RDRC S2 - Skins

[Łukasz Demolin]

Thanks for all the good words, my uncreative mind had problems with coming up with an original design

@Adam - It's just a white sign on the mesh, alpha left untouched. Found in the external_transparent on most of the cars.

 

[Adam Jonas]

Thanks for all the good words, my uncreative mind had problems with coming up with an original design

@Adam - It's just a white sign on the mesh, alpha left untouched. Found in the external_transparent on most of the cars.

Okay, I will check it.

Anyway, I updated the Mad-Croc WRT's skins, because there were some bugs on it what Łukasz discovered (bad number, alpha channel, etc.)

Thank you for the help Łukasz!

P.s: more Mad-Croc cars possible if everything will go good.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

so, I've converted the .dds file to .psd, worked on them, connected all planes to the one at the bottom so there is only one left, saved the changes as .psd and now want to change it back to .dds but the converter does not work anymore. anyone had the same problem?

ha, found a plug in that saves in.dds directly from gimp http://code.google.com/p/gimp-dds/

it works !!!

 

[Senad Subasic]

so, I've converted the .dds file to .psd, worked on them, connected all planes to the one at the bottom so there is only one left, saved the changes as .psd and now want to change it back to .dds but the converter does not work anymore. anyone had the same problem?

What software? I opened the .dds files directly, edited, and saved in .dds directly, both in Photoshop and in GIMP.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

this is fun, some images from my first testrun at Harwood. I notice two problems:

windows are kind of opaque
damaged parts show the old skin
also, this is the generic model, numbers and names to be added

any advice?

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

it's a .dds converter but it works erratically. I have now installed the .dds plugin and that opens and saves .dds in gimp

 

[Aaron DeMarre]

it's a .dds converter but it works erratically. I have now installed the .dds plugin and that opens and saves .dds in gimp

To fix the opaque windows, you need to add an alpha channel to make them transparent. Here is a tutorial on how to do this in gimp: http://forum.rallyesim.fr/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=671

For damage, there is a separate DDS that shows when damaged, external_scrape I think.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

thx, will try over the weekend (after having had a fight with the French language, it's been ages ...)

 

[Aaron DeMarre]

thx, will try over the weekend (after having had a fight with the French language, it's been ages ...)

In the upper right hand corner there is a translation drop down. I use that a ton as I don't speak French

 

[Łukasz Demolin]

Aaron, Eckhart, there is no alpha when working with dds in GIMP. You need to make the transparent parts... transparent - do that by filling the windows with 30% or so opacity (experiment, look at the original skin to get an idea how it's done).

Second thing - the damaged car. You need to create a external_scrape texture. Some templates include the "damage overlay", but this is just an option. Easiest and fastest way is to just copy the _external and rename it as _external_scrape.

 

[Chris Williamson]

Aaron, Eckhart, there is no alpha when working with dds in GIMP.

Actually there is a way of editing alpha for dds in Gimp, albeit a rather cumbersome one.

Basically you need to open the dds file, then choose Colors -> Components -> Decompose. You'll get a little options dialog where you need to choose 'RGBA' as the color model and make sure 'Decompose to layers' is checked. That'll open the Alpha channel for editing (along with Red, Blue, and Green channels). For the windows any white area in that alpha layer will be solid, and anything grey will be more transparent. Once you've finished editing, in the RGBA file click Colors -> Components -> Recompose and it will add the changes you made to the original dds.

 

[Aaron DeMarre]

Honestly I don't know much about this stuff, I was just following a tutorial. Here is how I added an alpha channel using gimp:

Images -> Flatten Image
Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel
Layers - Transparency -> Color to Alpha

A small window opens and you can choose a color, I used the eyedropper to select the color I want to be transparent

Layer -> Transparency -> Threshold Alpha
Lower the value until the desired parts are transparent, and the windows are transparent.
You can also use a mask at this point, that is beyond my skill set, but I get the concept.

You can then modify the color of the alpha channel to have a glass, or tint look, I kept mine completely clear.

That worked an a skin I made a couple days ago.

 

[Damien Jones]

I'm sure they won't be half as bad as you make them appear to be .

And here they are; after taking their time to make them all pretty Ford Team Poland finally can showcase their both new shiny Focuses RS WRC 08, ready to rock 'n roll:

​

And here is the download link: [link].

Hope you like our a bit nationalistic livery, A1GP style .

Very nice! I like the pic too; how'd you do it? Photoshop composite? If so the angle matches beautifully.

 

[Warren Dawes]

And here they are; after taking their time to make them all pretty Ford Team Poland finally can showcase their both new shiny Focuses RS WRC 08, ready to rock 'n roll:

Veeeery impressive skins, Lukasz. They suit the Ford nicely. :thumbup:

 

[Łukasz Demolin]

Thanks Warren and Damien .

And yeah, it's a quick PS job. Although taking the screens was a bit of a pain, gotta work a better technique out. And I'm glad you don't see any fault, since I wasn't fully satisfied with how it came out till the end

 

[Łukasz Demolin]

Couple details had to be adjusted in Ford Team Poland skin; the new version is already up (old link points to the new one), so feel free to DL the newer one if you're planning to use it for something .

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

thx for all the help. This is what I did:

opened the external transparent file
took the pipette and selected the grey in which the windows were shown
opened the colour window and copied the html notation (5 numbers)
went to layers - transparency - color to transparency
in the window that opened clicked on the big white button
in the window that opens inserted the html notation copied above clicked OK
clicked OK
presto, all the grey turns into lil' squares which means it's 100% tzransparent.

Also I produced a scrape file by scanning a piece of paper I had crumbled up and marked with crayon and pencil to look like twisted metal and inserting that scan at 50% transparency as a new layer in my external.dds file
saved as external_scrape

hey presto!

new shots:

skin still intact

from behind

crumpled

 

[Warren Dawes]

proudly amateur Ingenuity. :thumb:

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

thx warren.

anybody know how I can reach the driver overalls and helmet files? would love to change to white overalls and my usual online helmet layout also: I have just seen a folder marked skins, so far I have proudly dropped my skin into the folder "cars" after doing a copy of the original punto 2000 folder. How does the skin folder work?

 

[Warren Dawes]

I have just seen a folder marked skins, so far I have proudly dropped my skin into the folder "cars" after doing a copy of the original punto 2000 folder. How does the skin folder work?

It works with the Skin Manager plug-in that is installed with RSRBR. There is a tutorial somewhere describing how to use it (but in French I think). If you can't find it, just shout.With the Skin Manager, the relevant skin files are stored in the Skins Folder, and swapping skins for a car is very easy and quick.

EDIT: Here is the Tutorial:

http://forum.rallyesim.fr/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=6182