paintshop

[john31322]

I would like to know how to do aircraft skins and to do models cfs3 some links to some sites would be great it would be my fisrt time at this so be easy on me ps this is a great site :unitedkingdom::wavey:

[Capt. Winters]

Hi John,

there are two things you will need straight up.

1. Gmax, this is the program that most of the models for CFS3 have been built in, and its the only freeware option you have (to the best of my knowledge) it has a pretty steep learning curve if you are not familiar with the basics of rendered 3D computer models. but it is learnable.

http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax

there are several tutorials around, if you google them, Criag (Viso) Murray did a couple of very good ones.

2. Martin Wrights file converter DXTbmp to get existing .dds files into .bmp format and for converting your new .bmp files into one of the prescribed .dds formats that CFS3 uses to texture models.

http://www.mnwright.btinternet.co.uk/

navigate to the CFS3 section via the links on the left side.

for painting tutorials and SOH member made templates for some of the existing aircraft in CFS3 please check the SOH downloads section.

HTH's

regards Rob.

[hairyspin]

Hello John, there are other people here who know a lot more than me about painting skins, but you could try Simmer's Paintshop for tutorials. You'll need a decent paint program, but you needn't go the length of Photoshop; perhaps the best skinner for CFS3 uses Paintshop Pro and the nVidia plug-in for importing/exporting .dds files for CFS3 skins works with both Photoshop and Paintshop Pro.

To build models for CFS3 you will, as mentioned, need gMax. For tutorials on using this, see the Aircraft Design and Animation forum here at SOH, but you'll need to work through the tutorials supplied with gMax first. Be warned that it's not easy, it'll take serious amounts of time and you may lose your sanity, but the satisfaction of seeing your own model take flight in the sim is considerable!

Simmer's Paintshop http://www.simmerspaintshop.com (http://www.simmerspaintshop.com)

Gryphon Painting tutorials http://www.simviation.com/gryphon/Tutorials.htm (http://www.simviation.com/gryphon/Tutorials.htm)

nvidia plug-in for .dds files (Photoshop or Paintshop Pro) http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html (http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html)


Aircraft Design and Animation forum http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/forumdisplay.php?f=22 (http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/forumdisplay.php?f=22)
and you want the sticky New links for old for Milton's excellent gMax tutorials

Other gMax tutorials include Viso's Bitmap to Boom'n'Zoom and Hugh Shoults' Stupid Idiot's Guide to gMax.

Bitmap to Boom'n'Zoom http://www3.telus.net/murrdaka/tutorial/B2BNZ.htm (http://www3.telus.net/murrdaka/tutorial/B2BNZ.htm)

Stupid Idiot's Guide to gMax http://www.simviation.com/gryphon/tutorials/gMax_00.htm (http://www.simviation.com/gryphon/tutorials/gMax_00.htm)

Any more questions, just yell! :welcome:

[oki]

to keep the level of frustration as low as possible initially, it may be advisable to start (re)painting a few skins with Paint.Net, which is a free MS based paint programme. It can easily handle multilayer dds files.