How to start

[Gibbons]

Greetings all.

I'm starting out in the skinning field and have looked on YouTube, Simmers Paint Shop, and some other sites and haven't found any really good tutorials on how to start from scratch. Most of the tutorials seem to be made with the idea you already know how to do half of the actions needed. They are also mostly done around Photoshop or PSP. I have Paint.net, and GIMP. I've used Paint.net some and GIMP not at all yet.

How did you who know how to do it learn how to do it? Is there a certain site or collection of sites that have basic tutorials? Or did you learn it from asking questions in forums like this? My own inclination is to go and read how to do it, then drop in here from time to time to ask the harder questions.

So far it is rather difficult to get started. Some of the tutorials I've gone through mention a 'Remove White' plugin, but is that for PSP and Photoshop only or does it work with .net as well? And I'm still not sure why you use it or what it does, even after going through those specific tutorials more than a couple times.

I've been flight simming since '03 and it seems to me SOH puts out some of the best skins and repaints I've seen so I'm stopping by here.

So if you haven't clicked out of here yet, any concrete direction in how to dive into this endeavor would be more than appreciated.

Thanks

Gibbons

 

[aris11b]

I would be interested in this myself as there are a few re-paints I liked to do myself...a few what if's.. you could say

:ernae:

 

[Tako_Kichi]

As mentioned above the 'Simmer's Paint Shop' is an excellent resource and you would do well to read EVERY page on there to pick up tips and pointers that apply to all painting programs.

You should also find (and complete) some tutorials for your paint program of choice. You really need to know how to do things within your application so that you can then apply that knowledge to an aircraft repaint. While it is possible to try and learn to use the painting application and learn how to repaint aircraft the frustration levels are going to be much higher if you are trying to do both at once.

Make sure you learn how to use 'layers' in your application as they are a vital tool and if your program has it make sure you learn to use the 'pen' tool (or whatever it is called in your program.....the tool that allows you to draw vector shapes and use bezier curves).

Finally, do not be tempted to bite off more than you can chew initially as that will only lead to frustrations. It takes time to learn how to paint and you have to take small steps. While you may want to paint skins for a complex aircraft like an A2A P-47 or P-51 you would be much better off starting with something easier with a nice simple paint kit. I would recommend one of Piglet's aircraft and paint kits as a starter as his kits are very easy to use and you can turn out a paint in a short time.

I spent many years in the education field in one form or another and I am a great believer in 'learning by doing'.....open up your paint program and do a tutorial or two, then get a simple aircraft and paint kit and splash some paint and see how it comes out, then rework it until you are happy with it. The skills have to be developed by actually doing things....you can read about it until you are blue in the face but you need to splash paint around to see what happens and to build your abilities.

Have fun with it and shout if you have specific questions.