Question How to reskin Shuttle Fleet

[Dysko]

Hi,
I made an ASI (Italian Space Agency) reskin for Shuttle Fleet.

I have a problem though: at the moment, the skin overwrites the Atlantis skin. Is there a way to make it "independent", so that it doesn't overwrite any existing skin?
Thank you!

 

[Donamy]

Not yet.

 

[Star Voyager]

How did you do that? I always wanted to do that!

 

[Dysko]

Not yet.

Thanks for the answer! Looks like I'll make the skin for SSU... is it possible to make "independent" SSU skins?

How did you do that? I always wanted to do that!

It's much more easy than it seems... I just removed NASA logos, American flags and the shuttle name with Photoshop's clone stamp tool, then I pasted the Italian flag and the other logos and I added the text.

 

[Star Voyager]

Sweet! So you just used Photoshop and not paint.net? I'm getting Photoshop, now. Thanks!

 

[orb]

Sweet! So you just used Photoshop and not paint.net? I'm getting Photoshop, now. Thanks!

It shouldn't be impossible with either Paint.net or GIMP, though. So you don't need to buy Photoshop if you don't have it. GIMP for example also has clone stamp tool. I've never used Paint.net, but it should have that too.

 

[Star Voyager]

I tried paint.net and found it impossible to do anything with any texture. I'll try GIMP.

 

[garyw]

paint.net will allow direct editing of DDS files, I used it to tweak the textures of the XR-2 and found it very easy to do.

 

[orb]

I tried paint.net and found it impossible to do anything with any texture. I'll try GIMP.

To directly edit Orbiter textures in GIMP, first you need to download DDS plug-in for it from here: http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/, and place it in your GIMP's "\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins" subfolder before you will be able to open/save .dds files.

 

[Star Voyager]

paint.net will allow direct editing of DDS files, I used it to tweak the textures of the XR-2 and found it very easy to do.

I tried editing the default Atlantis texture, but ended up screwing it over with the "magic wand". Also, I tried making a surface tile using a picture from the Internet and paint.net, but it didn't work either (I abandoned that project, but anyone willing to take over, I will supply the info and config file).

To directly edit Orbiter textures in GIMP, first you need to download DDS plug-in for it from here: http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/, and place it in your GIMP's "\lib\gimp\2.0\plug-ins" subfolder before you will be able to open/save .dds files.

Thanks, orb. The reason why I want to do a livery is because a friend of mine requested it here:

http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?t=10118

This is something I've been wanting to do (along with other liveries), but never figured out how.

---------- Post added at 07:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:55 PM ----------

Got GIMP and .dds plug-in. What should I do now?

 

[orb]

Got GIMP and .dds plug-in. What should I do now?

Open one of below textures depending which OV you want to reskin, or all of them on layers of one image, and compare differences between layers:

STSAtlantis.dds
STSAtlantisORG.dds
STSChallenger.dds
STSConstellation.dds
STSConstitution.dds
STSDiscovery.dds
STSDiscoveryORG.dds
STSEndeavour.dds
STSEndeavourORG.dds
STSEnterprise.dds
STSIntrepid.dds
STSLateColumbia.dds
STSMidColumbia.dds
STSOrgColumbia.dds

Then duplicate the layer you are working on, and work on copy to easy compare between changes and the original. Depending on what you want to do first, use selection tool and copy/paste on or between layers or open images, or color to alpha tool if you want to change the color of orbiter, and then new layer with new color below that layer, or using colorize / hue change tools on selection. All is about working on layers, so it's easy to disable or enable a layer and use effects or draw on one of layers instead of whole image.

 

[Star Voyager]

Thanks, I'll try this later when I get home (I'm on a school computer and my teacher doesn't care that I'm on here!).

---------- Post added at 03:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 PM ----------

Just tried editing a texture, but I can't find some of the tools you are refering to. Is there a step by step tutorial on this?

 

[garyw]

Just tried editing a texture, but I can't find some of the tools you are refering to. Is there a step by step tutorial on this?

It would help to know exactly what you have tried and where it went wrong.

 

[Star Voyager]

All I got to was duplicating the layer. I went to "Layer", selected "Duplicate Layer", and tried deleting the various writing and insignias using the "Fuzzy Select Tool", but when I hit delete, nothing happens.

 

[orb]

All I got to was duplicating the layer. I went to "Layer", selected "Duplicate Layer", and tried deleting the various writing and insignias using the "Fuzzy Select Tool", but when I hit delete, nothing happens.

Nothing happens, because duplicated layer is over original visible layer, and after deleting, those regions become transparent and you see the original layer through the gaps. You need to disable background layer visibility (i.e. turn off the eye icon on layers' panel for background layer(s)) to see what's deleted on foreground layer, if images on these layers are the same.

BTW. You have quicker access to some layer tools/commands by right-clicking on layer in layers' panel.

Just tried editing a texture, but I can't find some of the tools you are refering to. Is there a step by step tutorial on this?

I don't know if there are tutorials for GIMP. I've never used any. But there are GIMP help files for which I posted links there.

 

[Graham2001]

I might look into trying to do some of the shuttle names I've come across in wikipedia's list of Fictional Astronauts.

Anything I should watch out for?

 

[Saturn V]

Deleted

 

[Graham2001]

Found the most important thing I needed, a freeware version of Helvetica (Well, a Helvetica style font anyway). (Link:Heros)

Glad to hear that Paint.net can read dds files directly. I'd like to ask again something that was asked earlier, is there a step by step guide to doing this using Paint.net, or will I have install the Gimp again (grr!) ?