Hi Folks, I have used the 800/900 paint kit to design a livery and have flipped and saved each fusilage segment at DDS files. But I'm a little lost as to where to place them and how to get them to work in FSX. I added a new config entry as the paint kit document stated, but must be doing something odd. The manual assumes I know more than I do :) Is there a bullet point type of step by step that may be available? I'd like to paint the tail too. Any help or guidance by the experts is greatly appreciated. Thanks...

This is old school livery install but thats what you have to do in the first place. Only after you have it set up correctly can the livery manager make an install file for you to give to others.So...Easiest way to get you going is, make a duplicate of the livery folder for the default PMDG livery of your model choice. eg if you want to do an 800WL duplicate that PMDG livery folder, renaming the texture folder for instance Texture.Paint_test_800WL. Then (and you say you've done this part) add an entry to the to the config aircraft.cfg file making sure you get the texture folder name correct and the [flightsim.n] number.You should now be able to 'see' in FSX your added livery, yes just a duplicate of the PMDG livery but thats a working base for us to add to, check that you have it.Now you can add your own .dds files to this folder, overwriting the existing, I'd suggest just 1 at a time to start with say the ...fuselage_1.dds first, restart FSX and check the front third of the aircraft now carries your livery. This way you know the 'whole livery' basically works and you are just replacing one piece at a time.Check out those files in the pmdg default livery folder, that'll educate you to which files you need to produce (you'll find the tail there too).Good luck hope that gets you started, but be aware this is addictive :(

I'm still working on my video tutorials, but the part that explains what you're asking and what John has described can be seen on video

. If all you need is that aircraft.cfg explanation then you can go to 6:15 in the video. Otherwise it might be worth watching the whole vid.Also John shares my sediments on "be aware, this is addictive" :(

Thanks to you both - with your help I got something glued onto the bird. It's not perfect and is chopped up some, but it is there. I did bypass the templates drawing boundaries just to see if it were possible to design from front to back on the plane. But as I assumed it did indeed chop in those 3 fuselage texture boundaries. So how would you go about designing for art along the whole plane? Many thanks to you guys again. I could easily get addicted to making fun repaints. I'm a multimedia designer by trade and just recently spent the money on PMDG to have among other things a real paint kit.

Hello again,You need to sign your name to your posts by the way here. Besides, I prefer to say "Hi [name]" :wink:I have a written tutorial here that will help. I also have a up coming video tutorial that I think you'll be able to follow along nicely with your multimedia background. You can start here, with video #0. I had to slow down production though on them since in an all out effort to correct a family gift (After Effects project), I formatted and reinstalled Windows. Doing so I also decided to make a few videos on Windows tips and FSX installs for my forum to hopefully cover most questions I've seen over the years. Once those are done I'll resume the paint tutorial.Currently the video's are not public on youtube. This is because I don't want to leave people hanging. Once they're all done, and triple checked (no major corrections needed), I'll make them public on youtube. Until then though, just look in the video descriptions. You'll find a link in each to go to the previous and next video. This tutorial is covering as much as my written one so is expected to be very long. Once complete I'll do like I started in my forum and post a topic in the General section with an index of each video's linked and a description about what is covered in which video. It should help people that have specific questions like you did in your 1st post here. You can also preview upcoming videos on my forum. Normally I post them there 1st to let some of our painters preview them and share their thoughts before I make the continuation links in the video description.I love photoshop. Paints are a very small part of it but I hope to get more and more people into painting to share our passion. It really is a lot of fun. My only regret is that I wish people voted for a different paintkit. Only because starting with the NGX will spoil people and it makes my job too easy. I would rather have done it with a much more difficult kit with less to work with, or even show people how to create their own from a sinle dds file. I might still do that after this one's done. Anywho, sorry but that's the best I can offer for now. Looking forward to seeing your future paints!

Hi againCouple of tips on your specific question. Well what I did early on was make an 800 'outline' layer for doing the 'whole length' paint parts..... From a 'flattened all layers' of the fuse_master file copy a nose and tail section back to it's cut lines, then pull both of those back towards the middle section to the join line to give you an 800 background layer with no gaps beteen sections. Start painting those damm curvey stripes now from nose to tail on layer(s) above that. In the end you are going to cut these paint layers back into 3 sections and drag the nose and tail parts back to where they need to be.At least I used to do something like that. Now I'm more likely to choose my guide photo from airliners.net or wherever, choose one thats nicely side on with the wheels lined up, that way it's 'centered. I cut the a/c out of that photo and paste as a layer into the fuse_base psd. Now just drag that layer larger to match the scale of the fuse master. Just use the 'center section' for matching and using the windows as a guide you can scale the photo pretty precisely to the middle third of the master file. Use the photo layer now as a guide to do the whole down one side paint on layers above it. In the end we'll cut it back into 3 to move the nose foward and tail back into place. (and duplicate all of that and flip for the other fuse side.)Hope I didn't loose you there but I think you'll get the idea.Next remind yourself how to make a 'grid layer' (a 50x50 pixel square PS Pattern, used to fill a whole layer is the way to go) because you are really going to need it (the grid) when you try and wrap lines around the fuse top and bottom and try and get ends to line up at joins.

Some really helpful advice there. I tried to do something similar the other day, sort of making my own kit. First lined up the pmdg default DDS 1,2 and 3 over the master psd I then hid those layers an highlited all the layers in the layers section (except the fuse1,2,3 template) I then ctrl and select my template layers and tried to drag over into a new psd but it wouldnt work,

Some really helpful advice there. I tried to do something similar the other day, sort of making my own kit. First lined up the pmdg default DDS 1,2 and 3 over the master psd I then hid those layers an highlited all the layers in the layers section (except the fuse1,2,3 template) I then ctrl and select my template layers and tried to drag over into a new psd but it wouldnt work,

Odd, that's how I do it and it works perfect for me.

Odd, that's how I do it and it works perfect for me.

Maybe I've not got a setting right in photoshop as I had imthe same thing with the Windows's the other day.

Howdy guys,your info was a big help in grasping the work flow. I haven't got it perfect but here are a few shot of my livery:TA Repaint Test Shotshttp://www.yazizle.com/files/turbulentasAir01.pnghttp://www.yazizle.com/files/turbulentasAir02.pngTA Landing at KIADhttp://www.yazizle.com/files/turbulentasAir03.png I haven't been back here for a few days and have since seen the great guidance on fixing my curved lines. I'll try that next. The video on repainting was very helpful as well. While it may easier with the NGX, I'm just glad it was straight forward enough to finally make something. And I'm Jeff Fitzgerald - a lover of flight sim over the years, but finally trying to actually learn something about real flight (which is why I bought the NGX). My piloting skills are not quite what the paying public would welcome, so hence my 'airline' Turbulentas Air. Just like it says on the plane, "intentional landings, that's our goal" :) In years past I have been more involved at times and actually produced a couple of videos. The last one is

Thanks, again. Jeff Fitzgerald

Hiya Jeff nice job, and yes looks like you're finding the places where lines go wonky, the adjustments can drive you crazy :)

Thanks. There have more than a few times that I've thought painting a real 737 would be faster (and easier). But thanks to you guys here i had some fun over the holidays. So far in the last month I have bought a CH yoke/rudder set, EZ-DOK, TrackIR 5 and reconnected my GP Flight MCP. It's kinda config overload :)BTW, have any of you used Track IR? I like a lot but also like to us ethe hat switch on exterior views to rotate and look around. Not sure if that can still happen, with only virtual cockpit taking the TrackIR moves.

BTW, have any of you used Track IR? I like a lot but also like to us ethe hat switch on exterior views to rotate and look around. Not sure if that can still happen, with only virtual cockpit taking the TrackIR moves.

You can disable it for inidividual views if you have EZCA just by unchecking TIR.If you don't have that, then just make a key or button assignment for pausing your track IR. It's in the TrackIR gui as an option for your hotkeys.,

Edited January 3, 201214 yr by Turbine777