Repainting Tutorial?

[Guest Andy_YXU]

Are there any good tutorials for AIrcraft repaining... basic repaining i understand but I tried for example repaint interior of MelJet777 so I converted it to 32bit (just my guess) saved it opened with PaintShopPro.. changed what I wanted saved opened it with Imagetool and converted to DXT3 what it was originally, saved it and... BLACK INTERIOR sucks.. comparing to original I lost ALPHA CHANEL (whatever that is and how to reapply it back) etc etc.. any one knows of a good site or well written tutorial on this?ThanksAndy

[Guest dogknot]

Garry Smith's web site has a great painting tutorial on the 'how to' page. http://www.gjsmith.com/Textures/how_to.htm

[edetroit 933]

T`is the one that taught mehttp://www.avsim.com/hangar/flight/tutorials/marks.htmlhttp://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/User_files/3e1963ea72769e54.jpg

[Guest eko]

Any image that has an alpha channel (DXT3), you need to convert it to 32 bit with image tool and save it as a TARGA (.tga) file. Make changes to it with your editor and save it again as a 32 bit targa file. Then, open it again with image tool and convert it back to DXT3. Targa files preserve the alpha layer.I am assuming you saved it as a 32 bit BMP, and that will delete your alpha layer, as BMP's do not support alpha.Also, IIRC, only Photoshop preserves the alpha channel as a seperate layer mask when you open and save the targa file, so you don't have to do anything special when you open it up in photoshop. I think that with Paint Shop Pro, the process is much more complicated. i.e. you have to export the alpha to a file, then reimport it back into the targa file, etc. etc.I don't have paint shop pro, so i am only going on what I have seen in tutorials.

[Guest Andy_YXU]

Thanks guys I will look through them so far I found from one of the tutorials about DXTBMP program that can keep the ALPHA chanel while allows me to send the BMP over to PaintShopPro and I can do whatever I need to there and then DXTBMP will fix it up for me so it is all fine. Lots to learn last aircraft I painted was for FS98 :-), hm maybe one for FS2000, but still lot's have changed since.ThanksAndy