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Livery Creation

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Livery Creation

Postby Flight876 » Sat Mar 26, 2022 11:14 am

Hey guys I hope you are well
What's the best way to create liveries? I want to a create a Pakistan Airlines Livery for the MD-11 and for 747-8, and a Lufthansa livery for the MD-11 but I'm not sure exactly how to do it (I'm afraid I might start breaking things very quickly).
Is it all that difficult? What do I need to do? And which programs could this be achieved on? Let me know as I'm very tempted to try and create my own livery. P.s move this to the correct if this is in the incorrect forum.
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Re: Livery Creation

Postby wkitty42 » Sat Mar 26, 2022 11:57 am

generally speaking, most any graphical paint type program will work... you just need what is known as a "paintkit" for the specific craft you want to make a livery for... then in your paint program, you open the paintkit and save it with a new name... then you can start your painting... good/decent paint programs will work with layers... this way you paint on a layer while leaving the craft's outline drawings alone so they don't get messed up... when everything is done, you place your livery's png or gif or whatever in the same directory as the craft's other liveries... you will also need to add or edit a XML file which FG will load to see your new livery exists and where to load it from...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: Livery Creation

Postby Flight876 » Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:43 pm

wkitty42 wrote in Sat Mar 26, 2022 11:57 am:generally speaking, most any graphical paint type program will work... you just need what is known as a "paintkit" for the specific craft you want to make a livery for... then in your paint program, you open the paintkit and save it with a new name... then you can start your painting... good/decent paint programs will work with layers... this way you paint on a layer while leaving the craft's outline drawings alone so they don't get messed up... when everything is done, you place your livery's png or gif or whatever in the same directory as the craft's other liveries... you will also need to add or edit a XML file which FG will load to see your new livery exists and where to load it from...

That seems a bit complicated. Is there any YT videos on this subject that you would recommend me to watch before I do this?
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Re: Livery Creation

Postby Flight876 » Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:54 pm

If there's anyone more experienced at this stuff willing to pitch in, please do
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Re: Livery Creation

Postby wkitty42 » Sat Mar 26, 2022 1:51 pm

Flight876 wrote in Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:43 pm:
wkitty42 wrote in Sat Mar 26, 2022 11:57 am:generally speaking, most any graphical paint type program will work... you just need what is known as a "paintkit" for the specific craft you want to make a livery for... then in your paint program, you open the paintkit and save it with a new name... then you can start your painting... good/decent paint programs will work with layers... this way you paint on a layer while leaving the craft's outline drawings alone so they don't get messed up... when everything is done, you place your livery's png or gif or whatever in the same directory as the craft's other liveries... you will also need to add or edit a XML file which FG will load to see your new livery exists and where to load it from...

That seems a bit complicated. Is there any YT videos on this subject that you would recommend me to watch before I do this?

complicated in what way?

i don't know of any YT (or other) videos... i hate watching tutorials made that way... they go too fast most of the time and i truly hate having to stop and back up and play over and over and over to try to see something that isn't being explained...

if you have used any type of painting program that uses layers, you should be ok... it is just a matter of learning how layers work... once you understand how to paint on one layer while seeing other layers overlaid on the image you are painting, it'll become much clearer...

placing your finished livery file in a place where FG can find it for that craft is no different than putting a document in the proper folder so you can find it later...
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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Re: Livery Creation

Postby Flight876 » Sat Mar 26, 2022 2:42 pm

wkitty42 wrote in Sat Mar 26, 2022 11:57 am:generally speaking, most any graphical paint type program will work... you just need what is known as a "paintkit" for the specific craft you want to make a livery for... then in your paint program, you open the paintkit and save it with a new name... then you can start your painting... good/decent paint programs will work with layers... this way you paint on a layer while leaving the craft's outline drawings alone so they don't get messed up... when everything is done, you place your livery's png or gif or whatever in the same directory as the craft's other liveries... you will also need to add or edit a XML file which FG will load to see your new livery exists and where to load it from...


Alright, after reading through your comment again, seems straightforward enough. Just need to find the paintkit for the MD-11.
Not sure if Paint on Windows will do the job. Will try it on paint, then I'll give Photoshop a shot
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Re: Livery Creation

Postby I-PIC68 » Sat Mar 26, 2022 2:54 pm

You can try to use Inkscape too.
It is a vector graphics editor.
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Re: Livery Creation

Postby wkitty42 » Sat Mar 26, 2022 3:56 pm

gimp is another decent one to look at... it is free and open source... it certainly handles layers ;)
"You get more air close to the ground," said Angalo. "I read that in a book. You get lots of air low down, and not much when you go up."
"Why not?" said Gurder.
"Dunno. It's frightened of heights, I guess."
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wkitty42
 
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Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:46 pm
Location: central NC, USA
Callsign: wk42
Version: git next
OS: Kubuntu 20.04

Re: Livery Creation

Postby Kugelfang » Sat Mar 26, 2022 6:26 pm

I've been using FOSS Krita for paint purposes. I find it easier to wrap my head around it than modern GIMP.
We were set in our ways. We believed in a good God, a bad Devil and a hot Hell, and more than anything else we believed that the same good God did not intend man should ever fly.
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