Skinning Tutorial

[Ramon van Rijn]

I started this tutorial some months ago on RaceSimCentral, but after a while the graphics were lost. At the moment even the startpost was gone.

Recovered the text and reformatted it into a PDF.

Hope it is still useful for our members.

 

[Will Marquez]

Nevermind guys. Was able to figure it out. Was using the wrong helmet template for the FM cars.

Thanks Marcel for helping me out.

 

[Jelle van der Knaap]

Formula Master helmet skin issue

Hi there!

Can anybody tell me why my helmet skin gets messed up when I export it to the game in .dds? I flatten image and export DXT5 with 6 MIP maps. (See images for comparisson) It's my first helmet skin so...

-Tnx- in advance

Jelle

 

[Jarrod Crossley]

The Open wheel Helmet has a strange Alpha for the visor compared to the tintop helmet. Plus the Formula Master uses the tintop helmet not the Open Wheel one.

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

Hey guys,

First off, thanks for the tutorial... now that I have my new PC I can finally try my hand at creating skins.

There's just one problem... When editing windows, I can't see any folder in the layers named Alpha... I don't know what the heck's happening... :sad:

I'm using Photoshop Elements if that helps.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Alpha isn't a layer, it's a channel

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

Alpha isn't a layer, it's a channel

Ah, right... so where exactly are the channels located?

 

[Stuart Thomson]

OK - I don't know PS Elements. In PS, it's the tab next to the Layers tab in the Layers palette.

According to a website I saw, Elements doesn't have channels.

But, read here: http://www.webreference.com/graphics/elements3/

It might help you out :good:

 

[Rhys Gardiner]

Ah... looks pretty interesting. Thanks Stu...

 

[Ken Collins]

Cannot remove original name from windows

Hello all.
Just got back into the game and wanted to retry some skinning after not doing any for ages just for myself but, I need serious help! I'm having the same problem with the same car (Audi A4 STCC) as Sean Vohs in an earlier post. I read and reread Jarrod Crossley's suggestions and tried and retried his step by step directions to remove the original name from the windows but, it will not go away! I cannot find any 'name' in the alpha layer only the alpha channel. This is the only place I've got stuck so it's frustrating, especially as I'm an older noob with only a partial knowledge of CS2.
I'd upload some images but I don't know how.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards.

 

[Willie Watt]

Hello all.
Just got back into the game and wanted to retry some skinning after not doing any for ages just for myself but, I need serious help! I'm having the same problem with the same car (Audi A4 STCC) as Sean Vohs in an earlier post. I read and reread Jarrod Crossley's suggestions and tried and retried his step by step directions to remove the original name from the windows but, it will not go away! I cannot find any 'name' in the alpha layer only the alpha channel. This is the only place I've got stuck so it's frustrating, especially as I'm an older noob with only a partial knowledge of CS2.
I'd upload some images but I don't know how.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Regards.

Ken:

The name is in the Alpha channel rather than the alfa layer.

I don't know where that is in CS2 but there is a separate dock for channels in CS4. You should have Red, Green, Blue, Alpha and Alpha 1 channels.

What you will then need to do is paint over the name that show in alpha 1.

Once that's done you can then replace your own name or whomevers.

 

[Mark Guy]

Hi guys, I have 2 or 3 questions. Is there an easier way to paint. The only way i know how to paint it to use recangle cutout and fill with a colour.??

Secondly is there some tool to view the car, because I have to keep going into the game to check the car and this is really a drag???

Thx.:struggle:

 

[Ken Collins]

Thanks Willie.
CS2 alpha channel next tab besides layers
Another question: (is this right?) I painted over the original name in the alpha channel after using eyedropper tool to get the 'grey' colour. I then used white for the text colour and entered name on sides/back window & number on front window. This seemed to work fine and looked ok in the alpha channel. Went through the save as dds and setup my ini in the games custom folder. Started game, went to car and there is still the ghost of the original name & number on windows as well as a lighter ghost image of my name! Sorry for being so stupid but I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Do you need to have visible or not visible certain layers before you merge and flatten the image?
I downloaded a couple of your skins to see if that would help me but they are in dds format so couldn't see how you'd modified the alpha.

Thanks for your help. I will soldier on.

 

[Jarrod Crossley]

Couple of things:

1. You should be able to open dds files withing Photoshop. You juat have to rell windows to "Open with"

2. Depending on what car your uasing always make sure the original alpha is clean before making any alteration. If the original Alpha has text allready marked out that will show as a ghost seperate from your test.

3. Always rember on Alphas white is visable and black is invisable and shades of grey is everything in between.

 

[Ken Collins]

Thank you

Couple of things:

1. You should be able to open dds files withing Photoshop. You juat have to rell windows to "Open with"

2. Depending on what car your uasing always make sure the original alpha is clean before making any alteration. If the original Alpha has text allready marked out that will show as a ghost seperate from your test.

3. Always rember on Alphas white is visable and black is invisable and shades of grey is everything in between.

Thanks Jarrod.
1. I understand the dds with photoshop but what I was meaning was that there are no layers with a dds and I was trying to see what modifications were done to the alpha channel.

2. I'm not sure what you mean by clean original alpha channel? I have done the copy, delete, paste method without success and I've also tried painting over and replacing name direct to the alpha channel but that didn't work either.

3. Maybe it's here I've gone wrong? I will try changing the colour of the of the text for name change.

Again thanks for your time and help.

 

[Willie Watt]

Thanks Jarrod.
1. I understand the dds with photoshop but what I was meaning was that there are no layers with a dds and I was trying to see what modifications were done to the alpha channel.

2. I'm not sure what you mean by clean original alpha channel? I have done the copy, delete, paste method without success and I've also tried painting over and replacing name direct to the alpha channel but that didn't work either.

3. Maybe it's here I've gone wrong? I will try changing the colour of the of the text for name change.

Again thanks for your time and help.

Ken,

E-mail the file or upload it for down load and I'll take a look/fix and tell you what I did.

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

Are you using Photoshop?


if so there's a dds converter on the NVIDIA website.

Well, I did my own skin - then I tried to save it from PSD to DDS, but I can't see there any option for this.. I downloaded NVIDIA DDS plug-in for PS (I am using CS4 64-bit version) but still there is no option for save the file as DDS... Normally I selected Save AS..I tried several different options to get it works, but without any results... If can somebody help me, please, that default skina are annoying

 

[greaven]

Well, I did my own skin - then I tried to save it from PSD to DDS, but I can't see there any option for this.. I downloaded NVIDIA DDS plug-in for PS (I am using CS4 64-bit version) but still there is no option for save the file as DDS... Normally I selected Save AS..I tried several different options to get it works, but without any results... If can somebody help me, please, that default skina are annoying

I believe that the nvidia DDS plug-in only works with 32-bit versions of Photoshop. That's what I've found.

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

OK, then I reinstall PS and install 32-bit version.. thanks

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

thanks, it really works

 

[Ondrej Kapal]

Another one, is possible to do interior the same like exterior? I mean, I have green car but in the cockpit I see blue mirrors etc.
And can other players see my skin if they don't download it? I think not, but still better ask