Repaint/skins

[Goose]

Hi everyone, first off im new here so go easy on me im looking to create my own repaints/skins of some of the default FSX aircraft, they will be fairly basic but i dont even really know where to start. Do i need any special programs? any help would be great! thanks guys!

[Charl]

No place easier on everyone...
First: a paint programme, you could use MS Paint, but...not really.
Learn something that can handle layers, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, there are many out there, you have to decide what you want to pay for.
Second: DXTBMP which is a brilliant utility, free, and Google will find it for you. It can save .BMP files into various flavours easy on Flightsim frame rates. DXT3 is the one most often used, to strike a balance between performance and quality.
Third: Abacus FSRepaint is an optional luxury which lets you look at your repaint in real time 3D, without having to save the file, and load it into Flight SImulator every time you move a line 1 mm.
Go paint!

[Goose]

QUOTE (Charl @ Apr 4 2008, 09:25 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No place easier on everyone...
First: a paint programme, you could use MS Paint, but...not really.
Learn something that can handle layers, Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, there are many out there, you have to decide what you want to pay for.
Second: DXTBMP which is a brilliant utility, free, and Google will find it for you. It can save .BMP files into various flavours easy on Flightsim frame rates. DXT3 is the one most often used, to strike a balance between performance and quality.
Third: Abacus FSRepaint is an optional luxury which lets you look at your repaint in real time 3D, without having to save the file, and load it into Flight SImulator every time you move a line 1 mm.
Go paint!

Awesome, thank you so much for that! now i know this isn't the right place to ask but since you seem very knowledgable, how about custom airports? or should i put a post in the scenery area?

[Alex]

With the airport side of things, it depends on how custom you want to go. Apron/Runway details? Or buildings as well? (or if you're really keen there is more... - photoreal etc)

Alex

[Goose]

QUOTE (Alex @ Apr 4 2008, 08:39 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

With the airport side of things, it depends on how custom you want to go. Apron/Runway details? Or buildings as well? (or if you're really keen there is more... - photoreal etc)

Alex

well i was hoping to do a little of both, mostly i want to be able to park some of my repainted aircraft on the tarmac, is there program that makes this easy to do?

also thanks Charl, i have been fiddling around with Abacus FSRepaint, its pretty good. took me a bit to figure it out tho.

[Alex]

For AFCADs (Apron, Runway and Taxiway details), search for 'afcad221.zip' in the Avsim file library.

Alex