So you want to start painting...

Well before we begin this tutorial, here are a few tips which will aid you when painting. First don't rush, sit back and think of what you want to achieve. Secondly, once you have gotten over the initial learning curve, painting is a relatively simple task and one that is extremely enjoyable. Learning how all the individual painted pieces fit together is all part of the experience and one that is highly satisfying.

In this set of tutorials, I will attempt to show you the procedures (the ones I use) for creating a believable likeness of an aircraft.

So let's start!

The first thing you will need is some software which enables you to read extended and DDS formatted bitmaps.

Personally, I use MW Graphics editors, which are free, and read all forms of images, from CFS2 to Prepar3D textures.

The one you are looking for however, is called DXTBmp, which can be found at this link:

http://www.mwgfx.co.uk/index.htm

Now for your painting program. I use Photoshop 6, which is an older version of Photoshop, but one that fulfills my needs. If you decided to get a more up-to-date version of this program, then you will be able to create even better images.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html

However, Photoshop can be expensive so a free alternative is a great program called Gimp. Although perhaps not as user-friendly as Photoshop, it is still capable of some stunning results, so it's well worth checking out.

https://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Please be aware that many members using Windows 10 are reporting that Gimp fails to work with this operating system:

http://gimpforums.com/thread-windows-10

http://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.8.html

And finally, there's Summitsoft's 4000 OpenType Font's for the lettering and numbering of different aircraft.

http://www.amazon.ca/Summitsoft-00192-2-4000-Fonts/dp/B002MFVTXS

Now that we have gotten all our software together, let's begin!

Lesson 1 - Thumbnails

In this lesson we will learn how to make the appropriately sized (and lettered) thumbnails that FSX uses when displaying aircraft within the main inventory aircraft list.

Why? Well, for two reasons...

• 1st to get you familiar with Photoshop (or equivalent program) which will include: How to size, paste, create a multiple photo palette, and lettering images. As well as this, we'll be looking at how to save PS images, hiding and recalling work within the PS image and correcting mistakes without having to redo the entire project.
• 2nd FSX requires thumbnails to display installed aircraft/vehicles etc. However, many payware and freeware add-ons have the incorrect sized thumbnail included with their paint, and even though FSX can read these different sized images, they look mismanaged and unsightly. FSX ideal and recognized thumbnail format is 256 X 128. Anything larger or smaller simply eats additional CPU cycles whilst FSX tries to resize the image to a readable format. The result is that loading times are increased. The more incorrectly sized thumbnails you have, the slower your loading times will be!

Step One:

1. Copy any jpeg photo from your hard drive onto the desktop.

2. Open Photoshop.

3. Click on 'File' in the main menu.

4. Click on 'Open' within the 'File' pulldown menu.

5. Select the photo you placed on the desktop.

6. Import the selected photo.

7. Select Color Range from the toolbar/floating dock.

8. Select Paint Brush size.

9. Paint the entire picture one solid color.

It should look like the image below when done.

10. Save as 'Master Thumbnail' and choose jpeg format.

11. Click on the Image tab.

12. Select Image Size in the 'Image' pulldown menu.

13. Untick the Constrain dialogue box.

14. Resize image to 256 X 128.

15. Your new image size is 256 X 128. Save as a jpeg and also as a Photoshop file. This Photoshop file is your new master thumbnail. You will be using the Photoshop file from this point on, with the jpeg being your back-up image (in case you delete or destroy the Photoshop file).

16. Now at this point we need to get an aircraft image, one that we wish to use in the creation of our thumbnail.

Step Two - Creating The Thumbnail

1. The easiest way to create an attractive thumbnail is by using FSX itself, so let's load FSX.

2. Once FSX has loaded, select the aircraft that requires the thumbnail.

3. Once the aircraft appears on the 'Select Aircraft' screen, click the details area on FSX. The image (shown below) should appear with the selected aircraft within it. Now, using your screen capture program or Windows' very own Print Screen tool, let the aircraft rotate around until you think it's at the best angle for your thumbnail. When it is, select 'Print' or capture the image. Save the image as a png or jpeg image and place it on your desktop. We will use this image to create our thumbnail. We'll now exit FSX and restart Photoshop for the final creation of the thumbnail.

4. Using what we learned earlier, open the aircraft and master PS thumbnail in Photoshop.

5. Now using the 'Marquee' tool, create a rectangle around the aircraft image by dragging your mouse across the image. Going from the upper left hand corner to the lower right hand corner of the aircraft seems to work well. Don't worry if it doesn't work on the first try, as it usually takes some practice to get right.

6. Now, under the 'Image' pulldown tab, select 'Crop'.

You should now have this image after cropping.

7. After cropping, we need to resize the image so that it works with FSX. With that said, let's open up the 'Image' tab again and select the 'Image Size' dialogue box. We will need to use the 'Constrain Proportions' tool, so tick this box.

8. Now let's resize the width of the image to 256. The height may not be 128 but we'll address that in a moment. For this example, the thumbnail has worked out at 256 X 98, which is slightly too small. However, as mentioned, this will be rectified so that its final proportions will be 256 x 128. Using the 'Marquee' tool, create a rectangle of the whole image and then, using the 'Edit' tab, copy the image and place it into the master thumbnail Photoshop image.

9. Now click on the 'Eyedropper' tool and scan over any color on the image we've just pasted. The objective here is to paint out the white areas located at the top and bottom of the image. Next, in the 'Layers' pane, click on the background tab. This will allow you to use the paint brush so as to color in the white areas only.

10. Click on the 'Paint Brush' tool in the toolbar/floating dock. Then, in the Paint Brush selector, leave mode on normal and pressure at 100%. Choose a brush that is small enough so as to not paint the entire image background. For example, a brush size of 35 would work well with an image of these proportions.

11. Using the 'Paint Brush' tool, match the background to the foreground of the thumbnail. You can use the 'Eyedropper' tool to get samples of the colors needed as you go along. The objective is to paint out the white areas of the image so that it looks like one complete photograph. Still as the master Photoshop image, save the file.

Your final painted image should look like this.

12. Now we're going to add text to the thumbnail.

13. Tab on the text size option to find the required size and font you wish to use.

14. Type in your required text using the move tabs in the texting block. At the same time, you can position the text to the area you desire. Finally, click on the 'Paint Brush' tab to lock the script into the Photoshop project.

And that's it! You've just completed your first FSX Thumbnail! Now all you need to do is save the file. First save as a Photoshop file and then as a jpeg file naming it 'thumbnail'. Now place the thumbnail into the Texture folder of the aircraft that requires it.

The steps we've just used, will aid us in the painting of aircraft textures, but this will be looked at in a later tutorial. For now, practice and we will continue at a later date.

Have fun and until next time...

David Robles
YouTube Channel "David Robles FSX"