Hi
I thought I'd try my hand at sticking some markings on generic skins to make up for the few skins we need.
I downloaded Emel's great set of markings for the 109&190 and fired up Gimp.
I have no idea what I'm doing but it's quite interesting.

All I'm trying to do is copy one set of markings from Emel's samples to a skin. I've managed to do this with a chevron-bar combination, but for some reason the chevron has a bad case of the "jaggies" when I paste it onto the skin.
In the readme I think it said to "Move" the selection but that didn't work across skins. (That part may be wrong btw, I'm at work now and can't refer to the document.)

So, could someone tell me how it's done?

Check the color depth of your new skin. Sounds like it's set to 256 colors or something like that instead of true color.

Habla inglese?

Okay, been looking around again, experimenting in GIMP but can't find how to set the colour depth. I have looked under File, Edit, tried saving it to see if prompted anything. I'm sure it is something obvious and highly visible but right now I can't find it.

Hi,

I don't know if I can help much, I don't know much about gimp (photoshop user), but the jagged edges might be the result of some sort of incompatibility issue between PSD and gimp (seems unlikely, they should work), or it could be a resolution issue - different default settings between gimp and photoshop.

Hey Jude,
what exactly do you need? PM me and i will see if i can help!

ATB
Armin

The controls for image depth are in the Image>Mode drop-down menu. You'll have three options: RGB, Indexed, and Grayscale. RGB is the one you want!

Thanks for the ideas fellas. I'll see if I can sort it out myself tonight.
I should just RTFM but I don't want to get too deep into it.
Thanks again.

Josh explained it better than I did.

To be honest, I had so much trouble getting used to the newer versions of GIMP, I still use version 2.2 for skinning. Selecting and moving parts is faster (don't have to 'set' the selection area) and the default for saving .bmp files is 24-bit color instead of 32-bit (BRIGHT does not work with 32-bit bitmaps)

Hey,
would you please tell me step-by-step the process you are using to save .bmp to .xcf file and make it actually working in IL-2?
I'm trying to make my own skin but it works only in FMB object's preview window, but no more when I run the mission.

That's the way I followed till now:
1- made a template starting from void file and adding paint layers with their alpha channels,
2- save as .xcf gimp file for all the WIP time,
3- "save as" 1024x1024 .bmp file when test on a "live" plane needed,
4- when export is requested in .bmp saving process I choose "merge displayed layers" then the 24bit format,
5- move the .bmp file into bright folder and run the batch there,
6- move the 8bit outcoming .bmp file into the appropriate IL-2 plane's skin folder,
7- open test mission in FMB and can see the new skin preview in the object's propreties window,
8- play the test mission and... see only the default skin on my plane...

Could someone tell me what I'm doing wrong please? Thx in advance.