Newbie Repaint Help

[parkave231 0]

Hello all!  First, I wish to (belatedly) express my sincere thanks for this wonderful airplane -- what a joy!

Second, I am a complete novice when it comes to repaints, so in answering my question, please point out things you might think are otherwise obvious.  I tried searching around for help with my issue before posting, but couldn't find anything.

 

I've been working on a Zambia Airways repaint for the TinMouse.  My starting point is the paint kit downloaded from Avsim, and I'm using GIMP as my painting tool.  I've gotten through a decent amount of progress, and after exporting the .bmps I can see that my computer in general recognizes them as such:

repaint folder by parkave231, on Flickr

However, when I load up FS9 to see the paint on the plane, I get this:

FS9 render by parkave231, on Flickr

Is it how I'm exporting the file out of GIMP (File -- export as -- Windows BMP)?  I have to admit that one thing I was having issues with was chopping up the overall paint into the different sections, so my workaround was to export the entire thing, then open up the bmp in MS Paint, crop it, and then resave -- is that part of my problem?

 

Thank you for any advice you can give!

 

Matt

[John_Tavendale 453]

Hi Matt,

 

Getting a work flow can be tricky. Try this -  save the texture you wish to modify as a (targa) tga file. This will retain things like the alpha etc.

 

Paste your work over the top, and save the .tga file. Download and install something called DXTBmp. Once you've done this, open the .tga file and then save the file as the fuselage/tail .bmp file.

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Looks flipped wrong to me

[parkave231 0]

Thanks for the responses, guys!

 

John -- I used the Targa method you suggested, and while I was in DXTBmp I noticed that the alpha was all sorts of wrong.  I imported a new alpha from one of the default Tinmouse repaints, and voila!  Now I'm in business.  Hopefully I can wrap this paint up and become published!

Appreciate the help!

 

Matt

[John_Tavendale 453]

Glad you got it working mate!