Some basics on using PS;
* Learn to work with Layers. They are awesome. Always keep your PSD file with layers. Never collapse them if you can. This will enable you to easily modify them in the future. For instance you can have mud layers, dirt layers, smoke stain layers, rivet layers, etc. If you collapse those, then you cant make a repaint of a plain with a ton of dirt and mud on it as it would be collapsed and cannot be made different then the normal version.
* Special effects (avaliable on each 'layer' ) are brilliant to work with and can get you some quick, basic effects fast. Things like 'drop shadow' and others, have tons of little adjustments on them so you can 'effect' how much they work or show up.
* Opacity is awesome. You can tune opacity on a layer to be only so powerful. Example, rivets on a black skin paint scheme might need less opacity then say one that is white skinned, so you would tune the rivets layer's opacity until it looks proper on that skin.
* Rivets is an excellent example how how you can use quick 'layer special effects'. Things like drop shadow, outer glow, bevel and emboss, tuned and tuned until just right, can make your rivets really come to life on a painted surface, giving them a real 3D appearence.
Simmers paint shops is AWESOME!!! Try some of the tutorials there. Note that PSP tutorials may help you with PS training as they are very similar programs.
Bill
, black = transparent, white = opaque.