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Post by kristisbowl on Feb 8, 2008 13:50:08 GMT -5
I am new in this thing. So I need some advice. Here is my best work so far. i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/kristisbowl/XRT_D1.jpgSo can anyone help to make skins more realistic how to make better quality and some more extra lika new style hoods or body kits. Please help me. Plus, what tools are you using in PHOTOSHOP mostly?
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Post by MAGGOT on Feb 8, 2008 14:26:16 GMT -5
In Photoshop I use the Pen tool nearly exclusively, depending on the design. To start off with, get the Master Skinnerz Pro-Kits. The wireframes help a whole heap when it comes to aligning things, and seeing the boundaries of the skinnable areas. Additionally, the black mask helps to tidy up the un-used areas, giving your skins a nicer presentation and smaller file size. They are also all done at 2048x2048, which is a nice size to skin at. You can get more detail at that size than you can at 1024 or 512 resolutions. They also have all the parts separated into layers, making colouring specific parts like the windscreen banners and diveplanes easier. What you should do is find a car (a race car should be easier than a drift car for a beginner) that has a nice paintscheme on it, but nothing too complicated. Don't worry about any logos at this point, just look for something with a simple paintscheme. Choose something that has some element of the paintwork wrapping over different parts of the car (like a line going from the front around the side, or the hood down to the side). This will help you practice aligning design elements across multiple panels of the car. Aditionally, this will help expose you to the tools you'll use to create your own designs. Replicate the chosen design on any car; it doesn't have to be an exact match (I.E., don't go looking for a Mitsubishi Starion race car to paint onto the XRT). Get used to using the pen tool and shape tools, and work in Vectors whenever possible. If you don't know how to use the pen tool, find some tutorials and practice with it. Always work in layers. Make every element of the skin its own layer, always. Name all of your layers so you know what is what, and group layers in folders to sort everything out whenever possible. It will make your life a lot easier in the long run, trust me, especially when you get to the point of having hundreds of layers for every skin. Once you've replicated the design, begin placing sponsor logos. Don't forget to account for stretching. If you are using real logos, always try to use an .EPS file as the source, since you can make it as big as you want without losing quality. Never upscale a logo (or anything, really), ever. Always get things that are as large, or larger, than you need. Again, don't forget to account for stretching. Once you've got that skin all finished, do another one. Do it on a different car, with a completely different design. That will keep you from getting yourself into the rut of only learning one way to do things; there's many many different ways to do things in Photoshop. If you only learn one way, it might not work for one specific detail, and then you'll be SOL. Get used to the tools. Once you've done that, design your own car; again, focus on the paintwork first. Do something that wraps across different panels. Once you've got that sorted, focus on the sponsor logos. Once you've done that, do another, and another, and another, and so on. Just keep practicing, that is how you will improve. All of us improve with every skin we make. [EDIT]Sorry if none of this makes sense to you right now, I'm really sick so the brain is shut down.
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Post by kristisbowl on Feb 8, 2008 14:58:52 GMT -5
That is OK. Thank you. Every info I get is important for me. So can you give me exact link to Masterz Kits? And when I am making a skin I have to make WIREFRAMES on YES? Also thoose kits include just good quality template and wireframes nothing else yeah? EDIT: Can you explain me , what does STRECHING exacly means? And which logo's are real? Is it real if I took it from google? Maybe you can give me links from most important things (logo's , kits and ect.)
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Post by gerdoner on Feb 8, 2008 20:37:42 GMT -5
In the order of the questions: - The Kits are here- Yeah, you should make the Wireframes visible. When I skin, I make them a bit transparent. Of course you should deactivate them when you save a jpg for the Skin Viewer since you don't want them to be visible on the final skin - The Kits have a Wireframe, a blackmask, some defined parts (for example "top wing blade") and a shadow layer (if set to overlay... or was it multiply?!) - About the stretching: In LFS, the skins are not applied 1:1 to the cars. That means, if you draw a square shape, it will most likely look "just" oblong ingame. - I think Maggot wanted to know if you use real life brands. If yes, go to brands of the world and download the logo as an esp. I wouldn't recommend using logos from google, only if they are really big That should be it, Maggot did an extremly good job explaining it all. Just as a note: I don't like the idea of designing the whole design first and then to think about the position of the logos. Sometimes you have some really good design and big logos just would cover that. It is enough if you think about the approximate place for a logo, so that you don't have to shrink your logo to such a small size to see the design afterwards
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Post by kristisbowl on Feb 9, 2008 2:04:27 GMT -5
Thank you very much. Now, things are going well for me and skin quality is much better. But I've one more question. It's about sidebumpers (or sidewings - I don't how exacly to call it ). Here is the photo of skin (I have circled the place I want to know) i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb69/kristisbowl/XRT_db_d1_Blue.jpgIs it made by using a PHOTOSHOP. If yes, how can I do this? Or is it just some kind of a template?
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Post by gerdoner on Feb 9, 2008 9:18:38 GMT -5
Page not found
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Post by kristisbowl on Feb 9, 2008 10:21:12 GMT -5
Try again. Link was written badly. Sorry. It's interesting for me not just theese sidebumpers, but also i'd like to know how to make a number plate , sideskirts and etc. (extra parts)
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Post by daloonie on Feb 9, 2008 15:02:31 GMT -5
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Post by kristisbowl on Feb 9, 2008 15:53:23 GMT -5
So do you know more something like this? Or maybe you can explain how do they do this thing?
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Post by daloonie on Feb 9, 2008 17:01:29 GMT -5
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