Question For Livery Artists

[Fnerg]

Tom, feel free to move this over to the 'Skinning Your Game' forum, this forum has seemingly more traffic these days which is why I thought to ask here. It's related to a MSFS repaint?

How do you determine scale on a texture sheet (Albedo). If I want to ensure a roundel is 36" for the fuselage, or a letter is 12", or a stripe starts __" from the wingtip? How do I do that? Eyeing up details on a 60 year old fuzzy photo is tough, and there aren't many photos for the livery I'm working on. Gimp has all the numbers and measuring tools, I just can't figure it out. Thanks.

Doug

[Mr.Mugel]

As far as I know you can only check for references somewhere. Like overall length of the fuselage, distance between panels / rivet lines, window size, etc. And than convert it to pixels and vice versa. Very important to consider that not every surface on the same texture file must always have the same scale.

Maybe someone here with more experience can provide additional means, there sure is some talent around!

[jankees]

I'm not aware of any way to get the exact scale of some of the textures. The scale often even varies from one part of the textures to the next. If you know some of the dimensions, for instance the length of a wings or similar, you may use that to calculate the scale.
If you have good pics of the texture you're working on, you may overlay the picture to get the right dimensions, but from your words I assume you don't have any clear pics.
Maybe pictures from a similar aircraft can be helpful?

[Tom Clayton]

If it's related to MSFS painting, I think you'll get plenty of help without moving. There are quite a few talented painters here in this section.

[Fnerg]

I would like to follow up on this thread with some new information. This is a good guide to calculate scale on a texture sheet.


The DC-3 model is 27" = 68.58cm
The actual plane in real life is 65.5 feet long (786 inches) 1996.44cm
1996.44 divide by 68.58 = a scale of 29.1111111111
so you divide every actual measurement by 29.1111111111
You will note 786 divide by 29.111111111 = 27

Example: A flash line in this paint scheme according to the Douglas specs measures from the back edge of the window, 76"
76 divide by 29.111111111 = 2.6106 inches in your scale