reg126

Quite frankly get rid of photoshop and paintshop for skinpainting and get a copy of the old micrografx picture publisher/windows draw software. Its so much easier to use and quicker too for painting skins. White is super simple .Using a flattened image just desaturate the whole template to make a greyed template ..then just brighten until you get the shade of white you want. Colours can then be added using masks and layers to produce anything you want to put on the skin.

Dunno about any sod 4 stuff. For doing skins and models ..its the same as for any carma 2 car so check out the carma 2 modding websites for the progs you will need and instructions etc.

You got the colour layouts and most the work done well. Not sure what prog you are using for skinpainting but you are loosing the details by painting in solid rather than merging. By merging you wont loose the detail and you may find the blue to be a lot closer to the photographed car. Keep at it!! Get some more done and have fun doing them.

I personally think the micrografx/igrafx picture publisher/windows draw range of programmes are best suited to skin painting.Version 6 or later would be needed..and the limited edition versions that came bundled with some scanners ans software contain all that is needed. Main hassle is that you would really would need to find a second hand copy (unless you had one already). Microsofts Powerpoint prog (part of office 2000) is a good source for graphics and fonts that can be added to the skins in micrografx prog in addition to its inhouse stuff. The with "extras versions" of office 2000 may contain microsofts Photodraw which while not being an ideal programme for skinpainting it can still be used to produce reasonable skins. There are a few other image editing progs that also can be used to produce skins but they are not as suitable .These can often be found bundled in scanner and printer software packages. Biggest strongpoint of the picture publisher/windows draw range is ease of use which is a weakpoint of both paintshop and photoshop.Another thing in its favour was that it was designed to be as compatible as possible with microsofts office 2000 range of progs. For instance, wavy graphic fonts created in powerpoint using wordart can be simply copied and pasted onto skins merging when in place. Paintshop and photoshop may be the main programmes used for skinpainting but there are alternatives if you look around.

As I have been knocking up lots of offline skins I have been going through my template stock. Found 3 templates that are missing as the downloads for them from UK DIRT are showing missing files. Does anyone have the templates or even tga files...no worries as I use micrografx for skinpainting and flattened images are fine. Templates missing are CapriceE CortinaE XJS hope someone can post them up as I wont be the only one missing them.

IDIOTS GUIDE TO A WHITE CAR...OR BITS OF CAR. DONT BOTHER using paintshop or photoshop,,,use Micrografx/Igrafx Picture Publisher...any version from 7 onwards...much easier to use and far better suited to skinpainting. 1.open template file. 2. select image properties....click on saturation and move slider to de-saturate to produce a greyed image. 3. then in image editor select lighten...and adjust "pressure" to about 40 or 45" and apply. 4. the white painted car can now be saved or other bits added... Typical time taken to do the above..less than a minute.

From surfing the net I have found a few useful diagrams of the fiat 124 based ladas. The current lada saloon template is for the late model rivas..With some adjustments early type rivas and also 1500 saloons should also be capable of being well depicted on the current model purely be template adjustments...Shall have to give them a go soon

I use Micrografx Picture publisher (7) which apart from the usual hue/saturation contrast etc sliders there is also a "brush" effect called sharpen...this when carefully used will bring detailing through very well where needed.

[attachmentid=6385] [attachmentid=6384] [attachmentid=6383] [attachmentid=6386] I like ladas, having raced a few and done well in them. Shall have to do a skin of one of my real life ones soon. Anyway I knocked up a couple of skins and when trying them out it soon became obvious that some improvement work was needed to transform the car. The bonnet and boot appearance on the original reminded me more of fiat mirafioris than lada rivas. THE BASIC CHANGES are the insertion of lines to represent the gaps between the bonnet and boot panels and the respective wing upper surfaces. Getting these right took a bit of messing about and several test cars. The change they make to the cars in game appearance is dramatic and so much better. Especially so if your painting wings different colours to adjoining bonnet or boot panels. An additional change is the insertion of the fuel filler flap which is absent on the original template. The ZIP template should be assumed to be flattened and the panels have been greyed. Also pictured are 2 ladas, one improved and one as original to demonstrate the changed rear look. ladareg126modifiedtemplate.zip

Nice attractive paint job there. I would be happy enough to use it offline or online.

[attachmentid=6363][attachmentid=6364]The Volvo 240 estate is a fairly good quality model so not done very much to improve things. 1. on the front doors there are remnants of where the door mirrors used to be which detract from the appearance and look wrong. These were simply cleaned up. 2. FUEL FILLER FLAP ..this feature is absent on the original template. This has now been added to give a more accurate and enhanced appearance. Treat the template as flattened unless you discover otherwise as I dont use paintshop or photoshop vole240eIMPROVEDREG126TEMPLATE.zip

[attachmentid=6321] My efforts using micrografx picture publisher..took about 15 minutes playing around...Not sure what you mean by having a black line around it??

I use Micrografx picture publisher which is coupled with micrografx windows draw. To do the same is so easy..just draw a mask ..(or maybe use automask) .. then either crop to mask or invert mask and paint (fill ) all the background out in a colour not in use in what you want to save. Then delete that colour and your done.save and use as you want. very quick and easy.

[attachmentid=6313] [attachmentid=6316] [attachmentid=6315] [attachmentid=6314] I dont think its unfair to say it..but the wolzy front end in my opinion has a rather poor appearance.. I therefore decided to mess around with the graphics to produce a better looking front end. The changes made to the template are: 1. headlamp bowls..taken from the A60 model..resized and put into place. 2. indicator/side light sockets installed into the correct place(as near as reasonably possible). 3. Different grille..sourced from a piccy...not essential..but Ithink its slightly better than the original. 4. Shading changes on various parts of the front end...mainly front panel and wing joints and also to spotlight recess. All the changes were done using Micrografx software but was kept in PSD format throughout.. TREAT IT AS FLATTENED ..though it may still be possible to open in layers....I cant answer that. The instructions were all painted out . The body parts are all in greyed (desaturated form) but I kept the floorplan and grille in "ready to use form". sample piccies...4 wolzys on track..all using variations of my front end changes and painted by myself....sample of the template, sample of painted template...based on real car ..including slogan!!!! also zip of the altered template. Wolzymodgreyedmasterfull.zip

My own experience of nvidia graphics cards are that they are fine if you have the right drivers... Now this DOES NOT MEAN downloading the latest drivers and all will work ok. It is not uncommon for the latest drivers not to work properly with your card. My advice would be to try several of the companys drivers..including older ones to see if that solves your problem. I use an ancient nvidia Riva TNT 2 and it works fine on the early drivers on everything........when I tried it with most up to date driver than half my games wouldnt run. Fortunately nvidia still have the older drivers available for download.

Unless the template offers you a choice on different colours for roof pillars then you are stuck. As for painting a car white. Dont have PSP so use Micrografx Picture Publisher..I expect the process is the same. Basically the principles are white is light....black is dark. Look at any white painted room and there are all sorts of shades of white depending on the shadows and light position. To apply white then you need to remove the colour elements. On Picture publisher this is done by selecting saturation and winding it right back to produce a grey model just showing shading and detail. You then lighten the image until you get a result you are satisfied with. The reverse is true for black cars.... from a greyed image darken until you get a black image you are satisfied with.

Unless the template offers you a choice on different colours for roof pillars then you are stuck. As for painting a car white. Dont have PSP so use Micrografx Picture Publisher..I expect the process is the same. Basically the principles are white is light....black is dark. Look at any white painted room and there are all sorts of shades of white depending on the shadows and light position. To apply white then you need to remove the colour elements. On Picture publisher this is done by selecting saturation and winding it right back to produce a grey model just showing shading and detail. You then lighten the image until you get a result you are satisfied with. The reverse is true for black cars.... from a greyed image darken until you get a black image you are satisfied with.

[attachmentid=6128]Been painting quite a few anglias..mostly in 70's schemes for my own enjoyment. Anyone wanting any of them let me know and I'll send them to you on msn. Virtually all the artwork on the cars is merged...very easy using Picture Publisher. The only bits not being merged are on the odd panel where the texturing is not really relevant. Not using Paintshop or photoshop I ASSUME its much more difficult or laborious to merge artwork onto the skins on those pieces of software as very few of the skins show full merging..eg door edges not showing through the applied artwork. ANYWAY...heres a scene of retro anglias..all painted by myself.

[attachmentid=6122]How about a TASK FORCE anglia.......OK..done one using Nick Bradleys 262 number and signwriting styles. Thought of doing the Union Jack roof from a flag piccy but it wouldnt be right. Thought I would try keeping it the proper style TASK FORCE paint scheme with the wrong colour(for the flag) of blue..(but correct for an authentic paintjob. Also the proportions for a proper union jack are wrong...again true to real task force prep. Nick (and some of the others) always moaned about the time it took painting the roof.

Nice little piccy of chuckie....think I'll put it on a car for my son, thanx

The Nutters were a very highly rated team in the 70's, amongst which they won the team championship at hednesford in 1974 (10 v 10). They appeared on live tv in the midlands in individual and team events (ATV's Sunday Sport programme. One of the drivers, in a standard vanguard, appears on the latest nostalgia dvd that boggy has released, winning a heat at Hinckley(1976). Their local rivals the Coventry Avengers were a huge team at the time and Nuneaton beat them on several occasions.

[attachmentid=6088] [attachmentid=6087] [attachmentid=6086] Screenshots of an alternative front end template and also a piccy of the template as it appears. It is a flattened template so no instructions or other layers. Paint up and go. Use in normal way as for any anglia..it just makes it easy to drive something different to the rest of the pack. Nuneaton Nutters scheme was a common site in the midlands in the 70's. Template is in usual psd format. angliabasicgrilletemplateflattened.zip

Thanx Splinter.....I was racing back in the 70's so when its old cars like A60's, Anglias, Westies etc then I like to represent real cars and paint schemes I remember when the old stuff was in mainstream use. In some ways the old skool paint jobs are easy to paint for uk dirt but do in fact reflect the reality of real bangers when most cars got painted by hand and no powertools were in use ..save for the odd disc cutter. I have currently knocked up 10 anglias in authentic schemes. By the way..in case anyone asks..the W.M.S. on the purple Bang Gang car stands for Washing Machine Services.... a small business many members of that team worked for...and the W.M.S. was often painted on thier bangers. In my mind ..too fancy a paint job on classic bangers makes em more HOT ROD like in appearance than banger...dont want to give the wrong impression. The fancy stuff though I think is better suited to bluebirds and other more current cars. Most schemes I paint are based on real life cars though I do paint a few completely fictional schemes...often at my sons requests..

[attachmentid=6070]Hope this is useful for you. Took it off your picture. Add it onto your skin and remove any white background.

[attachmentid=6049]Been finding out a bit more about the Picture Publisher software. Various versions have been produced (I have 7)..under the Micrografx and Igrafx names and was up to version 10 when Corel bought the company. The software continued under a different name and I think is available in enhanced form in the Designer package. I have come across various reviews on the PICTURE PUBLISHER software and it is highly rated and though its not up to paint shop standards on high end stuff its much more user friendly and is better at some tasks than paint shop. In my opinion its ideal for the purpose of knocking up skins. The purple anglia pictured ..took less than 10 minutes from template to tex. That anglia is based on a real team ..the Bang Gang ..Coventry based who raced at the ULLESTHORPE tracks circa 1974 to 1977. The cars in the screenshot sport 3 different grilles. The original template grille, the alternative grille I did for the 124 car, and the grille on the 131 purple car...which is the rarer painted metal slat type grille seen mainly on early base model saloons and vans.. Note the different shaped bonnet badge also used on early base model anglias.