Gimp Users Guide To Color Schemes

[herc40]

Remember: everything that is taught in these lessons, are directed to G3 and G3.5 users. Most parts can be used by G4 and G4.5 users to create the basic CS page, but this guide does not cover BUMP mapping. You can use one lesson on a CS, are all of them, the choice is up to you.

These are some techniques I've learned, doing CS for RF aircraft. If you love making CS as much as I do, you will find these useful tips will help you enjoy your creation. You must first pic a plane or heli, that you want to change the CS on. Then click on AIRCRAFT, then SAVE CS AS, you will need to give it a new name. In the Real Flight Simulator, open the CS you just named, it will create a DDS file for the CS. Then find the new named CS in your RF directory, under COLOR SCHEMES, open the TGA file with Gimp. Good luck.


AIR BRUSHED EFFECTS:
The best way I've found to do this, is to grab the FREE SELECT ( it look like a Cowboy lasso) on the gimp menu to the left of your screen. On your CS page, get as close to the part you want to air brush, left click and HOLD. Draw a complete circle around the part, following the conture of the part as closely as you can, without going into the part. SEE PIC Tail As you can see I didn't get as close as I could have, to prove the next point.

[You want to draw this line as closely to the part as you can, because the background color will be colored as well.]

When you have a complete circle around the part, click on the PENCIL icon, now pick your base color. Paint the part you've free selected with the base color, SEE PIC base. Don't worry about getting anything on the surounding parts, it will not happen.

Now that you have a base color, pick your AIRBRUSH icon, making sure you also pick the biggest FUZZY brush. SEE PIC pick your airbrush, Now you are ready to let your creation come to life, just pick another color that compliments the base color and make a stroke with your airbrush. It is good to use the SCALE BAR to scale it up to the size you need, and if the stroke is to much color at one time, EDIT and UNDO that stroke, use the OPACITY BAR to get the desired effect you are looking for.

After the part is colored to your liking, SEE PIC airbrushed, save the CS page uncompressed, by using FILE, SAVE AS, REPLACE, then when the SAVE BOX pops up UNCHECK BOTH BOXES, and press SAVE. DON"T CLOSE YOUR CS PAGE, LEAVE IT OPEN. Look at your changes to the CS in RF, By clicking on the name of the CS you are working on, if it is not how you want it just bring up the CS page and change it some more, until the part is the way you want it. SAVE this time and you will skip the REPLACE part of saving the CS.

SEE PIC CS changes, Change, look, and like the look of it before you go on. When you are completely satisfied, that the part is right, save your work. Close your CS page, then reopen it, you will now see that the FREE SELECT is no longer selected, please keep in mind, that NOW if you try to color that section it will color everything on the page, unless you free select it again. Now repeat the process on the rest of the CS parts.

Good luck and my best to you.

I hope this is helpful to all using the Gimp program, and I will give more tip in this thread, in the future. PLEASE do not comment on this thread, until I have completed the work I intend. If you have any question you would like to ask, feel free to PM me, and I will help you if I can. I work long days away from the internet, so don't feel neglected, if I don't answer right away. Thank You!!!!!

 

[herc40]

More Tips

ADDING IMAGES TO YOUR CS:

This is an effect that really brings out the best in a CS, so I use this technique as much as I can, for getting Logo's and complicated trim schemes looking there best. The trick is to get a pic of what you want to add, that is flat and not glossy.

After you have what you want to add to your CS, save the picture as a JPEG in MY PICTURES, under MY DOCUMENTS. Open your CS page with Gimp. Now open the picture you saved, move the mouse pointer on the pic, right click and OPEN WITH your Gimp program. After Gimp opens the pics again, just use the FREE SELECT (lasso) to circle the part of the picture you want to save and place on your CS, SEE PIC 1. Now click EDIT and CUT.

You will see that the part of the pic has been cut away, and now there will be a blank white space where it was before. Close out of the picture now and Gimp will ask if you want to save your changes to the picture, DO NOT SAVE YOUR CHANGES TO THE PIC, and it will be as it was before.

Now go to the CS page and click on EDIT. You will look for PASTE, and paste it to the CS page, SEE PIC 2. It will now appear on the page with circling dotted line around it, just move it around until it moves over the part you want to cover. Now you may have to SCALE the picture to match the part.

Use LAYER, SCALE LAYER, and scale it up or down to size, SEE PIC 3. Now check your work by pressing FILE, SAVE AS, REPLACE. Gimp will tell you it dosen't EXPORT Transparencys, but all you have to do is click EXPORT. Uncheck the two boxes and SAVE.

Now check it out, if it is wrong, go to the CS and move it again until the pic is where you want it. Do the saving process again, and look at it. Once it is to your liking, then you will go to LAYER and look for ether ANCHOR LAYER or MERGE DOWN. Use ether to secure the layer. SEE PIC 4

After this is done you should have a CS page with no layers showing on it, the part should be covered with the pic, now repeat the process on all the other parts you want covered with the same picture, by pressing PASTE again, and it will give you the same pic you cut from the original picutre, and can be pasted as many time as it take to complete your masterpiece. SEE PIC 5

Good luck and my best to you.

 

[herc40]

More Tips

ADDING TEXT TO YOUR CS:

This is effective when adding identification number and lettering to military aircraft, and civilian as well. Your TEXT is determined by what FONTS you have on your computer, and can vary depending on which operating system you use.

To get started, click the bold black A, in the Gimp menu to the left of your screen, SEE PIC 1 Then place your mouse pointer close to where the TEXT should be on the CS page and left click on your mouse, SEE PIC 2, a blinking box will appear on your CS page, dont worry about moving it right now. There will be another box that opens on the botton of the CS page, whatever you type will appear in this box. Make sure you have selected the color you want to make the fonts.

Now you have some choices to make, if you look at the Gimp menu to your left, you will notice that there is a SIZE feature there. This will make the words or numbers bigger, and smaller, size it up. Now click on the box next to the word FONT, with the two A's in it, and the fonts that are avalible in your computer, will pop up, SEE PIC 3. Chose the fonts you want to use, for desired effect.

After you have sized the FONTS and have the selected FONTS, its time to line up the fonts. Do this by clicking on the MOVE ICON, SEE PIC 4, and move the layer to the disired spot.

[ Be careful not to drag the CS page by mistake, if you do, EDIT, UNDO will get the page back to the orignal position. If this is not done, the CS will not fit the aircraft you are working on, and everything will be out of place]

now you may have to rotate the lettering some, rotate with the ROTATE TOOL. SEE PIC 5

After you have the text in the place you want it, SAVE and check it out in RF. Move as you desire, until you are satisfied. When the text is to your liking, go to LAYER, and ANCHOR OR MERGE it down. Make sure it is where you want it before you close you CS page, if not you will have to color over it and start again.

Good luck and my best to you.

 

[herc40]

More Tips

USING THE FUZZY SELECT TOOL:

This tool is useful when choosing same color selection. This tool looks like a wand with a spark on the end, to the right of the Free Select tool. It's uses can range from selecting parts to color, to making the part not colorable.

[Remember that when using this tool, the color must be the same color through out, and connected to work.]

First make lines on the CS, and make sure everything is connected with cross section lines, SEE PIC 1 Click the Fuzzy Select Tool and select the part of the CS you want to select for coloring, SEE PIC 2 ,and now you can use the AIRBRUSH icon, to add color to the selected area. As always, make sure you are through with the colors before you save it.

Use the tool to select the lines made to color them, SEE PIC 3. Then after, use the airbrush to add color to the piece. Blend the color by using the opacity to make it slowly color the piece. Play with the numbers and get the desired effect that you want. I changed it to an angle more fitting to the CS, SEE PIC 4. After you have the disired effect, just use the background color to clean up the edges and make the connecting cross sections go away, SEE PIC 5. When done correctly it adds a nice ripple effect to your work, and this can be used in SO many ways.

SAVE your work, and check it out before you continue on, if it dose not look like you want it, go back to your CS page and EDIT, UNDO to return to a clean slate.
If all is well, then close your work and Enjoy your CS.

Good luck, and my best to you.

 

[herc40]

More Tips

USING BLUR, SMUDGE, AND DODGE TOOLS

These features are useful when blending two colors or multiple colors. it is effective when making CS with complicated color patterns.

The Blur/Sharpen tool:
This tool is used when you want to tone down the edges of your work, or to sharpen the edges. the Blur/Sharpen tool looks like a water drop on your Gimp menu. To use this tool, just left click on the water drop and move your mouse pointer over the disired area you wish to work on. Now left click and HOLD IT, now move the mouse around over the area, and you will see it effect the CS, in the area you are. Continue to hold and move you mouse, until you are satisfied with the results. SEE PIC 1 Remember, after you are finished, SAVE your changes and look at your work in RF, if you don't like it, just EDIT, UNDO to get it back to what it was like before.

Smudge Tool:

The Smudge Tool is a nice way to blend certain areas of your CS. To use this tool, just click on the FINGER to the right of the Blur Tool.

[This is important, you must remember that with this tool you must go in the SAME DIRECTION when dragging from one color to another] SEE PIC 2

Pick the spot for blending, left click and HOLD IT, now drag it over the disired spot, in one direction. You will see that the colors start to bleed into one another, starting with the first color and ending with the last. The direction you go must be duplicated each time you left click, hold, and drag. If this is not done, the color will go from the second color, over the first color and messes up the effect. SEE PIC 3

Dodge/Burn Tool:

This tool is to the right of the Smudge Tool, and is used to lighten or darken areas, in much the same way as the Smudge Tool. But unlike the Smudge Tool, this tool uses the same color on the part that you select and slowly changes it lighter using the DODGE TOOL, SEE PIC 4 or darker using the BURN TOOL SEE PIC 5 depending on what you have selected in the TYPE CONTROL section of your Gimp Menu, select Dodge or Burn. There is three MODES in which to work, Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights. Use this feature to create shadows and highlights on your work, it is a very effective technique.

Good luck, and my best to you.

 

[herc40]

More Tips

DUPLICATION OF COMPLICATED PATTERNS:

This is a technique thats works well on FUSELAGES and WINGS. Anything you want to duplicate the pattern of, can easily be done, using this technique.

To start, open your CS page and color one PART to your liking, SEE PIC 1. Now select your FREE SELECT TOOL, the lasso, and draw a circle around the PART you just colored, SEE PIC 2. Stay as close as you can to the part, because the wing you are covering next may have parts closer to it, than the one you are working on now, and it could cause problems later.

Now you are ready to DUPLICATE the part. Go to EDIT and find the selection,COPY. Press copy, and nothing will happen yet, but don't let that worry you. Go back to EDIT, and click PASTE, SEE PIC 3 you will see that the lined FREE SELECTED circle around the part, now has a SQUARE around it also. Move your pointer over to the part, left click and hold to drag the part over to the other part you are covering.

[In most cases, the wings are usally right next to each other, the way there would be on the plane]

After you have the PART moved over the non-colored PART, you will have to flip it horizonally to place it over the non-colored wing section, go to LAYER and click on TRANSFORM. You will notice that all of the selections that are in this pop up, deal with changing the LAYER in one form or another, from the way it was. Click on Flip Horizonally, and move the PART layer as you need, to position it over the non-colored PART, SEE PIC 4.

Check your work by SAVING and EXPORT the layer, make sure you save uncompressed. Now look at ALL the edges of the PART for BACKGROUND COLOR bleed through. In some cases, you may have to move the layer more than one time, to line it up so that it looks exactly like the other PART, in RF, so take your time and get it right and you will appreciate your work more, SEE PIC 5.

Good luck and my best to you.

 

[herc40]

More Tips

PANEL LINES AND RIVOTS:

This is very important to Millitary aircraft, for that finished look. It is easier to do, than you might think. I usally finish my CS before I worry about this technique. This is a finishing move, and must be done after the CS has all the colors lined up and looks good in RF.

PANEL LINES:

This is done by picking a brush from your selection, that is the thickness of the panel line you want to create. Now you will choose a color that is a shade or two DARKER than the color you are covering. If the aircraft is a dark color already, go to the lighter side, SEE PIC 1.

To make a straight line down the side of the PART, move your pointer to the edge of the PART. Press your left mouse button one time on the outside edge, now hold down your SHIFT button. The father you move the mouse, the longer the vitural line will become, SEE PIC 2. You may have to move up or down to make the straight line. Move your pointer to the end of your PART, where the line should end, and left click to stroke the line, SEE PIC 3.

This can be duplicated several times, to create the panel lines. Be creative when making these panel lines, don't make every one the same. Make sure that when you go from one color to another, expecially on millitary camo, that you change to a darker or lighter version of the NEW color you are going into, SEE PIC 4.

RIVOTS:

I usally use the color of the panel lines to make the rivots, but you can use whatever color you want, Silver, Gold, or White. To do rivots, I just line them up on both sides of the panel lines. I use a brush that is small enough to look like a rivots should.

Now its just a matter of clicking one time with your left mouse button, on each side of the panel line, making sure that the rivot is straight across from the other one and spaced accordingly. repeat this process as many times as it take to complete the effect. Some places on your aircraft may only need one-sided rivots, in this case, do what looks good to you.

As you can see in PIC 5, I used some different brushes that come with the Gimp program, they can be used to weather your project.

Good luck and my best to you.

 

[herc40]

More Tips

USING THE PATH TOOL:

This feature is a must, when designing curved lines on your CS. You can really let your imagination run free, with endless possibilties, using this tool.

The Path Tool looks like a curved line with 3 dots on the line. To start, chose the brush that is the thickness you want to stroke the path with later. Chose the color you want to use to make the line also. Click on the Path Tool icon, and left click on the CS page where you want the line to start. It's best to start with a clean slate, SEE PIC 1. As you can see, I left 3 waypoints out there in the middle of nowhere, so I move them for you. SEE PIC 2

Now just move it in the direction you want to and left click to drop another MOVEABLE POINT. the closer you put these moveable points, the better you can move it in the direction you want the curve to follow. Drop as many moveable points as you need to make the line curve as you like, SEE PIC 3.

[ IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT STROKE THE LINE UNTIL YOU HAVE EVERYTHING WHERE YOU WANT IT. YOU CANNOT GO BACK AND UNDO THIS TOOL. IT WILL JUST PUT THE STROKED LINE BACK UP THERE, NOT THE PATH YOU MADE FOR THE LINE]

Try making a line, and stroke the line, by hitting STROKE. You will see that the PATH TOOL line is gone and all that remains is the colored line that you just made. I used the BUCKET FILL TOOL to fill in the RED & WHITE color on the top, SEE PIC 4.

Let your creative self come through in your work, and you will enjoy your creation more. After you have the colors down where you want them, SAVE and check your work in RF. You may have to change things in order to line up the CS parts. SEE PIC 5

Good luck and my best to you

 

[herc40]

More Tips

PERSPECTIVE TOOL:


This tool is useful when trying to cover a complete wing, with a design or logo.

This tool looks like a paper leaning forward. just drag your pointer over the icons and wait for a second and a box will pop up, it will tell you what each icon does.

Same as you did in ADDING IMAGES TO YOUR CS, free select a peice of a pics you pulled off the net, SEE PIC 1. Now paste it to the CS page, SEE PIC 2, now left clcik on the perspective Tool, and then left click on the Layer, you have just pasted.

You will see that there is now a box around the pic and waypoints that can be moved, by moving your pointer over the waypoint. Left click and hold to move the waypoints on the pic to the desired area, and release the left button to place. these waypoints can be moved as many times as you need to make the CS right. SEE PIC 3

You may want to use this same pic to cover the other part, in this case it is the wing. Just paste it again, and use your rotate tool to rotate it the way it should go SEE PIC 4.


Make sure you check out the changes you have made in RF, before you go on, SEE PIC 5. After you have it where you want it, and it looks good in RF, merge it down or anchor it, using LAYER. Enjoy your work.


Good luck and my best to YOU.

 

[herc40]

More Tips

USING FILTERS:

These filters can make special effects on your CS that you could TRY to do own your own and may not get lucky with. But you can use these filters in many applications on the CS page, from adding shadow, to creating highlights on your CS patterns. You will have to play with ALL of them, to find what you are looking for, on your overall vision of what you are designing.

Getting started is as easy as coloring the page with the basic design you have in mind. I will be using the Aerobat 40 CS SEE PIC 1 , to show you what some of these filters can do for YOUR CS. It has already been finished for some time now, and I'm going to show you how to give it a FACELIFT...lol.

After you have your CS changed SEE PIC 2, and almost ready, pick the FUZZY SELECT TOOL, the wand with the spark, and select the area in which to work, DON"T FORGET: it must be the same color, to select it. In this case it is my top wing. You will open your filter package at the top dialog line, and chose LIGHT AND SHADOWS.

Use the drop box to add some shadows under the red selected area by clicking on DROP SHADOW. There will be a box that pops up now called SCRIPT FU: DROP SHADOW, sometimes it opens behind your other opened work, just click it on the bottom blue line, and it will come forward, SEE PIC 3.

Now all you have to do is press OK, and you will see that your drop shadow is now there, SEE PIC 4. You can change the way the shadow looks by messing with the numbers on the top of the script fu, The offset X and offset Y will do this. You can also change the color of the DROP SHADOW by pressing on the COLORED BOX, to change the color. If you don't like what you see, UNDO it and make it the way you want it.

Adding light works on the FACE you selected with the FUZZY SELECT TOOL, and will color that area only, SEE PIC 5 so have fun and let your imagination run wild, your only limited by time your willing to spend on your CS, to make it nice. So spend some time on your CS, and you will appreciate your work, and others will too.

There are more filters than the two I used here, and you should try other filters and find what works for your CS, and you will see that there is SO much that this program can do.

Good luck and my best to you

 

[herc40]

More Tips

MAKING BUTTONS AND LOGOS


This a feature not many know about and I actually find it by accident one day. It was there all the time but I didn't know it, now I will share this with you.

BUTTONS:

The best thing to do, is to pick any CS TGA and open it with the Gimp program. After it is open you can just close the CS portion, you don't need it open for this proceedure. After you close the TGA file, look at your GIMP MENU, you will notice at the top line there are 3 selects you can use, FILE, XTNS, AND HELP. The one we are after here is Xtns, just left click on it and a drop menu will fall, chose the BUTTON MENU.

Now you will have to chose between ROUND and SIMPLE BEVEL BUTTON. Choose round to start with, and another menu will pop up, SEE PIC 1. Now you will see that the pop up has some thing you will want to change, such as the TEXT, FONTS SIZE, AND FONTS. You have six color swatches that can be changed to suit your mood, change it the way you want and press OK, SEE PIC 2. LOOK, LIKE, LOVE, then save it as a JPEG in MY PICTURES. SEE PIC 3

LOGOS:

This is easy to do, click on the LOGO button, and chose your selection from the many choices there, I'll use a few to show you of what they are capeable. Remember, there are as many choices as there are fonts in your computer, you could spend the whole day finding out what you like, and still not try everything there is to know on this section. If you dont like it, don't save it and open LOGOS again and change the FONTS or change the SELECTION you've made.

Remember to EXPORT & SAVE your work to MY PICTURES, as a JPEG. SEE PIC 4 & 5

 

[herc40]

Hope this has been helpful.

Hey guys I have reached the end of what I wanted to accomplish. I think alot of what was taught in these lessons can be allpied to everyones CS making. These are things I've done and know they work. I'm not the master of the Gimp, But I know the lessons taught to you in this thread, will make you a better color schemer.

In closing, I will leave you one last tid-bit of information. This is number 12 in the 12 points of Gimp enlightenment.

Sometimes a CS may be to SHINNY, and takes away from the overall look of your CS. This is an easy fix and can be done quickly.

This is for G3 and G3.5 users only, It may work in G4 or G4.5, but I have not tested this.

There are 3 parts to a CS, the COLORSCHEME, the DDS, and the TGA. Open COLORSCHEME portion of your CS with NOTEPAD. SEE PIC1 Now you will see what the CS is made of, all these numbers determine what the CS will look like. You want to look for REFLECTIVITY, SEE PIC 2 Changing this value to .0 will take all the shinniness out of the CS. If there is any shinniness left when you look at your CS in RF, That is the shinniness on the model itself and cannot be changed. SAVE and exit the NOTEPAD.

VERY IMPORTANT: You must CLOSE Real Flight after you make these changes to your CS in Notepad. If you leave Real Flight Running, it will not show you anything new. Restart Real Flight to see your changes.

Good Luck, and my best to you

P.S. I'M DONE, FEEL FREE TO LEAVE QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, OR SUGGESTIONS, AT THIS TIME. ALSO, FEEL FREE TO PRINT THIS GUIDE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

 

[doug schluter]

Gimp users guide

Excellent information in your Gimp users guide i did print it out for reference and have used it a few times already. Thank you herc40

 

[WingDude]

Hey guys I have reached the end of what I wanted to accomplish. I think alot of what was taught in these lessons can be allpied to everyones CS making. These are things I've done and know they work. I'm not the master of Gimp, But I know the lessons taught to you in this thread, will make you a better color schemer.

In closing, I will leave you one last tid-bit of information. This is number 12 in the 12 points of Gimp enlightenment.

Sometimes a CS may be to SHINNY, and takes away from the overall look of your CS. This is an easy fix and can be done quickly.

This is for G3 and G3.5 users only, It may work in G4 or G4.5, but I have not tested this.

There are 3 parts to a CS, the COLORSCHEME, the DDS, and the TGA. Open COLORSCHEME portion of your CS with NOTEPAD. SEE PIC1 Now you will see what the CS is made of, all these numbers determine what the CS will look like. You want to look for REFLECTIVITY, SEE PIC 2 Changing this value to .0 will take all the shinniness out of the CS. If there is any shinniness left on the CS you created, That is the shinniness on the model itself and cannot be changed. SAVE and exit the NOTEPAD.

VERY IMPORTANT: You must CLOSE Real Flight after you make these changes to your CS in Notepad. If you leave Real Flight Running, it will not show you anything new. Restart Real Flight to see your changes.

Good Luck, and my best to you

P.S. I'M DONE, FEEL FREE TO LEAVE QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, OR SUGGESTIONS, AT THIS TIME. ALSO, FEEL FREE TO PRINT THIS GUIDE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE

Heh, glad to see you like that pic of the Wilga I posted

 

[herc40]

It has never......

left my desktop since you put it online. thanks so much dude.

 

[bosshawg]

Re:Sticky Fingered Users Guide 2 the GIMP!

Just Like 2 Second the Above & Possibly with an Updated Version 4 G4.5 Covering Maxkops Plug-ins, Normal, Specular Maps & working with Channels in the GIMP.

 

[jeffpn]

2 Second? It only took me 1 second.

 

[herc40]

Many Thanks

Thank you for your words of support. I'm glad to know you guys still look at the info in this thread. I've been away and it does my soul good, to know you guys care. Thanks so much.

 

[BryanEW710]

What would you suggest in GIMP for doing tinting on transparent canopies?

 

[herc40]

hello

The best suggestion I have of doing alphas in Gimp, is to go under Layers, Transparency, Color To Alpha. Then click on the BAR with color and it will open a pop up. change it to the color you want, then press OK. It should change the aplha channel to that color you want. This CS that you see, has no alphas on it, so it shows the whole CS background as an ALPHA channel, thats why it looks checkered gray and focused in on the background color. If ALPHA's are on your canopy, then it should automatically spot this, and show the canopy as a checkered gray scale alpha.

If it does not change, I have no clue what should be done then. This will only work on alphas that were produced in the paint program, not those done in modeling programs, as far as I know. I hope this helps.