A Lockheed "Rounder"

Hi,

These 2 pics show before and after effect on Mick's beautiful NEWAT repaint.
The alpha channel is taken away,in my case to Paint.net and the slider on the hue/saturation box slid right to about 65 to lighten the channel and lessen the shine. This counts more as vandalism than anything else, but I do love the duller effect!

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I think I've posted these already.
You can just make out the chrome spinner left unchanged in the 2nd picture; I never sent 'parts' bmp to be edited
Andy
 

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Milton Shupe said:
Oh, I thought you were referring to specular 'Hot' spots (sun glare).

You can decrease the glossiness by lightening the alpha channel.

Or, if you are in FSX, you can have a different envmap for each paint scheme.
Click to expand...

That's correct - also; when making shinier textures like these (and they do look sleek, I must say!),
try generally darkening the areas of your base texture as the alpha reflections tend to lighten everything out.

If you're using layers (and I would emphasise the ease in which they are used), I usually create alphas by temporarily switching OFF colour schemes etc, then go to the 'channels' drop down list and make a duplicate of one of the 3 RGB channels - I usually prefer green.
Name the NEW duplicate 'Alpha 1', then INVERT it.

That way, the Alpha will leave your rivets, shadows, panels etc darker while retaining reflectivity where you want it most.

Now play around, have some fun and experiment with the lightness/darkness value of the Alpha until you're happy with your work.

Hope this helps :)
 
Hi,
@expat really,
I cannot paint and know nothing of layers; the whole concept leaves me dribbling in the corner. However it was explained to me how to change the alpha channel and this is roughly how it works for me.....

1.I create a folder called 'alpha' on the desktop

2.Open DXTBmp and find the texture you want to alter..there are 8 I think in the Lodestar texture that need to be altered. Willy's texture sets only have those 8 in the folder.

3. Open it.

4.In the corner is the alpha channel box

5.Click send to editor and direct it to the folder you have made

6.Open that folder, right click the alpha bmp and send to your paint program..I use Paint.net

7.Click 'adjustments' and then the Hue/Saturation. Each one you do should be the same, although Paint.net seems to do that itself.

8. I just slide the 'lightness' slider to the right to about 65 or more. That lightens the alpha.

9. Then File, Save As and you go back to the folder where you can overwrite the original alpha, or not, by renaming etc.

10 Go back to DXTBmp and click 'import alpha'

11. Overwrite, yes

12. File, Save As Extended Bitmap.
I think that's it for that one !
7 to go.:dizzy:

Andy.
 
lemonadedrinker said:
Hi,
@expat really,
I cannot paint and know nothing of layers; the whole concept leaves me dribbling in the corner. However it was explained to me how to change the alpha channel and this is roughly how it works for me.....

1.I create a folder called 'alpha' on the desktop

2.Open DXTBmp and find the texture you want to alter..there are 8 I think in the Lodestar texture that need to be altered. Willy's texture sets only have those 8 in the folder.

3. Open it.

4.In the corner is the alpha channel box

5.Click send to editor and direct it to the folder you have made

6.Open that folder, right click the alpha bmp and send to your paint program..I use Paint.net

7.Click 'adjustments' and then the Hue/Saturation. Each one you do should be the same, although Paint.net seems to do that itself.

8. I just slide the 'lightness' slider to the right to about 65 or more. That lightens the alpha.

9. Then File, Save As and you go back to the folder where you can overwrite the original alpha, or not, by renaming etc.

10 Go back to DXTBmp and click 'import alpha'

11. Overwrite, yes

12. File, Save As Extended Bitmap.
I think that's it for that one !
7 to go.:dizzy:

Andy.
Click to expand...

Hi Andy,

Lost you somewhere in the middle, my friend...:dizzy:

Awefull lot of toing and froing, naming and renaming just to arrive at a simple Alpha, my friend.

Wish folk wouldn't be afraid of layer programs - so much easier and time saving.
There's a good freeware program if you don't have Photoshop.

If we could rally enough interest, we could set up a simple step-by-step tutorial.

And you don't have to be Picasso to paint aircraft - it's all quite simple, really...
Poor old 'Erks' used to have to do it all under a tilly lamp in the freezing cold with a paintbrush and can of dark green.
You can sit in the warm with a choice of hot beverage, pack of 'bacca' and a fancy wancy paint program.

If you can see simple shapes, click a mouse and distinguish red from blue and yellow; YOU SHOULD BE PAINTING AIRCRAFT!

It's that simple :)

edit: and I'm sure Picasso would have done the most horrendous things to our precious aircraft! :jawdrop:
 
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Hi,

I would love a simple, if possible, explanation of painting.
I'm really sorry to have lost you, Nigel; I did try to use only short words but , if I'm honest, I lost myself about the same point as yourself :pop4: !

Are we writing of the same thing though, as I can only alter an existing alpha channel to give less shine. I have not tried making more shine by moving the slider to the left . I do not know how to create an alpha channel either !

Andy.
 
lemonadedrinker said:
Hi,

I would love a simple, if possible, explanation of painting.
I'm really sorry to have lost you, Nigel; I did try to use only short words but , if I'm honest, I lost myself about the same point as yourself :pop4: !

Are we writing of the same thing though, as I can only alter an existing alpha channel to give less shine. I have not tried making more shine by moving the slider to the left . I do not know how to create an alpha channel either !

Andy.
Click to expand...

Hi Andy,

Your vocabulary's spottless, LOL. I meant all those laborious steps involved in making an Alpha.

Yes; we're talking of the same thing re; Alphas.

Okay; better not clog this thread with painting do's and don'ts - so let's clear the air and I'll see what we can do in starting up a specific thread.

If our fine moderators will permit this; I'll initially start a thread here in Fs9 discussions for easy access/interaction then maybe it could be allocated to the tutorial forums on completion.
 
I use Paint Shop Pro to make alpha layers. I open the bitmap texture file in PSP, go to Image, and then greyscale it. Going back to the Image menu, I then negative it to make the lighter areas shine more and save it under a different name. (an example would be I'd save the fuse_t greyscale/negative file as fuse_a for easy tracking of what's what)

I then go into Photosuite which is my usual program that i use for laying down paint and areas that I don't want any shine at all, I'll paint out in white. This is usually black markings, anti glare on the nose, deicing boots and ADF footballs (nose covers on P-80s). For areas of normal paint, I'll go to a light grey to give the paint some gloss. Bare metal I pretty much leave as is for max shine. If I'm going for a worn look to the metal, I'll lighten it up by various methods depending on what it is. Photosuite has this neat "fog" effect that will lighten up a texture in stages. I use that if I'm going to light up the whole bitmap. Otherwise, I'll use a thin opague covering on the bit that I want unshined and trial and error it until I get what I want.

The alphas that I've been doing for the Lodestars have had no fog effect applied and the bare metal bits are left as is from the negative process. The P-80s have been getting one pass through it as Morton's base metal is a little lighter than Rachel's and using my process comes out too shiny otherwise.

Clear as mud?

Willy
 
lemonadedrinker said:
"... I create a folder called 'alpha' on the desktop..."
Click to expand...

You're creating extra steps and complicating the process.

I don't understand why you remove the alpha image to a folder on your desktop to work on it. There's no reason to do that. It's much simpler to just work on the alpha channel the same way you work on the main texture image, using your painting program within DXTbmp, just as you would if you were working on the main texture.

This is so whether or not you work in layers.

Why make it more difficult for yourself?
 
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Mick said:
You're creating extra steps and greatly the process.

I don't understand why you remove the alpha image to a folder on your desktop to work on it. There's no reason to do that. It's much simpler to just work on the alpha channel the same way you work on the main texture image, using your painting program within DXTbmp, just as you would if you were working on the main texture.

This is so whether or not you work in layers.

Why make it more difficult for yourself?
Click to expand...

Well, if your only graphics editor is MSPaint, then you you must export the alpha channel, lighten it using some exterior tool, then import it back.

Otherwise, yes, you are correct.

However, if the alpha channel is just flat colors, then MSPaint will do the job inside DXTBmp.
 
Mick said:
You're creating extra steps and greatly the process.

I don't understand why you remove the alpha image to a folder on your desktop to work on it. There's no reason to do that. It's much simpler to just work on the alpha channel the same way you work on the main texture image, using your painting program within DXTbmp, just as you would if you were working on the main texture.

This is so whether or not you work in layers.

Why make it more difficult for yourself?
Click to expand...

That's correct - think of the Alpha channel as PART of your bitmap file, not something separate.

When you open a 32 bit bitmap in DXTbmp you will automatically see the Alpha.
 
Hi,

We do need a new thread I think!
How would I edit the alpha without sending it to the paint program I'm using...Paint.net in this case ? Paint has layering and so on, not that that means much to me, but they are there!

Teaching skills required now, Nigel, to be brought out of the cupboard, dusted off and shown to the now dusty children sitting at their desks coughing, but with mice poised and raring to go:redfire:!

Andy.
 
Milton Shupe said:
Well, if your only graphics editor is MSPaint, then you you must export the alpha channel, lighten it using some exterior tool, then import it back.
Otherwise, yes, you are correct.
However, if the alpha channel is just flat colors, then MSPaint will do the job inside DXTBmp.
Click to expand...

I use a retro version of MS Paint for simple stuff and PSP7 for more complex things. (Other programs on rare occasions, but mainly those two.) Remember, you can switch back and forth between image programs with a click on the Prefs menu.
 
Well, after 4 years, we have finally completed all the Lockheed Rounder projects. There were other projects mixed in during that time of course but I am grateful for all the people who contributed resources, time, and talent in this series. Thank you all so much, and especially to many of you who contributed behind the scenes early on with invaluable reference material. And thanks to Firekitten (Rachael) who helped get these units pushed out since July; she was instrumental in making that happen. Nigel contributed so much right up to last year and I wish he could have been here to see it through. But, that's what makes this community great. We had lots of talented people step up in the last 6 months to make it happen. Thank you all. :applause:

Now, back to the Mallards and the A-20 Havoc. :wavey:
 
Hi,
Thank you and the Team so much, Milton. The Lockheeds are a stunning and beautiful set of aircraft to fly in all our virtual worlds. And, of course, the Repainting geniuses who make it all even more realistic :applause:. Thank you all.

Andy.
 
Thank you Milton & Team and all who participated and stimulated and encouraged in one way or the other. The Lockheed are such an enrichment to the flightsim world. What an exciting and amazing project this has been! :applause::applause::applause:

Cheers,
Maarten
 
Many thanks, Milton & team, for allowing us to share the birth of many 'children'.
We seem to have a lost child with the missing 'baby' for the Bounty?

;-)
 
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