Point for Paint Kit Developers

[Ramjett 27]

I have been repainting aircraft for a number of years now.  Some go very well, others are very difficult to get through.  It's is usually...though I must say not always...a plus when an aircraft developer provides a paint kit for use with their model.  But, like repaints, some kits go well, others not so much.

So, to the developers...think about the "little guy" from time to time.  For all the years I have been repainting almost every one of my liveries has started with a "base" aircraft with white skin or a "base" aircraft with metal skin, yet rarely do aircraft developers or paint kit developers provide either option in a "ready to paint" format.  I understand the power of Paint Shop, but not everyone can afford the price and have the wherewithal to breakdown that PSD paint into it's layers to get to the underlying base.  Almost every kit I have downloaded when one is available for a model I have purchased or downloaded has a "livery" already in the kit that must be removed before any new repaint can be done. 

Personally, I use Paint.net and GIMP 2.8 almost interchangeably and both have the ability to breakdown a paint kit texture into the various layers.  Both will open a .psd texture file, but I swear, sometimes trying to decipher what each little tiny layer is on a 4096X4096 Pixel texture can be daunting.  One of the textures I just worked with had 111 layers!!!  Some can't be opened at all by Paint.net because of memory issues with that large of a file.  I just spent fours days almost 8 hours per day breaking down a manufacturer's paint kit into a Base White and Base Metal set of textures without losing the amazing panel line, rivets, oil smudge, dirt, etc layers...which are important to me in my personal work, so thank you, but... 

Were those 32 hours worth it?  Absolutely.  Now I have a starting point for just about any livery I will ever want to do for the aircraft.  What is frustrating is that both the base white and base metal skins I now have are probably exactly the same "start point" that the developer's texture artist started with to create the 6 different liveries that came with the aircraft.  Was it really necessary to provide a paint kit that had one of those six liveries in place in the layers?  Not really.  Base white and/or base metal without any of the airline coloring, registration numbers, logos, etc in place makes much more sense to me...but what do I know?

Randy

[Leen3131cs 107]

Thanks for this clear explanation.
I totally agree , paintkits tend to be to complicated and to heavy to handle for many painters.
A simple set of "blanks" would be a great thing to have for many of us.

There is however another phenomena wich is also making re-painting very difficult.

I am talking about UV mappings wich are made in a way to get as much as different parts texturised on as few texturesheets as possible.
Resulting in textures looking like mad jig-saw-puzzles( sometimes surrounded with caleidoscopic-like lines making our yes completely crazy.)

I have seen releases lately wich do not generate any repaint at all because even the most skilled painters cannot paint them qualitywise accetable. ( FlyingIron P47 for X-Plane  published 7 october , NO repaints published till today, a must have for all simmers , but a nightmare for painters) 

The models involved were painted directly on the 3D model in a program like Substance-Painter and than saved with optimal economic texture-mapping.
These models are really only repaintable when the painter has the possibility of loading a paintable3D model of the plane in a program like Substance-Painter.
BUT.
The developers do not provide painters wich such a model for (obvious) copyright reasons.
We can expect models getting harder or not repaintable in near future.

Developers tend to forget the hobby-painters bacause this way of painting/mapping is simple for them and can result in a lower fileweight of the textureset.
It really does not matter to have a textureset wich is a handfull of Mb`s heavier and it can make a way of difference for the painters.
I am surprised by the fact developers seem not to realise, they sell much more planes when their planes can be dressed with a big amount of available livery-paints made by us hobby-painters.
In other words they shoot in their own feet.


Leen

[Leen3131cs 107]

On 12/5/2018 at 9:36 AM, Leen3131cs said:

I have seen releases lately wich do not generate any repaint at all because even the most skilled painters cannot paint them qualitywise accetable. ( FlyingIron P47 for X-Plane  published 7 october , NO repaints published till today, a must have for all simmers , but a nightmare for painters) 

A moment ago I reveived a message from Flyingiron.

They have completely redone the UV mapping of the aircraft, resulting in a much better starting point for painters to make liveries for their bird. Paintkit V2

The default-liveries wich come with the models have all been reworked fitting the new UV-mapping .Plane needs update V1.3.
Making changes to the UV mapping of a model more than a month after release is quiet unusual.
Seen the fact no third-party liveries have been published yet due to the mapping problems, its a very wise dicision to do it now.
A big thanks to FlyingIron on behalf of the painters !!!

Leen