Preface
This tutorial covers creating bare metal effects, making weathering effects, as well as the basis of skinning. Some parts will be more useful to some people than others.
Skinning a plane in IL2 Forgotten Battles can be daunting. Not only in terms of skill and know how, but also in hardware and software tools required. I hope this tutorial can be a waypoint on both fronts. The most important part of a first successful skin is just sticking to the project until your happy.
I'd like to start by saying that tools should not be focused on to strongly. Most popular graphics packages are more than capable of fine work. Many are available for under $100 US, and there are always bundled packages, where hardware includes a piece of software that is usable for skinning. Photoshop Element 2.0 and Paint Shop Pro 7 are good, popular examples. I've used a dozen similar programs in the past decade that were nearly as good, but cost less or were free, like the GIMP. On the hardware front, a mouse is quite usable to paint a skin. Some of the more delicate details will require careful overlapping of strokes to get nice feathers, but its not as easy as using a pressure sensitive pen tablet. A few models are around $100, with sizes generally about 4x5 inches for the working area. More expensive models have drawing areas from 9x12 inches and up. Smaller pads are fine for skinning.
For this tutorial I used a Wacom 4x5 (about $100) inch pressure tablet and pen, and Photoshop LE, which came in the box with the tablet free. I've used it for about a year, and have yet to be let down.
The skills involved in painting a skin vary with each artist. Be meticulous, or relaxed. Its your call. I tend to work fast and a bit sloppy, cleaning my mistakes as I go. If I can cut a corner without sacrificing the intended project quality, I'll do it. A project is generally finished after about an hour of work. That's how this tutorial is written. I hope to show you how to get an effect using the minimum steps required. I'm aware that there are always faster and easier methods for anything I'll show here. But old habits are hard to break, and my relearning might take longer than making the skin!
About void files and templates
Before you begin skinning, you'll need either a void file (from the Forgotten Battles install) or a pre-made template. This tutorial will work with either, adjusting for what you have. I haven't used a template to make a skin, so I can't comment to much on them. If you like them and they work for you then use them. If you don't have (or there aren't) templates for the plane you want to skin, it's no harder really.
Void files from the Forgotten Battles in stall are used for getting the details onto the paint surface you make. Most of these voids are 1024x1024 pixels in size, and have a white or grey background. The biggest issue with voids is the difficulty in determining where each part of the plane is in the image area. Many are quite easy if you have no reference, others are quite broken up around the image area, making for more testing. The easiest way to figure out where the parts of the plane are is to just look at another skin for the same plane. Whether found in the folder with the void or on the web, you can get along way by studying the work of other skinners. Always work from a copy of the original void file!
About plug-in filters
Using a plug in filter to get an effect is fast and easy. It's just not very flexible. The only filter you need to do this project is "Remove White". The version I use was made by Mr. McLaren, and is available at :
http://pluginspt.pluginshost.com/FreePlug/mark.html
This one filter makes even the less powerful software titles much easier to work with. Why? Well, the more costly programs allow alpha channels (white transparency) for layers, while the cheaper ones I've used don't. With Remove White, you get the same effect as an alpha channel, with couple of clicks. Remove White requires a special step for skinning, though. Since the filter takes all white out of the image area, only lines on nothing remain. Some of the solid areas of the void loose density as well. To get the image useable and still transparent, you must place a white backing layer underneath the void layer. You can paint on the white backing layer, or on layers above it, just remember to have a white layer in some form on the bottom to keep things looking right.
Lets get to work
Open your graphics software and open a copy of a void .bmp file. I'm making the bare metal P-47 Razorback shown above. Before any layers can be created, you'll have to convert the void to RGB color. In my Photoshop LE, this is found at [ Image : Mode : RGB color ]. Now you can name and arrange the layers we'll use for the skin. The layer arrangement I use to start is pictured here.
To get to this point, you'll need to:
* Convert the void to RGB color.
* Use the Remove White filter on the void. (you need to download and install it first)
* Rename the void from 'Background' to 'Void'. (otherwise no layer can be behind it)
* Add a layer named Base White. (as mentioned above)
* Add a layer named Paint + Detail.
* Drag the Void layer to the top of the stack.
* Drag the Base White layer to the bottom.
You'll notice in the photo that the Paint + Detail layer has two icons. The second icon is a layer mask, that shields the parts of the Void layer from changing tone as color is applied to layers beneath. To add a layer mask, I select all the areas of the Void layer that I don't want to be modified in the final skin. I use the shift key to select more than one area at a time, until all the desired parts are selected. Now invert the selected areas with the command [ Select : Inverse ]. Then I press the first left most button at the bottom of the Layers tab shown above. In other programs, it may be slightly different. Done! Now I can paint freely on the Paint + Detail layer and not affect the masked areas. To make a bare metal look, I filled the Paint + Detail layer with a medium grey. The skin now looks like this...
Shading
Now we'll move to shading the flat grey paint behind the void, to give some basic dimension and depth to the plane. There's a couple of ways to do this part of the project. The most common is to add a new transparent layer above the grey layer, and use the airbrush tool to add highlights and shadows. You can also use the airbrush directly on the Paint + Detail layer. Some designs are best worked on by placing each section of the plane on a separate layer (upper wings, lower wings, fuselage, etc.). Let the design of the skin determine which method to use. If the skin has several colors then using separate layers for each color/plane part is best. For monochrome colors, working on one just one layer is easier.
To place a part of the plane on its own layer, just add a new layer, name it, and select the area you want to paint with the Lasso or Marquee tools. Then paint on the new layer. Do this for each part you wish to be separate. You can also add a layer mask the same way mentioned above to each of your parts layers. This can be a big time savings, and prevents the paint from one part overflowing to others. As a note on layers, take your time to name each layer for what it is. If you are going to place each part of the plane on a separate layer, your layer stack can get messy fast if you don't take care to be neat with it.
Since I'm doing a bare metal effect, I'll use just the one layer in this tutorial. Doing this involves some risk, since any mistakes that aren't undoable are now stuck on your only paint layer! If your software allows multiple undo's then you're lucky and its not so bad. I don't have that luxury, so I sit with my right hand (I'm a lefty) on the "Control Z" keys on the keyboard. After each stroke with the pen I check to see if all is well, control Z and retry if not, I move on if yes.
For this metal skin, I'll use the Dodge and Burn tools to shade the grey in the Paint + Detail layer. Use a light pressure, and use a large brush for more subtle shading. I made a custom 200 pixel feathered brush to get a very soft effect. I worked like this:
* Select area to be shaded with Polygonal Lasso tool.
* Dodge tool set for 'highlights', use large brushes, light pressure, to shade in large patches. (don't get detailed yet! no brush smaller than 35 pixels!)
* Burn tool the same settings as Dodge for shadows.
* Move to next area repeating the above for each panel. (I didn't save the mask for each part. I just reselect again with the Lasso)
This is my result...
Linear Mode
