rFactor 2 Skinning Tutorial Using GIMP and Inkscape Freeware

[Paul Jeffrey]

rFactor 2 community member Sven Hielscher aka FuNK! has created a wonderfully composed tutorial for those interested in skinning cars using free software GIMP and Inkscape.

Many community members (myself included) have an interest in creating our own custom skins for our favourite sim cars but simply don't know where to start. Many are put off by the often confusing information available on the internet or simply concerned that expensive software packages are required to create that perfect paint job.

In response to a fellow ISI community member asking for some help with his own project, FuNK! has put together this interesting and informative step by step tutorial to aid anyone who wishes to make the jump into the world of car painting in rFactor 2.

Great news for the cost conscious members of the sim racing world, Sven's tutorial document makes use of the free to download and use GIMP and Inkscape programmes, allowing literally anyone to access the tools and knowledge required to make their own virtual paint schemes in game.

The PDF booklet is available to download here.

Well done Sven, items like this are what help make sim racing and the sim racing community such an excellent and enjoyable place to go racing !

Check out the many mods on offer for rFactor 2 here at RaceDepartment as well as our community created car setups and popular online Club Racing scene.

rFactor 2 is a high end Sim Racing title from Image Space Incorporated. Check our the rFactor 2 forum here on RaceDepartment for all the latest news and discussions. Join in with the community and share your thoughts and opinions on this racing simulator.


Do you create skins for rFactor or any other PC racing title? Has this tutorial helped you? New to painting and fancy learning how? Want some community advice? Share your comments, thoughts and opinions below!

 

[Grand Tourist]

Been painting with GIMP2.8 from the very beginning in Assetto Corsa using Bailey's guide to start off. It takes one 6 months to a year to fully completely understand all features, possibilities and learning all necessary skills using this wonderful program. The authors and their entourage can be viewed here : https://www.gimp.org/about/authors.html.
Their work is invaluable to the painting community and tutorial pioniers like Bailey and @Sven Hielscher are necessary and of high importance for starters skin modders (like me once) who want to develop into true livery designers for sim racing games. These guys are heroes in these communities. And worth to mention....completely free of any charge. I say THANK you for bringing me to where I am now. RESPECT

 

[Hsmmer]

wtf

The NEWS ITEM is about FuNK ! and rF2

Not about you and AC

Nice tutorial mate !

 

[Grand Tourist]

wtf

The NEWS ITEM is about FuNK ! and rF2

Not about you and AC

Nice tutorial mate !

You need to learn to read, and respect isn't your strong point either I guess??!!

 

[Sven Hielscher]

Thank you so much for featuring my tutorial here!
And thank you guys for your kind words too! It's really a pleasure for me giving something back to the community

I'm just wondering how Inkscape has got such a prominent position I've just stated that you can use it for general designing of shapes and designs but not add any description how to do that but if nobody complains...

@all Please tell me if you have any hints or wishes for improvements of this tutorial

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Thank you so much for featuring my tutorial here!

No worries Sven, it looks like an excellent piece of work

I've not had an opportunity yet to spend any serious time with it, but the plan is to dedicate some spare time this weekend and see how I go!

Thank you again for making this, I'm sure many folks will find it a very usefull item indeed

 

[Rui F. Martins]

great, i really needed a tutorial like this, looks like i wil have some reading and experimenting to do

 

[Jempy]

Nice tutorial, Sven ... for the ones who have absolutely no idea how it works to paint their own skins or/and reproduce skins of real racing cars.

Precious starting point when wishing to become a skinner. ....
I remember my own case when I began ...and was very happy to have helping hands ( or helping texts ) at this time. ( remembering for ex. the "How To Skin Cars the_Free Way" done by KarlosDaJackal for Race07 ).

Gimp2 is a marvelous and rather intuitive software ...

If you wished to add some details to this already well done tutorial, maybe I'd add the use of the 'Path' utilility ... as it is so practical for some more developed design with curves for example.

But I know ... your guide here is just a starting point.... and there are so many things in Gimp one learns with time.

Thanks for all the learning painters.

 

[Sven Hielscher]

Nice tutorial, Sven ... for the ones who have absolutely no idea how it works to paint their own skins or/and reproduce skins of real racing cars.

Yeah it was meant for those having no idea where to start but it should give the more advanced a chance to start later in the tutorial too Am really happy you like it!

Precious starting point when wishing to become a skinner. ....
I remember my own case when I began ...and was very happy to have helping hands ( or helping texts ) at this time. ( remembering for ex. the "How To Skin Cars the_Free Way" done by KarlosDaJackal for Race07 ).

Yes! I liked that tutorial too. In the end they are very similar as only the target game is (slightly ) different.

If you wished to add some details to this already well done tutorial, maybe I'd add the use of the 'Path' utilility ... as it is so practical for some more developed design with curves for example.

But I know ... your guide here is just a starting point.... and there are so many things in Gimp one learns with time.

It definitely is and was thought as a starting point but I already have got some input on things I think I should add in the next version:

• Design a Skin with Inkscape and transfer it to GIMP
• Usage of the Path Tool
• Preparation of Logos from the Web (with Inkscape + GIMP)
• Tips & Tricks on how to build typical racing livery items (e.g. number plates)

 

[Jempy]

Not much time free these days, Sven ... but you opened my curiosity to discover Inkscape of which I even didn't know the name yet until your tutorial !

But it'll have to wait ... still too many skins to paint for a huge GTR2 mod.
Sorry it is out of topic. ... but finally skinning remains skinning ... that's just the target changing as you said above.

 

[Matt Horst]

I have made a car skin ok but i seem to have problems with the windows.They either is no change from default skin or the window is blank with nether my skin i made or the default.It would be helpful if there was an example of how the file should look,were it goes ect.Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

 

[Sven Hielscher]

Inkscape is a blast! It's the Adobe Illustrator of the poor but wise men

I'm really wondering how it's possible that so many people are able to own Photoshop (approx. 300€/year currently), Illustrator (approx. the same) and 3D Studio Max (approx. 1300€/year)*. This is a total of around 1900€/year. I really don't think that the normal student of 15 is able to pay that much money for a hobby (pocket money eh!?). But what really surprises me is that so many gaming companies who are offering modding support to their games can force people to "steal" such software with such a calm conscience Industry standard and blah...I know that

But that's really off-topic! So going back to the initial idea of publishing this tutorial was to show people that there is a very good peace of software out there that can do the job if one's willing to learn a bit.
My future aim is to bring on a GIMP and Blender toolkit for modding of rFactor2. I really don't know if I'm able to achieve this. But let's see how it's going.

* OK, got me! I don't really wonder . And I know that you can get 3DSM for free if you register as student. But license is only valid if you really are a student. I can't imagine there are so many students out there!

PS: You can expect the revision of my tutorial at the beginning of June!

 

[Sven Hielscher]

I have made a car skin ok but i seem to have problems with the windows.They either is no change from default skin or the window is blank with nether my skin i made or the default.It would be helpful if there was an example of how the file should look,were it goes ect.Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

You need to tell me/us for which mod you have done the window too. Some mods do require special naming or even don't have the windows paintable.
Anyhow the common solution is to try ALTwindow.dds or ALTwindows.dds - maybe one is working. Please note that rF2 doesn't make a difference of custom skins by file names; All DDS-files in the folder will be loaded as carbody/skin if you toggle through the list. But if you have a valid combination of ALT.dds + ALTwindow.dds you should toggle until ALT.dds is loaded and the windows should take the correct skin texture too.

 

[Gijs van Elderen]

But what really surprises me is that so many gaming companies who are offering modding support to their games can force people to "steal" such software with such a calm conscience Industry standard and blah...I know that

+1

But there are other official alternatives.

I use adobe photoshop elements for skinning, texturing and adobe premiere elements for my video's. The bundle costs 150 euro's.
IMO: great value for money.

I'm using Maya 2016 student version. Any one can register as a student and get a 3 year autodesk license. It's a full featured version and the software automatically updates and you'll get full support from autodesk if you run into trouble.
With a student version you can't sell your mods. I've no intentions to do this.

Anyway a student version is better (and safer) then hacked versions.

The reason i choose Maya is because: After 3 years you can use Maya LT. Maya LT is designed for indy-game makers and modders. And it's available on steam for a decent price.