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PMDG Livery Paint Tutorial for FSX & FS9

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PMDG Livery Paint Tutorial for FSX & FS9

& PhotoShop ~ Working with Layers

 

*Please do not "Reply with quote" to this post, but rather post a comment if you have a question or correction. I will know what you're referring to, Thank You.*

This post is for the PMDG forum, you are welcome to provide a link to this where ever you'd like, but I do not grant permission for it to be duplicated.

See the "Final Words" section at the end of this Tutorial for more details, and I hope you enjoy.

 

This tutorial is for PMDG users, utilizing the PMDG Paintkits. It is a rather in-depth Tutorial with the emphasis on working with layers. It is leaned toward the beginner, but I think even a more advanced PhotoShop user can learn something new. I recommend using Photoshop if you're able. If you're using other Photo editing software, just try to find the equivalent tool in your program, or method and try to follow along. This is a combined effort of using the PMDG Paint kit and understanding layers in detail. The more you understand about them, the more comfortable you'll be, thus the better liveries you'll produce. Since this will be as a forum post, I had to improvise on screenshots for bandwidth reasons. There seems to be a 10 picture cap, regardless of size, so once the thumbnails I created run out, look for the "Blue Hyperlinks" . (The Thumbnails do work, so click them for a bigger pic). I also decided to host my own pics from one of my own (old) websites, rather than deal with the outages of other image hosting. That being said, nothing is 100% and even my own site has maintenance times where some images and links may be unavailable. Once I feel I have enough feedback and made the needed corrections, I plan to create this as a .PDF with all pictures included that PMDG is more than welcome to host.

 

*Please note: I am not a PMDG employee, or affiliated with them in any way. I am merely a proud supporter/user, creating this for other ordinary PMDG users alike. (Who am I kidding, PMDG users aren't ordinary by any means, they're Perfectionists :)

 

Possible Options:

Emphasis on possible. First of all, both "Corel PSP" and "Adobe PhotoShop" do offer free trials and I would highly recommend Photoshop, if nothing else, at least to use for their 30 day free trial until you have the concepts down in this tutorial and then you could easily convert your new knowledge to another platform. This tutorial will be much easier to follow in Photoshop and I will not be able to answer question of the other editors listed here. As much as I would like to think everyone reading this tutorial has Photoshop, I do know it may be out of price range for many if not most. There are other programs out there, and can do the job at hand just fine. Paint Shop Pro is a great program and much more affordable, but of course Photoshop is still far greater (you think the FSX vs. FS9 war is bad, try reading about this comparison). Some of you might still not to be able to afford even that, so if you truly must, and are a patient person, then there is even a free program out there that is "Open Source" (two of my favorite words). Of course being free, it may not hold up to some peoples expectations, and if your not familiar with open source and are expecting everything to be in one neatly wrapped .exe file, it isn't going to happen. If your a little computer savvy you'll figure it out, but many users at the time of this writing are having many issues with getting the .dds plug-in for it to work correctly. Unfortunately I cannot go into detail about it for this tutorial, as it alone would need a lot of special emphasis and would take away from what we're here to learn. Of course it would be better if you had,,, (cough) Photoshop anyway. It is called Gimp and you can find the download link and some install instructions "here". You should be able to follow along with it since it can open and use .psd files and has nearly the same layout and tools (even some shortcuts). But unless you can get the dds plug-in to work, you'll need to use DXTBmp.exe or ImageTool. I'll explain later on them.

 

Since I do not have a livery in mind at the moment, I will be answering a PMDG users request for the Cargolux Italia. Therefore the paintkit I will be using will be for the 747-400F. Not to worry, the techniques I will be describing on layers are the same and I will note any differences I see. I do not yet own the JS41, but I now have the paint kit. It has detailed instructions included in the zip, but once again, the Photoshop techniques described in this tutorial will be identical. Read the documentation in the Paint kit that you'll be using and then take from this tutorial what you need.

 

Before Start Checklist:

  • Visit the PMDG web site to download the latest Paintkit for your product.
  • READ the Read Me, License agreement and any other text files that may be included in the zip.
  • If you don't already own a PMDG product, you may take this time to go get the one(s) of your liking here
  • In order for Adobe to save the proper files correctly you need to download and install the free DDS Utilities and the DDS Authoring Plug-ins.
Those wanting to create FS9 Liveries:
  • "DXTBmp.exe" (Found on bottom of the page) is a great program created by Martin Wright. If you do not have FSX Deluxe or Acceleration (SDK) then you will want to install this.
  • If you didn't download and install DXTBmp.exe then install the SDK off your FSX or Acceleration CD, and download and install fsx_sdk_sp1a and SDK 2.
  • For SDK users browse to your \\SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK directory and create a shortcut for "ImageTool.exe" on your desktop.
Preparation:

  • Do your Prep work. For this users request he has noted the tail number of the livery he is looking for "LX-KCV".
  • Search the net for pictures of the aircraft you want. I normally do a search at airliners.net and http://www.planepictures.net and inspect as many pictures, and from as many angles as I can.
  • Looking at pictures, note the dates also. This particular tail number and ITALIA paint, has a few conflicting pix.
  • Find the one your going for and once decided, make your list of all the special details and decals you'll need.
  • How detailed do you want it? I downloaded the Cargolux logo online and searched for the actual font. I love as much detail as possible.
  • Looking at your photos, look at what else you can find for it Online. Note: The left and right side are usually different and may have unique decals.
  • Looking at the photos, I managed to find a picture of the EU Flag, but not the Flag on the tail.
  • Stay organized - Even at this stage it is very important to stay organized.
  • Save often! I recommend saving your work as a copy every hour or so, that way I can undo mistakes I may miss now, later. I also name it the date and time for organization.
  • I recommend saving all your backups you'll be saving in their own back up folder as well. Things can get cluttered fast.
  • Don't rush. This can be time consuming and if you don't approach it that way it can lead to frustration. Take breaks.
  • Take your time in the prep stages, you should have all your research, and smaller decals done when ready to start with the paint, and should be organized.
  • Did I mention SAVE often? And as a copy. I honestly cannot say this enough.
*During this tutorial I will not be reminding to save (If I reminded you every time I thought you should save, the tutorial would be 10 pages longer ;-). I strongly recommend saving separate copies as you work, and save often. The smallest thing missed in the beginning can turn into something rather major at the end. Each time I save, I "Save as" then rename it the date and time. This works for me and allows me to find a particular backup more easily.*

 

 

Aircraft.cfg Edit

I like to get the end steps done right away. This way I can test my work in FS as I go.

  • Create a folder and call it "texture.KCV"
  • Explore to your Aircraft of choice (MD11, 747, J41) directory. Mine is \\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG747-400F
    • FS9 Users would be \\FS9\Aircraft\PMDG747-400F.
  • FSX Only = Open a pre existing plane texture folder and copy the texture.cfg into your texture.KCV folder (This way we can test our livery and the missing textures will be defaulted).
  • Open the "Aircraft.CFG" in the \\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG747-400F folder with notepad.
  • You will see a series of entries starting from [fltsim.0] for however many liveries you have installed, in my case [fltsim.7] is my last
  • Scroll down until after the last [fltsim.XX] entry and copy and paste the code I have listed below after these entries but before the [General] section.
  • Look at each line, and see my notes after the // for details. (don't worry, my notes will not effect your .cfg file or be seen by FSX)

[fltsim.x]    // Change the x to whatever number yours will be
title=PMDG747-400F CARGOLUX ITALIA    // There cannot be duplicate names
sim=B747-400F
model=RRF
panel=VC
sound=RR
texture=KCV   // Change this to match the last 3 letters of your folder name (texture.KCV)
kb_checklists=PMDG747-400_CHECK
atc_id_color=0xffffffff
atc_id=LX-KCV
atc_airline=Cargolux
atc_flight_number=123
ui_manufacturer=BOEING
ui_type=747-400F  // FS9 Users will want to change this line to something like 747F Cargolux Italia
ui_variation=CARGOLUX LX-KCV RR   // Your Livery Name
ui_typerole=747-400F
ui_createdby=PMDG
description=Boeing 747-400F powered with RB-211 engines v 1.0\nPrecision Manuals Development Group\nwww.precisionmanuals.com \n\nProduced under license from Boeing Management Company.\n\nBoeing 747, 747-400, the 747 airplane configuration & Boeing are among the trademarks owned by Boeing.
visual_damage=0
atc_heavy=1
atc_parking_types=CARGO, RAMP, MIL_CARGO
LongAntenna=0
LongAntenna2=0

For FS9 Users, ui_type= Aircraft Model (So needs to be different from other entries or you may not see other entries before it).

 

There are other changes you can make, and should, but not "Must's". Example, you may want to change your engine type or sound for that engine. Choices are PW, RR & GE for the sounds (MD-11 choices are GE & PW).

If you often have to go into "Details" to change your ATC call sign, you can do it here as well to make it more permanent.

 

At this point you should test it. For the FSX PMDG 747's, and even though we have no textures in the folder they will default to the PMDG default until we save our finished files into our folder.

The defaulting to textures or "fallback" method I explain here is only for the 747-400X. The MD-11 fallback method will not put default textures on, nor will FS9 since FS9 does not have the texture fallback. However, it is still 100% flyable and ready for use, just rather than having default textures, it is all black (MD-11) or all grey (FS9). Kind of cool looking actually should you want a stealth model! Alternatively, you can copy all of the files from another texture folder into yours for now and simply overwrite them as you progress.

Test it out and make sure you don't get any errors, and see that your new plane entry is in the proper aircraft lists awaiting your control.

 

Understanding Layers

If you are new to Photoshop, it is important to get some understanding of layers, how they work, and how to more easily work with them. When you open the .PSD files of your paint kit, you will see an image. That image is composed of many individual layers. The rivets on one layer, the dirt on another, different shadows on their own, the main background paint on its, etc... It is essential that you keep these points in mind when you work with layers.

  • Make sure that the layer you intend to work on is the one selected in the Layers Panel (More on this shortly).
  • Imagine a layer as a transparency (sheet of plastic) where you draw. Where ever there is no drawing or image, font, etc... it will remain transparent to see the layers below.
  • The layers work in a stacking fashion, the one on the top of the list, will be on top of the image and will definitely be seen.
  • A layer can be an image, some typed text, an effect, a mask,,, anything you want basically.
  • Layers have an eye symbol to the left of them, allowing you to shut them off individually. This way it will not be seen or added to the final image.
  • Layers can add up fast, name them as you create them to keep things organized.

*If at any time in Photoshop, you somehow alter your workspace (the way Photoshop looks to you), you can reset it by clicking the menu "Window > Workspace > Default Workspace" as seen "here".*

 

To better show what this all means, I just made a sample using my favorite meal. I loves me some "Steak ~n~ Tators". Here is my Photoshop file so you can follow along.

 

steakntators_thumb.gif.

You can see how I placed the food on my plate, then covered it all in pepper. You can also see that I have it so each food is its own layer. Now if I were to move around the layers, rearranging them from top to bottom like below:

food_layers_thumb.gif

I would then get different results, looking something like this

steakontop_thumb.gif

You can see they don't quite look right, and the pepper is now at the bottom of the plate. Note how layers that are at the top in the layers panel are also on top in the image. Play around with the eyeball also, turning it off and on will change the visibility of that layer. Shut off the pepper, the steak, move them around the plate. Acquaint yourself with layers while I go fix me some real Steak n Tators :)

 

 

 

"Let's Get Started"

 

Tail Flag:

There are several ways to do this step, but to keep the focus on learning layers, I am going to do a different "Approach". Mainly so you'll better know how to do the things I'll be explaining further into the Tutorial. More importantly, that you get a better grasp of Layers, and how they work. Don't get overwhelmed with the amount of steps in this section. Since it may be your first time using PhotoShop there's a lot to explain. When you're finished this "Tail Flag" section, the rest of the steps will be easy in comparison.

 

The best way to learn about layers is to do it. So try and follow me, whether your duplicating my project or starting your own. I recommend for first timers of Photoshop to keep it simple and try and follow this at least as an exercise if you can before starting your own. Sometimes when doing liveries you'll be faced with a decal you are not familiar with or a good enough picture to see the whole thing. In this case do the best you can with what you have. Looking over everything I collected in the preparation stage, it looks like the only thing missing (other than the paint job itself) is the Flag on the tail. Going by the best picture I could find, it is still not very clear what it is, it looks like 5 white and 5 blue lines.

tail_flag_real_thumb.gif

There appears to be a red Lowenbrau beer lion (Mmmm beeer). I grabbed something that resembled it off the net during my preparation stage to get a good trace.

lowenbrau_lion_thumb2.gif

Ok, since this Tail Flag is actually going to be the most complicated part of this livery, and has the potential to better help you understand layers, let's get it finished first.

  1. Open up Photoshop
  2. Create a new .PSD file by pressing "CTRL+N" on your keyboard.
  3. In the box that opens enter a name "Flag1" and the dimensions= width 59, Height= 30, background contents = Transparent. As seen "Here".
  4. There are different ways to get your starting measurement, but it depends on which version of PS you have, most people just leave the default and scale it down later.
In this case I used the "Ruler Tool" from the "Analysis" menu and measured the area of the tail this flag will eventually go on (the PMDG_747_Externals_T.psd).Don't worry about this step, as we will be covering other methods.This is very small indeed so lets zoom in by pressing ctrl and the + key. I zoomed in 1200%Resize the borders of your new image (window frame) by stretching them with the mouse.
  • Move your mouse to the edge and it will turn into a two headed arrow, click and hold the left mouse button and drag the borders open to expose some grey work space.
  • I prefer to have a good amount of grey area (work space) around the edges to work with.
  • "Click here" to see what I mean.
Let's take a look at our Layers Panel.
  • The "Layers Panel" is in the lower right hand side of Photoshop and will be one of your primary areas when doing liveries (Or anything for that matter in PS).
  • The Layers Panel has three very important tabs, Layers, Channels & Paths.
  • At the bottom of the layers panel you will find several shortcuts for working with layers.
  • We will only be using the right most three. From right to left these are Delete Layer, Create a New Layer and Create a new Group.
  • layers_panel_thumb.gif
  • Like in our cockpits, if you hover your mouse over any of the tools or shortcuts it will display a description (not to worry, it's fps friendly).
  • You will see we currently only have one layer, titled "Layer 1".
Rename this layer "background" by double clicking the current title "Layer 1" (Make sure it is the name you click on, as clicking to the sides will bring up the "Layer Style" options).Look at the colors on the bottom of your tool bar on the left side of Photoshop. (These are our Foreground and Background colors).
  • Make sure they are black and white, if not then press "D" and it will reset them.
  • Pressing "CTRL+Backspace" fills in with the "Background color" and "ALT+Backspace" fills it with white (Our foreground color).
Since we want white, press "CTRL+Backspace" to fill in our Background Layer with the background white color .
  • According to the flag picture we have 5 blue and 5 white stripes. 10 lines in all. We also know the height of our image is 30 (see where I'm going with this? Don't worry, you will).
Create a new "image" by pressing "CTRL+N", dimensions= width 59, Height= 3. Click OK.
  • No specific name is needed here, as it will only be a temporary file.
Press "Alt+Backspace" to fill this layer with the Foreground color of Black.Make sure our cursor is the "Move Tool" v.gifby Pressing the keyboard shortcut "V"Drag and drop the black stripe onto our original image but hold down the Shift key while doing so. This will drop it lined up into our image.
  • Drag and drop means, to click your left mouse button and hold it, while then dragging your layer to another image, or other .PSD.
Now take a moment and look at your layers.This layer will be an individual stripe so let's name it "stripe" in the layers panel.
  • Again, do this by DBL clicking on the layers title "Layer 1".
Go back to the to the stripe image we just dragged that from and fill it with Blue.
  • To change color, just click on the black square in your tool bar on the left side.
  • Now select a nice shade of blue to fill the image from the "Color Picker" and click OK.
  • Fill it via "ALT+Backspace".
  • Normally in this case I would bring in a picture of what I was trying to duplicate.
Then press "i" to bring up the "Eyedropper Tool"i.gifThen click on the portion of the plane I was trying to color match.This way is more precise, however in this situation I do not have a clear picture of the flag without shadows or other surrounding conditions effecting the photo's true color.Following the steps above, drag this onto your original image also. Rename this layer "blue stripe".You should now have a black and a blue stripe layer within your image.If you held down shift while dragging this layer, you will see that our new layer is covering our black stripe. Since the "blue stripe" layer is selected, Simply move It off of the other.It should look something like this.black_blue_thumb.gifTake a look at your Layers Panel. Note that the Blue Layer is currently selected.When dealing with multiple layers you need to remember to always select the layer you want to move or modify before doing anything.If you make a mistake, just hit CTRL+Z to undo.You can also undo several steps by pressing and holding CTRL+Alt and pressing Z per undo.Move the Blue Stripe layer to the bottom of our image.Select the black stripe via the layers panel.Move it down so it is sitting on top of the blue.layered_thumb.gifReselect the blue layer but to do so, try this shortcut.
  • This time just hover your mouse above the actual blue stripe in the image
  • Hold down CTRL and left click your mouse.
  • This is an optional way to select the layer, but will not always work in some Paintkits.
  • This is one of my most used shortcuts, and very helpful, but mainly in working with my own images.
  • This however will select entire groups if the layer you are CTRL+clicking on is in a group folder.
Holding down Alt, click and drag the blue layer up.
  • Make sure to press and hold "Alt" prior to clicking, or this will not work.
  • You will see it just created a new layer automatically.
  • Once it creates the new layer you can let go of ALT.
Now do the steps above and alternate the stripes all the way to the top.Don't forget to select your layers now with the advanced CTRL + click method.When finished you should be looking like "this".
  • You probably noticed by now that your layers are starting to multiply.
  • They can get out of control very fast which is why I like to keep them well named and properly grouped.
  • Before we move on, I want to take a moment to explain merging, visibility, and grouping, also essential in your newly developing livery painting skills.
  • Let's start organizing the layers by eliminating some wasted space and merging some together.
In the Layers Panel, right click on the top layer "blue stripe copy 4" and choose "Merge Down".
  • Alternatively, and the way I prefer to do it is use the keyboard shortcut of "CTRL+E" to merge down.
Try the rest this way, and you will see why so many prefer keyboard shorts.Continue this step until all 5 blue stripes are merged as one.Now do the blacks the same way, starting toward the top, on "stripe copy 4" (do not merge them with the blues).
  • You should now have 3 layers, "background, stripe & blue stripe." Looking much more organized now aye? Before we continue, I want to explain a few things.
  • Merging: One big mistake Photoshop beginners will make, is to get carried away on the "Merge down" option. If your files are well named and well grouped, then you should carefully consider if they should be merged. You never know what changes you may want to make down the road and rule of thumb is, the more layers the better. This is also why you should "Save As" backups, should you make this mistake and want to fix it later.
  • Visibility: You've probably already noticed the eyeball symbols to the left of each layer. By selecting and unselecting (turning on and off) of these eyes, you will turn the respected layers visibility on or off in our image. When saving an image that's visibility is off, hence the layer is not needed, the image will not retain that layer or the accompanied data with it. It also helps of course, with temporarily hiding what you don't want to see at the time. Turning the visibility on and off will become second nature as you toggle things off and on between the left and right sides of your PMDG templates as you start producing more and more liveries.
  • Groups: In the newer Paintkits you can see that the layers of the .PSD files are more organized into "Groups". Groups or Grouping layers is the cats meow of proper organization. It not only helps organize your layers but also allows you to turn on/off the complete sets visibility with a single click as well as applying effects to all the layers in the group at once. This is not such a big deal with our 3 layer flag we have here, but helps for achieving better organization of your layers. I have pictures I have created that have 100+ groups with 1000+ layers. So trust me when I say, they will become essential to your "PhotoShopping". Speaking of Groups, lets get our Flag here in it's own group.
Click on the shortcut in the bottom of the layers panel "Create a new group".Name this "Tail Flag".Now drag and drop our three layers into our new group.
  • You will now see for the first time in our project how layers overlap what's underneath them (Ok, maybe second time since it may have happened also in step #19).
  • If you cannot see your stripes, simply drag the "white background" layer to the bottom of the list.
  • This one was an easy fix. Remember this when your pulling your hair out because you seem to have lost a layer.
I don't want to delete the black stripes but for now, lets shut their visibility off.
  • You can see in this case, we used layers as a spacing tool rather than for our image. There are so many other ways to use them as you'll soon see.
  • You should be starting to see the flag we are trying to create coming into perspective.
  • All that's left now is to add the red lion.
  • Right now you should be looking "like so".
Let's open up our picture of the lion and get started on "him".
  • You can save this image then open it in Photoshop or drag it from the opening screen straight into Photoshop.
  • Note: This technique may not work on some image types.
Look at the layer in this image and you will see this picture is locked.Double click the layers box to unlock it and name him "Leo". Click ok to unlock it.Select the Magic Wand tool, or press "W".Now click somewhere in the lion (gold area) and you should get a partial selection started.
  • Chances are the wand tool didn't go past the bright spot on the left foot since it is a different color.
  • When using the wand tool, you can add to and subtract from the selection (You can do this with all of the selection tools).
  • In this case, we need more selected. So Holding down the shift key you will notice a + symbol next to your selection tool.
  • Clicking on areas that we still want selected will add these to our selection.
  • To subtract unwanted areas, Hold down the Alt key. There will be a - symbol now next to our selection tool.
  • If things go wrong, just start over.
  • You can also zoom in and switch between your other selection tools without losing your current progress in your selection.
  • Also to note, up at the top of the screen there are options for the selection sensitivity called "Tolerance". I did this in about 5 shift + clicks with the default tolerance set, but feel free to play around with this value.
  • Do not uncheck "Contiguous" though, since it will not help in this case. We will touch on that in a bit.
  • There are so many other things we could do to further "Refine" our selection. I will explain more on that when it will make more of a difference to our layer in some steps ahead.
A couple or so clicks later you should have a perfect trace around what looked like was going to take hours to trace and should have a nice tight selection around ole Leo looking "like so".We need to do one more step.
  • This part is really not necessary, and is usually best when you're planning on keeping your background but may need the selection again in the future.
  • I added it mainly because of it's usefulness.
With the selection, ummm selected, go up into the menu and choose "Select" then "Save Selection".Leave the defaults and name this "Lion" and click ok.
  • Where did the selection go? Well, if you look at the middle tab of the layers panel, you will see another tab "Channels".
  • Select this tab and you will find your Lion channel at the bottom.
  • This was saved as an "Alpha channel" and something we will cover in more detail later.
  • Why bother with this step? Beginners might not yet know the frustration involved in losing a detailed selection that took us hours to make.
  • This way, we can load that selection whenever we want, whether it be in this project, or in one long on down the road in another livery.
  • There are so many benefits to saving our selections this way, I only wish there were time to tell you some. Perhaps another time and maybe some advanced looks at paths!
Leo, or our "Lion" channel should look like "this".
  • To see just the channel as shown, just click the lion channel, it should shut off the visibility for the RGB channels and turn only itself on.
  • An optional way is to turn on the Lion channel's visibility.
  • Then turn off the RGB channel and select (highlight).
  • Just remember to change them back before moving on to the next steps.
  • We need to know how to reselect Leo via the channel method.
First lets deselect him by pressing "CTRL+D".In the channels tab, hold down CTRL and left click the Lion channel.We now want to reverse our selection, or actually "Inverse" it.We want everything other than the Lion to be selected. To do so, press CTRL+Shift+I to "Inverse the selection".Press Delete or backspace and we should be looking at just the Lion with no background.
  • If nothing happens, it is because your lion channel is still selected (Highlighted). Select the RGB channel.
Deselect him by pressing CTRL+D.Change the color in your color palette to red.Now fill the image by pressing Alt+Backspace and watch what happens.
  • Doh. No worries, press CTR+Z to undo this.
  • This happens because even though we only see the lion, the layer is still the entire sheet or size of our total image canvas.
To correct this, look at the top of the layers panel. You will see the word "Lock". There to the right of it you will see a box called "Lock transparent pixels".Select it and try that fill again.
  • Ahhh, that's much better, don't you think?
  • Now lets resize him before he joins our group.
Select the Marquee tool by pressing "M" and draw a "tight box" around him.Now from the file menu, select "Image" and then "Crop". This way we cut out all the dead space.
  • This is a good habit to get into for your layers for using the "CTRL+LeftClick" layer selecting method. This way we know our layer's dead space won't interfere.
From the menu, Click "Image" and then "Image Size" (Further in the tutorial I will refer to menu choices such as this in the format of "Image > Image Size").We want to keep his dimensions proportionate so make sure "Constrain Proportions" is checked.We know our flag is 30 pixels high, and we can see in this "Picture" that he is 1/2 a line from the top and 1/2 a line from the bottom, so lets make his Height 27 (Our Flag height minus the height of 1 bar) and the width will change automatically to keep the image proportionately correct.
  • You may want to keep him an even 30, but if your particular like I am I shoot for what I can.
  • By sizing him to 27, you may need to zoom in and clean up his knee a tad.
  • Use a size #1 (1 pixel) eraser and make sure his layer does not have "Transparency" locked.
  • Do small changes, and zoom back out to check your work.
  • You can even retouch up his paint with a 1 pixel paint brush. It all comes down to how much detail You want.
  • Don't forget you can always "Undo" CTRL+Z, and for many steps, CTRL+ALT+Z.
Now we can drag and drop ole Leo into our group.Press V to change to the "Move Tool" and Drop Leo to our awaiting Group (Hold shift, to ensure he lands centered).If he is not seen or behind blue stripes be sure to move his layer up to the top.Now you'll see ole Leo in all his beauty, or I should say ugly... This is because the image (amount of pixels) is so small.
  • We are almost done.
  • Take a minute if you want and move Leo between the layers by (In the layers panel) moving the layers up and down.
  • This way you can see how they work and how things look as you may have done in the Steak and Tators exercise.
  • We still have one more step to make sure our Flag is ready for both sides of our Tail.
Drag the Leo Layer down to the icon in the lower right of the Panel called "Create New Layer" and release the mouse button. This creates a duplicate of that layer.Name our Duplicate "Leo right"Make sure "Leo right" is still selected. Now go to the file menu and click "Edit" then "Transform" and finally, "Flip horizontally".
  • Be sure to use the "Edit" menu.
  • Edit has the options for layers, and the "Image" menu is for the entire Picture.
Shut off the eye (visibility) for "Leo right", since we will be doing the left side first.
  • You could have also done the right side when it came time for the placement later.
  • This way though, you will better understand about different approaches, and better understand some of the PMDG Paintkits.
Set our zoom level back from 1200% to 100% and remember how much work you did on just this "little guy" and be proud!
  • An easy way to set zoom to 100% is to double click the Zoom tool in the tools panel.
That's it. That was made in a few extra steps, but again, mainly to make sure you're up to speed and comfortable with layers, and the tools of PhotoShop for moving forward. The next and final steps of our "Preparation" will be simple in comparison. Photoshop and working with layers is such a powerful tool. It can be a very addicting hobby and very fun indeed. After all I could be flying right now but I'm enjoying this :)

 

Logo:

Next on the list is the Logo. As stated above I found one here. It's a great site for Airline logos. To download, look toward the top center of the page for "Download vector logo". The best part of this site is the files are Vector graphics. These files when used with Adobe Illustrator basically keep their shape and color when resized, kind of like in Flash. The edges don't degrade or become pixilated at all. If you don't have Illustrator it's ok, Photoshop can still open the file, and there are also many other pix available via Google pictures. You can also use this one if you can't find one ;-). The picture I provided will need to be resized and stretched, and since it is a JPG, may produce pixilation when dealing with the "Cargolux" name later on the fuselage, but I'll show you ways to fix some of that later.

  1. Once you have your logo picture, and bring it into Photoshop, Choose "File > Save As" and name it "LX-KCV".
  2. Double click the layer in the layers panel to unlock it and click OK.
  3. Press W for the magic wand tool.
  4. In the upper area of Photoshop you will see a "control bar" associated with the selected tool for advanced options.
  5. Uncheck the "Contiguous" box.
    • This will allow our selection to select all of the color in the picture that we click on.
    • Rather than the checked box making it so it will only select the color if it is touching.
    • Try both to see what I mean.
  6. With contiguous unchecked, click on any of the white area and presto, all the white is selected.
  7. Press the Delete key or Backspace to delete the selected white background.
  8. Press CTRL + D to deselect.
  9. We need to make two different copies of this, so in the Menu select "Image > Duplicate".
  10. Go back to our original, we want to save these as two separate layers for later use so press M for the Marquee tool.
  11. Select (Draw a box around) just around the logo.
  12. Go to the menu under "Layer" and select "New" and then "Layer via Cut" or press CTRL+SHIFT+J.
  13. Name it "logo tail" in the layers panel.
  14. Do the same steps for the Cargolux text, naming the layer "Cargolux".
  15. Go ahead and delete the layer with nothing on it by dragging it to the trash can shortcut below in the layers panel.
  16. Switch to the duplicate image we created.
  17. From the menu drop down, choose "Image" and then "image Size"
  18. Change the size of the height to = 200 and let it scale itself for width. I cannot say for sure because we may have different files, but 200 is fine for now and we can "Transform" later.
  19. Change to the Movement tool pressing "V" and drag and drop this into our last image "LX-KCV"
  20. In the layers panel, name this layer "logo nose"
  21. Press "M" for the Marquee tool, and draw a box around just the logo of the "logo nose" layer (Make sure its selected).
  22. Go to Menu > Layer > New > "Layer via Copy" or just hit "CTRL + J".
  23. Rename this layer "logo wings".
  24. Press "V" for the movement tool.
  25. Go back to the image where our group was for "flag tail", and select the group folder "Tail Flag" in the layers panel.
  26. Drag the whole group folder into this new image canvas "LX-KCV".
This is the method I use. You may find it better to store your individual layers in their own individual files, or .psd. I prefer one .psd as it acts as my briefcase. When I do the prep stage, just as we've done, I then can just open my paintkit and have all my own custom files for that livery standing by. I also always name my "Briefcase" or main .psd the livery tail number. Many times I have had a project that required something I had already created in an existing project, and was able find it more easily this way. You'll develop your own habits to fit your own style as you go.

 

 

EU Flag

  1. Now it's time to get the EU Flag in PS as well.
    • You did gather all these earlier, right? hehe.
    • One thing I love about PS is you can drag and drop the image directly off of the web page into PS.
  2. Once the image is in PhotoShop, resize it to W=59 letting the height change on its own.
  3. Make sure you have the Move tool selected and Simply drag this image in as a layer with your other layers where we've been stock piling them all ("LX-KCV.PSD").
  4. Name this layer "flag eu"
  5. Make sure it didn't fall into our "Tail Flag" group.
  6. Close out any open files we no longer need, since we now have our master image with them all neatly tucked away. So basically, close everything else.
  7. Sort your layers away from one another and stack them in the layers panel whatever is most logical for yourself.
  8. Pat yourself on the back, as you have just completed the Preparation stage :)
Refine Edge:

As mentioned above there are further ways you could refine your edge, thus improving your liveries. The edges of our logo's for this livery are fine, since the background paint of our livery is nearly white. However, there may be times where you have a darker background and not "Refining" the edge may show undesirable results. When you use tools like the Wand tool, it may bring in just a little bit of the white we deleted and make our edges look dreadful. You can play with the Tolerance, but will most likely never get it perfect and will need to use the box to the right in the same tool "control panel" to Refine the edge. You can skip this step, but to better understand for later use follow these steps.

  1. In our main image, Create a new layer.
  2. Make sure that layer is selected and fill it with black.
  3. Put this new black layer at the very bottom of our layers.
  4. Looking at our image you will see there are some jagged white edges around our logo and Cargolux text.
  5. Let's refine the edge of our "Cargolux" layer.
  6. Create a selection around it by using the CTRL+Shift+Click method on the "Cargolux" layer in the layers panel.
  7. Click on the "Refine Edge" box up top, in our tool control area.
  8. This will open the refine edge dialog box giving us several options.
  9. First thing we want to do is adjust the background for Preview purposes.
  10. Down toward the bottom, just above the work "Description" you will see 5 different choices of preview modes.
  11. Select the "middle", which will give us a black background showing what we need to fix more as we just did with our new black layer.
  12. Make very small corrections here, and experiment.
  13. After you've made a change toggle off and on the "Preview" checkbox to better see what your changes did.
  14. I recommend only changing "Smooth" and perhaps "Contract/Expand".
  15. I wouldn't go more than "Smooth=5, and "Contract/Expand= -15".
  16. Press OK.
  17. All that did was refine our selections edge and we still need to implement the change by once again doing as earlier.
  18. Inverse our selection by pressing "CTRL+Shift+i".
  19. Press Delete or Backspace.
  20. Deselect "CTRL+D".
  21. Feel free to do the other layers, but again no real need since our next step will be adding white to some of those layers.
Bonus step:

As in the last step, you may choose not to want to do this step, that's fine, but follow along since this may come in handy in another project. Now if you study paint/decals on most planes you will notice they sometimes have either a white border, or they are on a sub layer. From a lot of pictures you might not see it but you can see it here around the stripes, and here around the tail and wing logo's. I don't see many liveries where people add this border, perhaps they might want the better contrast of the layer direct against the fuselage, but I think it can add contrast and of course attention to detail. For my livery replica, I'm going to add them to some of my layers, even if I have to zoom all the way in to see the results later.

I am going to do only the orange logo's themselves. Since from all the picture angles I have available, I cannot make them out around anything else, except the stripes but we'll do them later."CTRL+Click" on "logo tail" to create a selection around it, and highlight it also (Make sure the layer is selected).Go to the Menu and click "Select > Modify > Border".Enter 2 for width and click OK or hit enter.Since our white background color has been changed, reset them first by pressing "D".Press "CTRL+Backspace" to fill in the border with our background color, white.Press CTRL+D" to deselect and check out your results.
  • Of course I hope you still have the black layer we created for our background on to see just how good we are ;-)
The end result should look something "like this".
  • I am Only using the black background to better highlight the changes.
  • I did not do the nose, and even though the winglets are done, the best way to do them is scale down a copy of the tail logo after it's been done.

 

 

 

 

Lets Get to the Painting!!!

 

Each Paint Kit's "Read Me" will tell you which files need to be saved as what. There are going to be 2 different formats you save as (FSX only, FS9 discussed later), DXT5 and DXT1. The main difference is that DXT5 preserves the Alpha Channel, which we will discuss a bit later. Personally, I ONLY use DXT5 as you will lose some lighting effects and shine with DXT1 since it does not save the Alpha data. Since we are doing a 747-400F go ahead and open up the paintkit and then open up the PMDG_747F_FUSE_LEFT_T.psd. At the time of this writing, there are #2, 747-400F Paintkits, the combo download file "747-400X" which includes both passenger and cargo .psd's, and the stand alone "747-400F". Make sure you download the stand alone for the 747-400F at least for the "747400F_Fuse_Cut_Template.psd". The 400x cut layers in the "747400_Fuse_Cut_Template.psd" are the incorrect size and will lead to having a big circular stripe around your livery. Take a few minutes to go through the layers here. Check out their detail. Their sweet!!! Seeing how many there are and why will help you to better understand more about them. Get an idea of where things are and play with the visibility some (will help find them in some cases). Some of the layers are so fine, you need to zoom in to see, and others are so light that you need to add a dark background. Now this is the meaning of attention to detail. Since I also had the 747-400x paintkit, I also looked over the left and right .psd's in it. They have some slight differences visually. After carefully studying my project and the .psd's, I decided to copy (drag and drop) two layers over to my left and right_T.psd's. The layers were "Fuse Portholes" (as seen on the "O" in Cargolux as well as the top of the blue stripe. "See here".) and "Main Deck Labels" (These are the left side Cargo door labels). This is minor, but I want the most detail I can get and these will also help with fine tuning the placement for my "Cargolux" later. This may change over time, so as said, make sure to download the latest Painkit.

Ok, as said earlier on, there were discrepancies in the pictures for the Italia, meaning some were more on the white side and some were light/medium grey. The dark grey pictures I may post links to were not the Italia but they were the same tail number. After looking over the pix, I decided I'd do the lighter color since I think it looks much better in FSX (And since I'm doing the Tutorial and am an American, I just want more Red, White & Blue ;-). So let's get started.

 

  • The main pix I will be going off of are "this", "this", "that" (not ITALIA, but great shot for detail), oh and of course "this".
Base color:

  1. First thing is to backup the paintkit. If you still also have the zip, then that's fine, as long as you have that.
    • It can be common to make major mistakes on the wrong layer and not notice it until too late.
  2. Bring in some of your pics and press "i" for the eyedropper tool. Pick a good picture with good lighting and get a sample.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the layers list and by toggling the visibility on and off, find which of your layers is the background color and rename it "Fuse Base." For me it was Layer19.
  4. Now fill it with your color sample to try it out.
    • If you think it's too dark or too light, try another pic, or choose your own color from the color palette.
    • It can sometimes be difficult to get a good pic to get a true sample from. The beauty of layers is you can always simply change it later.
  5. Take your time, and get as close as you can, then enter the color palette and go a little lighter or darker as needed.
  6. Don't forget to do a new "Fill" (ALT+Backspace) after each trip into the color picker while you adjust.
When going for the best results, you should study the details of the pictures on paint/decal placement and choose which you want to do first. Looking at the pictures of the stripes, I can see some guidelines on placement, but will be easier to do them once our "Cargolux" is up. I want to get the stripes up so I can get a better feel for the base color also. Study your pictures and note key spots to help guide the placement of our "Cargolux" layer.

 

Cargolux:

  1. Make sure that the "Fuse Base" texture is selected in the layers panel.
    • This will insure the layer we drag in will fall on top of it.
  2. From our main file "LX-KCV" .psd, drag the "Cargolux" layer on over.
  3. We want to "Transform" this, so press "CTRL+T".
  4. Holding down "Shift", grab a corner of the box around our text and resize it as needed.
    • Holding down shift will keep it uniform in size or Proportionate.
  5. Once you get where you are satisfied, hit enter (Escape to cancel).
    • Try and find specific points in the pictures to help line up the text.
    • Even though we're doing the Left side right now, the right side pictures can also give placement hints, such as how far over the wings does the text end, how far under the top windows, but be cautious as this is not always the case.
    • Finding a start point can take some time so just be patient.
    • Cross reference the pictures from different angles and sides, and when happy with it move on to the next step.
Note how good or how bad your preparation was on what you gathered for resources. If bad, I'm sure next time you'll at least know what to look for in your research pix ;-)

 

Stripes:

  1. Create a new layer.
    • Since you did this with the "Cargolux" layer most likely still selected, it will put it right above it which is exactly where we want it.
  2. Name this layer "Fuse stripe background".
  3. Create another new layer and name it "Fuse stripe red".
  4. Create another and, yep, you guessed "Fuse stripe blue"(or green depending on your variation).
  5. Lets create a group and name it "Stripes".
  6. Drag your two colored stripes and stripe background into our new group.
    • We will be creating many more later, but they will be created automatically as we use our "Type Tool".
    • Looking at our pictures, look for key places where your lines should be.
    • I noticed that in the back they go right under the stabilizer and to the end of the APU.
    • I also notice in "this pic" that the height of the lines (including the white under layer) is slightly more than 1/2 the size of the C or X of Cargolux.
  7. Make sure your layer "Fuse stripe background" is selected.
  8. Get out the marquee tool and "draw a box", from the end of the X of Cargolux, and as far as you can go to the right.
    • Referring to "this pic", I can see the top of the white background, tops out at the bottom part of the top of the X (The inner V)and the bottom part goes further down the X, almost to the bottom.
    • As before, constantly refer to your pictures and adjust as needed.
  9. When you feel you got it perfect and all pictures agree. Fill in your Marquee box with the whitest of white.
    • Hopefully you have a good picture of the stripes, without glare and shadows that you can get a couple nice samples from. If not, just make your own best choice.
  10. Since we have both a foreground and a background color I like to use the Eyedrop Tool and get both my color's so I can get the picture out of the way.
  11. Select the eye dropper (Press "i"), get the sample from stripe 1, hit X, get the sample for the next.
  12. Create your marquee box for your stripe. Should be slightly less than half of the white background layer (Don't forget you can Zoom in if needed, even after you started your selection).
    • Now keep in mind that the two stripes are separated in the middle with a gap which looks about 5"- 8", and also a distance of about 2" to 3" on top and bottom (Again, picture & variation depending).
    • The best way to do this I find is by eye.
  13. Make a selection with the Marquee tool.
  14. Make sure that you have the proper layer selected for that layer and fill it.
    • You can always readjust all day long if need be, but having it on canvas fixing it, is a lot easier than keeping it in your head.
  15. With your selection box still showing, and the marquee tool still selected, use the arrow keys to nudge your selection up or down for the next stripe.
    • This is of course if your happy with your first selections size.
  16. Once again, be sure to change what layer this will be for in the layers panel (Red or Blue strip).
  17. Fill it with whichever shortcut is for your fill color (ALT+BACKSPACE, or CTRL+BACKSPACE).
  18. Refer to your pix, and re adjust as necessary.
    • My final result looks like "this".
ITALIA:
  1. First lets get the color for the font we'll be using.
  2. Once again, bring in a picture to get an Eyedrop sample from, or just go by your own eye. I got a great sample from "this pic".
  3. By now I bet you can guess what the keyboard shortcut is for the "Text Tool". You betcha, Press "T".
  4. With our text tool selected click in the general area for our "ITALIA" decal.
  5. Type in ITALIA and you will notice the layer is named accordingly.
  6. Select all of your text "ITALIA" by either "CTRL+A" or double clicking the "T" for the text layer in the layers panel.
  7. Play around with the fonts, as you may find one better suited than mine below.
    • I am currently going off of a fresh install of both windows Vista 64 and PS CS3, so do not have any additional fonts installed.
    • It is always better to try and find the exact font during our prep stage.
    • It's even better than using a vector graphic as I did in "Cargolux" since it allows more flexibility and easier precision.
    • Since typing is a Tool, it also has a control panel up top. This is where you change, font, font size, color, etc, etc...
    • Play around with them and get the best you can find.
    • Some versions of PS you will need to reselect your color.
  8. The closest I could find was Font= Trebuchet MS, BOLD, Size=90.
  9. Once you have it the way you like, deselect it by clicking the text layer in the layers panel.
  10. Press "V" for the movement tool and move it into position.
  11. Looking at "this pic" again, I see that the top of the A is level with the top of the bottom loop of the "g". Try and pic up anything that will help in your placement.
Sometimes you need to improvise on questions the photo's can't easily answer. Such as the Font size. What I did was taking a pic in Photoshop, I cut out the "ITALIA" as a layer and positioned it next to the X in Cargolux. This helped when choosing my font size. Also taking into consideration that this text on the picture was sloping away more and more, the further it got to the bottom I mentally added a few inches to my choice. "Here" is the what I did.

 

Tail Number:

  • Do this step following the same steps as in "ITALIA". This however is much easier. Find your font or go with the best I could find.
  • Font= Franklin Gothic Medium, font size= 30, color = white.
  • Placement is easy if you look at your pix. You'll see that the Tail number starts at the front edge of the Stabilizer and is placed in our top Stripe with a couple inches of gap top and bottom.
*When you do not have the exact font, you can only get close, there are hardly ever those "Perfect Match" times. You will get very close in one way but may have another letter off a little. There are also times you find a great font, but it doesn't have a bold option, or just isn't thick enough. Keep in mind that you can also use "Transform" (CTRL-T), and other resizing parameters on fonts and not just the font control panel.*

 

LOMBARDIA:

  • Do the same as the other Text steps.
  • My choices were; Font= Arial, size=18, color=Black.
  • Once again, keep in mind that there are tons of differences in the pictures online. Same ITALIA LX-KCV, but different decal/paint placement, different color schemes, and of course each side has its differences.
  • I played around with this one for a long time actually and finally decided on placement from "the same pic above" as well as "this one".
  • If you find your font is not dark enough, or doesn't appear bold enough like in the pix, follow these next 3 steps.
    1. Right click on the Lombardia layer and choose "Rasterize Type".
    2. In the layers panel, drag your "LOMBARDI" layer into the "Create a new Layer" shortcut.
    3. Merge them together by pressing "CTRL+E".
      • You can repeat this step, but I would wait until you see it in FSX.
Boeing Signature:

 

You'll notice both sides have what appears to be "Boeing 747-400 Freighter". Just like that, where the first part is bolded and the Freighter is not. Once again I am going off what I can see, and even the "best pictures" can leave you guessing sometime. I took a break and watched some 744 videos and still found nothing. Well either way, we have work to do.

  • I was able to find the font, or what someone created for paint projects like ours "here".
  1. Save all your work and shut down PhotoShop.
  2. Unzip it and install it in your windows\fonts folder.
    • Simply drag and drop it in and windows installs it.
  3. Start PS back up and get your files back in (PMDG_747F_FUSE_LEFT_T.psd and our LX_KCV.psd).
  4. Make sure our last layer we created is selected in the layers panel.
    • Sometimes the pictures we find may not show the area we're working on and we cannot get a starting point.
    • I often also have my Right side Fuse.psd open for these occasions.
    • Then simply drag and drop it (while holding Shift) into the left, that we're working on.
  5. Press "T" for the Type Tool and click somewhere close to where it should go.
  6. Choose our new Boeing font from the font control bar, and change the settings as you want or use mine. Font Size= 9. color=Black.
  7. Type in "BOEING 747 - 400".
    • To make this look like the pictures, I did a space between and after the - also.
  8. Lets do a separate text layer for "Freighter" since it doesn't look right at all with the same font.
  9. I chose to only capitalize the F in Freighter. I used Arial font, size 9.
  10. It still looks too bold for me so go up to the top of your layers panel and set the "Opacity" to 50%.
  11. Now just move them in place. As seen in "this pic", and "mine" as well.
    • Since our Freighter font did not have an "Italic" option to match the Boeing font I made mine look that way by doing the following:
    • As mentioned above, right click the "Freighter" layer and choose, "Rasterize Type".
    • Zoom in.
    • Go to the menu and choose, Edit > Transform > Distort.
    • Move the Top left and right handles to the right to get the desired Italic look.
    • Once satisfied hit enter (Escape to cancel and start over).
Operating Message:

On the left side fuselage (and only the left), there is the message "OPERATING FOR CARGOLUX". I have linked some pictures from http://www.planepictures.net, but none of the ones on there have a clear shot of this message. The only one I found was on airliners.net. Unfortunately they do not allow anyone using links from their page. However, I can show you my end result of this step, exactly as it is in this picture, "here". Once again I used the "Franklin Gothic Medium" font since it best matched overall, especially for the C and G. Font size = 8, color = black.

Go ahead and create that and we'll only have one more step with this .psd!

 

EU Flag:

  • Bring your "EU Flag" into this .psd, dragging it from your "LX-KCV".
  • After a quick look at "this pic", I can see that the bottom is flush with the bottom of the windows.
  • I can also see from the same pic that it is centered above the sign we just created.
  • It also appears to be the same width as the door.
  • Press "CTRL+T" and transform the flag down a little.
  • Remember to hold shift down and only use the corners to keep all sides proportionate.
  • End result should look something like "this".

L thing?:

I apologize in advance for the title of this, but have no idea what else to call it or what it is, <grin>. Up until now, you may have noticed that I haven't mentioned what looks like a sideways "L", or half square. If you look at this "Picture" as well as many others, you will see what I mean to the left of "ITALIA", and under the door. I wanted to do this last so I had more finished to get a better feel for the placement and size. This is quick and painless, and only takes a couple steps.

  1. Press "M" for the Marquee tool and draw a line under the door about half it's width.
  2. Fill it with black.
  3. Press "V" for the movement tool.
  4. Press and hold "Alt" and move your black line, or what you just made as a copy of it.
  5. From the menu, go to "Edit > Transform > Rotate 90degrees (in any direction).
  6. Move it down and to the right "like so".
  7. Adjust as needed, and once satisfied, Merge the two layers together.

Fine Tuning:

Now is the time to fine tune. Go back over your pictures and scrutinize at every detail. There will be details from one picture that simply do not match another. As I said in the beginning, after looking at all the pictures, make a choice and go with that. Well, that being said, it doesn't mean you can't change your mind. In fact while getting the stripes done I also made a Green stripe and shut the visibility off, incase I get a request at a later time for the green on top, red on bottom variation. I have also made "other decals" that don't show on the variation I chose to replicate, but do on others of the same tail number. There are also going to be times when you put a lot of hard work into a project and find a discrepancy and simply ignore it. That happens to me all the time, but it pays to walk away and come back fresh in those cases. I strongly recommend doing replicas with a relaxed attitude. If you're rushing, you won't want to redo any already completed steps.

 

Going over my livery I ran into a few minor things I changed. I changed the size of my "Cargolux" a little as well as adjusted my stripes a tad. I did a little "Transform" on the size of the "ITALIA" and also moved my tail number back so it was closer to the rear door. Once again, scrutinize at every detail. I am still up in the air about the livery base color, but decided to see it in FSX before I make my final choice. This is also the time to go through alllll the other layers of your specific kit. There may be some layers turned off that you want on. You may also find that you want one or more of your layers higher up in the panel. Take your time and go through them. This is actually my very first cargo livery and I noticed that there may also be some layers I want to shut off. Looking "here", and this pic "here", I can see traces of passenger windows that I don't want in my variation so I zoomed in and erased them from layer "Cargo windows", and shut off visibility for the "Blank Window Shadow" layer (You could also slide this over to the window to the left, and leave visibility on). Finally, if you really want to get all traces you could erase a couple very small areas of the dirt layer, but that would be downright anal. :P

 

Adding Wear and tear:

It seems that most people like to create new looking liveries and I know I do the majority of the time too. But, there are some very cool effects you can do to give your liveries just a little wear and tear look to them, just a touch of added realism. For an example, there is a layer called "Doors". You could use it to give your stripes around that area a more worn and broken in look. Feel free to skip this step, but follow along to touch on a more advanced way of using layers.

  1. Make a copy of this group and shut off it's visibility, name it "Stripes Right".
    • To make a copy of a group, right click your group folder and select "Duplicate Group".
    • This is for the other side since it does not have the same doors so you don't want the same lines.
  2. CTRL+Click on the layer picture (Box to the left of the layer name) of the "Doors" layer.
    • This, as mentioned before makes a selection of that layer.
    • Adobe won't show you very small area selections but they are still there even if you only see a partial selection.
  3. With that selection now loaded, up in the menu go to "Select > Modify > Expand" and enter "1 pixel and hit OK.
  4. Highlight, (select) one of your 3 layers in your Stripes group making it the editable layer.
  5. Now get yourself a soft eraser and brush over the door.
    • A "Soft eraser" or "Soft Brush" means rather than it taking all of the paint away it will take amounts set by you.
    • So in essence it's really like lowering the opacity but with a feathery touch.
    • To do this simply select the eraser tool Pressing E.
    • Go up to the "control bar" and under brush, select a 200, change the opacity to 50%.
    • With just one click, with your brush outline around the whole door frame (each click will add to this, so only do it once per layer).
  6. Do the other two layers the same way.
    • I did this to all three stripe layers for both of the "doors" and very happy with the results.
    • There isn't a major difference here but is still noticeable and should get your gears turning in other ways you could use these steps.
This step gives more definition and shows the detail through this way. There are so many things you could do once you get the hang of it, like, burnt effects, paint peeling and "chipping" effects,,, if it can be done by nature, it can be reproduced in PhotoShop. And those don't even use PhotoShop effects, Effects would be another chapter in itself.

 

The Right Side:

The right side can be tricky at first. I know when I started these paints I made it much harder than it was. One way to look at it is imagine that you are standing inside the passengers cabin and you're able to see through the Fuselage. The paint and decals need to look just like that and will as you'll soon see. There are two ways to do this, I will explain both and you can choose which you prefer.

 

Option 1:

  1. Open up your "PMDG_747F_FUSE_RIGHT_T.psd if it isn't already open.
  2. Since we're about to drop layers from another .psd, we want to ensure they land at the correct place in our layers list so select the bottom most layer in this case it's "Layer19".
  3. Select the Left.psd we just finished, and then select all of the layers we added.
    • Hold CTRL and just click one at a time.
    • This will just copy them over, not remove them from the other.
    • Don't forget to grab your base color "Base Fuse" also.
  4. Drag them into the Right.psd while holding Shift.
  5. They will fall into their proper places but still need to be "reversed" into the mirror image I was talking about.
  6. With the layer selected (Only do one at a time), Go to the menu and select "Edit" > "Transform" > "Flip Horizontally".
    • There is no need to do the stripe group, but remember to turn on your visibility for your "Stripes Right" and shut the others off since the doors on this side are different.
  7. Do this for each layer. You can delete the "Operating" sign that was above the door and the "L thing" on the left side if you dragged it over since this side doesn't have it and You can skip doing it to the EU Flag also since I think it's all set ;)
  8. Now you just need to move them into position.
    • A lot of people have the misconception that both sides paint and decals are identically aligned, this is not true.
    • The adjustments will be minimal and in most cases for this livery will be perfect vertically.
    • This method I think is the faster of the two.
Option 2:
  1. Open up your "PMDG_747F_FUSE_RIGHT_T.psd if it isn't already open.
  2. Rotate the image by going to the menu and selecting "Image" > "Rotate Canvas" > "Flip Horizontally".
  3. Since we're about to drop layers from another .psd, we want to ensure they land at the correct place in our layers list so select the bottom most layer in this case it's "Layer19".
  4. Bring over your layers from the Left.psd.
  5. Re position them according to the pix, but remember to turn on your visibility for your "Stripes Right" and shut the others off since the doors on this side are different.
  6. When finished, Rotate the canvas back via "Image" > "Rotate Canvas" > "Flip Horizontally".
    • The thing I don't like about this option is during the left side I do all of my scaling and take a lot of time to make sure things are as matched as can be on certain landmarks of the fuselage (windows, seems, even rivets).
    • The other option with dragging things in while holding shift to line them up is very helpful, even though I may need to slightly adjust things either way horizontally, they are at least mostly all set vertically. This is a hard debate and you'll have to find what's easier for you. Both will work, it just comes down to preference in the long run.
Now, choose your method and add your layers and align them using your resources. This will be much easier though since most of the pix available for this livery are for the right side. Once I completed adjusting my layers, the end result was "as so". Compared to the "real deal". (Reversed), it looks pretty darn close :)

 

As before, take this time to go over everything and make adjustments as needed (I ended up only making one change to the EU Flag's size, making it a tad smaller in height). Once done, go through the PMDG layers and see if there are any you want to turn on or off for this side depending on your livery. For this side I didn't find anything to note.

 

 

Assembly

 

We're just a few steps away from our first test flight. Once again, make sure you have triple checked both your sides. Get them as perfect as you can and add whatever you need to now. That way you will be able to view it and critique it all and make any necessary changes,,,, Once. Before you begin, close down any pictures you have in PhotoShop except the left and right fuse.psd's that we were just working on..

If you haven't done it yet, download and install the DDS Utilities and the DDS Authoring Plug-ins.

 

  1. Workspace in PS can get cluttered fast here so minimize the right side while we do the left first.
  2. If you haven't done so, Save all of your work.
  3. Open up 747400F_Fuse_Cut_Template and 747400F_Fuse_Layout_Template.
  4. Select the left side that we worked so hard on (PMDG_747F_FUSE_LEFT_T).
  5. Duplicate this image.
    • Menu > Duplicate > OK.
  6. Minimize the original to clear the clutter.
  7. We need to "Flatten" our Image before we can work with it, follow these steps.
    • Look in the top Right area of the layers panel.
    • There is a small "drop menu".
    • Click the small arrow head and toward the bottom of the list select "Flatten Image".
    • Click OK to "Discard Hidden Layers".
  8. Press "V" for the moVement Tool.
  9. Drag your 747F image onto the "747400F_Fuse_Cut_Template.psd" while holding Shift to center it.
    • You are done with the copy now that you dragged it over and can close it, no need to save.
  10. Your image you dragged over was now named layer 1. Move Layer 1 to the top in the Layers Panel so we can see it in our image. Make sure it remains selected.
  11. Press i for the Eyedrop tool.
  12. Get a sample of the color down toward the very bottom of your fuselage under the main door area where the front wheels would be (Make sure "Layer 1" is selected before doing this).
  13. Take a look at the "747400F_Fuse_Layout_Template.psd".
  14. Right now you should have the "gear door" and "align template layer" visibility on.
    • We will not be using the "cut template" layer.
  15. The first thing I like to get out of the way is the Gear door by putting my Partial Tail number on. Follow these steps:
    • Look at the gear door layer, you'll notice an outline for the gear door.
    • Select your Text tool and using the tool's control bar, change the font to "Franklin Gothic Medium", size=30, color black.
    • Click on the "gear door" and Type "K C V" putting a space between each letter. (This step depends on your paint kit, you may already have a Text layer created for easier editing).
    • Click on your movement tool and move this into place (Your in text mode so if you hit "V" it would just type V).
    • Use "CTRL+T" to bring up the "Transform" box and move your mouse near the corners. You will notice a curved double headed arrow.
    • Click and hold your left mouse button and move your mouse to line it up like "this" (I only changed the color here so you could better see the outline).
    • Hit enter when done or escape to cancel.
  16. Fill the "gear door" layer with your color you just sampled doing the following.
    • Make sure the "gear door" layer is selected.
    • As we did when working with Leo, next to "Lock" Press the "Lock Transparent Pixels" button.
    • Press ALT+Backspace to fill it with our color sample (this will look too dark, but trust it, it most likely isn't).
  17. Go back to your 747400F_Fuse_Cut_Template.psd and let's take a look at a couple things.
    • You should have 5 layers. The bottom one is merely a guide
    • As you can see, there are 3 colors, one color for each section.
    • You can see this in the picture preview in the layer panel (Left of the layer name).
    • As you've probably guessed by now, these colors help us cut at the right spots to then position on the Master template (747400_Fuse_Layout_Template).
    • The layers will overlap so don't worry, they're meant to.
  18. Make your selection for the nose by "CTRL+Clicking" on the "picture preview box" for the "Front" layer.
  19. Make sure "Layer 1" is selected (your plane).
  20. Drag it onto the master sheet (747400_Fuse_Layout_Template.psd).
  21. Line it up slowly and you should notice it "Snaps" into position.
    • Sometimes you may not get that snap.
    • Whether you do or not, always check and recheck,,, and recheck.
    • Zoom in to a fixed object like a window or door seem.
    • While looking at it very carefully, toggle the visibility off and on for that layer.
    • If it is off, use the arrow keys to nudge it little by little and once again, checking the visibility (The moVement tool must be selected to nudge the layer).
    • You could also do this by lowering the "Opacity" for the layer inside the layers panel, which will allow you to see through it. I personally, prefer the first option.
  22. Go back to your Cut template and get the next section, using CTRL+Click, click on the "Middle" layer for the selection.
    • Keep an eye on what you do, if you are not CTRL+Clicking on the pic preview window then it will just add to your selection, therefore both Layer 1 and this layer will be highlighted.
  23. As always, make sure your layer is still selected and drag, drop and align.
  24. Continue with the tail section using the "Rear" layer for the selection.
  25. Take your time here and make sure they are Perfectly aligned.
  26. Make sure the "gear door" layer is above your tail layer, and of course the text layer is above it.
  27. Create a new group and name it "Left" (Only for 747 kits).
  28. Drag your 3 new layers into the group. (Not Counting your KCV text).
    • Keep your text layer at the top of the layers panel.
    • I leave these layers visible to line up my next side, but zoom in and double check it 1st to make sure it's good and aligned before attempting to use it as a guide.
      • The more similarities, the better Photoshop will "Snap" them more accurately.
Before we continue the last steps for this side, do the right side following the same steps and add them to their own group (Only 747). Organize them accordingly. When you're done, your layers panel should look something like "this". One thing to note, you do not need to flip the "gear door" layer Horizontally for the right side just the text layer. The MD-11 has a left and right side .psd that must be used, since it has other parts of the aircraft on them as well. An alternate method, rather than creating the groups as we have is to just merge the 3 fuselage layers together. I only recommend that if you are 100% certain that they are perfectly aligned.

 

The ALPHA Channel:

The Alpha Channel is a very important channel. It has several uses and mainly controls the transparency of other channels in our images. There are lots of uses for Alpha channels but for time sake, I'll keep it to what it's doing for our livery in the FS arena. Remember Leo, when we did the "Save Selection" and his "Channel" was black and white? That was basically an Alpha Channel. With Alpha's, the basic rule of thumb is, Black hides, and White shows. We can see the Alpha Channel come into play at night time (also with reflections and shine), when we turn our lights on and see parts of the fuselage lit up. If anyone has ever done a livery and missed this step, I'm sure they wondered why their whole entire front end lit up when they put their lights on (FSX 747). It was because they didn't make an Alpha channel, and the one they had was most likely all "white", therefore all on or illuminated. You need to also take into consideration that just because you have an Alpha channel does not mean it will light up. That depends on the lighting area designated in the program as well as how, and if your specific program uses the Alpha Channel at all. *In most cases the Alpha channel in the kits I've used have the required Alpha and you may be fine and only need to worry about this section when something just doesn't look right with either your reflections (shine) or your night lighting on various sections are way off. It is recommended that you check an existing textures Alpha channel. I now have many paint kits from various developers and have even created my own. Some Alpha channels are not present, so make sure you check each file accordingly and add the alpha to the kit so it's there for good rather than having to repeat this process each time you create a livery*.

 

 

How do you know?:

Well, the easiest and recommended way is to bring an existing texture (of the same file name that your working on) into a program and view it. With FSX this is a simple process of bringing the .dds file into Photoshop and viewing it's Alpha in the channels tab. This cannot be done this way with DXT3.bmp files for FS9. You will need to use either ImageTool or DXTBmp. With ImageTool you select "View > Alpha Channel", with DXTBmp you can see a preview in the top right as soon as you open your image.

 

How do you get your Alpha?:

The two common ways are to either use an existing, or create your own. Most people probably don't make one, more than likely get one from one of the existing installed liveries. You can always do that if you'd like, but for sake of better understanding I'll explain both, including how to create a custom yet simple Alpha channel.

 

Use an existing Alpha:

*This sub section of using an existing Alpha is for FSX only. FS9 uses a different file for the night light shine on the fuse. However follow along since it may still be needed in other textures or when creating your own Paintkits for other models. There may also be the need for added steps for FS9 depending which format the existing files are in, I have added the needed steps you will need to take after the "SAVE AS BMP" section, since it will be then that you want to make these changes.*

  1. Open up the "Channels" tab on your Master template (747400F_Fuse_Layout_Template).
  2. Delete the "Alpha 1" channel.
  3. Browse to your \\FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG747-400F directory and bring in another "PMDG_747F_FUSE_Left_T.dds" from another texture.xxx folder into Photoshop.
    • You can use this Alpha Channel for both right and left, it doesn't matter (same also for the MD-11, however keep in mind that the MD-11 doesn't have fuselage light reflection the same as the 744, at least not on the sides).
    • As previously mentioned I have not done a paint for the JS41 at the time of this writing but the Alpha channel in the kit looks already present.
    • As you can see the .dds file you just opened is turned differently.
  4. Go to the menu and select "Image > Rotate Canvas > Flip Vertically".
  5. Go to it's channel tab and while holding shift, drag and drop the Alpha channel "Alpha 1" into our "747400F_Fuse_Layout_Template.psd"
  6. Once you drag that in, it will most likely shut off the visibility to the RGB channels and enable only itself. Turn on the RGB viz, and shut it off for "Alpha 1".
  7. Close the .dds file that you got the Alpha layer from and choose "NO" to save changes.
Creating an Alpha Channel:
  1. Delete the existing Alpha channel in your Master template (747400F_Fuse_Layout_Template).
  2. Go back to your layers Tab (you should be looking at your Fuselage again "like so").
  3. Select your "Polygonal Lasso Tool" by pressing "L" or from the left tool bar.
    • Check your tool bar, the Polygonal Lasso may not be the default and you may need to manually select it like "This".
    • Another way to cycle between tools, is to hold down "Shift" while pressing the associated keyboard shortcut.
  4. Looking at your liveries front end, look for where you'd like the lights to shine.
    • Keep in mind what I mentioned earlier. Not all of the front end is coded to illuminate, and wouldn't be too realistic either.
    • It's not a bad idea to go into the sim with an all white Alpha channel sometimes to see where you have to "work with". .
  5. With the Polygonal lasso tool create what looks like a snow cone on it's side.
    • With the Polygonal Lasso tool, click once to start a starting point.
    • Move the mouse to the next point and click again.
    • Continue drawing an outline of the "Sideways Snow cone" until reaching the starting point, thus creating your "selection".
  6. As we did with Leo the Lion, go up to the menu and choose "Select > Save Selection...".
  7. Hit enter or click OK. Do not bother entering a name, as it will default to "Alpha 1" once it Saves.
  8. Deselect the selection with a press of "CTRL+D".
  9. Click on the "Channels Tab" and Select our new Alpha Channel.
    • If you just click on the channel itself it will turn itself on and shut the RGB off. Alternatively you can turn on the visibility for the Alpha 1 channel, and then off for the "RGB" channel.
    • It should look like "this".
  10. Go to the menu and select, "Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur".
  11. Let's preview how this looks on our fuselage, do these steps.
    • Double click "Alpha 1" to bring up the channel options.
    • Click on the color and change it to black.
    • Set the Opacity to 100% and click OK.
    • Turn on the visibility for the RGB channel (Since RGB mean Red, Green, Blue, this will turn on those channels as well).
    • Now you can see roughly what it will look like in the sim, although it's not exact and you will get a better look in the sim, this still allows a better view to move it around and further detail your Alpha Channel.
    • Yes, you can move it around in this view and add/subtract from it using a white or black paint brush.
    • This is how mine looks following the "steps above".
There are many ways to do this but thought this was simpler for your first and easier to explain for beginners as well. A couple things to keep in mind here.

1.) You can paint your Alpha Channel. Using black to hide more, white to show more.

2.) You can move the Alpha Channel with the move tool afterwards.

3.) You can use Transform "CTRL+T" to change the angel of it and rotate it, adjust its size, etc.

4.) Grey is the middle from white and black. As you can see there is a gradual transition or gradient from light to dark.

After I test this out in FSX, if I think it's "too bright", I just come back in and with the paint brush and black color, I lower the Opacity to about 30% for the brush in the control panel and just paint over the entire Alpha Channel. That's enough of this subject for this Tutorial, I mainly wanted to introduce the topic and cover the basics. Perhaps another time I will demonstrate how to create a much more elaborate work of art ;-)

The Alpha Channel will be the same for both sides. There is no reason to have it's visibility on. Alpha Channel visibility does not work like layer visibility.

Why create your own Alpha? I would say, why not? Besides this way you can have fun tailoring them to the cones of your "A2A Redux Lights".

 

Flatten For Finish:

One more step till inspection. We need to "Flatten" the image.

  1. Go ahead and turn the visibility off for one side.
    • Make sure that you have the correct "K C V" text file on as well.
    • Since we ended the earlier step with working on the Right side, I'm going to work on that one first.
  2. Go to the menu, and select "Image > Duplicate".
  3. For a name enter "PMDG_747F_FUSE_Right_T".
    • This is for the 747F and your file name will of course differ for the MD-11 and JS41 etc...
    • To find the exact file name for your texture, either refer to your paintkit read me, or bring an existing .dds file into PS to get it's exact name.
      • FS9 users can use DXTbmp or ImageTool for this step to see the image unscrambled.
    • If doing the above step, it may be easier to drag and drop the file into the editor rather than explore, I normally always have the texture.xxx folder open anyway and this is easier for me.
  4. From the top right corner of the layers panel, click the menu arrow and "Flatten" the image.
  5. Click OK to "Discard hidden layers".
  6. Move this aside and from our master template, "Duplicate" once again and name it "PMDG_747F_FUSE_Left_T".
  7. This time turn on the visibility of the Left layers and turn off the ones for the Right.
    • Remember your text layer also.
  8. As you just did, "Flatten" the image.
  9. FS9 Users = At this point, save both your left and right side as .psd files.
    • FSX user may also want to make their own PSD's for both side for the 747x. It's not needed but may help you keep track of your work.

 

"Save As"

Save as DDS (FSX):

Even if you only use FS9 I would still follow along so you know how to make your liveries for FSX should you switch, or just want to share your fine work with FSX users. Currently, I only use FSX but often make my liveries for the FS9 community as well.

 

The DDS file format stands for "DirectDraw Surface". It's used to store textures and cubic environment maps, both with and without mipmap levels. This format can store uncompressed and compressed pixel formats, and is the preferred file format for storing DXTn compressed data. DDS compression is to FSX as BMP is to FS9. Once again, refer to the links above and make sure you have the needed DDS utilities installed, otherwise Photoshop cannot save this file type as you've probably seen by now. If you are using another image editor, refer to their plug in page and see what they have. Make sure your work is saved and image program is closed prior to installation.

 

Prior to saving we will need to flip our .psd's. They are packaged in a way that most users will prefer to work on, right side up. It's up to us to make sure they are properly flipped before saving (FS9 users Do not need to flip their images, only FSX). It is important to understand that "Flipping Vertical" is not the same thing as Rotating 180. I suppose you could rotate 180 but then you'd need to add an extra step of "Flip Horizontally". Let's get to it.

  1. First and most important, Duplicate the image and do these steps off of the copy.
  2. Select either your PMDG_747F_FUSE_Left_T.psd or PMDG_747F_FUSE_Left_T.psd.
  3. From the menu, go to "Image > Rotate Canvas> Flip Canvas Vertically" (FSX Only).
  4. Once again, from the menu choose "File > Save As".
  5. This will open the Save As Dialog box.
  6. Browse to your FSX\SimObjects\Airplanes\PMDG747-400F\texture.KCV folder.
  7. From the "Format" (or file type for some), choose "D3D/DDS(*.DDS)"
  8. Click Save. This will open the "NVIDIA DDS Format" box.
  9. Refer to this "picture" for settings or if it's not available:
    • DXT5 ARGB 8bpp | interpolated alpha
    • 2D Texture
    • MIP Map Generation = No MIP maps
  10. Click Save.
  11. Do the same for the other side.
    • For the 747 and 747F, we need to save our Left and Right Fuse_T.dds and our PMDG_747_Externals_T.dds as DTX5 because they all have Alpha Channel data.
    • For liveries with under nose decals like this one, it too needs to be saved as DXT5 or the decals will not show.
    • We'll get to that but let's take a break and inspect our work in FS.
      • As I already mentioned, I save all of my files in DXT5 format. You can save some space on file size with DXT1 but it's not that much and you will lose your Alpha.
      • If you want to save space then see the read me on what types to save as what, otherwise save all as I have described.
The next section is for FS9, you can follow along or just skip over and head down to the "Inspection" Section. (MD-11) If you chose to keep your Texture.KCV folder empty and only add to it as you go, you may notice the wing textures are all black and you may have areas over the windows and under the nose that are not yet to your liking. You can copy an existing Decals texture file in your folder for now, or wait until after the Decals steps.

 

 

Save As BMP (FS9):

As previously mentioned, FSX users may want to follow along so they too can share their work with the FS9 enthusiasts.

There are various files being saved in slightly different ways. Some with Mipmaps, some without, and a couple as 32bit. Here is a list and what format each should be for you to refer to as you go (JS41 and newer aircraft refer to your Paintkit read me):

 

  • 32 Bit BMP (MD-11 Only):
    • PMDG_MD11_Tail_Left_LT
    • PMDG_MD11_Tail_Right_LT
  • DXT3 (With Mipmaps):
    • PMDG_(your type here)_Decals (For MD-11 file name is DECAL_PMDG_MD11)
    • PMDG_(your type here)_Fuse_Right_L (For MD-11 ends in _LM).
    • PMDG_(your type here)_Fuse_Left_L (For MD-11 ends in _LM).
    • Always check existing files for correct names when saving.
  • DXT3 (no mips):
    • All others.
      • Alternatively you can save the rest of the files as 32bit bmp. This results in a larger file size but your liveries may look better.
Since I imagine most FS9 users do not have ImageTool since it is only found in the FSX Deluxe and Acceleration SDK, I will explain how to do the saving steps using DXTBmp.exe 1st. If you haven't yet, download it "here". If you do have FSX also, you should use ImageTool since as you will see it will eliminate the needed steps for the Alpha channel you'll need with DXTBmp. Make sure you have followed all the same steps in the "Flatten for Finish" section before continuing.

DXTBmp will work directly with your .psd files, and in most cases flatten them on it's own (as will ImageTool), however it will not see the Alpha Channel within your .psd. So the first thing you'll need to do is make a separate file for your Alpha channel. You can do this either by exporting it from an existing texture, or by creating a duplicate of your .psd and deleting all of your channels except the Alpha channel. I have done both and as with everything else "to each their own", but since I am use to always making sure I have the correct Alpha channel in my paint kits I prefer the second method. Here is a brief description of each.

Using DXTBmp:
  • Option 1 - Exporting an existing Alpha:
    • Create a separate folder for your Alphas.
    • Bring an existing texture of the same name into DXTBmp.
    • From the file menu choose "Alpha > Export Alpha", "like so".
    • Browse to you Alpha's folder, and save it with a name you'll know that relates to your image for importing later.
    • Close this copy as we are done with it and proceed to step 1 in the next steps.
  • Option 2 - Creating a new .psd for your Alpha:
    • Make sure that you have the required Alpha channel in your .psd.
    • Create a duplicate (Image > Duplicate).
    • Go into the channels tab and right click on a channel other than your Alpha and choose "Delete Channel".
    • Click OK to allow PS to flatten the layers.
    • Delete all the channels except the Alpha.
    • Choose "Save As" and save in either your main livery folder or you can create one just for Alpha's for better organization and less clutter.
    • No need to rename it since it should already have the same name as the file you'll be importing it to later with the exception of the added "- copy".
      • In this case you could easily just rename "Copy" to "Alpha" if you prefer but personally I like the idea of a separate folder for my Alpha's when using this method.
    • Close this copy as we are done with it and proceed to step 1 below.

  1. If you haven't already, Save your recently flattened PMDG_747F_FUSE_Right_T.psd and PMDG_747F_FUSE_Left_T.psd as is. No changes to file type needed (save as .psd should default that way).
    • Notice the section I outlined in purple "here".
    • This will be where you toggle on and off the "Include when saving" checkbox whether or not the file is saved with Mipmaps or without.
    • Refer to the list above as needed but as you can see it is not needed for these two textures.
  2. Make sure the "Include when saving" checkbox is unchecked.
  3. Open up your PMDG_747F_FUSE_Left_T.psd or drag and drop it into the DXTBmp work area.
    • The file should be upright and not flipped like for FSX.
  4. Go to the menu and choose "Alpha > Import Alpha Channel" and select your Alpha that you set aside recently.
  5. Click Ok that you acknowledge it will replace the Alpha as seen "here".
  6. Browse to your folder you saved your Alpha's and in order to see the .psd files, change file type to "Any Image File"..
  7. Select the corresponding Alpha. (or image actually that we'll be using as an alpha) and Click Open. Your Alpha is finally in your new texture.
  8. From the File menu, choose File > Save As > Extended Bitmap as seen "here". Choose "DXT3" from the "Save as type" "drop down menu".
  9. Browse to your "Texture.KCV" folder.
  10. Click Save.
  11. Do the same steps for your PMDG_747F_FUSE_Right_T.psd.
That's it. DXTBmp.exe is a very nice program and has many nice options. There is also some tutorials out there for it and add-ons available. Now let's do the same steps, but with ImageTool for the ones that have it. As mentioned, ImageTool is only available (at least to the best of my knowledge) on CD#1 of FSX Deluxe and the Acceleration CD. You must install the SDK, and then ImageTool can be found in the \\SDK\Environment Kit\Terrain SDK directory. Personally, since I use it often enough I would create a shortcut for it on your desktop.

 

Using ImageTool:
  1. Open ImageTool and bring in your file (in this case "PMDG_747F_FUSE_Left_T.psd").
    • ImageTool also supports the drag and drop method explained earlier.
    • When you first open a file in ImageTool, you'll notice it is showing our image+Alpha as we did earlier via the channels tab in PS. Don't mind it as it will change soon enough.
  2. Looking at our chart above we see this texture does not need Mipmaps so none will be created.
    • If the texture needs Mipmaps, do the following:
      • From the file menu select "Image > Create Mipmaps" like "this".
  3. Go to the menu again and choose "Image > Format > DXT3" as seen "here" (notice now it changed back without Alpha).
    • If saving 32 bit .bmp's, you would select "32-Bit".
  4. Go to the file menu and choose "File > Save As".
    • You'll notice that the File name is blank so you'll need to enter it again.
    • This is one reason I keep the folder open, so I can just copy the name and insert it into this line.
    • To do that, just right click your file in the folder, choose "Rename" and while the name is selected press CTRL+C to copy, then escape to back out.
    • Now place your cursor in the File name area back in the ImageTool "File name" block and press "CTRL+V" to paste.
  5. For file type save as "Bitmap (*bmp)" as shown "here".
  6. Browse to your "Texture.KCV" folder.
  7. Click Save and you're now done.
(MD-11) If you chose to keep your Texture.KCV folder empty and only add to it as you go, you may notice the wing textures are all black and you may have areas over the windows and under the nose that are not yet to your liking. You can copy an existing Decals texture file in your folder for now, or wait until after the Decals steps.

 

You can see both programs have their ups and downs. The file name issue in ImageTool, versus some files in DXTBmp not showing Alpha's. That's that. In the coming steps when it's time to save or add the Alpha's, just return to these steps for reference. Once you've done it a few times you'll get more and more comfortable and will remember most of these steps if not all.

 

Inspection:

I recommend doing your livery inspection in windowed mode but maximized. The keyboard shortcut for window mode is "Alt+Enter". After your done admiring all your hard work (no rush on that, take your time, you deserve it), start to go over your livery looking for all the details we mentioned. Look at one of the pix and note the angle of the plane, then slew to the same angle and compare, does anything jump out at you? How is your Gear door color? Check your text also on the gear doors, are they correct? Centered? Try and think of everything you can. It is also a good idea to make a list as you create a livery, a checklist. There may be times days or weeks after creating a livery where you realize you goofed, and worst when you've already uploaded it to Avsim, <sigh>. After you made your list of things to be adjusted (if any), set your time to night and check your Alpha channel. Is it too dark? Too light? Can you see sharp lines as to show that you either went to far or started to short? Make your list and then make your adjustments. They shouldn't take long. Start the "Assembly" section again and you should be testing again in a couple of minutes. Ok, maybe 5 ;-)

On my inspection as mentioned above I noticed my Alpha channel was to light for my tastes and darkened it by coloring over it with a black brush with it's opacity set to 30% (The brushes opacity, set in the tools control panel). I also noticed some very small labels on the right side cargo door near the ITALIA that I wanted to throw on. You of course don't have to be as picky as me, or you may be even pickier <grin>, the choice is yours. After a second inspection, I still wasn't 100% satisfied with the light on the Fuse so did the same 30% black brush again to my Alpha 1 and now I think it's perfect.

 

 

Moving Forward:

You've come far and you're doing great! Personally I think the 744 is a harder paint than the MD-11, and so far we have done the harder files and it's really all down hill from here, or in other words "You're at T/D and enroute to your IAF". I hope you don't get to bored with the rest of it. Anywho, I'm sure your itching to learn more, right? Good because now is the time to exercise the mind to call on your own recall ability. Don't worry, it won't be bad and if you hadn't already noticed I already started gradually. I just think now that you have gotten use to some of the methods, terms and tools that I can now let go of the bike and let you work slightly more on your own without the need to say things like "Press V for the moVement tool" and provide certain screenshots of things we've covered many times already. This is mainly so you progress and not intended to complicate things. As with manuals, don't forget to use the best keyboard shortcut of all if you're unsure, which is "CTRL+F" for "FIND". One of my fears is to have people quit without giving themselves a fair shake because there is too much to read, so that said, lets get back to work (I mean fun!).

 

The next file your going to want to open up is your "PMDG_747_Externals_T".

For those using the MD-11, your equivalent files are the PMDG_MD11_Tail_Left_T, PMDG_MD11_Tail_Right_T, and MD11 Winglet Masters. There are two more actually but we'll make them at the end making this much easier.

 

Creating custom Templates:

Not a needed step, but highly recommended.

There may be times that you are unsure of what you're about to paint, such as which tail is which or which engine, winglet etc... is for a given side. Some Paintkits have guides, but some may not. Other instances may be when your painting a different add-on straight onto the .dds and are not using a paint kit at all. To better see what you're working on, it may be wise to create yourself a custom template.

Looking at our PMDG_747_Externals_T, you can see 4 winglets and two tails, but which is which? (MD-11 users, follow along on the Winglets Master, no need to do the tails since yours will be in their own individual .psd's).

  1. Scroll to the top of the list of layers and highlight the top most layer.
    • This way our newly added text layer will be placed above it.
  2. With the text tool, put a number on each winglet and tail.
    • After each number you will have to click the layer in the layers panel to end the text entering phase.
    • Doing it this way you will have 6 new text layers.
  3. Using the MoVement tool, reposition each in the rough center of what they are meant to number.
    • Also rotate each so they're up righted according to the base using the "CTRL+T" transform method.
  4. Duplicate your image.
  5. Flatten the duplicate and save it as your type listed above in your texture.KCV folder.
    • Don't forget to flip it for FSX'ers.
  6. Fire up Flight Sim in windowed mode or just take notes to which number is where.
    • You might not even have to enter flight sim, but merely load the Aircraft and see all you need in the preview.
  7. Flip each number as needed to reflect their true position and placement from your preview.
  8. From your notes, change the number to read a description, such as "Inner Left, outer left" etc...
    • The way to do this is to double click on the "T" for that layer in the layers panel, it will select all the text for that layer.
    • Since you've already positioned them, as you type the words they will remain in the correct alignment.
  9. Select all of your new text layers either by CTRL+Clicking on each, or click on the bottom one and then holding shift click the top.
  10. Drag all six to the "Create a new group" shortcut at the bottom of the layers panel.
    • Now they are all neatly out of the way, and as text layers that you can edit per livery.
    • For every new livery I do, I make sure to make a copy before the step above and shut the viz off, that way I have a backup should I need to know their exact positions again.
  11. Name your group however you see fit, I named mine "Text Positions".
  12. An alternate, or added thing you could do is also create 1 layer as the backup. To do so, do as follows:
    • Select all of your text layers in your group.
    • Drag them down to the "Create new layer" shortcut in the layers panel.
    • After doing this, only the new copies will remain selected which is what you want.
    • Right click them and choose "Rasterize Type".
    • They still all remain selected, so by pressing "CTRL+E" will merge them all into one layer.
    • Name your final layer to whatever you'd like, I named mine "Hide Template" (A good name, I picked up from the MD-11 kit, to also remind myself it should be hidden prior to flattening).
    • Drag and drop your "Hide Template" out of the group and shut off the visibility for whichever you are likely to use less (Optional, but is the way I like it).
    • Pat yourself on the back you just made a template that you can use over and over and over again for many liveries to come!
      • My end result looked like "this".
      • If I lost you in any of that, feel free to have a copy of the one I created. Just open it in PS, and drag the layers into your own externals/winglet .psd. For the "744" and one for the "MD-11" (Be sure to hold down "Shift" while doing so, so they land perfectly aligned).

 

 

Tail & Winglets:

 

Now that that's done, let's do the actual paint and decal placement.

  1. As with each of your .psd's in the Paintkits, familiarize yourself with what's in it.
    • Take some time to go through each to get an understand at which layer you may want something unique to your project inserted (in-between).
  2. Bring your Master into Photoshop again (The left and right fuse we did first).
  3. (747 Only) Use the Eyedropper Tool and get yourself a sample once again from near the bottom of the fuselage.
  4. (747 Only) Press "X" to switch to your background color.
  5. Now get a sample near the top.
  6. Minimize the master as you may need it again for a resample.
  7. (747 Only) Find your "Belly base color" layer and CTRL+Click the picture preview creating a selection.
  8. (747 Only) Make sure the layer itself is also selected (Highlighted).
  9. (747 Only) Fill it with your darker color sample (CTRL+Backspace).
  10. Find and select the layer for your Vstab color, for this livery it's "Vstab base color".
  11. For this livery we need to either lock the transparency, or do as before and CTRL+Click the pic preview to get our selection (MD-11 does not have to, your color layer is the very bottom and is the entire size of the canvas).
  12. Fill it in with your foreground color (Alt+Backspace for both the 747 & MD-11).
  13. Open your "LX-KCV.psd" you worked so hard on.
  14. With the moVement Tool selected, drag over the "logo tail" layer and "Tail Flag" Group.
    • (747 only) Also your "logo wings" layer.
    • MD-11 would do the same with your winglet.psd.
    • Reposition as needed. For this livery I brought them all up above the "outflow vents" Layer, but yours may differ.
    • (747 Only) Shut off the visibility for "Vstab Mask".
    • Looking at this "Picture" as a guide, position your decals to their proper places.
    • Keep in mind that most winglet logo's are often only on the outsides of the winglets, but do it however you like.
  15. Don't forget what you've learned so far.
    • Use the guide to Help align them if needed (No text here so it's really not needed except for the Tail for this livery).
    • Use CTRL+T to Transform the shapes to the scale you want.
    • Hold "Shift" while scaling down your decals to keep them proportionate.
    • To duplicate a layer, press and hold "Alt" before dragging it across the canvas (Remember the double arrows symbol will be seen).
    • Scale the logo's down before making your duplicates so you only need to do it once.
    • Holding "Shift" while moving your layers will keep them aligned vertically or horizontally.
    • Remember that you made a right sided "Leo"? Remember to have the proper sides visibility on or off for each side in your "Tail Flag" group.
    • Remember, to use the "Edit > Transform" menu for individual layers and not the "Image > Rotate" menu.
  16. Looking further at the above picture you will notice the Flag is slightly skewed, yet our Leo looks like he is perfectly straight.
    • Now that we have our Flag group in our tail .psd, Move him to position on the Left tail.
    • Before you make changes, duplicate the group and move it to the Right tail.
    • You'll notice he fits fairly well on right above the Rudder.
    • Once you have your group into position, remove both "Leo's" from the group.
    • Select the Zoom tool by pressing "Z".
    • Zoom in very close, the closer you are the better control you'll have over the adjustments.
    • Make sure the "Tail Flag" group is selected, and go to "Edit > Transform > Skew".
    • You will notice you now have 6 skew positions at your disposal, they will look like "this".
    • Mouse over the top right square and notice the cursor changes color.
    • Holding down "ALT", Left Click and Drag the Skew Handle over to the right, making the distance from the Tails edge equal to the bottom, like "this".
    • Hit enter when finished, or escape to cancel and try again.
    • Once done, you may want to shorten the width just a little using CTRL+T to transform.
    • My end result looked like "this".
  17. Once you have it skewed and sized the way you want it, do the same to the Right side tail.
Now that your finished, there is still some clean-up to do. You can delete the lingering duplicate "Leo Right" and personally, I like to make sense of all of my layers names. With all the copies all over the place I shortened the names, and added an identifier to know which is which incase I need to adjust one later. Example: logo wings LO (for left outer), LI, RI, and RO for the rest. I further decided to make a group for all of my "Logos" to neaten up the clutter a bit. You are now free to move your Leo's back to their proper folder (after doing so you may need to go into the folder and bring his layer above the rest, as he may disappear). Neaten up however you want, but remember, starting with good habits will go a lonnng way and keep you organized and also help keep you calm, <grin>.

 

More wear, More tear:

To me the tail is a focal point. One that I like to emphasize the detail, and is a great place for wear and tear. Even though the tail logo picture is perfect, I find the tail a great place to show a more seasoned look. Here are a couple things to give you fast and painless results.

  1. Duplicate the "Vstab details" and the "rudder line" layer (This will give a darker look to them).
  2. Press "E" for the Eraser tool and in it's control panel, set the brush to a 65, opacity to 55, and flow to 45.
  3. CTRL+Click on one of the VSTAB Details layers. To make a selection using it as the outline.
  4. Click ok, the selection is active even though you cannot see it.
  5. Select (Highlight) the left Tail logo layer in the layers panel, and in one brushing sweep,(meaning hold the left mouse button and don't let it go, if you do and repress it will double your set values) brush over the whole logo.
  6. If you want more, then let go and repress the left mouse and hold and repeat but maybe only do one area for an uneven look.
  7. Do the same with the Right Logo.
  8. Now CTRL+Click one of the Rudder Line layers and do this technique to the left tail area, but increase the opacity and flow to 100%.
  9. Make another copy of the rudder line, and rotate it 180 and drag it over to the Right side tail and put it in place.
  10. Do a once over with the eraser with it's selection but the Right Tail Logo being the selected layer.
  11. Get creative, there's so much you can do using layers, if you'd like, play with flag you worked so hard on :)

 

Night Alpha:

Depending on the kit you have and at the time of this writing, you will most likely have to replace or create the Alpha Channel for the FSX 747. Follow the same steps above in the Alpha Channel section. For the MD-11, read on.

 

MD-11 Tail lighting:

As I mentioned earlier, there are two more files you'll want to create. Once you've done the clean-up steps above (No sense duplicating a mess after all), with your completed PMDG_MD11_Tail_Right_T and PMDG_MD11_Tail_Left_T.psd's (and saved), save them once again but this time "save as" PMDG_MD11_Tail_Right_LT.psd and PMDG_MD11_Tail_Left_LT.psd (you want to save from the right files, do not save the left_T as a Right_LT in other words). Go into your channels for both and delete the Alpha Channel. Now you can bring in another xx_LT.dds and copy the Alpha, or use it as reference and create your own (like the Alpha for our right and left fuse, you can use the same alpha from say a right tail_LT for both your newly created _LT's. This is only needed for the _LT, not the _T. Once finished, duplicate, flatten and "Save As" according to the chart above in the "Save As" section for your file type (Once again, these should be saved to your Texture.KCV folder).

 

Re-inspection:

Time to inspect your work in FS. You still may need to tweak some things. The main thing is slew left and right in the back area, and check your flag placement on both sides. You may need to nudge a side up or down a few pixels. Check your belly color. The belly color can be hard to get just right, and depending on your own color you've chosen can be quite taxing. This is why I think the 747 is a harder paint. You may need to shut off or play with the opacity of the shadow layers for the belly. In some cases on light colored liveries like the color I have chosen, you may even need to play with the layer named "Mask" on the right and left fuse (The long original before being cut into sections). It might look great in one light, then not so good in another. The front of the belly may look perfect but then the back might be to light or dark. There are just too many sides coming to one point to sometimes make this work easily, but darker paints are much easier. The best method I found is to keep it simple as described in the steps. Get it as close as you can. You could always paint darker colors toward the edges of the back, but having done this can still take hours to get it perfect and once again, may look different depending on the light angle. I recommend getting your queen up in the air for a better look of it. (MD-11) If you chose to keep your Texture.KCV folder empty and only add to it as you go, you may notice that some of the underbelly textures are still all black. You can copy an existing Decals texture file in your folder for now, or wait until after the next steps. Once you're done and ready to move on, neaten up your .psd's, close the files you no longer need (The only thing you really need open is the LX-KCV.psd and left or right_Fuse_T.psd). Just be sure to have a neat and organized workspace ready before moving on to the next step.

 

 

PMDG_(your model)_Decals

 

This is one of my favorite files (the MD-11 version mainly). Here we can see more of how the Alpha layer is used. Open up your "PMDG_(your model)_Decals.psd" and let's look over a couple of things.

  • (747 only)Some may notice when compared to an existing decal.dds or .bmp that it is a different size (you will see the same with the passenger lighting). This really doesn't matter for your paint and is merely to cut down on file size. The 747F will open sized at 1024x512. Some existing files will be seen as 512x512. I have never bothered resizing this down and leave it as is.
  • (747 only) The paint color here doesn't matter much, unless the Alpha below it is white. As I mentioned before, for the most part white shows, black hides. Take a look at the channels tab and select you Alpha layer. Everything with white or Grey will show, so the color above it (the RGB channel) of image within the white area will be displayed. You will see that the outline of the Exit door is painted a nice metallic metal and the details for the "Exit" and arrow label are also set as white in the Alpha. There are other things also seen here like the underbelly lights and outlines for the rare and forward undercarriage lines, oh and of course some nice dirt detailing. If using the 747F paintkit Decals.psd you'll also have a template showing you where the Under nose area is.
  • (Md-11 only) The MD-11 Decals. You will also have a very sweet "Template(hide)" layer that I recommend turning on for now (make sure this is shut back off before flattening). Unique to the MD-11 you will have spots available to add your "initials" over the pilots side windows as well as above the center windows. You'll also notice that there is text for for the wing area, should you decide to add your tail number or Airline name (Or even your flag if you so want like in fighters). If you look at the Alpha channel of an existing decals texture you will notice exactly where the letters for the windows are placed. Keep in mind, the area shown in the Template layer shows where the letters should be and the Vortex safe zone where they will be visible. Go back to the RGB channel (select it and make sure the Alpha visibility is off) and then go back to the layers tab. You will see that at the bottom there is a color's layer. Turn it on so you can see what was done here for the colors. You will see that the way the colors show will mean Blue letters for the initials over the windows, dark grey for the wing lettering etc... Remember only the portions that are white (or grey) in the Alpha channel will show, so don't think that are going to get these big colored squares or all black wings, you won't. If you want to change the font color for say the wings, then just create a layer and use the marquee tool to draw a box around the letters and fill with the color of your choice. Your area for the under nose section already has a door and door handle. If you have used my Guinness paint you will see that I replaced it, with a "neon sign".

 

Ok, I think that is enough to get the basic understanding and will explain more for this texture as we go, so let's proceed to the needed steps for our 747-400F Cargolux. "This" is the picture I used when making my adjustments and visual calculations.

  1. Drag and drop your "logo nose" layer from your LX-KCV.psd to your Decals.psd.
  2. Position it over the nose area indicated by the text of the "nose decal" layer.
  3. Once you have it where you like, shut off the visibility for the nose decal layer.
  4. This needs to be scaled down, so use "CTRL+T" to use the transform tool to size it.
    • This is one of those steps that you will often have to do several times to get right.
    • "Here" is what mine looked like after adjusting the size & final placement.
  5. Make a "selection" of your "logo nose" layer (CTRL+Click the image preview in the layers panel).
  6. Switch over to the Channels Tab and select your Alpha Channel.
  7. Get yourself a white color and fill in your selection.
  8. Press CTRL+D to deselect your selection, the result will look something like "this".
  9. Reselect your RGB channel (that should turn it on and shut the alpha off, if not shut the Alpha visibility off).
  10. Go back to your layers tab.
  11. Press CTRL+S to save your work.
    • You may want to adjust darken the logo here. You can do it a couple of different way.
    • One way is to recolor this nose logo a little darker and the other way would be to just darken the white of the alpha channel for the logo.
    • Wait and see how you like it during your test. I later chose to darken my alpha, by painting in some medium grey after making a new selection of my nose logo like "this".
There you have it. You're basically all finished with this PSD and ready to test. As before, go back to the "Flatten" steps, and "Save As" section and go check it in FS. Before you test you may want to do the next step. For fun I added another Bonus step you can see below. As the other bonus steps, you can skip it, but it's there for reference if you ever want to further customize you liveries. It is also meant just to show one way you could make a small addition to your work, and as we all know it's the little details that set one apart from the rest! If corrections are needed, don't forget that you will need to also change your Alpha. The first thing I would do if corrections are needed is to go into the channels tab, select the Alpha channel and color in whatever your changing with black. Then proceed to make your changes as wanted and recreate the needed Alpha once your done.

 

Bonus step:

I also added another label on my Top hatch with the curved red border like in the other Exit decals. It looks like this. If you want to do the same, follow these steps:

  1. With the Marquee tool, draw a box like I did here.
  2. From the Menu, go to "Select > Modify > Smooth" and enter a value of 4 and hit enter.
  3. Use the Eyedrop tool to get a sample of the white area in the sign, or pick your own color with the color picker.
  4. Create a new layer and make sure it's selected.
  5. Fill your selection with your color but leave your selection in place.
  6. With your selection still present, go to the menu again and choose "Select > Modify > Border".
  7. Enter a value of your liking (remember you can always CTRL+Z to undo), I used 2 for my border.
  8. Do the same as before and get your red border color and fill your selection.
  9. Use the Text tool and type CARGOLUX (I used the Arial font).
  10. Use the Transform option (CTRL+T) and move it into position. Rotating counter clockwise (if you hold shift while rotating it will snap your text into position more easily).
    • Remember you get more control with your tools when zoomed in.
  11. Re-size it as needed and fit it into your new label as close as you can.
  12. Once you have it the size and angle you want, hit enter to exit Transform.
  13. Select the movement tool, and then use the arrow keys to "Nudge" it into position more precisely.
  14. You can merge these if you want, or leave them as is. I left them but did create a group for them and named it "Decal".
    • This way I can easily move all the layers at once with just selecting my new group and nudging for any changes later.
  15. After playing with the position a little and making it more uniform with the spacing of the other labels, my finished result looked like "this" on the PSD and "this" after inspection.
Go ahead and save your work and go test it out in FS. If something isn't right, make the needed changes and try again. Once complete and ready to move on, close down any unneeded files. You should keep open or open if not already, one of your fuselage psd's for color samples (I just use the Master). You may also want to keep your LX-KCV.psd open if you want to add the Cargolux logo to the wings or engines, but as you can see in the pictures, it doesn't exist on our ITALIA variation, so I will not be adding them to mine.

 

 

Wings:

 

There really isn't anything to add here since the wing color is pretty versatile already. Very rarely do I change the wing color and if I do, it is only because the specific repaint calls for it such as "this" MD-11 787 tribute I just did as well as the queen "here". I will leave this to yourselves to decide if you want to do it, but for now I recommend, just making a copy, duplicating it, flatten, save and test it out in FS. MD-11 Users have their wings included on their left and right fuse psd's. If you want, feel free to skip this step. The PSD file however is worth taking the time to look at, as it is a thing of beauty. As the other .psd's, there is a lot of great detail here, and lots of things you can learn from. Some ideas you may want to include in your own paint kit one day. As some people may spend hours and hours reading the in-depth manuals, I have spent many hours admiring the detail of these kits.

 

As with any new PSD, take the time to look at the layers. Toggle the visibility off and on to help find what your looking at. Look for things you might want off on your livery or variation. You may also want to lower the opacity some on a layer or two for a specific look you may be going for. Another thing is you might want to duplicate a layer here and there, giving it a darker look and making it more prominent. The choices are endless, and of course for the sake of thoroughness for this tutorial, want to show you some steps. I will add the tail number to the left top and bottom wings, a small touch of our base color and some other minor adjustments.

 

  1. Open your PMDG_744_WINGS_T.psd if not already open.
  2. Get a sample color from your fuselage, using the eyedropper tool (i).
    • Do this higher up so it isn't darkened by the shadow.
  3. You can minimize this since we might need another sample in later steps for the engines.
  4. Just above half way you'll find your "base wing color" layer in the layers panel. Select this layer.
  5. Lock the transparency of this layer by clicking the lock transparent pixels button.
  6. Press Alt+Backspace to fill in your color.
  7. Do the last two steps for your "hstab base color" layer.
  8. Now there are a few layers I adjusted here doing the following:
    • Lowered the opacity for the "Wing Shadow" layer to 80%. (Opacity is in the upper right of the layers panel).
    • Lowered the opacity for the "black lines" layer to 30%.
    • Lowered the opacity for the "shadow hstab" layer" layer "to 70%.
    • Turned off the visibility for the "middle stripe" layer.
    • Turned off the visibility for the "h stab stripe" Layer.
    • Turned off the visibility for the "Lower middle stripe" layer.
  9. Add your tail number "LX-KCV".
    • You don't have a template here, but it's easy to figure out since the lower wings are named. We will be doing our left wing which is the big wing on the right of the PSD.
    • Press T for the Type tool.
    • Change your color to what you'd like. I went with a dark grey color.
    • For font I chose Franklin Gothic Medium, font size 30 and left the rest at defaults.
    • Select your "base wing color" layer.
      • Remember once we click our image the text layer will create a new layer for itself above the layer selected in the layers panel.
    • Click anywhere in the image and type your tail number "LX-KCV".
    • Click on the moVement tool to end the text entering.
    • Go to the menu and select "Edit > Transform > Flip Vertically".
    • Use the transform tool (CTRL+T) to rotate it with the "L" toward the bottom.
    • Move it into position on our left wing (right wind in the psd). It should look like "this".
    • Duplicate the text layer by dragging it down into the "Create a new layer" shortcut.
    • Holding shift, move it to our Left under wing (Holding shift will keep it aligned).
    • Get it roughly close, then release the mouse button and once again Flip it vertically.
    • Use CTRL+T (Transform) to adjust the rotation and use the left or right arrow keys to nudge it into final position.
    • If your color is too light for the underside, then just double click the "T" on your text layer to select all text. Then change the color in the control panel at the top of the screen.
  10. Once done it should something like "this". Only thing left here is to Flatten (Flip for FSX), save and test!

 

 

Layer Blending modes:

 

Sometimes when doing your paints, you may not have the ability or option to apply a base layer. So you won't be able to get under the lines or rivets like you would want to. There are also times you may just want to add a color to your favorite FS default aircraft directly to the texture since you may not have a paintkit for it (i.e. C-172). Here are some steps for that type of scenario but using the MD-11 as an example (You can still follow along with the 747, but to do so first make your topmost layer selected in the layers panel).

 

As I mentioned earlier, the MD-11 has it's wings on the Fuse_Right and Fuse_Left_T.psd. The layers for the wing detail are all flattened. This is rarely an issue and the default wing color goes with just about anything you may create, but there may be times the specific livery calls for something like, all white wings like in that tribute paint.

  • "Here" is an image of the top wing from the Master_MD11_Fuse_Left_T.psd.
  • Create a new layer.
  • (MD-11) Select the "Polygonal Lasso" Tool by clicking the Lasso tool and holding the left mouse button down. This will open other options in the tool bar as seen "here".
    • Now trace around the wing area leaving yourself some play outside of the wing, like "this".
    • Remember this tool you move the mouse to a new point then click, clicking as much as you like to make your trace then when you've competed the circle it will create a selection.
  • (747 users following along) Use the Marquee tool and draw a box around all the wings like "this".
  • Create a new layer by clicking the "Create a new layer" shortcut in the layers panel.
  • Make sure this layer is on top of the rest in the layers panel.
  • Select white as your color and fill in your selection.
  • You should now see your layer is filled with a solid white, that's ok, nothing is wrong. The magic hasn't happened yet.
  • If you look at the top of the layers panel, you will see a drop down box that currently says "Normal".
  • Click the drop down arrow and select "Soft Light" and watch what happens.
  • Our layer has gone from "this", to "this".
This is not the same thing as lowering the opacity. The mode blending function is incredible and the more you experiment with these modes the better you'll understand them, and find many great uses for them. In this case we used "Soft light". What really happened here is Soft Light will multiply the dark tones and screen the lighter tones.

In other instances you might use "Overlay" or "Multiply" to get the same look. It depends on the colors and what your working on.

 

Here is a basic list of what each one is doing to better understand (Don't worry there won't be a test) <grin>:

  • Normal mode:
    • Normal mode is the default. The colors of the two layers will not interact in any way, and it will display the full value of the colors in the layer.
  • Dissolve:
    • Dissolve makes the lower layer take on the colors of the top layer, and how much depends on the opacity of the upper layer (Dissolve only affects pixels with some transparency).
  • Darken:
    • Darken compares each pixel value of the upper layer to its counterpart's pixel value of the lower layer and chooses the darker of the two to display.
  • Multiply:
    • Multiply darkens the lower layer based on the darkness of the upper layer. No part of the image will get lighter. Any applied tone darker than white darkens the lower layer. White becomes transparent.
  • Color Burn:
    • Color Burn burns in the color of the upper layer with the lower layer. No part of the image will get lighter.
  • Linear Burn:
    • Linear Burn works like multiply but the results are more intense.
  • Lighten:
    • Lighten compares the two layers pixel for pixel and uses the lightest pixel value. No part of the image gets darker.
  • Screen:
    • Screen brightens by lightning the lower layer based on the lightness of the upper layer. The result is always lighter, and makes it a good mode for correcting exposure in photos that are too dark.
  • Color Dodge:
    • Color Dodge dodges the lower layer with the upper layer, resulting in a lighter image. No part of the image will be darkened.
  • Linear Dodge:
    • Linear Dodge works like screen but with more intense results.
  • Overlay:
    • Overlay multiplies the light colors and screens the dark colors.
  • Soft Light:
    • As already mentioned, Soft Light multiplies the dark tones and screen the light tones.
  • Hard Light:
    • Hard Light multiplies the dark colors and screens the light colors.
  • Vivid Light:
    • Vivid Light will dodges or burn the lower layer pixels depending on whether the upper layer pixels are brighter or darker than neutral gray. It works on the contrast of the lower layer.
  • Linear Light:
    • Linear Light is the same as Vivid light but it works on the brightness of the lower layer.
  • Pin Light:
    • Pin Light changes the lower layer pixels depending on how bright the pixels are in the upper layer. It acts like Multiply when the upper layer color is darker than neutral gray, and acts like screen if the upper layer color is lighter than neutral gray.
  • Difference:
    • Difference reacts to the differences between the upper and lower layer pixels. Large differences lighten the color, and small differences darken the color.
  • Exclusion:
    • Exclusion uses the darkness of the lower layer to mask the difference between upper and lower layers.
  • Hue:
    • Hue changes the hue of the lower layer to the hue of the upper layer but leaves brightness and saturation alone.
  • Saturation:
    • Saturation changes the saturation of the lower layer to the hue of the upper layer but leaves brightness and hue alone.
  • Color:
    • Color changes the hue and saturation of the lower layer to the hue and saturation of the upper layer but leaves luminosity alone.
  • Luminosity:
    • Luminosity changes the luminosity of the lower layer to the liminodity of the upper layer while leaving hue and saturation the same.
Please do not think for one second, that I am that smart to recite that on my own, or that I understand Photoshop's blending modes in that detail. I would love to say I do, and someday we both might, but these descriptions were provided by a great woman, Sara Froehlich and only edited by me slightly. I normally just scroll through the list and see what each looks like (See Special Thanks at the end).

 

 

Engines:

This step is very easy since from every picture I see it is merely a color change. There are three engine types, but the PSD files of your paint kit (two for MD-11) are very similar. For this tutorial I will cover the Rolls Royce.

  1. Open up your "PMDG_744_Engines_RR.psd".
    • As always, take some time to familiarize yourself with it's layers.
  2. You should still have your color sample loaded, but if not get a new sample from one of your fuse_T.psd's.
  3. Select the "engine base color" layer in the layers panel
  4. As before, lock the transparency or use the CTRL+Click method on its picture preview to create a selection around it.
  5. Fill in your color.
  6. Go through your other layers and shut off the visibility for anything you don't want in your finished work. I have chosen to shut off the RR and red line.
  7. Let's add some more layer blending to add a little color around the "engine supports".
    • With your Marquee tool, draw a box around your engine support "like so".
    • Select your "Background" layer in the layers panel.
    • Create a new layer.
    • Fill in your layer with your base color.
    • Using the "Blending options" we recently discussed, change the blend mode to "Color" or "Soft Light" .
      • I have chosen "Color" since I don't want to color up the shadow detail that much, although there are some liveries I have done with Soft Light as seen "here".
That's it. Follow the steps above and Flatten, Save and test out your new texture.

 

Adding all three engine type:

Should you want to include all three engine types, create and save the other two engine files using your painkit and simple copy your entry that you made to your aircraft.cfg then paste it below and edit the lines as listed in the "Aircraft.cfg Edit" section toward the beginning of this tutorial. You do not need to create three folder. Just change the needed fields:

model=RRF
sound=RR
ui_variation=CARGOLUX LX-KCV RR \\The RR of course would be what you might want to change.

You might also want to change the description of the engine type mentioned to fit your engine of choice.

 

Guess what? The only thing left to do is create your thumbnail for FSX users and name it,,, thumbnail. Save it 256x128 and your off to the races baby!!! You are now finished :Worried:. Kind of sad really, I had a great time showing you the ropes, and hope this information helps you get started. I look forward to seeing your liveries and welcome any and all feedback to help better this information for future readers. As I mentioned, I would rather make this a PDF document with the images intact, but this way I think I will get more feedback from all walks of life at various levels of PS knowledge so I will be able to create a better PDF another time. It is hard to write something that is viewed by countries and cultures different than what your use to, so please feel free to ask what something means if my explanation wasn't clear.

 

I've promised this some time ago, and feel as though I am rushing in posting this now. Due to not getting the ok for 2 pictures I really wanted to post, I've had to rewrite nearly 20 pages of this tutorial. and create new bonus steps because of which. Having now read this complete post several times, I can also be missing the obvious, so I urge you to point out anything you find wrong, strange or just plain weird. Sometimes the brain just stops processing, and for for whatever reason misses even the most obvious (Did you catch that? Look back 7 words before the parentheses, did you notice I said "for for"? <Grin>). Like I said, it's funny how the brain doesn't process some things.

 

Having just read this once again, I feel it is adequate for the needed steps for liveries or at least for this one particular livery. I don't think however, that it covers some circumstances you might face, or at least some things that you may find useful. So rather than attempt to further edit the finished product again and probably make it more confusing than necessary, I've decided to show you some other techniques in a bonus section "Tips ~n~ Tricks". You can go fly your new paint, this will be here when you want. Go, flee, have fun, you deserve it!

 

 

Tips ~n~ Tricks

Tutorials:

 

Ok, probably not a trick, but it is by far the best tip I can give you. One reason I would urge the more advanced Photoshop to new users is the vast amount of tutorials available on the internet. There are countless free tutorials that you can find. Other options include some pay sites. I have learned a great deal with free sites, but would have to say most of my learning has been from videos from "Lynda.Com". You can easily get trapped in this hobby, as it is far more than just a tool to create paints.

 

Explore and Experiment:

 

  • Don't be afraid to explore and experiment. Play with the filters, transform options, seriously, the "skies" the limit. Remember an undo is just a CTRL+Z away.
  • Create projects. Although liveries are a fun and fulfilling (and very educational) thing to do, create a project that may call for something you wouldn't normally think of for a livery.
    • This is one of the main areas you will learn how to use Photoshop, since creating a new project, you will then have questions to proceed with what you may want to do. After a little research and some good Googling, you will have learned yet another step to then implement into your liveries.
  • Be creative, the powerful use of layers can be used in creating very professional images. Here are just a couple ideas from some of my older photos I created for friends:
    • Magazine covers! These can be very easy to make with Photoshop and really can make a friend feel special.
    • Here are just a few I created a couple years ago for some friends.
    • My first cover for a neighbor and friend "Birba", then for a friend "Ann", my good friend "Shelly", and her niece "Chanel" (all permissions before posted of course).
  • There is nothing with an image you can't do in Photoshop, and learning is just a question away.

 

Tracing images:

 

With the exception of a couple simple instances of using the Marquee or Lasso tools, the tracing has been made easy since the Paintkits have so many layers allowing us for the "CTRL+Click" method. When you have a picture that you want to include on you livery you may need to cut it out of an image where the magic wand tool just isn't practical. As I mentioned earlier, the tool bar has many different tools for any one tool that you won't see and might not be aware of. To see the choices you need to click and hold the mouse button on the tool and if there are available options they will expand showing you your choices. For some tracing you may find the Magnetic Lasso is superb, but other times you may find that no matter how much you play around with the tools control panel, you just can't get it precise. More often then not, I use the Polygonal Lasso tool for tracing simple images. I just zoom in and out as needed, and trace and click adding my trace points. No matter which method you use remember the option of adding to (Shift) or subtracting from (Alt) your selections.

 

Also remember that during your selection making process you can switch between tools. There are times I may select something using one of the various Marquee tools available, and then switch to a lasso tool and continue my trace, adding to my selection. Once you get use to the lasso steps, you can then take advantage of more Advanced tracing techniques using different options. This image "here" I created for an Album cover a couple years ago using a technique in Photoshop called "Extract" (Found in the Filters menu). If you look back at the Magazine covers above, you'll also see the way I was able to use it to get traces of even individual hairs, look at the magazine titles and their hair, most seen in Chanel's cover. There are a few steps to something like this that don't really fit the scope of this tutorial, but another thing I would be happy to explain if so desired.

 

Clone Tool:

Known also as the "Clone Stamp Tool" this tool is a very handy one for sure. The clone tool does just what the name implies, it clones. You first need to define it's source point by pressing and holding Alt. Then you can paint with the brush and the source point will follow your every move. Depending on your project you may find this tool impossible to work without. In the above section I briefly described different methods of tracing an object. Those methods are based on the idea that you want to cut or copy the selected (traced) object from your image. But what if you want to eliminate it but keep the background? Well first of all you have to remember the image is a 2D object and no editor could possibly know what is suppose to be behind what was removed. Ok, well at least not yet.

 

So for example, here is a picture of a good friend "Karyn". If I was to trace her, and then cut her out of the image, the image would have a big blank spot looking something like "this". Well here is one instance where the clone tool comes in and these are the steps I took to fill this void. You can follow along with any picture of your choice (this comes in handy for cutting those ex girl or boy friends out of those pictures of yours as well :rolleyes: ).

  • Using the Polygonal lasso tool trace around the object.
    • During this stage I used a good amount of zoom to get the little details.
    • Rather than changing tools during the trace I used CTRL + and CTRL - for my zooming.
  • Once the trace is complete, press CTRL+SHIFT+J to cut this image out and put it to another layer.
  • Shut off the visibility for the newly cut layer (in this case it was Karyn).
  • Select your "Stamp Tool" by pressing "S" on the keyboard.
  • Find an area of the picture that you want to set as your starting point of the cloning and hold down "ALT" and click your mouse button.
    • This area for the photo I used is much more difficult than some images, since the grass color due to shadows and different things in the image have different lighting.
    • As you can see "here" I made my selection for my start and kept my pointer horizontally aligned and shifted it over to the void where I wanted to start cloning.
    • In small strokes (meaning holding the left mouse button and dragging left until my start point or cloning point is about to start entering the void then releasing the mouse button) start the process of cloning.
      • This can start off very slow, but once you get more area covered is much easier.
      • This is hard to understand what I am trying to explain I'm sure, so I urge you to experiment and follow along.
    • Continue cloning your image, changing your Start position with "Alt" as needed.
    • When finished, my image is now complete with Karyn's silhouette completely covered and filled in as seen "here".
  • This image I chose for the reason of the complexity of the background, rather than the tutorials I learned this technique from. Chances are your background won't be as complicated to maneuver.
  • Now since I never deleted Karyn, and rather turned off her visibility. I can also make some rather cool looking Gif images (animated Pictures) like "this".
    • Give that link a minute if it doesn't animate right away, since it is a rather large file (1.3mb).
    • Here are a couple more that I created for other friends a couple years ago:
      • "Bubbles" (sorry, she asked that I didn't use her real name, besides, that's what I called her anyway). This was my actual first attempt at a Gif, not an easy first since I had to then create her mouth.
      • This friend loved roses and butterflies, so what better gift than to make my dear friend Denise "this".
      • Last but not least, the dearest of my dears, Kylie. What girl back then didn't like a good "Morph"?
      • In all of those pictures I had to do the same techniques as I described above.
    • Animating pictures like this would be a topic for another time I'm afraid, but at least now this gives you an idea what you might want to Google.

 

Effects:

 

I'm sure a ton of avid Photoshop users that have read this tutorial have wondered why there was no mention of the use of effects. The main reason is that I could easily double the size of this tutorial on such a topic. I do want to include one little exercise to introduce the topic and am sure you'll figure it all out from there. Many of the tutorials online are about using effects, and many of them can add and even take away from your livery. It is easy to overdo it with effects on a livery so I recommend doing other projects with them first and following some tutorials specifically about them before incorporating them into your liveries.

 

There is one major thing to be careful of when using effects. In a large photo with lots of layers, such as Paintkits, you need to watch your use of lighting. Whenever you turn on an effect it defaults with "Global Lighting" on. This can have very undesirable results to your livery and interfere with effects already set in your Paintkits. Make sure you shut off this option whenever you activate an effect. Ok, with that out of the way, let's do something we have yet to try.

  1. Create a new image "CTRL+N" 800x400 background Transparent.
  2. Select your text tool and BOEING font, font size 120, any color.
  3. Type PMDG (in all capitol letters).
  4. Download this "Picture" Try the drag from internet option I explained earlier. Click and hold the left mouse button and hold it until you are in Photoshop then release.
    • Alternatively Open page, right click, chose "Save Picture As".
  5. Once the picture is in Photoshop, drag it into your image with the PMDG.
    • Right now it should be on top of the PMDG, covering it so the picture layer is above the PMDG layer in the layers panel.
  6. Right Click on the pictures layer (Layer 1) and choose "Create Clipping Mask".
    • An alternate way to do this is to move your cursor between the two layers and hold ALT. If you are in the proper position you will see the cursor change, click your mouse and it's done.
  7. Once done move the image around either with the mouse or the arrow keys, putting into a position of your liking.
  8. Now right click the "PMDG" layer and chose "Rasterize Type".
  9. Merge the two layers together "CTRL+E".
  10. Move your layer (should only be 1 now) to the top middle of your canvas.
  11. In the layers panel, double click the layer, but not on the layers title. This will bring up the "Layer styles box".
    • Let's take a minute to look at "the layout".
      • To the left you have the different layer styles or effects to some.
      • If you click the check box you will turn on that effect but unless you actually highlight the menu choice you will not see it's control panel.
      • By clicking its layer it will also turn on the effect.
  12. Click the "Bevel and Emboss" style.
    • You will now see various sliders and options galore. Notice most styles have the shading option where you see the "Use Global lighting" check box.
  13. Uncheck the box (Always do that with your liveries) and move the + around the circle. This as you will see in your image shows the different light effects since image preview is checked.
  14. Set your settings by copying "these".
  15. Feel free to add other effects but keep Global lighting off. For this exercise that is the only effect I want to do.
  16. Notice you now have an effects visibility eyeball that you can toggle off and on the same way you could a layer.
  17. Duplicate the layer by dragging it into the "Create a new layer" shortcut.
  18. Go to the menu and chose "Edit > Transform > Flip Vertically".
  19. Now with the moVement tool selected, drag it down "like so".
  20. Now double click our new layer opening up the layer styles and change its setting "like so".
    • The reason for the different lighting is to fool our perception. Since the bottom layer is acting as a reflection, and from it's point of view we can see that the reflection is capturing glare angles that it should at that angle.
    • Even though we cannot see them from our perspective, the illusion now compliments our picture.
    • Our image is still not quite complete. It still has way too much reflection for the surface we want.
  21. Let's make it a water effect. Go to "Filter > Distort > Wave" and enter these "settings".
  22. Then go back into the Filters menu and chose these "settings".
  23. You can see it has moved a bit to the left, so nudge it back over to the right and line it back up.
    • We need to blur it a little since there is more reflection than we would have in real life, don't you think?
  24. Go to the Filter menu again and chose "Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur" and set it to 1.0 (Should be its default).
  25. Lower the layers opacity to 65%.
  26. Finally, in the bottom of the layers panel, click on the "Add Layer Mask" shortcut.
    • This is almost like having an alpha channel working for us immediately, without help from a program. You will see there is a "new look" to our Layer in the layers panel also.
    • There are two sides, one is the "Layer Thumbnail" and the other is the "Layer Mask Thumbnail".
    • To work on the layer, you would select the Layer thumb, and to work on the mask you would make sure the Mask thumb was selected.
    • Make sure the Mask is selected (Has a square around it).
  27. Press E for the Eraser tool and set it's controls to a 65 Brush, Opacity 50% and Flow 50%.
  28. Now paint over the further away part of the PMDG, erasing the top giving the illusion we want.
    • It may not look like much now, but create a bottom layer and change it's color to see how it will look like on various colors.
    • You may need to further erase or lower the opacity more for different colors. such as Black. My end result looks like "this".
Not the best we could do but I just wanted to give you a quick look at just a couple of things that you could play with. Also point out the places you may want to poke your nose and start experimenting <grin>. You can get lost in Photoshop and the million of possibilities at your fingertips. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is quite the addicting hobby and can be a lot of fun.

 

 

Creating your own Paintkits:

 

This may sound like a step that most may think of as far out of reach, but it's not bad once you get started. You've seen how fast layers can accumulate in Photoshop, and Paintkits are nothing more than layers. Highly detailed layers if your using these PMDG kits, but start out with what you know, and before you know it, you'll be amazed at what you have created. Once you create a layer, it is there for good (unless you merge it). It doesn't matter what version of FS you use. Paintkits aren't just for Liveries either. Being a beginner at Photoshop it took me a couple of weeks to do my first magazine cover, and being new I also had very bad saving habits. So needless to say after my first cover and then getting a request for one realized that I never bothered saving the original PSD. Well, ever since then I have created several types of Paintkits and the magazine one was my 1st. It alone as has hundreds of layers, each grouped neatly for whichever specific title or theme I may desire. As I use them I update them with better and better techniques I've learned over my continued learning.

 

To give you an example of what I mean, lets look at just a few of the steps I used to recently create my own variation of passenger lighting for the already highly detailed MD-11!

  • Starting with the "PMDGMD-11_Fuse_Left.psd" I created a selection of the "window Lights ", the "Layer 35 copy 3" and the "WindowShaded" layers in the "Night Windows" Group.
    • To do multiple selections with the CTRL+Click method, simply add to those two keys to include holding down Shift.
    • Now just click the picture preview for each one, one at a time.
  • Now going to the menu "Image > Image Size" I checked the size of the image for my starting canvas. It was 2200x238.
  • Pressing CTRL+N I created a new image and set those sizes accordingly and entered a name of "Passenger_Lights_Master".
  • Going back to the selections in the PMDGMD-11_Fuse_Left.psd I dragged over the selections.
    • I dragged over the selections, not the images. Only the traces of them.
    • To do that you must have a selection tool selected, such as in this case, it was the Marquee Tool.
    • Also, you must have your cursor inside the selection you are about to drag over to the new image, if it is outside the selection it will merely start a new selection. If this happens, simply press CTRL+Z to undo, and your selection will return.
    • As with keeping your layers aligned when dragging and dropping to a new image, Pressing and holding "Shift" will also help align your selection when dropped and is a must.
    • Do not press shift until after you start dragging the selection or it will think you are attempting to add to the selection via the "Shift +" method described earlier.
  • Now since I want to save this selection, and keep a backup should I accidentally merge or delete this one. I Saved the selection via the "Select" menu and named it "Windows".
  • I also created a layer for it, but first "Inversed the Selection" with a key press of CRTL+SHIFT+I.
  • Next was to fill the selection in black.
  • Now for all of eternity, I have my first layer of my passenger lights and looks like "this".
  • Now using an "image" of a passenger seat concept for a 787 and a small section at that, I started a very lengthy process of cloning.
  • The way to start such a project is to first, expand the canvas of this new image.
    • You can do so by going to the menu and clicking "Image > Canvas Size" then enter a width as you so desire.
    • For my case I entered a width of 10000 for now.
    • This will open with "Inches" set in the measurement field, I changed this to pixels with the drop down prior to entering 10000 as my width.
  • Since this is for night use, I first darkened the windows, first using the wand tool to select all the whites, then just filled them in with black.
  • Holding shift I then dragged this completely to the left hand side and got right to work.
  • With my moVement tool selected, and pressing alt, I clicked and dragged the passenger picture which as we've seen already, creates a copy.
  • Lowering the "Opacity" for this new layer to about 65% I lined it up with the first full window, overlapping one another as seen "here".
  • Since it is now in position, I raised the opacity back to 100%.
  • Looking at the photo you can probably guess what to do next. Using the Eraser, I erased the edges and started cloning.
    • Like most cloning projects of this magnitude, this starts off very slowly but after you get one section tied together, the next one is already double the size, so as you get going, it really starts to pick up pace.
  • After the first two sections (layers) are to my liking I merged them together, and the once again created a new layer of it, and continued along step by step.
  • With seating not being the primary concern (mainly windows and baggage compartments) I continued these steps of duplicating, erasing and cloning until I got "this".
  • Now to better show you where I'm going with this and since you won't be able to see the detail after I resize it, here is what I'm trying to "accomplish".
  • Once complete, I transferred these layers to my Passenger_Lights_Master.psd and resized even more, then even more <sigh>.
    • Sometimes you may go to sever lengths in doing a project and think it is perfect, but then once you resize it you see it may not be as perfect as you hoped.
    • However, I think EVERY project or anything you do should be approached this way, if you always aim "Center pocket" sort of speak, you'll make more than you miss.
    • Even though it might not come out as good as it was, it still looks pretty darn sweet in FS and all the hard work will soon pay off.
    • After getting everything resized and the perspective I was looking for, I then used the "FUSELAGE CUTOUT TEMPLATE" and transferred each section to another PSD I created with the same size of the fuse_T sections of 1024x1024 using one of my fuse_T.dds liveries as a background guide.
    • Once in my new "Passenger_LM.psd" I then used the selection making process described earlier and made an Alpha layer all black with all white for the window area.
    • Finally, I saved these as PMDG_MD11_Fuse_Left_LM.dds and PMDG_MD11_Fuse_Right_LM.dds for FSX and .bmp as listed above using ImageTool (Don't forget those Mipmaps!).
    • If you'd like to try these out, look for them in the AVSIM Library under author Dan Prunier. (Both FS9 & FSX available).
That sounds like a lot of steps, and might be for some of you, but if you try and learn as many shortcuts as you can, it really helps cut down time, and also remember that reading and doing takes a lot longer than just plain doing and that will come faster than you think.

 

 

Final Words

All words herein are of my own and are not copied from any other materials or websites (With the exception of the already mentioned Blending mode definitions I decided to toss in as easier reference). I do not give my permission for this information to be duplicated or copied. I think it would benefit the community as a whole rather a link be provided bringing others seeking this information to this post. This way we can all consolidate all of our questions and answers in one spot and add to our community with other paint enthusiasts that may not yet even be familiar with PMDG products (if that's possible).

 

PMDG themselves may edit or use this information in any way they see fit, or remove it if the needed and I will make any corrections they ask. I have a copy and it wouldn't be any trouble and even though I have researched all of the forum rules of both PMDG and AVSIM, do not want to be in violation of any that I may have missed or misread. PMDG may use this information (even verbatim) if they so desire without any further consent from me.

 

I would like to add this to the wiki, in an easy to follow format that I attempted to do here. I am not familiar with the wiki code and do not have the time currently, so would love to hear from any volunteers that may wish to take on such a project. Creating this as a forum post has limitations and the use of BB Code has been used to the best of my knowledge.

 

 

You've come a long way personally I'm proud of you and already am looking forward to your paints. I can't wait until I can show you all more advanced techniques once you get more familiar with the basics. I am hardly an expert, and consider myself a novice at best. Most of my Photoshop learning has been trial and error, and hours and hours of Googling, watching videos, and these kits. I cherish these kits, because not only do they allow me to combine two passions, but they have forced me to take my game up a level or two to understand why things were done the way they were. The amount of Photoshop knowledge I've gained from them alone makes me feel almost criminal, <grin>. That is one reason I wanted to do this tutorial, as I mentioned above, to give a little back. Another is to share some things I may know to help the community. God knows they've helped me with my aircraft handling and understanding of the advanced systems. Sometimes I'm a bit more on the slow side and don't grasp something until I read another user use it in a reply to another users question. I can read the manuals all day but personally I have the attention span of a grape. Only through tutorials and other helpfuls of this forum have I been able to even get off the ground :Big Grin:, so with that, I thank you!

 

Sorry to the people that own the JS41, but looking at the kit and the read me, I can see that everything PMDG has done has been improved upon but without having it I couldn't really try to advise on it. I have however seen many great JS41 paints by Jim Hodkinson and he's always willing to help people. I'm sure he can help with any interpretation between what may differ here and in your painting needs.

 

 

Special Thanks

  • First of all, I would like to thank PMDG for not only making such incredible Paintkits, but for making and keeping them available for the community. Not to mention making the elite aircraft that they do that are definitely worthy of the time to spend painting. I hope others that don't now will start painting just so they can see what's available to them free of charge, as enjoy them as much as I do.
  • Tom Allensworth = The AVSIM Root Admin for keeping AVSIM what it is for all of us, a knowledge base where we can all find the answer to our virtual questions.
  • All of the moderators of AVSIM for their individual parts in helping maintain these threads. Not to mention all the work in restoring the Library.
  • To all of the AVSIM supporters, that generously "Donate" what they can afford to help keep these forums available.
  • To the authors of the real photo's referenced throughout this tutorial.
    • Stefan Welsch
    • Kiskockas
    • Perez Emmanuel
    • Tom Neu
  • Martin Wright = for creating and making DXTBmp available, without it some people would never be able to get their paints finished.
  • Sugiyasu = for the use of the Boeing font.
  • Cargolux for their logo and name of course. The Cargolux name and logo are among the trademarks owned by Cargolux
  • Upvote 8

i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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Nice one Dan, This is exactly what I needed since most of the tutorials I've found assume you know how to use photoshop; thanks.

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Hi DanAn incredible piece of work, and a true labour of love, also in my humble opinion a Repainters Bible in language we can all understand and follow.Great work, and thank you for the time and not inconsiderable effort this has taken.Jim Hodkinson

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Thanks guys, I'm just glad to have it off my to do list.


i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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Dan-Incredible!This is too good NOT to pin for the use of future generations...If you feel like the work: Put it into a DOC or PDF format and I'll gladly host it in our documentation section for easy reference as well...


Robert S. Randazzo coolcap.gif

PLEASE NOTE THAT PMDG HAS DEPARTED AVSIM

You can find us at:  http://forum.pmdg.com

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Wow Dan, I may have to give it whirl!! Thanks! :(

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Wow, I'm honored and thanks Robert. I was just happy to get it done so we could link it to those occasional paint questions here and there, but this is highly flattering. I will send a PDF to support as soon as I can.Thanks again,


i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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Guest Qantas_guy

Dan,Very glad to read your tutorial. Most remarkable detail. Forgive me if this is covered in your article but my question for you is why does my repaint look a little blurry compared to the others once it arrives in FSX? It looks great in photoshop. Should I have designed it in 32 bit from the beginning?, perhaps I've saved it wrong. Have you ever heard of this?ThanksChristopher Hatch

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Dan,Very glad to read your tutorial. Most remarkable detail. Forgive me if this is covered in your article but my question for you is why does my repaint look a little blurry compared to the others once it arrives in FSX? It looks great in photoshop. Should I have designed it in 32 bit from the beginning?, perhaps I've saved it wrong. Have you ever heard of this?ThanksChristopher Hatch
Hi Christopher, It is most likely because your saving it wrong. If you have the correct plugins installed you should get "this" popup when saving. Save according to that and you should be fine. Only other time I think you get blurry textures is if your Global texture resolution is low. I've never seen that personally buy have read it here in the forums.By the way, 32bit is for FS9. Check out the "Save As" section.

i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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Dan - I do not have any words to say other than utterly fantastic work! Thanks for putting this tutorial together as it may inspire someone to try a paint themselves. Best regards,


\Robert Hamlich/

 

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Indeed, extremely impressive effort by you! I think my local airline Air


Krister Lindén
EFMA, Finland
------------------
 

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Thanks guys, appreciate the kind words.Robert, I too hope others will be inspired to try it. I'm afraid some will be turned off by its size but it's only a lot of text there because I didn't want to leave anything out. After someone does this once they will really only need about 40 or so lines and only as reminders and reference really. I wish it were a video, but this way is better for some reasons. I was tempted to do a video, but it would have been a lot of 10 minute segments and more confusing I think then this will be,,,, well, I hope so anyway ;-)


i9 10920x @ 4.8 ~ MSI Creator x299 ~ 256 Gb 3600 G.Skill Trident Z Royal ~ EVGA RTX 3090ti ~ Sim drive = M.2  2-TB ~ OS drive = M.2 is 512-gb ~ 5 other Samsung Pro/Evo mix SSD's ~ EVGA 1600w ~ Win 10 Pro

Dan Prunier

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Great work Dan. As Robert said, make it into a PDF etc and lock it away for future would be painters. Maybe Robert might set up a livery area provided by forum members, though I suppose we can place them in the avsim library. I am sure it will be a fantastic reference to us all. Thank you for your efforts.Regards


Geoff Bryce

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