Quote from Pablo Donoso :

There ya go, all done, saved space and revised the zip, because the first one I whipped up for Grip Driver in like 15 mins so he didn't have to wait for imageshack to re-link the images, plus I didn't want others to go through the same issue with that in the future. =)

For Grip: after masking off the area, don't save as (.jpg), save it as 24-bit bitmap image (.bmp), only save as .jpg after you paste the bitmap skin onto the texture.... lol, sorry, perhaps I should add that tip, because the way I do it, I mask off the area, then copy and paste it onto the texture, without saving until the skin is superimposed onto the texture, then I save as a jpg.

Bitmap doesn't compress the image when saved, so color remains exactly as it is created, but jpeg is an inter-changeable format and when saved, it is compressed and loses color quality. It's not your fault though grip, so no worries, k. =)

oh! I should have figured that out! thanks though! I will save it bitmap next time.

Quote from hazaky :

U need to make all the area with the same color (aka. pink?) and dont save it - it loses quality and then its not the same color. If u save, then maybe PNG wont ruin it because PNG format should be 100% quality (as saved).

I use pink to easily represent the area. Also, thanks for the second tip, too. I noticed that when I did save it, the quality was like :thumbsdow afterward. So go bitmap, and I'll try not saving it one time and just paste it to the carbon fiber. I think I got everything now. I'll try again. Thanks for everything!

I'm sure this time is ok to use big red font!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAZ!!!! xD

ok, I'm putting together a second follow-up tutorial, that explains how to use MS-Paint to add grafix over a skin that is solid, where you can't see where the body is. Here's an example that only took about 2.5 hours, from scratch to finish.

Quote from Pablo Donoso :

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAZ!!!! xD

Was that for me?

If yes, then thanks a bunch
I havnt had any big red colored birthday wishes like this before.

@ Pablo, the rotating FZR goes way to quick to really see the struture you have used. From what I have seen the structure doesnt allign as it should. Look at the structure were it goes from the side to the rear. The side structure goes up but the rear structure goes down. Secondly the image on the side of the car is strecht. This is becus the skin are compressed to 2048x2048. You can avoid strecthing by altering the skin size from 2048x3048 to 2560x2048 before you start skining. When your ready resize it back to 2048x2048. There is a different method which you use to avoid stretching but this is the easiest way. The other one is about ratio and descalling your decals to a certain point. I dont know the ratio of that but I am sure there plenty guys who know that.

Yup, the first test gradient skins CF pattern had a diagonal pattern, I already fixed that part so it all looks uniform. Sadly though due to limited resources, I have to stick to making them 1024x1024 for now. I made more templates though so it's much easier just cutting patterns/textures to size and piecing them together. It's just tricky now getting the flames to blend over fenders/hood/front faschia. Eh, details details xD.




OLD PATTERN

EAT SH*T AND DIE FZR


BLUES F2 FXR





NEW PATTERN

REDS Ferrari FZR


REDS F2X FXR


REDS BLANK XRR










Old diagonal pattern plate



New CF pattern plate




The templates I made can also be resized 200% and serve as a baseplate
for adding texture plates with ease.