New Skinner needs help

[TexasRut]

I'm brand new to skinning. Never worked with photoshop before till this game. I've completed a few skins now, and have some idea of what I'm doing. I vouluntered to make skins for our intersquad match coming up. Its really not very difficult, just adding some stripes for recognition.
The trouble I'm having is that the strips I've added really don't appear to be part of the wings. It almost looks like they are floating just above it.



I used Jester's great template that I downloaded here.

The yellow stripes on the wings are really what I'm talking about. It looks more like its wrapped in yellow celephane, than actual paint. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do about this? Thanks.

[Serval]

IL-2 makes especially bright colors look glossy.
I think that is also a reason why weathering is so popular in the IL-2 scene.
First, you can make the colors a bit darker.
Then use a noise layer to make the paint a bit less glossy.
Especially in the past I often used a grey layer for that. I've seen others do something similar.
Download one of my templates, and you will find that layer in it. Play with it's blending options (in top of the layers window). Often Multiply works, sometimes another gives better result. Also play with it's transparency.
It will darken the skin a bit, but it's the effect in game that counts.

A little tip for thepaint edges between the dark and light grey: Use a brush instead of a pencil. That will give much more fluent edges.
For hard horizontal and vertical lines the pencil is best, in almost any other case the brush is better.

[Baron von Blutwurst]

Hi there TR...you could also try lowering the saturation of the yellow. As Serval stated, the brighter colors really jump out due to the way the game engine renders them..The noise layer works like a charm when used with a mild desaturation..very natural looking end product..

[TexasRut]

Thanks, ya'll! I'll give it a try. Unfortunatley, I can't change the colors because they we're already pre-selected for me.

[Baron von Blutwurst]

You can keep the colors the same TR..just goto Image/Adjustments/Hue & Saturation and lower the saturation abit. It will reduce the washout effect with the yellows and any other bright colors. You may also want to play with Lightness in the same menu and lower it a bit..The game renders colors much more brightly than you think.

Cheers m8

[mike3121]

I was wondering about the advantages of PhotoShop 7.0 (which I have) over CS or CS-2. I'm not the best at skinning but learning. Would it be worth the $ to move up?

M.W.

[e-b-o-]

layer folders most useful feature ever in PS
(but sure, depends how much $$ you want to spend... at home I'm working on CS1, at work at CS2. CS2 is nicer, but for me it isn't worth the money for an upgrade )

[e-b-o-]

oh, btw Mike: what's the polycount on your HE 177? is it build for a specific application or game?

[mike3121]

Oh, around 10,000 polies. It's high because of all the glass up front and you see alot of the cockpit. Also the 3 Fritz X's add to the polies as well.

It was for a Battlefield 2 MOD. I made a number of WW2 objects and was planning on having combat take place in and around an old WW 2 battlefield. I have Maya 6.5 and BF 2 doesn't support it. I'm animating it now, just for fun.

Mike3121

[e-b-o-]

ah, cc very nice work btw
can't you export it to another file format, like 3ds and import it this way in the game?