How to make Skins for Il2 ?

[MrNoice]

Hello Skinners,

 

 

can somebody of you please tell me how to make Skins ? is there a good program beside photoshop ?

 

and I would like to make 4K Skins only so is there something special about it beside 4k? ^^

 

 

thank you for your help,

 

greetings MrFies

[Danziger]

A lot of us use gimp. It's free and it's nice. However, I never made skins for anything before so it took me some months of learning. There is a tutorial around here somewhere that helped me in the beginning.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/13622-skinning-quick-and-dirty-absolute-beginners/page-1

[sturmkraehe]

I have a question. In the zip files for the official templates there is an Alpha file alongside the standard file. Any idea what its for?

[C6_Claymore]

Hi !

 

The alpha file is just there to allow you to edit the alpha layer to optimize the rendering of your skin (more or less shiny or matt)

 

I just made a new one for this G6 ?

Edited May 7, 2021 by C6_Claymore

[sturmkraehe]

Ok, thanks (btw nice looking skin). So how do I do this?

 

I am entirely new to this and I know I have to modify the normal file to my liking. After modification I would flatten it and then export it as dds and then put it in the correct game folder.

 

So how to manipulate the ALPHA file and how to merge it with the normal file to make it count?

[arvigna]

Put the alpha file in the skin file = on alpha layer.

 

for shiny clear the part you want to be  or more "black" for matt.

 

if you not change,just DDS the file , the alpha layer is already on the skin file.

Edited May 7, 2021 by arvigna

[Tempus]

It should be better if you download the templates files, work with them in photoshop or GIMP (free of any charge), if you got any doubts how to start youtobe is full of tutorials how to create skins from scratch for IL-2 and DCS, in general lines is the same working method, also the same final .dds file. 

 

A good tutorial in english that shows the process from the begining to the final file.

 

Also you can come here and coment your questions and doubts. Hope it would help you.

Here you can download the official templates of all IL-2 A/C's. You will notice that in all zip files you have 2 files: one to create the skin and the other same as the first one but in an scale of greys to create the alpha channel for every colour you got in the regular one. In terms of alpha you got to know that as you tend to white some skins will be very shiny, bright,.... like P-51 or P-47 (shining bare metal finish) and on the other hand as you tend to black colours will be matt and in the middle of them you got a scale of greys to play with. 

 

Enjoy it.

Edited May 7, 2021 by Tatata_Time

[arvigna]

And  https://discord.gg/EDhsqRDh

 

discord of skinners community.