how can i compensate for the streching of my skins? I've read the article on master skinnerz and it gives dimentions to resize to. are the dimentions (2580x2048) good for all cars? how can I compinsate for streaching with the least amount of testing?

Every car is different, and in some cases different parts (top vs sides) stretch differently. I have not seen a set of perfect numbers posted anywhere, for any car.

Generally, I use about 70% width on anything for the sides/top of the car. I mostly skin the FOX and GTR cars, though, so that value will be way off for, say, the BF1.

IIRC the UF models do not require any compensation, though.

Yeah I don't stretch at all, just doesn't work well, instead I make adjustments, resize logo's and check the changes in CMX Viewer.
shadow2kx provided a great tip on how to automate the changes you make in PhotoShop directly in Viewer. Read it here: http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=551663#post551663
You still have to make minor continual changes but it is quicker with less steps to check their effect in viewer. Hopefully you are using PhotoShop or your editing tool has a similar action recording option.

Quote from flinty72 :

Yeah I don't stretch at all, just doesn't work well, instead I make adjustments, resize logo's and check the changes in CMX Viewer.

thats how I've been doing it and I found it takes a lot of time. I'm also dissapointed with streaching becuase I create what look like a perfect skin in photoshop and then it gets all streached ingame.

I don't stretch my skins, I just shrink the width of stuff to about 80%. Depends on the part of the car, but usually around 80% width is close.

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=29607

I made some posts in there about skin stretching Reply #13 and #18

Quote from Dajmin :

I don't stretch my skins, I just shrink the width of stuff to about 80%. Depends on the part of the car, but usually around 80% width is close.

I found that 80 isn't enough; I usually go to 70. For the FO8, BF1 and a couple others you've gotta go even lower (maybe 62-63 for the BF1? Need to experiment).

Great Thanks Guys !!

IMO the easiest is still to make your skin template 2560x2048 then resize to 2048x2048 once you're done. Its so much faster than sizing down every little sticker to 75% width...

That's exactly what I do RM.

Quote from Riders Motion :

IMO the easiest is still to make your skin template 2560x2048 then resize to 2048x2048 once you're done. Its so much faster than sizing down every little sticker to 75% width...

I used to do this, but I've found that it reeks havoc with the alignment of graphics across different panels. I'd suggest taking the non-lazy way of doing it on a logo-to-logo basis.

I've always scaled everything manually, one-by-one, and used the viewer to judge. Best way IMO, then you can get everything to look the way you want it to be .