Reskinning on gimp 2.8

[higsy98]

How do you get the loco skin into gimp?

 

[johnwhelan]

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz/Basic_Reskinning_for_beginners

Cheerio John

 

[higsy98]

It doesnt say what to do with a locomotive?

 

[johnwhelan]

It doesnt say what to do with a locomotive?

You're quite right, for a loco you have to circle the PC three times widdershins then it should work.

Basically look for a .bmp or .tga file and load that into Gimp. There are a couple of other file formats used but these are the normal ones.

Cheerio John

 

[mjolnir]

higsy98: Here's what I'd do to reskin a locomotive (assuming you are running a Windows based machine; if your on a MAC, you may need to adjust these instructions somehow):

1) Clone the locomotive asset you want to reskin by selecting it in content manager, left-clicking, and selecting "clone asset" from the context menu.

2) Find the clone with content manager, and left click on it, and select "edit in explorer"

3) In the folder that opens as a result of 2, find all of the files which end in ~.tga. These are the image files which contain the skin materials.

4) Open these files, one by one, in an editor which reads, edits, and writes ~.tga files. I know GIMP does this, and I'm sure others do to, but I'm satisfied enough with GIMP that I've not used any others, and can't tell you what they are.

5) Make your edits.

6) Write the ~.tga files back into the folder with the EXACT same name, and without changing the dimensions of the ~.tga file.

7) In Content manager, select the item (should be under the "open for editing tab), and save and commit it.

NOTE: without the permission of the original creator, the consensus of the community is that it is a violation of at least the principles of intellectual property law to release the skin for use by anyone other than yourself.

ns

 

[johnwhelan]

higsy98: Here's what I'd do to reskin a locomotive (assuming you are running a Windows based machine; if your on a MAC, you may need to adjust these instructions somehow):

1) Clone the locomotive asset you want to reskin by selecting it in content manager, left-clicking, and selecting "clone asset" from the context menu.

2) Find the clone with content manager, and left click on it, and select "edit in explorer"

3) In the folder that opens as a result of 2, find all of the files which end in ~.tga. These are the image files which contain the skin materials.

4) Open these files, one by one, in an editor which reads, edits, and writes ~.tga files. I know GIMP does this, and I'm sure others do to, but I'm satisfied enough with GIMP that I've not used any others, and can't tell you what they are.

5) Make your edits.

6) Write the ~.tga files back into the folder with the EXACT same name, and without changing the dimensions of the ~.tga file.

7) In Content manager, select the item (should be under the "open for editing tab), and save and commit it.

NOTE: without the permission of the original creator, the consensus of the community is that it is a violation of at least the principles of intellectual property law to release the skin for use by anyone other than yourself.

ns

If you are editting a .TGA do check that when you save ensure that RLE compression is unchecked. Comparing the size of the file before and after edits is a way to make sure you have the compression and alpha correct.

Cheerio John

 

[Paulsw2]

I use Gimp in association with Pev and Andi06's AssetX which is a great way of seeing how meshes and textures render as you make changes in the reskinning process. AssetX also enables you to make changes to the config file for the asset in a very straightforward way. In short, I couldn't reskin in Gimp without it!

Paul

 

[BuilderBob]

Why GIMP?

This tutorial shows how to do it with .Net Paint, which is free and IMHO a much better tool. But you might be able to use the procedure described there with GIMP.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz/Tutorial_for_Reskinnng_a_Locomotive_using_Paint.Net

 

[johnwhelan]

Why GIMP?

This tutorial shows how to do it with .Net Paint, which is free and IMHO a much better tool. But you might be able to use the procedure described there with GIMP.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz/Tutorial_for_Reskinnng_a_Locomotive_using_Paint.Net

GIMP is also free, I think paint.net is easier to use but GIMP is a little more powerful. My personal preference is still Paintshop pro XI or above, not free but not that expensive on ebay.

Cheerio John

 

[mjolnir]

Thanks, John, for mentioning the bit about ~.tga files; I sorry I forgot to include that bit.

Why GIMP? ... <snippage< ... .Net Paint, ... is free and IMHO a much better tool

I mentioned GIMP only because that is what I use, because I started using it shortly before I learned about Trainz. But I'm curious to know why feel Paint.net is a better tool.

ns

 

[BuilderBob]

... But I'm curious to know why feel Paint.net is a better tool.

ns

The tutorial I mentioned can be applied to GIMP by adjusting the detail in the tasks. The functionality of the two applications is essentially the same.

I have always seen GIMP as a really good drawing utility that the programmers got hold of and ruined. There are too many options and too much detail. I find tools not working like I expected because something got changed, and I can never find out what it is. Even finding the tool I need is more complex than it ought to be, simply becasue of the amount of choice.

If I was using a drawing program every day, and I was prepared to get down and dirty with the detail of it, then GIMP certainly has the functionality to support that. But for a simple task like reskinnng an asset, Paint.Net provides everything that's needed in a much simpler package. I might also be prejudiced against GIMP because the interface attempts to 'improve' on standard Windows. There might be fair measure of Baby Duck Syndrome in there as well (an unshakeable, almost irrational, attachment to the first large moving object you saw).

 

[johnwhelan]

The tutorial I mentioned can be applied to GIMP by adjusting the detail in the tasks. The functionality of the two applications is essentially the same.

I have always seen GIMP as a really good drawing utility that the programmers got hold of and ruined. There are too many options and too much detail. I find tools not working like I expected because something got changed, and I can never find out what it is. Even finding the tool I need is more complex than it ought to be, simply becasue of the amount of choice.

If I was using a drawing program every day, and I was prepared to get down and dirty with the detail of it, then GIMP certainly has the functionality to support that. But for a simple task like reskinnng an asset, Paint.Net provides everything that's needed in a much simpler package. I might also be prejudiced against GIMP because the interface attempts to 'improve' on standard Windows. There might be fair measure of Baby Duck Syndrome in there as well (an unshakeable, almost irrational, attachment to the first large moving object you saw).

I think it depends on the reskin, if you need to mess with alphas etc GIMP will do it nicely, and I happen to like GIMP for adding lettering. Ease of use and colour changing then Paintshop pro XI or later.

Cheerio John

 

[Mick_Berg]

Why GIMP?

This tutorial shows how to do it with .Net Paint, which is free and IMHO a much better tool. But you might be able to use the procedure described there with GIMP.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Trainz/Tutorial_for_Reskinnng_a_Locomotive_using_Paint.Net

Thanks for pointing us to that excellent tutorial. I intend to have a go at it very soon. Would you know who wrote it?

I too am a great fan of Paint.net.

Mick Berg.

 

[BuilderBob]

Would you know who wrote it?

Yours truly - thanks for the kind words.