Hi,
I'm interested in reskinning some models in trainz for personal use and have downloaded GIMP and Paint.net to try and learn for this purpose. I've read lots of the threads on here on reskinning, and I've played around a lot on GIMP and am planning to start learning paint.net in the next few days.
One thing I've noticed though is that very often, models on trainz look unrealistic not because the shapes or dimensions of the model aren't good but because the colour and texture is very basic- for example, the colours can be too bright or shiny, or the texture too smooth (meaning an engine's boiler looks like it's made out of cheap plastic rather than painted metal) to look realistic.
So my question is, how do you achieve a more realistic finish? One thing I thought of was that instead of using the default black for things like the smokebox, I'd be better off using a duller dark grey, but that still doesn't fully replicate the matte finish on metal.
Likewise, simply using a less-bright red doesn't make a bufferbeam look like painted metal etc etc.
I hope that makes sense, and would be very grateful for any suggestions. Although I don't expect to achieve the quality of creators like paulhobbs and skipper1945, I'm eager to learn how to do better.
Many thanks,
Alex
I'm interested in reskinning some models in trainz for personal use and have downloaded GIMP and Paint.net to try and learn for this purpose. I've read lots of the threads on here on reskinning, and I've played around a lot on GIMP and am planning to start learning paint.net in the next few days.
One thing I've noticed though is that very often, models on trainz look unrealistic not because the shapes or dimensions of the model aren't good but because the colour and texture is very basic- for example, the colours can be too bright or shiny, or the texture too smooth (meaning an engine's boiler looks like it's made out of cheap plastic rather than painted metal) to look realistic.
So my question is, how do you achieve a more realistic finish? One thing I thought of was that instead of using the default black for things like the smokebox, I'd be better off using a duller dark grey, but that still doesn't fully replicate the matte finish on metal.
Likewise, simply using a less-bright red doesn't make a bufferbeam look like painted metal etc etc.
I hope that makes sense, and would be very grateful for any suggestions. Although I don't expect to achieve the quality of creators like paulhobbs and skipper1945, I'm eager to learn how to do better.
Many thanks,
Alex