This section shows you how to create and use a blank LearJet 45 texture. The LearJet is a more complicated (and confusing!) texture compared to the the 737-400 we looked at earlier, so we'll have to take a couple of extra steps.

As mentioned before, I use Macromedia Fireworks for my repaints (not as strange a choice as you might think...), so all screenshots are specific to that application. However, I've found that most packages have similar features to those that I'll use here, so you should be able to modify this guide for any program.

What files do I use?

For this tutorial, we'll be working on the default LearJet texture. You'll find this in your Lear45 folder within the "aircraft" directory of your FS2000 installation. The file you need to edit is the LEAR45_T1.BMP file in this aircraft's "Texture" directory. Back this file up now!

If you're working with a program using layers, you'll probably be saving this file using a different file format while working on it - save it to a working directory with a new filename now... better safe than sorry! You'll save it as a bitmap (.bmp) file later.

See the File Formats and Testing section for information on saving and installing these files for use in FS2000. Check this section also if you're having problems viewing this bitmap in your graphics program (it's not a standard bitmap!).

Making sense of the texture

Before you go any further, it makes sense to build up a series of layers for your repaint. This is described fully in the 737-400 repaint section right here.

The first thing you'll notice about the LearJet texture is that it's not so straightfoward compared to the 737-400. The sections are not clearly marked out... so we've first of all got to decide what goes where and get an idea of how the aircraft is mapped.

In the screenshot to the left you can see the initial LearJet texture, but I've added another layer. You can see that I've had a "rough guess" as to how the layers might map out (they're labelled in this shot but that's not important!), and I've created some coloured areas (on a seperate layer) covering what I think are the main features.

By using different colours like this, when the file is exported into FS2000, I should be able to see clearly what I'm working with. Because I've made the colour areas slightly transparent, I can see through to the original texture as a guide, and this is what I'm going to work with.

Now I need to export this file into FS2000. If you're not familiar with how to do this, read the file formats and testing section of this site first!

When I load up my aircraft in FS2000, I can straight away see what I'm working with... I've now got a very colourful aircraft, but it's fairly obvious what maps onto what. We can see, for example, that the top section is mirrored onto the bottom, the fins at the bottom of the tail obviously come from the wings (somewhere!) and we know which side of the fuselage is which.

We can also see any areas of the aircraft that haven't been covered by our initial guesswork, and can now use this as a basis for correcting our work so that we know how things go. We need to edit the layer containing our coloured shapes based on what we know from viewing the aircraft in FS2000, and then we'll put that aside for a moment.

Building your blank

The next stage is to create the lines on the fuselage and cut out the standard items. From the initial bitmap, select and copy all the components you're not going to repaint (such as the cockpit, seats, wheel etc...) onto another layer (I'll call this layer "Standard Components", and this will sit on top of all the other layers. I won't necessarily have it visible most of the time - except when exporting the file to FS2000).

Now you want to use various tools to draw over all the fuselage lines and other features. Make sure you draw these onto a different layer to the original bitmap. Do the same (very simply) with the windows and doors. In this screenshot, I'm starting with solid black lines and simple outlines for doors and windows so that I can see where things go and what I'm working with. I've also created a couple of filled in shapes for the grey areas on the original bitmap.

Based upon our layer containing coloured areas, we can now draw some large white shapes to cover each individual area of the aircraft texture. I've also created a black background in my example. This isn't necessary, but it helps me to see what I'm doing and makes the individual sections much clearer.

I've turned off the standard components (wheels, cockpit graphics etc.), so that you can see what I've done clearer. I've added a slight gradient (white to grey and back again) to the main fuselage sections.

This bitmap is now a good starting point for our repaint - none of the original bitmap is needed now (except for the standard components!), and we've got a clear texture to work with. Of course, we're going to have to draw the windows and doors properly, and sort out those fuselage lines so that they look right. For now, though, we've got to make sure our texture is spot on.

You can see from this screenshot that I've already set up some slight gradients on the grey areas of the aircraft. I've done this largely because we're not actually going to be doing much repainting of these areas (mostly the leading edges to wings) and it pays to have them in place early so we can see what we're working with right away. The gradients along the fuselage may well need to be changed depending on the way that they map onto the aircraft, and whether we decide that they're actually useful in the end!

Exporting this new texture into FS2000, we end up with a plain white aircraft with very obvious fuselage line. This means that we can now see what joins up, what needs moving, and shows up any potential problems with our blank right away. By viewing the aircraft at this point we can correct any small glitches before we commit ourselves to some heavy repainting.

The first thing I've noticed here is that the fuselage lines near the nose don't join, and the lines need to go a couple of pixels forward to connect with the texture that runs along the top and bottom of the aircraft. I could, similarly, move this top texture's line to link up, but it looks better if I move the sides forward. This is actually a problem with the actual default LearJet texture - in the microsoft model they don't join up correctly (obviously not checked too well - this is why we're working with heavy black lines!). Also we have the problem that the rear of the top and bottom textures don't line up... Can we correct this?

In this case, the answer would be no! If we take a look at the default FS2000 LearJet 45 texture by loading the default aircraft into FS2000, we can see that the actual aircraft suffers this problem and that this is a problem with the texture mapping rather than the texture itself.

In fact, the default texture is full of mapping problems and glitches. We'll have to make sure our texture fixes as many of thses problems as possible if it's going to look good.

From the repaint I'm going to do (the Executive Jetways VA new livery), I can see that the texture mapping problems near the back of the aircraft (with sections being repeated from another area of the texture and mapped incorrectly (microsoft's fault!!), are going to cause problems.

This screenshot of the King Air 350 shows an aircraft I repainted earlier for ExecJet VA, and gives an idea of the texture we're going to aim towards with the LearJet. You can see straight away that the blue at the rear of the aircraft may be difficult to get right with the mapping that we've discovered on the LearJet. It's always a good idea to think around a few possible solutions right now at the preparation stage rather than just painting the texture and trying to fix all the problems later. There are a few ways round the problems discussed here, but we may have to be prepared to change our plans to fit in with what we can and can't do.