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Question about re-painting programs (Photoshop)

R

Roadburner440

Charter Member 2010
Alright I have decided to finally take the plunge and repaint aircraft. Now I know that I need photoshop for the .dds plug-ins and such. My question is though there is like hundreds of versions of photoshop all the way from $40 to $1,000. Is the Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 able to do the things I would need it to do for repainting, or do I need one of the other programs? Thank you guys in advance for any advice that you have. I would like to hopefully keep the expense at $100 or less.. obviously it isn't worth it to me to spend $1000 to just repaint aircraft for myself (although I also intend to upload them for others if they want them as well).
 
You may be able to do everything you want with freeware GIMP or freeware Paint.NET. Lots of plug-ins for both.
 
Hi Roadburner,

You don't need photoshop to create .dds files. I use DTX1 bitmap manipulator from Martin Wrigh to convert dds files into bmp format and bmp file into dds format. You can also do this with the ACES image tools which can be found between the SDK files on you FSX DVD (as long as you have the de luxe verion or Acceleration).

I use Paint Shop Pro 7, which is old, but does the job. In the past I have even made some repaints using MSPaint. So in my opinion you definitely don't the latest version or the most expensive program.

Cheers,
Huub
 
Indeed you do not need to pay for a program to do repainting, there are some available for free and basically, if you want to go beyond just colorizing a texture and do layering (very important for any decent repainter), then follow this link. This talks about version 9.0 for less than $10.00, but there are also earlier versions you can find here that are free and do just about the same things. Photoplus is an excellent program and very similar to paintshop pro.
http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/photoplus/
 
Roadrunner

As Huub Vink stated, using Martin Wright's DXTbmp is the way to go to convert the stock .dds files to Windows bmp format, then to convert your new .bmps to .dds. You can find DXTbmp on this site:

http://www.btinternet.com/~mnwright/

Go to the programs list, then scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. You will see a link to download the latest .dll package...you will need that in order to run Martin's programs.

Once you have that downloaded, look through the programs list and find the DXTbmp listing.

DXTbmp is a very easy program to use. If you have any questions, there are lots of folks on this site who use and can give you the answers you need.

As far as what version of Photoshop to buy....buy the latest version you can afford. I started skinning with a very basic photo editor that came with my old $30 digital camera. Then a friend gave me a copy of Photoshop 5.0 LE (Limited Edition) that she found at a yard sale for $1. 5.0 LE was bundled with new computers back in the day and was a stripped down version of Photoshop 5.0. It had everything I needed. Then I got a copy of Photoshop 7.0.

If you are not 100% set on Photoshop, you can also use Paint Shop Pro....I have it..don't like it. I am running a give away contest for an unopened Paint Shop Pro 8.0 if you want to take your chances on winning. Check out the entry thread in the Newshawks forum.

OBIO
 
Elements is not the program for repainting. It has basic tools to allow for color correction, cropping, and some effects.
You are most likely looking for the Creative Suite. Photoshop CS4 is your best bet. Also, I don't know if you are still in school or not, but you can find CS4 in student bookstores for super cheap.
 
Also, the latest versions of Paint Shop Pro are under 100.00 and will do everything you will ever need for painting FS planes, and many other things. I'm sure there are things PS will do that PSP can't, but I don't know what they are!
 
PRB said:
Also, the latest versions of Paint Shop Pro are under 100.00 and will do everything you will ever need for painting FS planes, and many other things. I'm sure there are things PS will do that PSP can't, but I don't know what they are!
Click to expand...
Yep, I use Paint Shop Pro as well (8.0) and it's excellent. It's all in what you're used to. If you can find a program that allows for layering, that's an important tool. Otherwise, it's whatever you feel comfortable with and has the least amount of learning curve to it.
 
There are some great freeware programs out there, and I certainly do not think any sane person would spend $1,000.00 for a paint program (thats ludicrous, unless you are a millionaire and do not care).

But... Photoshop is highly recommended. I love it.. (I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE it). But I have an ancient issue, Photoshop 6.0.

Some people sell it on Ebay, versions 6 or 7 are good.

I purchased Photoshop Elements last week for my Mac (mac version of PS) and it is brilliant. I am really impressed with it. I would check to see if you can use the nVidia tools with it (Elements) and if so, you can have the lastest Photoshop for $99.00. If you can afford $99.00, its worth it. It does layers and effects, etc, and is pretty nice compared with PS 6.0. (I may have to upgrade my PS to Elements if it can do the nVidia tools for when I am in Windows mode).

The cool thing with the nVidia tools is that you can double click right on a DDS file in FSX and it opens right up in PS. You can save as PSD and then to DDS in PS which makes PS ultra useful in doing heavy painting in FSX. For converting to FS9 formats, I just use DXTBmp by Martin Wright. Great program. It would be cool if he could figure out how to do a addon script/tool for PS that would enable DXT format saving, like nVidia did with DDS textures. That would be the ultimate painting setup.


The main thing of all of this, with PSP, PS, Gimp, is the ability to do layers. If you do not know about Layers, they are basically 'stacks'. You see from the top down, so some top layers will hide bottom layers. You can turn off layers, give layers effects, group them in folders of layers, etc, but are all stacks. From a stack, you can burn a JPG, BMP, DDS, etc, from them, but keeping the stacks 'stacked' and not flattened. Thus you can insert a layer of different stripes (stripes only) over a white background, change the background to beige, green, etc. Thus, stacks are totally amazing for repainting. Some layers can have just rivets, some have panel lines with effects for shading, etc, etc....

Great fun painting in layers..

Bill
LHC
 
Thank you guys for all the quick replies. Wasn't expecting them this fast. I have done a little bit of research, and went on Avsim forums and looked at their tutorials, but everything is old which is why I wanted to come on here and see what everyone is currently using. It is good to see that the answers go from spending no money at all to getting the PS Elements for $100. I will give them all a try (of course with PS Elements as the last resort). The stacks sound like what I would want to work with. Cause ideally I would like to keep the rivets, etc, paint the body (I know there are different view for the wings, fuselage, and that everything is spread amongst multiple files in 2D). I would like to keep the functionality as good as possible. Cause I want to repaint the A2A B-17 Accusim, add a tail number to my P-47D, and change the registration number on my MD-11X.. then of course mess around with repainting other stuff, but those 3 are high on my pri-list.
 
One thing I can't stress enough is that whatever program you use, it MUST have layering. It's the only way to be able to reproduce details such as panel lines and riveting, for example, and still work on the basic paint scheme below them. Also if you don't have each detail on a separate layer, you'll have trouble making the specular sheet or alpha channel you need to determine reflectivity. Obviously just fusing the layers are desaturating them won't be accurate enough.

Just a quick foray from my home next-door in CFS3-land!
 
If you don't go with GIMP you're clinically insane.

In terms of repainting aircraft, there is nothing you can do it photoshop that you can't do with GIMP.

If you were a high-end graphics editor then you'd choose photoshop (that said, only for the user interface which is slightly easier for some tasks) but for chucking some paint on aircraft? GIMP all the way.

For you it would be mental to spend any more than £0.

Whatever you go with (gimp) give it some time to become accustomed to the program. It's not like MS paint. You'll have plenty of frustrating moments. A good example is trying to draw on your image and nothing shows up: "Why aren't you showing up? I've got the paint tool, now paint. WHY WON'T YOU SHO....wrong layer."
 
I'm using Photoshop CS3, but only because I get it for free from my employer. I would NEVER spend the asking price if I'd have to pay it myself. I'd use the GIMP instead, which does everything photoshop does as far as I can tell, and for free too!
So, get DXTbmp here , and the gimp here , all for free, and you can paint everything I can paint.
I'm looking forward to your paints!
 
Thanks Jankees. I'm not mistaken you are the one that did my Black P-47D for me, which I immensely enjoy. I am looking forward to finally giving her a tail number. :ernae:
 
Roadburner440 said:
Thanks Jankees. I'm not mistaken you are the one that did my Black P-47D for me, which I immensely enjoy. I am looking forward to finally giving her a tail number. :ernae:
Click to expand...
you should have told me you wanted a registration, nothing easier....but now I'll let you sort that out for yourself...
 
Whats cool when you have rivets or panel lines on a layer, and you change your background color from say bright polished aluminum to dark olive, you can tone down layers, make them slightly transparent (so they arent so bright or 'eye catching' and blend better), and you can colorize things like panel lines, give panel lines effects like upside down Bevel so it looks like bump mapping with its shading. Its awesome...


Bill
 
Skittles said:
If you don't go with GIMP you're clinically insane.

In terms of repainting aircraft, there is nothing you can do it photoshop that you can't do with GIMP.

If you were a high-end graphics editor then you'd choose photoshop (that said, only for the user interface which is slightly easier for some tasks) but for chucking some paint on aircraft? GIMP all the way.

For you it would be mental to spend any more than £0.

Whatever you go with (gimp) give it some time to become accustomed to the program. It's not like MS paint. You'll have plenty of frustrating moments. A good example is trying to draw on your image and nothing shows up: "Why aren't you showing up? I've got the paint tool, now paint. WHY WON'T YOU SHO....wrong layer."
Click to expand...

I'll second that! Besides, it's free so it'll cost you nothing to try it out. If you don't like it, then you can spend some money on payware.
 
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