Reskinning

pellet

New member
Hi All,

I have always wanted to do some reskinning, but I don't know where to start, could any one guide me in where to start, what to do etc, I shan't be using photo texture for big parts


I want to give something back to trainzers (UK), instead of just taking what is there!

Anyone assist?
 
If you don't mind doing a few wagons and carriages most of mine are fairly easy to reskin. What sort of time period / region are you interested in?

You need to edit the .tga file in the body folder with something like Paintshop pro that's fairly easy, or GIMP free but complex, or paint.net free and does the job.

Step one clone the item.

Step two edit the graphics.

Step three clean up the config.txt file.

There are tutorials around that describe the process.

Cheerio John
 
I'm interested in any time period of the UK

I was hoping to resking locos and stock into a particular one or something

Where can I find these tutorials

which of the programs listed do you think will be best?

Dan
 
I suggest you start with a Paul Hobb's five plank KUID2: 44090:15044:1 just to get your feet wet or one of my vans KUID: 86627:1591 works quite well.

Always choose a fairly recent model to reskin, it's usually got a few more features and is a bit more refined. You'll need to ask Paul's permission to reskin if you do one of his, you have my permission to do any of mine for freeware.

There is a list of tutorials here:

http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=3345&highlight=tutorials

On the software side it's a matter of money. To start try paint.net or have a look on ebay.co.uk for paintshop pro. You want at least version XI, the latest version is something else. It should cost you under $50, priced new latest version is $89. Pay by paypal to protect yourself. Paintshop pro is more ease of use and lots of others use it so if you have questions then they can be answered. Version XI has some nice tools for colouring black and white photos sort of essential for doing early UK stuff.

GIMP has a very rich feature set but the learning curve is higher.

Cheerio John
 
Reskins

Hi John,

I am trying to reskin the following item - NSE_313/4/5_tso <kuid2:51536:93151:1>. The problem I am having is there is only one main body tga file (315_nse), so when I want to add a logo to the carriage, one side is fine, the other is not because there is no left or right side tga files I can edit, only the main body. I'm using Paint Shop Pro X v10.03, any ideas as to how I could split the main body file into two parts (left & right) so I can place logos correctly on both sides of the carriage?

Your help with this would be much appreciated :)

Andrew
 
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I'm also new to reskinning. I recently completed another short railway and would like to create some "unique" rolling stock for it.

I've got a rough idea how I want my locomotives and coaches to look like, but I'm about at a loss at what to do when I open up CMP. I know there's this template thing which you need to create for a car first, then paint on the template. But I'm having trouble doing that because I can't find the templates for most of the cars I want to paint!

A better alternative would be to create my own paint templates but I don't know how to.

Can anyone help?
 
Hi John,

I am trying to reskin the following item - NSE_313/4/5_tso <kuid2:51536:93151:1>. The problem I am having is there is only one main body tga file (315_nse), so when I want to add a logo to the carriage, one side is fine, the other is not because there is no left or right side tga files I can edit, only the main body. I'm using Paint Shop Pro X v10.03, any ideas as to how I could split the main body file into two parts (left & right) so I can place logos correctly on both sides of the carriage?

Your help with this would be much appreciated :)

Andrew

One of the problems with reskins is you need something that is reskin friendly. In other words sometimes you can't get there from here. The original creator reused things in order to reduce machine impact and texture sizes, essentially limiting what you can do with a reskin.

There is a technique which uses a plane created in GMAX that you put the logo on and then you position the plane a tenth of an inch above the model. In the config.txt file you reference this second mesh.

Look for posts by teddytoot on this. I wouldn't consider this reskinning for absolute beginners though and it's one reason I suggested two models I know are reskin friendly.

Cheerio John
 
I'm also new to reskinning. I recently completed another short railway and would like to create some "unique" rolling stock for it.

I've got a rough idea how I want my locomotives and coaches to look like, but I'm about at a loss at what to do when I open up CMP. I know there's this template thing which you need to create for a car first, then paint on the template. But I'm having trouble doing that because I can't find the templates for most of the cars I want to paint!

A better alternative would be to create my own paint templates but I don't know how to.

Can anyone help?

In cmp first clone the item. Then edit, edit in explorer and look for a body folder. In there if you are lucky you'll find a .tga file and that's the one to edit. Sometimes there is more than one and you have to play with them to see what does what. Go for the biggest one first.

Cheerio John
 
Hi John,

Thanks for your reply, the reskin for the NSE_313/4/5_tso <kuid2:51536:93151:1 has turned out really great, got all the colours just exactly as I wanted, its a shame though I can't add a logo to it - I don't really know my way around Gmax to try the technique you've mentioned.

I'm trying to model it on the Tranz Metro Ganz Mavag EMU units that run in Wellington NZ, please see the photo. The NSE 313/15 seem to be the closest to these units I'v found so far on the D/S, but perhaps if anyone knows of an emu/dmu similar to the one in the photo that is a bit more reskin friendly please post the kuid.

Thanks :)




http://img80.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tranzmetroemu1zt2.jpg
 
JohnWhelan,

Do you still have those reskins you made for me quite awhile back from the old DMIR Line here in Northern Minnesota, USA? I just purchased Trainz Railwayz for Christmas and have since changed computers (3-4 times now since we last wrote), and didn't know how to backup all the hours of content I had from the DLS.

I'm now trying to "re-create" my DLS library and saw that what was on the DLS for DMIR was good, but not even close to what you had done before.

Mick
 
JohnWhelan,

Do you still have those reskins you made for me quite awhile back from the old DMIR Line here in Northern Minnesota, USA? I just purchased Trainz Railwayz for Christmas and have since changed computers (3-4 times now since we last wrote), and didn't know how to backup all the hours of content I had from the DLS.

I'm now trying to "re-create" my DLS library and saw that what was on the DLS for DMIR was good, but not even close to what you had done before.

Mick

I thought all my reskins are on the DLS. If you have any other references like roughly when I made it etc that might help me locate it. Also was it a box car, carriage etc. I'm not so good on names such as DMIR, I can just about remember GWR as being UK Great Western Region.

Thanks John
 
JohnWhelan-DMIR

It was around 3 years ago and you did some locos. I know you did an SD-40, and a 2-3 others. The livery is primarily solid maroon with a gold arrow running the length of the side. In the head of the arrow is the loco number, and in the arrow's feather area is the word, "Mesabi." Ring any bells?
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=198789&nseq=72

I found a ton of photos on railpictures by searching locos and DMIR is on the railway list under "Fallen Flags."

I didn't see any of yours on the DLS. If you can't find them again, anyone else wanna try a reskin project? If anyone is interested, please e-mail me and I can let you know what models I'd like to see.

Mick

Mick
 
It was around 3 years ago and you did some locos. I know you did an SD-40, and a 2-3 others. The livery is primarily solid maroon with a gold arrow running the length of the side. In the head of the arrow is the loco number, and in the arrow's feather area is the word, "Mesabi." Ring any bells?
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=198789&nseq=72

I found a ton of photos on railpictures by searching locos and DMIR is on the railway list under "Fallen Flags."

I didn't see any of yours on the DLS. If you can't find them again, anyone else wanna try a reskin project? If anyone is interested, please e-mail me and I can let you know what models I'd like to see.

Mick

Mick

Very unlikely to be one of mine, I specialise in early UK items, I do some modern reskins from time to time if they aren't much effort very little modern North American and certainly no Diesels. I don't have a "blank" or easily reskinned item to hand to reskin and because of the guard rails a photo reskin wouldn't work you'd need some one to actually sit down and drawn the design.

Sorry

Cheerio John
 
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