Car Painting Guide By Butch Davis
I'll do my best to attempt to explain what's required in the process.. I'm typing this after a long night at work, so forgive me if I make a mistake along the way..
I'll proof-read it later today when I wake up.. For the purposes of the SCART 1998 mod, there are 7 files that can be created for each car.. For this explanation, I'll use my own car as an example..
Information for the car : #43 STP Reynard Honda Firestone.. I'll use "43.veh" as the default vehicle file for my car.. In the .veh file, there is a parameter to set the default skin file for the car.. I use "43.dds", making life a little easier..
43.veh : This has all of the parameters needed to put your car in-game
43.txt : Text file giving information on the design/painter
43.dds : Car File
43Wing.dds : Speedway/Superspeedway Wing File
43Helmet.dds : Driver's helmet
43Driver.dds : Driver's uniform
43Fin.dds : Rear engine cover fin ( If applicable )
I personally use Paint Shop Pro v6 to create all of my files.. It's an older program, but one that I'm very comfortable with, which is part of the reason I can do a lot of things rather quickly.. The Reynard is the easiest car to paint because it is the only one with a proper wireframe layer, which allows the painter to see all of the outlines of the car, making it much easier to line designs up from one body part to another.. The Lola, Penske, and Swift are all missing this wireframe layer..
Simply put, create your design on the template, and when you are satisfied with the result, save it in the proper .DDS format for use within the mod.. Generally speaking, if the item is to have a reflection ( Typically everything except the driver's suit ), then it should be saved in the DXT5 .DDS format at minimum.. The driver's suit should be saved as a DXT1 .DDS file.. In order to save anything as a .DDS file, you will need the proper nVidia .DDS plugin, which is available from the nVidia website..
There are a few guidelines that should be followed when painting skins though..
1. First and foremost, save your project at regular intervals in a LAYERED FORMAT.. For Paint Shop Pro, this would be the .PSP format.. For Adobe Photoshop, this would be the .PSD format..
2. Visualize in your mind what you want the car to look like, sometimes going so far as to sketch something out on paper.. This can make the process a lot easier.. If it's a replica of a real-world car, find as many hi-res images of that car as possible.. If it's a fictional, leave yourself open to adjustments based on the shape of the car that you are painting for.. Not all designs translate well from one car type to another..
3. See rule #1.. Yes, it's THAT important!! There's nothing worse than working on a project and finally getting somewhere with it and then seeing your paint program or your computer crash and losing everything!!
4. Use the largest possible logos that you can find.. Going from BIG to small is easy and looks great.. Going from small to BIG looks downright shitty and can ruin a fantastic design.. www.brandsoftheworld.com offers a TON of .EPS logos for download, and .EPS files can be opened at enormous sizes for better clarity when downsizing to place on the cars..
5. Use the anti-aliasing feature of your paint program when drawing lines and shapes.. Not doing so will create jagged edges and make the car look crappy..
6. Stock up on fonts.. Using the same fonts over and over for numbers and text/names can make your artwork boring very quickly..
7. Mix it up a bit and be adventurous with your creativity.. Some of my best artwork in the past 20+ years has been one of those "Woops" moments..
8. See rule #1.. Again, it's THAT FREAKIN' IMPORTANT!! To emphasize the importance, a few years ago I did some work for one of the IndyCar teams for the Indy 500.. One of the designs I worked on was rather fantastic, and before I saved the file, my paint program crashed.. It took less than an hour to create that design, but, to RE-CREATE it, it took nearly 3 hours because I wanted to get it exactly as I had it before.. Needless to say, the job got finished, but I could have saved myself a LOT of time by saving often..
9. If you have the means, get a program such as 3ds MAX as well as 3d Sim Ed.. These programs can allow you to extract the model from ANY mod and view it in 3-D with your skin applied, allowing you the chance to see what your artwork looks like in 3-D as you work.. This is part of the reason that it doesn't take me as long to get something just right..
Obviously, there is a LOT more to painting a car.. There are various tutorials out there on in-depth steps for creating skins and such, so GOOGLE is your friend there.. However, the above outlines the basic guidelines and should at least get you started in the right direction..
Butch Davis
FBR Motorsports Owner/Driver
2011-2012 SCART Winter Season Team Champions