AH! Great! Its good to see someone do some painting for IL-2 skins.
We need more artists! You are doing great to start out.
Very cool.
Start with simple things and then move on to more complicated stuff... do not forget to keep saving your
work and save them with seperate layers. If you do not, you will loose all the hours you have spent on painting.
It has happened to me also, so you are not alone. We all have done the same things before too, so its only natural.
We learn from our mistakes and move on.
I suggest to paint using Photoshop if you can, but I have heard that GIMP is also a good program.
Learn it well, it is your digital painting canvas, just like an artist uses a pencil and paper, or a brush on canvas.
Once you have mastered and learned where all the buttons you need are at, things will become much easier for you.
there are many tutorials available on teh internet. Look at them and save them to your folders. They will come in
handy in the future.
I left this Gas-tank skin-template as simple as possible. The rest is up to you to paint what you want on it.
Here is what I suggest for you to do next.
Separate that small image into colored squares and lines and put it back into the airplane (the game).
Look at it from ALL diferent angles. Look to see where each color and line connects to the others. You will find
out which is the top part and the bottom and which are the sides of that Gas-Tank skin.
Next,
go back to your GIMP and paint some more, now that you have learned where each side is placed on that little image.
If you want to make it more shiny looking, add some white paint to it but do not make it too white (bright). Paint just
a little bit and when you put it back into the game (airplane) you will see it shine a little bit more in the sunlight.
Try diferent tones of white and see it in the game if its looking alright. It takes many skin tests to see which is the
best amount of color and shades you paint on a skin. You cannot only do "one skin" and stop there. No.
You must do at least 6 or more skin-tests and see which looks best. That is the only way to paint a good looking skin,
by doing many skin-tests.
Make these little tests on this little gas-tank skin , so you can master how much paint and details you can paint on it.
Once you have created a really good looking gas-tank, then its time to move on to a complete airplane skin.
The painting process is almost the same.
First you must place some colored lines or colors on the skin (save it and put in the game-airplane) fly your airplane and
notice where each line meets with another and the diferent parts. When you go back to your "digital canvas" (GIMP) you
will start by painting things in a way that all those mixed up pieces on the skin will look better when they come together and
when they wrap around the airplane model.
This takes time to learn,
but with patience and determination you can do it! I know you can.
The IL-2 is a great game to fly in, but its also great fun to paint your own skins and make them come alive when
you use them in the game also.
Have fun with this hobby, you will enjoy it more and you will enjoy the game even more.
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Topic: Help with skinning droptanks (Read 3668 times)
