how to use gimp properly *tutorial doesnt help me much*

[Martin N]

Well here is my view of the greek unit i wanna change, how can i ? i dont see the whole shield or the whole unit, its a messed up jumble, any way i can get to see the whole thing ?

[Halie Satanus]

I don't use gimp myself, but that's how all RTW textures come, the technique used folds the texture in half making the finished texture on the model symmetrical..Though most shields (ie that one) are quartered.

[Martin N]

I don't use gimp myself, but that's how all RTW textures come, the technique used folds the texture in half making the finished texture on the model symmetrical..Though most shields (ie that one) are quartered.

ok, so if i edit that quarter of the shield the whole of it will replicate it ? because it confused me a little seeing that. thanks for replying anyway, i appreciate it, now i know its not just my computer playing up on me.

[Martin N]

ALSO, ive seen some units in mods with the A on greek shields, what spartans have, hor are you supposed to do that with only a quarter. its stupid, we should get the whole shield, which program do you use halie? it might be better ?

[florin80]

The better ones aren`t free.
If you want to do an A you can do that with a shield that is halved or you need a full shield texture. Of course, for that you`d need to remap the texture on the model(or whatever the terminology is). That is where you`d need 3dsmax.

[Halie Satanus]

ok, so if i edit that quarter of the shield the whole of it will replicate it ?

Yup.

I felt exactly the same when I first opened a texture. They can be changed, but you need 3d Max to do that.

Change the body by cutting one with armour on top, or the skirt for a different type of texture, remember you can only change within the shapes that are there, you can't add geometry, but you can do quite a lot with what's there. check out the neutral Greek units in this thread (in the first spoiler), they use almost that exact same model..

Have fun..

I use Photoshop.

[Martin N]

ok, ill buy photoshop CS 10 online and download it if i can, is it a huge change over how it looks in Gimp ?

Also, halie anywhere to download them units you uploaded, id like to edit a few of them for testers

[Halie Satanus]

CS 10 I imagine is quite expensive and you might not enjoy skinning, save your money and stick with Gimp for now, if you get into it you can always buy Ps later..

is it a huge change over how it looks in Gimp ?

The layout of the texture?, will be just the same as in gimp.

[Martin N]

CS 10 I imagine is quite expensive and you might not enjoy skinning, save your money and stick with Gimp for now, if you get into it you can always buy Ps later..


The layout of the texture?, will be just the same as in gimp.

there is a free trial of it anyway for 28 days, thats plenty enough to test it out, its prolly just as confusing as gimp. also is there a link to download them units you had up you showed, the Warlord of sparta things ?

[Martin N]

Halie a little help please, i got cs2 of adobes website, when i try to open a tga.dds it says wrong file type...OOOOKKKK...

[Martin N]

Well i figured some of it out, Photoshop will only read .TGA files as i opened the parthian officer, but none of them are .TGA except like 4 -,- do i just remove .dds off the end for it to work ?

[florin80]

I`m not sure, but I think you need to install a dds plugin. Check the guides on how to use ps for skining. I think it`s covered there.

[tone]

The problem is not with GIMP - I do all my skinning using that. Here's some examples...





There's stacks of tools that GIMP comes with, it's massively versatile.

So it's really not worth buying photoshop. Skinning is all about trial and error, tweaking, tweaking again and tweaking more. Getting used to how colours look in game (brighter and more intense generally) compared with on the texture; how to add shading using dodge and burn tools; how to use elements that you find on the web or in other pictures; how to adjust the tools to make them work for you....all this takes time and isn't something you learn overnight so keep working at it and you'll get there.

Work in layers, save in layers (if using GIMP, save as an .xcf file), then you can go back and change the individual elements of the skin separately. When you're ready save as .tga then open the .tga file and save as .tga.dds to use in game.

But yes, to get whole shield patterns you need models that have been mapped that way....pretty much all the vanilla ones are mapped in quarters like the one you were working on. Most of the mods have "full" shields for many units, but that requires 3DSmax.

[Mayan-Man]

how doo you skin like that, ive got the basics done, but all i can doo is change the colours of units, how doo you skin moddels like the above?

[Halie Satanus]

I did a tutorial for PS, but the process is the same for Gimp..