and when I said color I was referring to how pros would precisely do it, but you can just make the entire channel entirely black to see the effects, then make it brighter if needed.

ThatRacingGuy · Dec 17, 2015

Tume said:
Well I said you need to go into the alpha channel and color it darker so it would decrease the shiny-ness...you installed the plugin yes but you didn't use it. You need to add the alpha channel(mask) separately, like you would do with a regular layer. Once you've added it, make it darker and then hide it and save the skin as DDS. Oh, and when I said color I was referring to how pros would precisely do it, but you can just make the entire channel entirely black to see the effects, then make it brighter if needed.

But where can i find the alpha layer?

Tume · Dec 17, 2015

gilles13 said:
But where can i find the alpha layer?

Sorry, still no experience on Paint.NET. Search around the web and the program, you'll find it...

ThatRacingGuy · Dec 17, 2015

Tume said:
Sorry, still no experience on Paint.NET. Search around the web and the program, you'll find it...

Well ok then,..

Big thanks though

You really helped me.

i know what to look for now

Tume · Dec 17, 2015

gilles13 said:
Well ok then,..

Big thanks though

You really helped me.

i know what to look for now

Np, sorry for being unclear. Just know you always need to add it separately ^^' Then hide when you'll export the skin

kedy89 · Dec 17, 2015

I used paint.net for a short time a few years back. Remember the alpha mask plugin, but never figured out how it works. If it does at all that is, as opening tga files with alpha channel and saving them in paint.net always made the alpha white.

Gimp can handle alphas without plugin, can't explain how to work with them there though as I also no longer use Gimp. Seem to remember you have to go from layers to channel view (or was it called mask?), then edit the alpha. Wasn't white->black though, but transparent->black iirc.

Photoshop CS2 is freeware for a while now, you can download it on adobe's website after registering.