Night logo technique

[lluisdc 0]

Good morning,This is my first post in this forum where I hope to learn a lot and bother the less as possible.I have been painting aircraft for a few years and now I think I have reached an acceptable level of skills almost completely thanks to Leen de Jager who has invested (or spent, depending on the point of view) his time with me.I am now dealing with night textures for version 2011 of the aircraft of our fleet and I am not successful. I can proudly say that I am a "manual reader" and try to get information on written documents before bothering directly other people, but I have been unable to go through this although I have read the great manuals of Morgan Dainows and California Classics.My problem is likely very simple:I have the night textures of several aircraft and must adapt the logo lightning to ours. It appears that the most suitable Photoshop light effect is the "2 o'clock" focus, but I am unable to succeed. I have read the manuals above mentioned but I am afraid that the parts explaining this are not enough for what I need.I have searched in the net for Photoshop tutorials on light effects but I think that nothing can be applied to my problem and I wonder if someone here could give me some link to any document which I could use for this.I also have to learn on Béziers curves, but this will be the next step.Thanks in advance,Lluís

[Leen3131cs 107]

Hi Lluis , welcome to our forum.Making night files is`nt a nightmare.Just take a copy of the texturesheet with the tail with its logo on it.Apply a black layer en set its opacity to 50%Now use your selecting-tool using the "feather" setting for this tool.Select the part of the tail you want to be high-lighted at night en delete the selected black.Set the opacity of the black layer to the desired level and you`re done.Merge the layers and save the file to the correct filetype with its filename e.g. Tail_L.bmp ( mind the alpha )RegardsLeen

[lluisdc 0]

Good evening,

Just take a copy of the texturesheet with the tail with its logo on it.Apply a black layer en set its opacity to 50%Now use your selecting-tool using the "feather" setting for this tool.Select the part of the tail you want to be high-lighted at night en delete the selected black.Set the opacity of the black layer to the desired level and you`re done.Merge the layers and save the file to the correct filetype with its filename e.g. Tail_L.bmp ( mind the alpha )

I have done this and the result is acceptable. If I only use a black layer the logo looks too bright. To avoid this, I have added a white layer under the black and reduced the opacity to 25%. Thus, black at 100% and white at 25%. As said, the result is acceptable. I have used a feathering of 5 pixels ... too low perhaps?I would like, however, to apply a gradient of the logo light. I have used the gradient tool but without much success; I think I will have to experiment with that tool ...Thanks again,Lluís

[Leen3131cs 107]

Forget about the white layer it disturbs the sharpness of the texture.Just decrease the brightness of the texture layer.Feather 5 ? try 20, 30, 40 until is suits you.To make a gradient , create another layer with a gradiant of black on a new layer.This shows the light loosing intensity towards the top of the tail.On my example I decreased the brightness of the existing file and added the gradiant.Leen

[lluisdc 0]

Hi gents,Apologies Leen for responding so late. Supposedly this topic is marked to be followed but I do not receive any notice when a reply is posted.Thank you Leen for your indications on the logo technique.Now I must prepare the night textures for the PSS/Just Fly Boeing 757 series which have nothing at all included in the package. Thus I have to create the files from scratch. The logo is not a problem now but any help on how to do the windows, glareshield and landing ligths will be warmly welcome. By the moment, I am trying to create a new layer with the windows and glareshield only. Afterwards I will have to deal with lighting them.Best regards,Lluís

[Leen3131cs 107]

Do you already have this one?http://www.avsim.com/pages/tom/pss/757_Paintkit.exeThe pss757 has 3D windows (holes) in the model.Many paints available on the internet have no windows on the texture.Using the wireframe sheet from the paintkit above it is possible to have painted window frames on the texture.The wireframe tells you exactly where the windows are.Make a layer over the wire-frame and paint the windowframes on it.Move this layer to your fuse texture PSS-B7524Main_t.bmp layerfile and give it a try.RegardsLeen

[lluisdc 0]

Good morning,

Do you already have this one?http://www.avsim.com/pages/tom/pss/757_Paintkit.exe

I am not sure if I have this one. I am at the office and the content of the AVSIM library is blocked. However, I have the official paintkit for these aircraft and I suppose is the same.

The pss757 has 3D windows (holes) in the model.

Yes, I realised of that some days ago. I had to change my reference point when drawing the text and livery as I used the window frames.

Using the wireframe sheet from the paintkit above it is possible to have painted window frames on the texture. The wireframe tells you exactly where the windows are.

Yes, this is what I did yesterday and it worked in part ...

Make a layer over the wire-frame and paint the windowframes on it. Move this layer to your fuse texture PSS-B7524Main_t.bmp layerfile and give it a try.

I have done this too, but my windows are not bright enough. I will re-try as soon as I have some time free following your advise for night textures.Thanks again,Lluís