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.

 

[Mark Guy]

Stuart thanks a lot, I have just managed to paint a bumper with your help.
thanks guys.

 

[Stuart Thomson]

The other way that I like doing it is via the Pen & a Shape layer, but that isn't as intuitive as "select the area and then fill it".

Once you're happy with selections, Mark, have a look here: http://www.heathrowe.com/pentool.aspx

 

[Gugge]

Hi there.
My name is Gugge from Sweden and I've recently started to make my own skins for Race 07.
Now there is an annoying thing wich I just can't solve.
I've been working with the "Volvo C30" skin for STCC and the rear lights are very bright.
In game a person can hardly see when braking, so my qustion is how to make the backlights more darker.

The lights itself is in windows.psd....

Please, I would really really appreciate some help with this.

Cheers,
/Gugge!

 

[Jarrod Crossley]

Hi there.
My name is Gugge from Sweden and I've recently started to make my own skins for Race 07.
Now there is an annoying thing wich I just can't solve.
I've been working with the "Volvo C30" skin for STCC and the rear lights are very bright.
In game a person can hardly see when braking, so my qustion is how to make the backlights more darker.

The lights itself is in windows.psd....

Please, I would really really appreciate some help with this.

Cheers,
/Gugge!

depending on the programe your using its pritty stright forward.

(Photoshop)
Go to channeles and make the Alpah channel visable (little eye) and hide the other channels.

If you look closley you'll noyice the color of the grey for where the rear lights are is a very light grey if you make this area a darker grey they will be less transparant.

(white = transparant > Black = soild)

 

[Gugge]

Thanks for the replay, Jarrod.
The sad part is that I still can't get it working....

Can it be so that everything in the tamplates maybe can't be changed!?!

If you look closley you'll noyice the color of the grey for where the rear lights are is a very light grey if you make this area a darker grey they will be less transparant.

I'm not sure if I understand that part fully....
I've tried to select just the light in the templates and make it a bit darker, but in game it's still very light.....
Here is some pics that shows the differents.



I really really want to learn this. And racedepartment forum is the only place I actually found some answer so far....

 

[Jarrod Crossley]

Here is the Alpha channel of my C30 lights. The circled area I have all ready altered. This is the area you also need to change.

 

[Gugge]

Ok, now I get what you mean, Jarrod!
Just a short question still....when I now choose the alpa chanel and make that visible and make the other channels invisible....how do I mark just the lights to be changed?

Risk to be very enoying, I kindly asking u to explain step by step from there...please!
English isn't my first language, so I appoligize for all the questions....

I can see that the backlights have a brigther grey colour then the rest...

Thanks again for all the help....

/Gugge!

 

[Dave Stephenson]

you could select it with the magic wand tool. or roughly select it with the polygon lassoo, and colour a slightly larger area as the game should only read from the pixels that are coloured in the orignial, the extra round the edges should be ignored.

 

[Steven Palmer]

EDIT *** wrong advise****

 

[Mark Guy]

I have a logo and want to use it as a main sponsor, but is it possible to change the colour of the back round or the text in PS?

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Mark - wherever possible, use the vector based (*.ai or *.eps) logos from Brandsoftheworld or webchantier.com

The vectored logos can then be used as layers, so you can add a layer beneath for the correct background, and then you can use the Hue / Saturation tool to recolour.

 

[Alex Gibson]

Thanks very much Ramon, much appreciated..

 

[Aleksey Bogatyrev]

guys. i got a problem with honda accord R stcc interior window(i used template from gtr evo cause there is no spesial stcc template for honda)
i'm trying to remove all baners, so i do it this way, in photoshop i just remove them then flatten image, save as dds dxt5 with 0 mipmaps so this way inside window should be clear, but in the game i'm still getting all the banners (two wide black stripes on the window)
what am i doing wrong?

 

[Stuart Thomson]

As is almost always the case when windows or lights are involved, you haven't changed the Alpha Channel, so you still have some "transparent / opaque" information in the Window file, which is what the Alpha Channel handles. You've got rid of the paint information, but left the information that tells it to be opaque.

Check some of the posts above or in the Skins forum in general for info regarding the alpha channel.

I can't reference posts too clearly, because I'm at work and the firewall prevents me seeing a lot of the pictures, but a search on this forum for "alpha channel" will definitely get you to the answer.

 

[Aleksey Bogatyrev]

Stuart Thomson
there is no alpha layer in honda accord window int template

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Err, yes there is.

Edit: Ah - My fault - I changed from "Layer" to "Channel" in my previous reply.

I've edited the reply for consistency - it's the Alpha Channel, not Layer.

Sorry for the confusion. I'm so used to it now, I sometimes forget people are coming to this stuff for the first time.

 

[Aleksey Bogatyrev]

oh, ok i got i man
i just need to make the middle one the same opacity as a bottom one, or just erase it, am i right?
sorry for a stupid questions, I just started to make my own skins a few days ago

 

[Stuart Thomson]

The bottom half of the windscreen is transparent.

In the channels palette, "turn off" the 4 non Alpha channels (RGB, Red, Green, Blue) and the display will be in greyscale. For consistent transparency right from top to bottom of the windscreen, paint over the upper darker "stripes" with the same white as the lower half of the windscreen.

 

[Aleksey Bogatyrev]

yes, it works
thank you very much man
I've spent two god damn days trying to figure out what is the problem
You really helped me) I'm so happy now))))))))))))))

 

[Stuart Thomson]

Cool :good:

Don't forget to post up the end results