Here's a skinning tutorial that I put together for a challenge I am running:



Here are the software files you will need for your skinnin� goodness:
GIMP- Like Photoshop
DXTBMP Format and File Converter
IRFAN View Texture viewer

Good Luck, my fellow forumites!


I'll add new information as it becomes available to me...


Pro Tip: anytime you try ANYTHING, do it on a new layer!


Naming Convention
Here's OVStachel with a tip on skin naming that may save you some aggravation later on:

Here's some more info on naming:




Fullofit offered up some useful tips for using GIMP:


I decided I wanted to come up with a new paint scheme for Rick Rawlings flying the N17.

I wanted an alternating red/black pattern on the cowl, but had no idea how to divide it. So I added some color swatches to help define where things were going to be:

I was then able to use the ruler in GIMP to come up with a cowl that works pretty well:

You'll notice that despite my measuring it, the bars are still not evenly spaced:

For more on that, see Olham's tip below!

Then I decided I did not like the basic white body paint and wanted to do something different. I figured gray would be cool, so I painted (on a new layer, natch!) the body gray:

Yikes! That looks terrible! But, by using the Layer properties and layer opacity (circled in orange above), I can get some cool effects. Multiply produced this:

Nice! But I decided to go with Subtract:

That gives it a nice cool charcoal appearance that looks like this in game:




You can raid other skins and cut and paste them into the one you are working on. Here's a brilliant Albatros by RAF Louvert:



And here is his explanation of how he got the upper wing to work:



A lot of work indeed, but outstanding results. Here's how the texture looked in the .dds file:

You'll notice there are some places that are offset. This is because the model is not perfectly smooth, so there is some distortion. You could play around with it for a bit, or you could try Olham's idea:



So, if you took Olham's advice, you could find a pattern on line like this:


If you put that as a texture over your basic Nieuport skin, you would get this:

Interesting, but if you drop the opacity and change the layers properties, you get this:




These should help you line up some of the peculiar bumps and protrusions of your 3D model overlaid by a 2D skin... then just delete the grid layer when you are done!

Here, Cavaliere57 talks about selecting and changing colors directly, and uses Photoshop to do so:



Here is the basic Camel skin from which to start


starting from the background layer (the only one present at this point)select the upper wings and elevator surfaces


now with Ctrl-V copy the selection,and then Ctrl-C to paste it as a new layer,rename it as you wish,I use parts names


as you can see we have a new layer with only upper wings/elevator surfaces ( I have disabled the background layer to have a better view of it)


with the new layer active,from Selection menu,reselect again


from the Image menu,select the Substitute Color Tool


from the Substitute Color mask,clicking on the upper thumbnail,activate the color picker


point it to the brown on the wing


you now have a working color selection to work from,move the slider to the right to catch all the brown hues


now moving the lower sliders,get the color you aim for,desaturate always a bit and do not brighten too much,instead go for darker shades


now go again and select the lower wing/elevator surfaces,on a new layer, and chenge their color as well


we now have Green wings and light azure lower surfaces


From the Background layer,using the Lasso Tool instead of the previous Rectangular Selection Tool,select the lower fuselage section,as always Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to paste as a new layer,name it and go changin' the color again,but this time keep active the lower wings layer,so to match colors



repeat the process with the rudders


we now have a Camel with green body/wings and azure lower surfaces,and five more layers


starting always from Background layer,select (wit Round Selection Tool) the wheel,and repeat all the process



Now select with Rectangul selection Tool,the engine cowling,copy and paste as new layer,rename it,and create stripes like these,with the Rectangular selection tool,and color them as the fuselage



et voila,our Camel is nearly ready to go


Let's add an emblem and some text


save as .dds directly from Photoshop


and here we are!!





Sometimes layers can save you in a different way...
Here's the Amerispad skin I was working on for my latest challenge:

I spent quite a bit of time working on it and liked the basic idea, but when I looked at it in game, I was getting this:

It's not terrible, but it's just a bit too garish, too primary colors... Now I could go back and re-tune all the color layers, but I asked myself what I wanted to accomplish, and I decided I just wanted to take it down a notch, just de-saturate a bit on the added colors. So I created a new layer and put a bit of tan over the other colors:

Then by dropping the opacity of the new layer waaaaaay down, I got this:

In game, that looks like this:


which was much closer to what I wanted in the first place. Using a couple of layers like this, you could add progressive grime as you plane ages, if you want the ultimate realism, which that flag skin certainly isn't!

Nietzsche just revealed a fantastic new camel skin:


Here's how he did it:


Here's more Nietzsche goodness!








end result:

Nice job Rick I'm sure it will be easier to follow then documents.
Thanks.

Interesting Good job

Thanks, guys!

Yeah, even a bonehead like me was able to make a skin.

I need some help, please. I'm wanting to paste a purple heart onto the fuselage of my Pfalz, but all the .jpg files I find on the internet are hearts on a white or black background. The Pfalz fuselage is gray.

In gimp, is there a way to "lift" the heart off its white background and paste it onto the fuselage. The way I've tried so far, with mixed results, is to paste the the .jpg onto the fuselage as a new layer, then try to erase the white part around the heart. This is tedious and difficult. Thus, I'm hoping that there is a much easier way to accomplish this.

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

Slick, once you paste your heart in as a new layer, use the "magic wand" tool which looks, well, kind of like a magic wand! It is up by the lasso looking tool at the top of your tool dock. Touch the white area once and that should select all the white. Then right click and cut and it should be gone, with maybe some minimal erasure cleanup after. Let me know if that works or makes sense...

Thanks Rick! Your instructions worked perfectly. Great tutorial, too. I would be hopelessly lost without it.

Glad it worked!

I must be a bigger bone head.....still failed...

give us a bit on what's happening and we'll see if we can talk you through it!

Slick, you can also open the image "as layer", scale it to the size you want, right click on image, "layer", "transparency", "color to alpha". Whalah, only the image is left.

You could also use Select by Color

Always a million different ways to do something in these kinds of programs.

Wow, thanks MFair and pixelbaron! What an educational thread this is.

I got stickied! Woot! Woot! Thanks, whatever magical forum-powers-that-be that did that!

(this is for Photoshop or similar programs)

gaw, if you have more than one layer, make sure the layer you want to work on
is the activated one. Otherwise you cannot work on it's content.

If you have inserted a JPEG or whatever, and want to delete the white surrounding
your object:
- highlight the layer in the "layers" menue
- select the white with the "magic wand", and delete it with "delete"

It is also possible in Photoshop to open a JPEG or other picture, unlock the layer
in the "layers" menue (which puts the image over a transparent background now),
and then select and delete the white.
The image you now have - let's say a purple heart over a transparent background -
can be saved as a GIF format. A GIF allows transparency.

Now you could always copy and paste that Purple Heart GIF into any skin works,
and it should show no white surrounding.

What a Great little thread

Anyone know where the compass texture is for German planes?Fokker EI to be exact if they are different for the different models.

The interior model uses different textures from the exterior skin, as I'm sure you know. I haven't found them yet. Please post if you find them first!

I searched every file in the WOFF directory with no luck.Its no big deal as I just wanted to rotate the compass so that when I look at it I do not have to do the calculating in my noggin of where its actually pointing.

Hey guys, updated the 1st post with some more information. Will add more as I get the time!

Thanks for excellent tips. The charcoal Nieup is very beautiful

Alrighty...just downloaded Gimp and now am getting ready to watch the video.
Hopefully I'll be painting shortly. Always like a personal skin when I get 5 victories.
Kind of an award to myself especially since I don't often live that long.

EDIT: Very nice job on the video Rick. Even a graphics nit-wit like me should be able to do some passable work now.
Layers! Gotta remember to use layers!

Yes, forgetting to put everything in a new layer has caused me multiple headaches... also, don't forget that you can drag layers around in the layer dock to get the one you want on top, so if you can't see something, make sure that layer is above the others. Oh, and ask questions! We have some great artists on here and if you can think of something you want to try, they can point you in the right direction!

New tip added on the first post...

Awsome, Gimp has a Ruler ? Now maybe I can paint a strait Line.

Ha! carrick, I covered the hold-shift left click line drawing technique in the video!

The layer thing is working just fine though I find paint.net a little easier to use perhaps as I did a few skin mods in the OFF days.

One thing I am finding is with the opacity of colors on a layer. In the paint.net preview screen I give the color opacity so the original aircraft detail is still visible underneath. However in the sim the color looks quite solid with no detail visible.
Now this could be due to a million factors, lack of experience being A#1, but do you find in preview Gimp is more aucurate as to how the skin will look in-game? If you have any experience with both programs that is.

Hey Duke, I've never used paint.net, I think Louvert does though, and he gets masterful results, as you can see on the first page. Maybe he'll see this and chime in. Perhaps there is a "commit" option you need to click to get the preview to show up on the final screen? From what I've seen, GIMP is pretty much a WYSIWYG kind of deal:


It pretty much shows up as it will in-game.

Maybe post some screens of what you are geeting in paint, vs. how it looks in game and we can help more?

-Rick

Thanks.
I will have to "over opaque" in paint.net I think or give Gimp another throw round.
More experience may also be beneficial!

Just a question for aircraft that have numbers on the side of the fuselage.

If I look at the Camel_sqd_t the fuselages point left and right and the number is easily visible - B6224
If I look at the Default_t_1916_Bri of the Sopwith 1½ strutter both fuselage sides point left and one of the sets of numbers is a mirror image of 9488.

So, firstly, why is this? Secondly how do we do mirror image letters and numbers in GIMP?

Jim You can cut out the fuselage and flip it horizontal so it is not mirror, do the lettering, and flip it back.
This is a very brief description but I think it will give you a lead. You can also create a mask layer and then generate the letters and then flip it horizontal to get mirror image and then place it appropriately

Thanks I'll give it a try. I want to create the most famous Camel of all - B6313

That camel was already created by me in OFF and now it exists in WOFF. In all it's variants
I believe it is still available as a download from CA

Sorry I'm jumping in late on this thread...

Always remember, you make the skin to fit the model. However the model is set to map to the skin position is how you have to setup the detail and additional artwork of the skin template. So there are many trips to the drome to take to test everything out that you add in.

OvS

Thanks for this tutorial Rick.
I've taken my first tentative steps with a custom skin as a result.

Good for you, man! It can be addictive! Make sure you start a new thread to introduce your pilot and your skin, we love PICS!

My first attempt is really basic. Not worth a new thread. I have simply extended 54 squadron's themes (Number and Initials) to my pilot, painted the rear part of the cowling and added a ring to the wheels for ease of identification.

There are scratches that I have painted in to the panels that really don't show. It's a really simple skin, but it is my first, so that's what you would expect. I hope anyway.

That looks very convincing, it really ties the room together! Much better than my first effort... keep up the great work, Maeran.

Help! I'm trying to complete my first skin and I've watched the skinning tutorial and when he gets to the part where he is saving his skin in GIMP to the extended bmp, he selects it from a drop-down menu that has a number of extension options. My problem is when I try to do that in GIMP I only have about 4 options and I definitely don't have the Windows bmp option. What do I do?

I forgot to mention, I'm using GIMP 2.8.

Hey SOGriffin

You actually want to click "File" and then "Export", not save, then all those options will be available!

Also, make sure you click "Advanced Options" and save it at 24 bit:

Hope that helps! Show us a picture when you are done!

Thanks Rick, I was able to save the file, but now in the game when I select my skin it doesn't select it.

Ok, so once you saved it as a windows bitmap, you opened it in dxtbmp and saved as a.dds file in the correct folder following the naming convention? Talk me through what you've done a bit and we'll see if we can get you back on track...

That was the strangest thing, I was able to save it as a DDS file into the correct folder but when I would select it for my pilot it would assign a different skin. I had saved it with my pilot's name and so on a whim I changed it to my real name and that worked. I'm really puzzled by this one. Anyway, I've included a screenshot of my first skin. It's real simple, I just took the standard skin for Jasta 1 and added an emblem.

In case I've forgotten, thanks for the tutorial. It really helped a lot and has gotten me excited about creating some original skins. When you save them, do you save them under your character's name or under a totally different naming convention?

I'm glad it worked for you, that looks like a great start! Honestly, I don't really understand the naming convention, sometimes it works for me sometimes not. I just pick an ace's name with the same plane in the same squad and erase his name and put mine, even preserving the underscores. Maybe Olham or someone who has a better handle on what's important will chime in. Keep us posted on your progress!

Hey Rick, check out my new skin for my pilot flying for Jasta 4. He is from a minor noble family in Silesia and I thought it would be cool to include the lower Silesian coat of arms since he is from Gorlitz. Anyway, what do you think?

That looks great! Size and centering look good, color palette fits nicely, well done sir!

Thanks, part of the role playing for me is to use the default skin for the Jasta and assume that my pilot would start with that. Anyway, I've definitely been bitten by the skinning bug.

SOGriffin;

Lovely skin and at leas for awhile you will lose some flying time to your new hobby.....skinning!!

It's been a long while since I've done any skinning, but last night I gave it another go. I modified a Jasta 5 Albatros. I opened it with DXT Bitmap & passed it on to Photoshop CS3, did the work, and saved it back to the OFF Skins folder as a .dds. But it won't show up in the skins list in Quick Combat. So I dragged it to the desktop and put it in the WOFF Skins. Still...no go. Here what I titled it. Any ideas on why it doesn't want to show?

off_Alb_DV_later_Ace_t_Jasta 5 1917_Hauksbee.dds

Once we get this sorted, is it possible to preface the Skin title with *, or _, so it appears at the top of the list? (t'would save search time since there's a lot of them.)

Well, there's a couple of possibilities here. One is you may have modded a DVa (for example) skin but labeled it something different and then selected the wrong Albatros type in the QC menu... I have done that before. Try picking some of the other Albatros types and see if it shows up. I have also done everything correctly and it still didn't work. If you can't find it as one of the other Albatros types, delete it from both skins folders, restart your computer and run it through DXTBMP saving it in the campaign skins folder and run WOFF again. Let us know if either of those work and we can take it from there!

Thanks, Rick. I've already checked every Alb. variant. It doesn't show up at all. I'll delete and run DXT Bitmap tomorrow.

Maybe exit WOFF and try again to refresh the skins list?

One thing I have noticed is that WOFF is very particular on how the skin is named.
For example I put DIH in the name of the skin and it would not show in-game. Showed in the list, and was selectable but it would not appear in flightt - the default skin would.
I had to change it to D I H (just as an example) to get it show actually in flight.

It doesn't look like it wants to work. I dragged it from the OFF Skins, to the Desktop, launched DXT Bitmap, chose Adobe CS3 as the Editor, sent the .dds skin to Photoshop, then saved the Photoshop back to WOFF Skins as .dds. When I go to QC there are only four personal skins listed, plus a dozen or so which are just by Jasta and date.

Hauksbee, if you can, send me the bitmap file and I will see if I can get it to work. I sent you the address in a pm.

Ok, Wow, made some headway for you, Hauksbee...

Good and bad news. Sometimes you have to add the file to the skin folder, run WOFF, take it out, run it again and put it back before it will work, I have no idea why...

Here's what I got to:

Which gave me the default Albatros skin the first time but when I went through the above rigamarole, it worked!

Now, you'll notice things don't quite line up... so I did some investigating and it looks like you used an Albatros DIII as your base skin, which does not line up with the DV series base skins, especially in the wheels...
If you use something like Irfanview, you can cycle through the Albatros skins and you will see the components are not all in the same spot on the template...
So, a quick rename later produced this:



which looks like this:




if you wanted to continue the texture onto the top of the fuselage (which I am suspecting you do) from looking at the bottom picture, I think you can see what you need to fix.

So, here's what you can do...
Enjoy your Albatros DIII career by renaming your skin :

Off_Alb_DIII_OAW_t_Jasta 5 1917_Hauksbee

Or, through some clever cutting and pasting, you can transfer your skin to the DV skin you want, in which case I named it:

off_Alb_DV_later_Ace_t_Jasta 5 1917_Hauksbee_1

Remember, from Photoshop, you want to export it to a Windows Bitmap at 24 bits, run it in DXTBMP and save as a .dds to


Phew... let me know if that makes sense...or works!

That was some fancy footwork, Rick. Thank you very, very much. This morning, I also noticed that I had forgotten to continue the stripping over the top deck. (asleep at the switch)

Your instructions seem pretty straightforward. I'll jump on this tomorrow and report back. Thanks again!

No problem, I really like the design, can't wait to see it finished!

Forgot to ask if it is absolutely necessary to export from Photoshop at 24bit Bit Map, then run it thru DXTBitmap to a .dds, when it's possible to Save As .dds from Photoshop itself. This is what I was doing before, and might be part of my problem.

Yeah, I would try running it through dxtbmp and see if it works more consistently.

Rick:

'Near as I can see, you can't Export from Photoshop as a 24-bit Bitmap. The choices I get on Export are:
Data Sets As Files... (grayed out)
Paths to Illustrator...
Render Video...
Send Video Preview to Device...
Video Preview...
Zoomify...

If I settle for a simple 'Save As Bitmap" will that be 24 bit?

I think so...I do everything in GIMP. Try it and see if it works...

Well...I finished the skin. I made two .dds files, one each with the naming suggestions you offered. Nothing shows in the lists. I tried taking one out, leaving the other. Then launching WOFF, closing out, re-starting and checking. No go. Did a re-start of the computer. Still nothing. Where to...?

Hauksbee;

I'm coming late to this thread but you could try this to help narrow down the problem.
Take one of your .dds files and rename it to exactly the same as an "HA" that already exists, but append the number 2 as the last character in the name.It should now show up in the list.

Also make sure that the squadron you are planning to use it in actually has this type of aircraft or it won't show up in the list.

If you have already tried this, then I suspect there is some problem with the rendering of the .dds file and that it is not the proper .dds type.

Hope this helps

Hauksbee,shoot them back to me at that same email address and I will try to get them running and then send them back to you!

Greetings, Robert. I am sad to report that I came a cropper on your suggestions too. First, this is a Jasta 5 skin. In QC I have the date set at 1917. I've got my area set to Flanders, the airfield Boistrancourt. (Jasta 5 flew out of Boistrancourt from March 11, 1917...for a year.)

I tried re-naming my skin with the text from a HA, Kurt Student. I appended the '_2'. No go. Tried doing a re-start. Nothing.

I find it odd that when I choose a D.V, and go to skin it, there are no Jasta 5's on the list. Here's all that shows:
Jasta 12 Adolph von Tutschek
Jasta 21 Eduard Ritter von Schleich
Jasta 27 Hermann Goring
Jasta 32 Rudolph Windisch
Then a list of Jastas only: 10/12/13/17/17 19172/21/27/32/ & Default

I then decided to modify with a name that did show up in the lists. I named my skin with the text from Eduard Ritter von Schleich (_2) It too, did not appear among the WOFF skins. Playing a long-shot, I added it to the OFF skins. Still nothing. Did another re-start. All same-same.

Rick: I will be sending on my original Photoshop doc., plus the Eduard von Schleich_2 doc. Thanks, guys.

Whew, OK, Hauksbee, don't feel too bad, I had a nightmare getting this to work, so it's not just you. One thing I noticed if you want to use this as a DV, you still have an Albatros DIII skin as your base, so when I loaded it as an Albatros DV skin, it looked like this:

You can see where the arrows above point to, the textures don't match up. Here's why:

As you can see, your wheel texture is located where the DIII wheel is on the right, not where the DV wheel is in the middle.
When I loaded it up as a DIII, it looked great!



What I would do is to open up any DV skin in Photoshop and then (in new layers of course!) cut and paste your elements over where the DV elements are. Everything should be ok then.

Now, for a couple of thigs...

1) I used your .bmp, so the 24 bit thing shouldn't be a problem.

2) When you dxtbmp it, make sure you save it in this format:


3) With all of that, I still had a hell of a time getting it to register in game (no problem selecting it, it just wouldn't be that skin when I loaded) I've had this happen a lot with my own skins. I would put it in the folder, run the game, take it out, run the game again, put it back...blah. What I think finally worked was that I tried to select it, exited the mission when it wasn't the right skin, went back to the main menu, alt-tabbed out of the game, renamed it in the skins folder ( I just changed the squad number) and then ran it and it finally worked! So don't give up, the file is OK, it's almost like you have to fool the game into selecting the new skin and then everything is cool.

4. Also, working with Albatroses is difficult, because the name in the game is different from the skin name. So an uprated DV in the game is a DV 200 skin (or vice verse, can't remember). You're right, there aren't that many DV ace skins and none of them from Jasta 5. When you make the changes to the skin above, just name it in a squad that has aces in it (so off_Alb_DV_Ace_t_Jasta 10 1917_Hauksbee, for example) and it should work. After doing all the tricks I said above, of course!

I'm going to send you back the .dds as an Albatros DIII so you can at least enjoy your hard work. Put it in the campaigns/skins folder and let me know if it works!

RR

Well, I'm back to it, and still no success. This time I decided to take a skin that was already in the list and modify it. I chose Werner Voss. I opened the Voss skin, then opened mine, and copied the top 4/5 and pasted it into Voss. Then saved it as DDS DXT1 (No Alpha) and went to QC. My "Voss" skin does not appear. Tried re-starting. No go. I continued to work at it and things got stranger. I found it difficult to find the skin I wanted in DXT Bitmap. The little bitty search window only displays three names at a time and it got tedious (quickly) paging through them. Plus, I couldn't be absolutely certain that I got them all. So I opened the C: drive so I could see the skins in a full page format, and dragged all the Voss skins to a folder on the desktop. I re-made the Voss/Hauksbee skin and re-inserted it into the skins folder. It is now the only one. 'Went to QC>Field and there's an Alb. with a Jasta 2 skin! Even though both Jasta 2's are on the desktop. I pulled my skin out. Now there are no Voss skins at all. Went to the Field and there it was again: Jasta 2. For some reason, my skin is invisible even though I did not alter the naming at all. In fact, that was why I chose Voss in the first place: just do a quick paste-in and save it back. How would the game know I had even been there?

Other oddities are; There's a Jasta 5 skin, and a Jasta 29 skin listed for Voss in QC, but those skins do not appear in the skins folder. Furthur, there are names that appear in the skins folder, like Bruno Loezer (always loved that skin) who do not appear in the QC queue, no matter which D.III variant you chose. Is Loezer chooseable at all?

So...that's the current state of my confusion.
.

Hey, Hauksbee, skin looks great! If you look under the aircraft folder you will see that each aircraft has some default skins, that is probably where the game is pulling them from. My recommendation at this point is to post some detailed screenshots of what you are naming things and where you are putting them. That might help us track down the problem. None of the files you have sent me have been bad, so I am guessing a naming or placing error

Rick: Not sure what you mean by "under the aircraft folder". Where is that? Recall that I pulled all the Voss skins out of "Skins" and stashed them in a desktop folder. Then I put one back and altered it. Did not change the file name in any way. Then I launched WOFF and tried to QC with each of the D.III variants. Instead of getting my skin, WOFF chose a Jasta 14 skin every time. Where is that coming from? It's in the desktop folder! My Voss skin is not being stored in the "Default" folder either. I launched each of the D.III's with Default skins. They're all different. That only leaves us with 'placement error'. How to unravel that?
.

Hey Hauksbee, this is where you are putting your skin and where you have pulled them from:

Now, if you look at this path:

you will notice that each aircraft has a "default" folder which I believe is where the game pulls the texture from if there is something "wrong" with the skin you call for. So I think that is where you are getting your textures from. Now in game, you should be seeing something like this in the QC:

So if you can select the skin you want from the pulldown box, it means that the "naming" of it is correct. The reason it shows up as a different skin in game is...something I have never figured out. I suspect there is some log file that has to be overwritten that keeps your last skin memorized for speed...maybe? Perhaps a dev or someone more knowledgeable than me will chime in. If you are getting to this point, try the tip I outlined above:



It's a pain, but once it works once, you shouldn't have any further problems. Let me know if that works or if I am right on where you are in the process!

R

Back again. First, it's not a matter of selecting the skin I want, and then having a different one appear in the game. In your pulldown box, you have "Hauksbee" appearing. I can't get that far. Second, for the D.III skins, you have a significently different list of pilots. My list is:
Lowenhardt
Voss
v. Richtofen
Voss
Sturm
Strobel
Nathanel
Rumey

It's as though we're dealing from two different decks. And then there are the pilots that I know are in the Skins List, but never appear in the pulldown. Like Bruno Loezer. What's with that?

I thought I might be able to do an end-run around this jinx by simply doing another skin. I did a Dr.1 (Kempf's "kennst mi'noch") I went through the same process (1) Do the skin, changing only my name for his. No go. (2) Keep the name untouched, and paste my skin over his. Nothing there either.

I feel that somehow, my Skins Folder is not playing by the same set of rules as everyone else's.
.

Hmm, you should be putting them in the folder from my top screenshot... the blahblahblah/CampaignData/skins folder. If you are, it should appear in the pulldown box if you a) named it in an acceptable format (which I would guess you did if you just copied another ace name) and b) the name agrees with the type of skin you selected i.e. trying to select a DIII early when you named it as DIII updated. If all those things check out, you may want to try a fresh install? Sounds like a pain, but this seems unusually difficult...

It's looking like you're right: a re-install is the way to go. Just to be sure I've got this right (and perhaps belaboring the obvious into the bargain) you're not (are you?) suggesting me putting my skins in the "aircraft" folder? The Campaign>campaign data>skins is the right choice? Because that's where they've all gone...back to where I got them originally.

Correct, campaigndata/skins is where they should be. Good luck!

As for Rick Rawlings request I post here my solution for Hauksbee skin problem.First error he made was the choice of texture file,he wanted to create an Alb DV "later" skin,but started out with an Alb D III "early" skin,and so incurred in wrong texture mapping over the 3D model,you can see it clearly from the screenshot:



you can see the mapping errors
now a screen with the DIII "early" and the same texture,it's perfect!



then the main thing was to correct the file name he had this off_Alb_DV_later_Jasta 21 1917_Eduard Ritter von_Schleich_2.dds
WOFF does not like anything after "name_surname" statement,so off_Alb_DV_later_Jasta 21 1917_Eduard Ritter von_Schleich2.dds
that's it.
EDIT:
just a bit more advices,if you can, use Adobe Photoshop,and stick to version CS6 (64 bit for windows 7 64 bit users) that's because that way you can benefit from N'vidia Tools,for perfect conversion to .dds file type,you don't need an external format converter,you can open them directly from Photoshop and save them from there.Later versions (Creative Cloud or CC) are not supported anymore by N'Vidia Tools,so far so....another advice it's to grab Sagethumbs this simple software makes you visualize .dds files into Windows explorer as thumbnails,and right clicking it it displays a bigger image with all data about the texture file,very usefull,no need to external viewing softwares anymore.

(Hauksbee here) Getting back to my skinning problem, I believe the above quote holds, and I need a re-install. It worked when (for reasons unknown) I lost all the Albatros skins. On that occasion, I simply bought another copy of WOFF. Fool that I was, I did not make a back-up copy. Now I need one. I find on the WOFF Home Page that a Duplicate copy can be got for a $5.00 charge. But I don't see anything clickable to make this happen. Could someone point me in the right direction?

[/quote]

(Hauksbee here) Getting back to my skinning problem, I believe the above quote holds, and I need a re-install. It worked when (for reasons unknown) I lost all the Albatros skins. On that occasion, I simply bought another copy of WOFF. Fool that I was, I did not make a back-up copy. Now I need one. I find on the WOFF Home Page that a Duplicate copy can be got for a $5.00 charge. But I don't see anything clickable to make this happen. Could someone point me in the right direction? [/quote]


"NOTE : If you lose the file and wish a new download link to be generated we will require an admin fee of $5 per item. So please back it up! to save us time and you money!"

That's from the WOFF website
If you have the email they sent you for downloading,or a proof of your acquired copy of WOFF try to ask for a new download link it's that easy,and probably contacting Polowski will smooth things out ;-)
Also You did not even replied to my mail where I showed you that your skins worked fine on my WOFF,and asked about your WOFF version to try to understand what your problem could be,sometimes I feel that helping people out it's a waste of time.

Cavaliere57: Please, accept my apologies. I did reply. First, you sent me five e-mails over a few days, some in response to my questions. The two most important were (1) you explained in detail that I had tried to put a D.V skin on a D.III, and that I had made serious mistakes in naming the file. Shortly after, you sent (2) an e-mail with 2.jpegs, one showing the skin on the wrong plane, and one on the right plane. Also you attached a copy (.dds) of my skin, properly named. I've had a lot on my plate in the last days here, and it took me a few days to get some quiet time to sit down with WOFF. First, I took the .dds copy you sent and dropped it in the Skins Folder. It does not show up in QC. I then re-opened the original file, made a few miniscule changes and saved out, being very careful to name properly according to your example. I did the same with a Dr.1 skin. Neither show up. At this point, I'm sure that my mistakes, bad as they might be, are not at the root of the problem. Both you and Rick Rawlings got the skins to work.

It was at this point that I e-mailed you back and attached the D.III and Dr.1 skins, asking you to test them for me. If you could drop them in your Skins Folder and have them work, that would be proof positive that I need a re-install. Somehow, regrettably, that e-mail has not gotten to you.

I understand you would be miffed at silence from my end, but it was accidental. Again, I apologize. I very much appreciate the help that you and Rick have given me.

Yeah, sounds like a re-install is the best bet. That will give us a good clean slate to work with, if nothing else. I know it's a pain, but it will be good to see you get those lovely skins in the air!

Robert I sent you back screenshots with the DIII and DR1 skins perfectly working on my WOFF,I suppose that mail got missed somewhere? Anyway here they are:

Thank you, Peter. The only thing I can think of is that it got sucked up in the SPAM filter. Since my ISP only saves 18-20 entries on a single page, there's no way to go back and look for it. Anyway, now I know that neither the skins nor the naming are at fault. I can get on with doing a re-install. Once again, I appreciate your help.

Yes I suppose you will have to do a clean reinstall,I don't see any other way to overcome this problem of yours.
Save your skins somewhere so you'll be able to reuse them later on.

Rick asked me to explain a couple of things after i published my Camel skin,in the screenshot thread,here we go.
I use Photoshop CS6 64bit,but it applies with most all versions of Photoshop,except probably those prior to the CS series but only because something has changed in the Tools menu,basically they relocated something here and there.
*Part One*

Here is the basic Camel skin from wich to start


starting from the background layer (the only one present at this point)select the upper wings and elevator surfaces


now with Ctrl-V copy the selection,and then Ctrl-C to paste it as a new layer,rename it as you wish,I use parts names


as you can see we have a new layer with only upper wings/elevator surfaces ( I have disabled the background layer to have a better view of it)


with the new layer active,from Selection menu,reselect again


from the Image menu,select the Substitute Color Tool


from the Substitute Color mask,clicking on the upper thumbnail,activate the color picker


point it to the brown on the wing


you now have a working color selection to work from,move the slider to the right to catch all the brown hues


now moving the lower sliders,get the color you aim for,desaturate always a bit and do not brighten too much,instead go for darker shades


now go again and select the lower wing/elevator surfaces,on a new layer, and chenge their color as well


we now have Green wings and light azure lower surfaces

*Part Two*
From the Background layer,using the Lasso Tool instead of the previous Rectangular Selection Tool,select the lower fuselage section,as always Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to paste as a new layer,name it and go changin' the color again,but this time keep active the lower wings layer,so to match colors



repeat the process with the rudders


we now have a Camel with green body/wings and azure lower surfaces,and five more layers


starting always from Background layer,select (wit Round Selection Tool) the wheel,and repeat all the process



Now select with Rectangul selection Tool,the engine cowling,copy and paste as new layer,rename it,and create stripes like these,with the Rectangular selection tool,and color them as the fuselage



et voila,our Camel is nearly ready to go


Let's add an emblem and some text


save as .dds directly from Photoshop


and here we are!!

Does anyone know how to get a skin to work for an aircraft that does not already have ace skins? I want to do one for my 'new' Aviatik BI.

Yes,it's in the naming of the file,this Camel for example was taken from the Squadron pool,no ace name,so the naming must be like this Off_Camel_ace_t_RNAS 8 1917_name_surname.dds
of course plane type,squadron and pilot name,can be of your choice,but you have to specify name_surname otherwise it will not work.This is for WOFF,in OFF was simpler than this, you could put whatever you liked in pilot's name.

Thank you Cavalier57, it was the 'Off' part from the beginning of the name that I was missing. It works now!

Okay, I've tried to make a Tutorial about Layers and Transparency for the Gimp. I hope, that I managed to make it understandable for those, who are relatively new to the Gimp as well (that was my focus)

Neat, thanks.

That's fantastic, when I'm not on my kindle, I will edit it into the first post, thanks!

Relieving
It is somewhat complicated: You want to explain something to someone, whom you don't see, and have no Idea, if anyone exept yourself understands, what you are saying
...reminds me of this old Cartoonist-Joke:

How to draw an Owl:
Step 1: Draw some Circles - Step 2: Draw the rest of the f...... Owl

Edited you in, thanks Nietzsche!

Gents, I have not followed or even studied this thread, but I would like to contribute
something here for all the new "skinners".
I have researched the German Lozenge camouflage a bit (mostly at THE AERODROME website).
I also saw Lozenge fabric on a Halberstadt tailplane in the BERLINER TECHNIKMUSEUM, and took a photo.

From what I have found, I have then made 5-colour and 4-colour Lozenge fabric for both, upper and lower surfaces.
Lozenge camo was screen-printed on endless panels of canvas with a width of ca. 4.5 feet (if I remember that correct).

My 'panels' here are layed out horizontally, but on an aircaft wing they were used "vertically", or better: in flight-direction.
Everyone can copy and use my Lozenge camo for their own skins - enjoy the skinning!

Nicely done , sir! I will edit this into the main post when I get a chance!

Yes, sure, Rick - my pleasure!

Great Research, Olham
...just grabbed the Pics - this will make Skinning so much easier!

Thanks, Nietzsche!

Complicated ? its clear as Mud to me. On the other hand, I did find a place on the web to copy from: Might not be original colors,but some do look nice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lozenge_camouflage

OMG, I think I did it albeit, I spent all day. Thanks Olham and Hasse U guys inspire me.


image upload no limit


image ru


image upload without registration

mmmm...lozengey!

Here's a link for a site with MarkMiller's research on Lozenge camouflage.
He tried to get the colour "right", with several others.
But from the few samples still around, I guess they couldn't nail it down.
There were no industrialised standars for such productions in those days.

By working after colour photos, you can still get easily led wrong.
Using flash light in a museum, the colours can wrong.
Warm light also changes the colours.

Millers own works near the bottom don't look bad (compare with my photo),
but I think he got the medium blue to "violettish".

http://www.wwi-models.org/misc/Colors/German/loz2/

PS: ...here is another link, to ARIZONA MODELS page with Lozenge camo.

Lou: "...Glad you like the looks of Hellshade's Pup. I used the graphics from a Tripehound I did for him back in OFF thinking it would be an easy migration across. It was not. But my kung fu is strong and we got 'er done. I like your devil layout as well, very nice. I had a hunch you had tried to swap from another Sopwith to the Pup thinking things would all line up. I tried the same thing myself and did not check the end results right away. Live and learn, eh?"

Yes, checking your Work in the Game is essential. Not only to see, if everything is aligned properly, one has to reajust the Colors, too, quite often. Some Skins look great on the Graphics Program, but are way too colorful for the actual Environment.
I consider the Pup quite difficult to paint, especially the Engine-Cowl-Area.

(I took the Liberty to move our Discussion here... easier to find, later)

Quick question. Is it possible to have a custom skin in the Campaign for the user player?

I can find the skin in the QC and it works great.

Dark_Canuck, yes you can. That's why most of us skin.

Okay awesome. Is it a matter of naming convention i.e. Off_(aircraft type)_ace_t_(squadron) (year)_(your pilot name?

Yep, just look at the existing skins in the game and name yours to match that.

Thanks Banjoman!

I hadnt selected the skin in the loadout screen.

Hmm. Can anyone spot where the orange band on teh engine cowl is coming from?


Thanks!

I'm afraid is the bottom of the engine cowling "band".

Follow with your eyes from the top left corner of the wing with the Union Jack to the left.

If I were you I'd remove a bit of that (or paint it green for example) and check again.

That was it! Thanks! I didn't notice when I had copied over the lower wing to the upper how much of the cowl got covered up.

No bother. Doing skins myself I developed an eye for this kind of things!
Glad I helped. Take care.

User Submitted Skin Pack

Can be obtained at the Wings Over Flanders Fields website

1. All rights to the original artworks are retained by OBD software.
2. DO NOT contact OBD software with any questions or issues regarding this pack. This is user generated software and will not be supported by the creators of Wings Over Flanders Fields.
3. This pack may only be distributed with the included readme texts and only in a non-commercial manner.

Directions
To utilize this pack, please unzip the skins to the following directory:

Computer >Local Disk (C:) >OBDSoftware> WOFF> OBDWW1 Over Flanders Fields > campaigns > CampaignData > skins

You will see the new skins in your folder:


Contributers are: Aris Fuser (A), Banjoman (BJM), Burning Beard (BB), carrick58 (c58), Manitouguy (M), maxpeck (MP), Nietzsche (N), Olham (O), RAF Louvert (L or Lou), Rick Rawlings (RR), Robert Wiggins (RW)


To remove them at any time, simply type “Joe Doe” in the search bar in the upper right hand of the Window you are in and delete all files that show up:



Viewing

You can view each paint submission using a .dds viewer like Irfan View found here:
http://www.irfanview.com/

Renaming

You can see from the picture below that while the N17 and N23 are the same, the N24 is different and can’t be covered with a simple file name change.




Skins for the Albatros D.III (early) can also be used for the Albatros D.III
or the Albatros D.III OAW, if the user changes the file name like this:
from
Off_Alb_DIII_early_t_Jasta 2 1917_Joe_Doe
to
Off_Alb_DIII_t_Jasta 2 1917_Joe_Doe
or
Off_Alb_DIII_OAW_t_Jasta 2 1917_Joe_Doe

Same goes for the Albatros D.V (early version with the hunchback), and the
Albatros D.V (uprated)

from
off_Alb_DV_later_Ace_t_Jasta 5 1917_Joe_Doe
to
off_Alb_DV_Ace_t_Jasta 5 1917_Joe_Doe

(Thanks to Olham for Albatros submissions!)

So find the name of the skin that you want to change to in the skins folder and use that naming convention.

This is the list of compatible planes that I know of:

Albatros D.III Early, DIII, DIII OAW
Albatros DV, DV later, DVa
Airco DH2, DH2 mid
Fokker DVII, DVII OAW, DVIIF
Fokker EI, EII, EIII – oddly, the EIV Rudder is moved, a little clever cut and pasting would make it work…
Halberstadt DII, DIII – is the DIII in the game or is that a typo?
Nieuport 11, 16
Nieuport 17, 17 Lewis, 23
Nieuport 17 bis, 24 look close enough to work, the rudder is a tiny bit different. 27 matches 24
SE5, SE5a, SE5a viper
SPAD VII and XIII are close; you may be able to get away with it…


Troubleshooting

Sometimes the skin will not show the first time you try to load it (or the second or the third!) It seems WOFF can be a bit finicky about displaying new skins and needs some coaxing. Here are some tips:

1. Exit the QC screen back to WOFF shell, alt-tab out, rename the skin in the skins folder, go back into WOFF shell, re-enter the QC screen, re-select the skin and then launch.
2. Do the same above, but in the main WOFF screen, select a pilot from the “other side” of the conflict and start one QC, exit back to the shell, switch to your regular pilot and try running it again.
3. Pol suggests maybe deleting the .bdp for the QC1 aircraft before you start as a last resort.

The Halberstadt D2 "Shark-Skin" was indeed intended for use with the Halberstadt D3. This Plane really exists in WOFF (it came with V2, I think). It is the Halb, that doesn't sound like a Fiat 500
One doesn't find any Skins for it in the Folder, because it is only using the Default one.
I haven't tested the Shark on the D2, but it looks like it should fit...

Heh, thanks, I was wondering why it was the only one!

Now on the User Mods Page:

http://www.sandbagger.uk.com/indexWOFF.html

Thanks, Sandbagger, Good form!

First, thanks to Rick Rawlings and everyone else who contributed to this thread. It clarified a lot of issues for me.
What I wanted to share is in reference to naming skins.
I have been sim-flying with Jasta 13 for the past few months and have gotten rather fond of some of the AI that I fly with every day, particularly Ltn Heinrich Breidt. When the Jasta received upgraded aircraft, exchanging their old Alb DIII early for Alb DV upgraded (well into Sept 1917, were not exactly a top notch outfit in a hot area), some of my old AI Ace comrades had no skin for this aircraft. So I took the basic Jasta 13 skin, added their old logos and stipes or what have you to it with Gimp. When I put it back with DXTbmp as a DDS file I just put their name on it, in the proper format and when I went to the next mission, VOILA, there was Heinrich Breidt with his white band with two red stripes on a new machine. I guess because he has the Ace status as an AI the game latches onto it for the graphics.
Just thought it might be of interest. JH

Nice! First off, welcome to the forums! Second off, I'm glad it worked out for you on the first try, naming conventions seem to be tricky at times...I bet you're right and it does search for an ace skin before pulling the default squadron one, good find! Third off, make sure you drop down to the regular forum and say "Hi!" so everyone else can give you a proper welcome!

Hi Rick! Thank so much for taking the time to do a tutorial on how to skin aircraft in WOFF. I think I will dip my toes into the world of skinning this summer and pick up the software you recommended. Looks fascinating!

I hope it goes well for you, let us know if you have any problems and definitely post the results!

Hi there. Don't know if you guys knew this looking through these pages, but you don't need to be messing around with DXTBMP at all, it's just an extra unnecessary step to your workflow.

Gimp can open, edit, save and generate mipmaps for .dds files on it's own by downloading the free plugin here and installing it :

Gimp .dds Plugin

and Photoshop can do the same with this free plugin from Nvidia :

Photoshop .dds plugin from Nvidia

This will save a lot of time when skinning or editing textures in general.

Hope this helps someone, cheers!

Thanks 4L0M. Just downloaded and tested. Works just fine. Should we be loading the mipmaps when opening DDS to edit skins? Also, when saving DDS what settings should be used for compression, format, mipmaps etc to work with WOFF?

Good point, 4LOM, I will edit and attribute that into the first thread when I get a chance. Thanks!