Ok guys, let's all get skinning...hmm, that doesn't sound quite right. Well, Pol has tentatively ok'd hosting a Custom Paint Pack depending on what we come up with. So pick your best ones that you would like to volunteer up for others to use. Or, if you ever wanted a chance to go all out, now would be a good time to produce your masterpiece. Also, if you have any requests, this would be a good place to request them I'll leave this thread up for, oh let's say a month, before submitting.

To participate:

Please send only the .dds file to me at RickRawlings1917xxxx@gmail.com. Please remove the x's from that email address and you've got it.

For naming convention, please follow the form:
Off_(aircraft type)_ace_t_(squadron) (year)_(Joe_Doe_Your Forum Name First Initial)
so for example:
Off_Alb_DIII_ace_t_Jasta 12 1917_Joe_Doe_R if I was submitting my paint scheme from the last challenge.

You may submit as many as you want, but try to avoid sending ones with very minor changes, like just the wheel covers or something. Maybe we can even vote on the best!

The file will include the submissions and a read.me containing instructions and copyright information reserving original skin rights to their owners. Hopefully, Robert will be nice enough to JSGexpealadocious it for us!

So again, just for simplicity's sake, let's say that Nov 1 will be the cutoff for submissions. C'mon, let's try to get the veterans and newer folks alike! MFair, carrick58, I've seen great things from you guys lately!

Nice idea sir!

Brilliant

I will send you any that I do

I´ll get some of mine sent to you Robert

I won't be submitting any, but I'll download what you guys make.

Aris

They are supposed to go to Rick first.

Cheers

Hey! I already got my first submission and thankfully he reminded me to tell you something that will make my life easier: If your forum name is significantly different from you email name, please add it in the email so we can get attribution where it goes!

YeeEeAaaahhh
I'll take a Look into my Skins and paint some extra ones... I think I'll definitely will sent you "The Flying Copycats" - SE5a amongst others...

...to avoid spamming you, Rick... are 10 Skins or so okay? ...or is that too much?

Send them along! If Pol ends up giving me any size restrictions, we may have to cull a few but for now, have at them! It would probably be useful if we could complete the series if it's not too much work. That is, if you make one for a SPAD VII, if you could also do the XIII that will help people who want to use them in the campaign. It would be much harder to do going from the DII to the DIII, however, because of the base skins, it's not just cutting and pasting.

Also, Pol said to be careful about re-importing and exporting the .dds files as this can lead to compression artifacts, I asked for a screenshot example as I am not exactly sure how this would look...

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How many do you want Rick? I have - ummmm - a few.

.

Oh, that's because of the Compression itself:
If you compress a .dds-file over and over again, it turns from a Picture to a Collection of a few, big quads.
If you want to work on a File, the first Thing you should do is to convert it into something uncompressed - so you can work on it and save it repeatedly, without loosing Quality.

Based on what I have seen of your work I am sure that I speak for the community when I say we will take all you got!

This is better than

Great idea, Rick - I'll see what I can send to you.

Four skins sent. Check your inbox

Rick, I have sent 6 skins - pls confirm the mail, when they arrived, okay?

One good advice you might want to tell the future users in post #1

Skins for the Albatros D.III (early) can also be used for the Albatros D.III
or the Albatros D.III OAW, if the users changes the file name like this:

from
Off_Alb_DIII_early_t_Jasta 2 1917_Werner 'Bubi'_Voss
to
Off_Alb_DIII_t_Jasta 2 1917_Werner 'Bubi'_Voss
or
Off_Alb_DIII_OAW_t_Jasta 2 1917_Werner 'Bubi'_Voss


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_Paul_Baumer
to
off_Alb_DV_Ace_t_Jasta 5 1917_Paul_Baumer

Thanks Olham.
As the "King of the Alb Skins" I am looking forward to seeing your stuff.
Don't forget the DIII (Early) and DIII if you can find the time.
That's the plane I most often die in - might as well do it in style!

Duke, I have sent the following skins to Rick:

- off_Alb_DIII_early_ace_t_MFJ I Swordfish

- off_Alb_DV_ace_t_Jasta 17 1917 Windrose

- off_Alb_DV_ace_t_Jasta 17 1917 Germanic

- off_Alb_DV_later_ace_t_Jasta 1 1917 RedStripes

- off_Alb_DV_later_ace_t_Jasta 28w 1917 Wasp

- off_Alb_DVa_ace_t_Jasta 50 1917 Blacknose


I'll see if I have more D.III skins - there should be some which I could send.

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You've got mail, Rick.

.

Thanks Olham.
I know your a DV man so I appreciate it.

Rick, just sent my submission.

Best Regards;

.

The skins I am contributing to the pack are a mix of fictional and historical and even include a few SPAD skins for the Italian Front, just for fun. Some of these skins have been made available in the past but as the point of Rick's project is to collect them all into one pack I am offering them again.



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And a fine collection they are Sir, and very much in keeping with the quality of your library which we all envy!

Not only am I impressed by the skins, but also by how the ground terrain looks consistant.
It's like viewing a trail cam mounted on a deerstand.

Guys, we already have over 40 submissions! Pretty heavy on the Albatros though...

Robert, yours haven't shown up yet, I even checked the spam folder, can you recheck the email and maybe send again?

Here's what Pol was talking about with compression:

So as you make changes, keep doing them on your .bmp and only at the end go to .dds, don't keep going back and forth between .bmp and .dds

Holy Schnicky, Lou, your skin set is absolutely amazing, Sir!
You might even lure me into a Nieuport cockpit (where I would be pretty much lost,
as I'm spoiled by the great vision in the Albatros).


Well, I am an Albatros-Man;
I do like the D.V for it's look, and also for the aileron cables going through
the upper wings from the center, instead of going through the lower wings,
like in the D.III as well as the D.Va. So if you have a failure of a lower wing,
the bird can still be controlled via ailerons - not so sure there for the D.Va.

But I also like flying the D.II, for her greater dive-sturdyness; and because
she was quite "a dangerous whopper" in the time when she appeared; and also the
D.III, which was again quite a good fighter, when she came to the front.

I have added two more Albatros D.III (early) skins, for Jasta 5 and for Jasta 17.

Amazing set Lou, very nice indeed.

Outstanding set Lou - some real nice work there

Okay, I just sent 7 Skins - luckily, only one Alb (and it's a D2).
Naturally, the "Flying Copycat" is included...

Okay, here are my Contributions (still have to send two of them):

Nietzsche, Wow! I have admired your skins but had forgotten just how many fine ones you had done. First class Sir!

Thanks
We have plenty of Time left, so I could do some more. Rick said, we already have a good Selection of Alb-Skins, so we've got that covered. Nupes are probably well represented, also. Same for Fokker D7, Dr1 and SE5a's (Challenges)... so, what else do we have?
Maybe, a Tripe and a Pup? ...and, should they be funny or rather serious?

All first class stuff sir. You truly are a talented artist. Well done!

Gee, thanks, Hellshade.
It is always great when you've done something and see, that you are not the only one, who likes it
...reminds me of THEMISKYRA! - my Comic-Book, that I want to translate into English... but that's another Topic.

They are all very good, but those fun ones with the eyes and mouth are my favorites.

We got some real painting pros around here alright.

Hmm, so far, I have 88ish submissions. I will take all comers, but if you want to go out and experiment, Sopwith Triplanes, Fokker DVIIs, Airco DH2s and Eindeckers are all under-represented out of common types you might fly. Having a good combination of "realistic" and "fantasy" types is also a good idea, I would think!

I will try a Fokker D-7 ,but have no ideas about a DH2 or Tripehound.

I will submit some of my DH2 'Angry Sparrows' and Eindecker 'dragons' too - might have to do a bit of clean up on a few

great stuff guys!

regards, Ron

This about all I can do The dialog box wont let me burn or do hard or soft light for some reason in Gimp 2. Not the best work, but interesting for a DVII.


upload pics


image upload


image upload no ads


uploading images

That's actually pretty cool!

Hey, Carrick, for first or early steps, this is a cool design IMHO.
It took me a looong time to find out about all the secrets and tricks of making skins.
Literally years. And I still find some.

Yeah, that's cool, Carrick. Might have worked in Reality, also: Because of the different Square-Sizes, the Fokker appears bigger than it is for a Pursuer. Anything, that "helps" the Enemy to misjudge his Aiming-Point is good...

@ Manitou: I remember, you had a special Fokker E4... Black/Purple, half way patterned.
@ Lou: The Alb / Dr1 Design in your Collection... have you got a D7 in that Design, too? That would complete a Timeline.

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Nietzche, I might have time to work on a DVII to complete the timeline for that design, I'll see what this weekend has to offer. I wanted to compliment you on the collection you are submitting - very nice work and some fun skins to fly in.

carrick, I agree about your offering, it has an interesting pattern that seems to throw off the size of the plane and therefore its perceived distance away.

Keep 'em coming folks, this should prove to be quite the skin pack when it is all pulled together. Thanks again Rick for taking on this project.

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Thanks guys, Coming from U true Professionals, I do appreciate the kind words. I need to work on Gimp 2 controls so all of it works , straight lines and painting, and of course Patrice makes perfect.

Sheesh......the skies are certainly going to be more colorful! Be great if an installer could assign new skins to a whole squad at random assuming they're available for that model plane from this pack. Nice work gentlemen!!!

Gaw, that's a great Idea!

Here is the DH5. This widens the "Tiger-Dragon"-Theme, so a Pilot can now move through a bigger Time-Space (or was it Space-Time? LOL) with the same Look.

That is one Bad-Azz looking DH5

Chenault would be impressed!!

Super skin

How Do You Turn 25 Skins Into 38 Skins or How Rick Rawlings Is About To Lose His Mind!!!

Hm, so I was going through Lou's paint submissions and copying them and renaming the copies because the SE5 uses the same skin as the SE5a and the SE5a-viper. So after I got done doing that, I copied and renamed all the N11s to N16 and vice versa. Then, I renamed all the N23 Lewises to N17 Lewises and, of course, to N17 as well. Then I made sure all the N17s were also N17 Lewises and N23 Lewises. After that I made sure that I copied and renamed all the N17 Lewises to N17 and N23 Lewises. After that, I did NOT copy and rename the N23 Lewises to N24s...because that would be silly.

After that, I needed a drink...

So, with everyone's permission and to keep file sizes down, I would propose that we just list the compatible files and demonstrate how to rename them and leave that up to the end-user as it occurs.

Thoughts?

I agree, a good idea

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I say do whatever makes this project easier for you Rick. Having the user rename the files for their own use in the sim should not be an issue as long as the naming guidelines are included with the skin pack.

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Rick, Say what!!

Never mind, I think my brain is too old to go through the explanation again! Do what you think best!

Cheers

All that renaming gives you a taste of the pain of making this thing Rick !

We all make mistakes but you can see how easily it is done looking through thousands of files when your eyes go

Hee-hee! I have always had respect for what you guys do, let's just say that it has been amplified a bit!

Rick thank you for the effort you are putting into this project - it will be a great help for those members who may not have the skills or time to skin their own crates. It still amazes me after all this time, just how good this community is,- in helping, advising new mwmbers, and the many extended hands of friendship that have been made. Keep up the good work

Ok, Here's what I am putting in so far:

So if you haven't poked around too much in the skins folder, this is what we are talking about:

You will notice that the N17 and N23 parts overlay each other perfectly. You can simply rename your N17 as an N23 and the game will pick it up and display it fine giving you two paint schemes for the price of one. Once you get to the N24, however, the fun is over, as the location and size of the components is different. My guess is that when these aircraft were added in at a later time, the developers learned from previous experience where they needed more real estate to get better results and adjusted accordingly. The good news is that there are many cases where this applies, and several near misses like the two SPADs. We'll try to get a good list up when the pack goes out...

...same for the SE5 -a -a Viper...
the Radiator looks a bit different between the Models, though.

This black/grey/red striped Alb looks pretty stylish... and yeaaah! The General!

Here is Satan's Sopwith

Woah, that would be pretty frightening to encounter as a poor German flieger...

Nietzsche, that looks good. You do really good work.

Hey Guys,
Only a few days left if you want to contribute.
This is what the folder looks like so far:

The good news is once you add all the skins in your folder, you can get rid of them at any time by just typing "Joe Doe" in the search field in the upper right of your skins folder. I believe Robert said he would JFGWXYZ them when he got a chance...

Holy Moly.....what a heap of good stuff!! Thx for compiling these.....lookforward to strapping 'em on!!

Nietz, that is just plain awesome sir.

Thanks
Yeah, that's quite a nice List... that's gonna be a lot of Fun

Alright, I have sent 4 Albatros D.II skins, Rick. One is called "blanc" - it has no emblems yet.
Enjoy, everybody!

Joe Doe!
I think I know him!
Didn't he fly with.....

Rick, don't forget to PM me a link for the download so I can "JSGME" them for you.

Best Regards;

great stuff all - to the 11th hour but I should be able to find a few minutes to post mine a bit later today
regards, Ron

ok here are some eiiis and eivs i had worked on waaay back when

eiiis - brown, green and blue versions
eivs - linen, linen w black cowl, purple and red

i'll post a few angry sparrows variants as well

cheers, Ron

Those are great! Please make sure you email them to me at the address in the first post of this thread...

I'll be checking my email one more time, please make sure all submissions are in. Also, if anyone knows some of the compatible planes as far as skins go, please p.m. me (ex. all N11s match N16s and vice versa...)

hi Rick, I sent 3 emails last night - I didn't see a bounce back so hopefully them made it through ?

regards, Ron

Yes, got them, much thanks!

OK, guys, just an update, I have all the submissions and I think I have standardized the names pretty well. I just need to do some readme.txt stuff and I hope I can send it off to Robert and Pol this weekend...

Nice.
Thanks for your time on this.

Awesome
Now we can choose between a lot of Individual Skins of our own.
I guess, you know that...
Before I started skinning, I always thought: Okay, I want something individual for my Campaign-Character. So I started looking through the HA-Skins and eventually took one I liked... but somehow, that hadn't felt right... flying around "in someone elses' Skin"

"Oh, look! There is Udet! ...oh, no... it's just that fake guy..."

What a fantastic series of skins! I cannot get over the level of artistic talent we have here in the community! Looking forward to trying these out!

Can't wait for these..huge thanks!!

Hey guys, Pol was kind enough to put the Skin Pack up on the User Mods section of their website. That is the non-JSGME version. Robert will be working on modding it up and sending that over to Pol when he gets a chance.

Thanks to Pol, all the great original OBD artists and the forum users who submitted their work!

*edit: readme is up here.

Already downloaded :-)

Downloading. Thank you guys for such enhancement.

Hey guys, looks like the JSGME version is up on the website, thanks Robert and Pol! If you have a favorite, please post a picture in the Screenshots thread, as the artists would probably be tickled to see someone using their labor of love!

I'm still looking for a proper Jasta to fly Manitou's purple Fokker E4 Lindwurm... I somehow ended up in Jasta 36, flying Fokker D7 OAWs and E5s after that, somehow LOL

Good idea




How did you like the EV ?

Love it..massive thanks to all you skinners.

I still have to fly some Missions with the D7OAW 'till the E5 is coming.
I think I'll take the Jasta 5 in September for the E4. The whole Squad has them (not only you and your Wingman) and they are really close to the Lines.
Also tried Jasta 17... the Area around Metz is really nice, but all the others fly Halb D2s, and these Planes are somewhat incompatible with the E4, plus the Airfield is relatively far away from the Front...
I already have some cool Screenshots from Manitou's E3-Skins, I'll post them tomorrow (haven't sorted them out and converted them, yet)

I like the purple and red ones.

Yupp, also my favorite E4