reg126 Posted March 26, 2006 Report Posted March 26, 2006 Not having either photoshop or paintshop software and still running windows 98 I looked through my own software to see what I could use for skinpainting. Found Micrografix Picture Publisher 7 ( 2 copies that came bundled with a Lexmark printer and and also with an EPP scanner). Found the programme very easy to use and it produces excellent results. Skins easily knocked up and reliable tga files produced and no problems converting to tex files.
reg126 Posted March 31, 2006 Author Report Posted March 31, 2006 [attachmentid=5424] Hope this screenshot works. All signwriting was merged so no loss of texture details.
reg126 Posted April 5, 2006 Author Report Posted April 5, 2006 [attachmentid=5484] Another screenshot of a skin I knocked up with the micrografix software. Colour scheme is that of the Saints team (Birmingham based) whom raced at the ULLESTHORPE track in late 70's and early 80's . Car 400 was Barry Hopkins(senior) who was well into the Confederate U.S. scene. His son Barry (junior) also raced at the same time under number 399.
reg126 Posted April 23, 2006 Author Report Posted April 23, 2006 A bit more info on Micrografix Picture Publisher; It can import quite a lot of image files and can export quite a few too. Paintshop files wont be read as layers though ..so any instructions on the templates need to be painted out. The program also uses a limited edition of windows draw. The whole package is fairly simple to understand and very well suited to painting cars for uk dirt. It has its own layers system and these can be retained through saving in its native mode if desired. I havent found anything yet that cant be reproduced in terms of skinpainting. Paint can be applied in many modes , mostly I use merge , and the programme has masking tools which are extremely useful. Masks can be made from objects/images and these can be merged. How you wish to paint different cars can be done in different ways depending on your own preference for which methods and in what you want as an end result. Simple skins with fairly basic signwriting can be knocked up in half hour with more complex stuff taking appropriately longer. If you have a set of masks prepared for numbers/ signs etc then its possible to knock up skins in less than ten minutes. Its certainly worth trying to get a copy as its a very real alternative to paint shop or print shop. I also considered microsofts old Photodraw software and though its possible to knock up skins using it they are much harder to do and of poorer quality and it takes much longer. Photodraw really isnt suited to skinpainting.
reg126 Posted April 25, 2006 Author Report Posted April 25, 2006 [attachmentid=5864] A screen shot of two cortinas (1 made up and 1 based on my real colours and crummy painted on numbers ) and a mk2 granny estate. Doesnt do em justice really ..but you can get an idea of some of what can be done.
Rikard Posted April 25, 2006 Report Posted April 25, 2006 Nice skins Reg, i had never herd of other programs used until now!
reg126 Posted April 27, 2006 Author Report Posted April 27, 2006 Another screenshot. Thought I would try out the new anglia with a bunch of metros. All the skins knocked up by myself.
reg126 Posted April 27, 2006 Author Report Posted April 27, 2006 (edited) [attachmentid=5905]Another shot of the new anglia. It sports a new grille to that in the template. Reasons being ..it was a pain trying to remove the instructions layer using my software....and also from ace autotechs piccy of his anglia the original didnt look right. Did a quick search on the internet and found some nice frontal shots of anglias. picked a suitable piccy and soon chopped it and fitted it into my cleaned up template. :king:ps....the paint scheme is very close to authentic....I raced an Anglia in these colours in 1977. Edited April 27, 2006 by reg126
reg126 Posted May 2, 2006 Author Report Posted May 2, 2006 [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.
splinter Posted May 3, 2006 Report Posted May 3, 2006 Loving the old school paintjobs Reg. IMO the old simple colour styles generally had more character than most of the fancy signwritten paintjobs nowdays.
reg126 Posted May 3, 2006 Author Report Posted May 3, 2006 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..
splinter Posted May 3, 2006 Report Posted May 3, 2006 Like you say Reg, although very impressive, I don't think the fancy paintjobs suit the pre68 type cars all that well, Its good to see someone here who knows there stuff doing the old styles, as most people now are obviously influenced by the modern day artwork. It's quite enjoyable doing the real-life skins on the PC. Its great to see the finished article, then onto the next! Used to watch you race since I was about 3! My dad was video man at Hednesford, etc. through the 80's so got dragged around from track to track, every week. I used to watch from the Bromford stand roof in all weathers. I'll have to do a few skins from the midlands and Buxton, Bob Metzner, Jim Edge, Ken Giddens, etc.
reg126 Posted May 5, 2006 Author Report Posted May 5, 2006 [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.
reg126 Posted May 6, 2006 Author Report Posted May 6, 2006 [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.
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