Military AI Works

Hi all,

I thought that it would be a good idea to start a thread that allows the painters out there to share the techniques that you use so that others out there can learn new things and also the possibility for you to learn new techniques too. Feel free to post what you know below and help this useful thread grow.

To get the ball rolling, this is a technique that I use to dirty the panel lines up a bit. In most paint kits that I have used the panel lines are in their own layer which helps a lot for this one. So first of all I duplicate the panel lines layer so I have two of them and with either one of them I make it as dark as I can by adjusting the brightness and contrast. The next stage is to blur the panel lines that you made the darkest, for this I use the Gaussian Blur function rather than the regular blur just because it looks better in my opinion. When selecting Gaussian blur you alter the radius to suit what you like. Also you can either increase or decrease the opacity to either increase or decrease the dirt look. Once I have blurred it I then select the original panel line lines back in.
I use Coral PaintShop Pro X4 for this tutorial.

This next one is more for if you want to do a special scheme but you can use it any time really. In short you will use an image and then basically trace it as you paint.

So to start with you have the basic paintkit with no paint applied ready for you to place your overlay Next you will need to find a side view picture of the aircraft you want to paint, the better side shot you have the easier it will be. You will then need to try and place the image over the paintkit and fit it to the part you are working on the best you can (using the opacity to see through it helps when placing and also when painting the aircraft. You then just go along painting until it’s done really.

Once I had painted it, it looked like this, thanks to the overlay I was able to make it more precise than if I had done it free hand.

Cool thread Dale, I made it a sticky. Be nice if any other painters could add there technique also.

Yes, thank you for the start. I have FS Repaint, but I feel to get the MAIW standard one needs to know how to use layers.

What I think needs doing is finding out how many painters use PSP and how many use Photoshop/Adobe/Coral software. Although with earlier versions the two were fairly similar, I think later versions of Photoshop are a little more involved and certainly more manipulative than PSP.
Some things, such as layers and drawing lines, wouldn't be to difficult to differentiate between the two - but Dale talks about different levels of gaussian blur, which you cannot do in PSP.
I agree, we have needed something like this for a while, just to try and tempt more folks to get in on the action, and I think using examples from one platform would be easier than explaining two.
Good idea though Dale

Chris,

The subject of layers isn't too complicated.
If you have a basic base colour of your aircraft parts you just build the layers upwards from there. Think of each layer as a sheet of tracing paper laid upon the lower level giving you the ability of moving/changing any of its detail without affecting any other layer. You build up the layers/sheets upwards as you go with different detail on each. Don't worry about making more layers as you can always merge them downwards when you are really sure you don't need to change them independently. Sometimes you have to juggle them around a bit but basically you end up with loads of layers and the finished texture is a compilation of all of those layers. If you think of the tracing paper example it is like looking down through them from top to bottom. Each layer can have a different property and that is something you can experiment with as you get used to the software you use.

Chris

delbydoo wrote:What I think needs doing is finding out how many painters use PSP and how many use Photoshop/Adobe/Coral software.

I think we may need to set up a poll then to find out, Although we don't want to discourage anyone who may use one of the less popular pieces of software. Perhaps when you post something, just say what programme you are using.

I agree totally; don't get me wrong, we can never have enough developers for models, scenery and painting - the point I was trying to make is that old duffers like me using software that is over ten years old don't want to confuse people who will more than likely have up-to-date software.
Like Chris has mentioned above, the creation of layers in any program is fairly generic no matter what you use, and so are other things like drawing panel lines and creating dirt.

i use both the layer idea above and fading pics or logo's so you can trace under them i use Paint Shop Pro 9, and only FSRepaint to view my work before putting them in the sim i dont paint with it.

f4nutter wrote:i use both the layer idea above and fading pics or logo's so you can trace under them i use Paint Shop Pro 9, and only FSRepaint to view my work before putting them in the sim i dont paint with it.

Same here for paints I've done. However, I use the GIMP instead of Paintshop/Photoshop . . . . . it's free and I'm cheap.

I use photoshop cs3 to paint. I use multiple upon multiple layers and I use fsrepaint to view my final product however, I use fsrepaint for one very specific detail. Lining up camo colors or stripes. It's so much easier to do it there because you don't have to constantly save, reload, undo, try again, save reload. In fsrepaint I can just line it up, then go to photoshop and and start in that position. You can also screenshot the texture and open it in photoshop and copy that small piece of texture to your texture. Saves a few minutes doing that. Another thing we can do on most special textures is only paint one side and flip horizontal to the other side. Again saves time. Duplicating font layers also saves time. Type one layer and duplicate it to the other side, you may have to edit it especially if its skewed.


Now I'll talk about making a basic paint kit of your own in photoshop cs3. I made one for the EDAI Corsair I've been painting. First load the basic texture into photoshop. Create a new layer and just trace all the panel lines with whatever color you want. I like using neon green so I don't miss any. Lock that layer and change back to your initial. Now "highlight" all paintable pieces such as wings, tails, fuselage, etc in the highlighted group which is really pretty much everything else then right click in a highlighted spot and click "layer via copy" and your done and have a simple paint kit. You can add extra layers such as dirt, details, decals, etc but that's up to you.


Hope this helps some of you, any photoshop questions, youre more than welcome to pm me.

Thanks for the tips on blurring the panel lines, can get some good effects using that, and also for using FS Repaint for lining up textures. I hadn't realized that if you drew on the texture it showed up on the model.

I also use Gimp for painting and FS repaint to check the progress and final paint.

Keep the tips coming, they are really useful. I'd like to add some myself, but you guys are way ahead of me.

Cheers

As most of you know, I'm not much of a painter when it comes to doing my AI aircraft as I usually have more layers in a paintkit than that of the American Government process to overhaul Obama Care.

When texturing my static scenery objects I like to use a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator CS3, these programs allow full maniplution of photos and hand made drawings. There are more tools for the maniplution of your work than you can poke a stick out and both programs work side by side with full intergration. There are also a huge range of freeware tools made by artists for special effects. I use Model_Converter_X freeware program to view my completed models on a blue background, it also gives you a variety of useful infomation on your models, such as texture draw call and the real poly count. FSDS does not provide a real poly count, it's count is false.
Mark

This is great, thanks Dale.

I use Paintshop Pro 7 and although I'm not a painter, it would be nice to be able to put together a paintkit. When I build a model, I usually sent a PSP file that has a wireframe layer, a labels layer, and a details layer. In some cases, I will fit in a basic panel lines layer made from overlaying the three-view.

What else should I do to make a basic "paint kit" to make it easier (and more attractive) for painters?

Thanks

Hi Jake,
What you have posted is definitely on the right mark; it is great when a paint kit is made and the original wireframe is there as another layer, definitely helps when it comes to more complicated shapes, especially when camouflage is taken into account as well.

Labels definitely help as well, especially with generic parts that have one colour assigned to them (like blade aerials, some small stabilisers etc) as this can be confusing when trying to figure why something is yellow when it should be white......I know the majority of modellers try to take this into consideration, but it very rarely happens with military aircraft.

I am so thankful when the modeller includes a paint kit, no matter how it is made, but it just helps us non-modellers who love painting to carry on the project.

Something that I would do if I was you Jake, would be when making your paintkit use the layers the best you can for example have one layer for panel lines, another for rivets, and another for decals etc... I makes it a lot easier in the long run for painters and indeed yourself if you decide to take up the paintbrush. A lot of the time its trial and error with some effects but you just have to see what effects are in the programme you use and see if it works with what you want it to do.

That's a good idea Dale, and basically what I've tried to do. My problem is, I would rather someone else take the time to do the minutiae. If I knew how to use the different tools, I would be much more likely to go the extra mile. For me, the modeling takes up most of my time and although I would like to do a really complete paint kit, I can't get to it. When I look at what guys like Henry Tomkiewitz did, I'm amazed.

Most of the painters I've worked with in the past have been really good about using the layered PSP file I send them or building something of their own. What I would like to know is what is the minimum required by a painter in order to do a skin. I know this will vary individually, but I would just like to get some ideas. Mike Pearson and Ray Parker can take my stuff and do miracles (and so can others). I'm getting much better with FDE work thanks mostly to Steve (Firebird) and time spent with ACM but I would rather turn the painting over to the Masters.

Personally, all I like to have in a paintkit in terms of layers is Panel lines on a separate layer that is good enough for me. Decals are quite straight forward and often different air forces have slightly different markings whereas panel lines can be quite time consuming to go over again. That is the biggest thing that puts me off painting a model that has no paintkit. Obviously its what ever the modellers are happy to do.