Solid Color Background??

[commercialcobb]

OK I apologize for all the questions and im not trying to fill the forum with my posts all over the place but knowledge is power and everytime I jump one hurdle another one stands in the way... I cant figure out how to paint a bakcground with depth and caracter, only fill with solid. I am trying to get a fuselage background to have depth with continuously changing color depths so as to look more realistic and not just one solid color? Is there a tutorial that I missed or do you have an Idea for me to try so its not just one bland solid background, and if your read in my other post, these are the two images im trying to get faded from white to read in uniform consistency and one reply said to try the gradient tool?? Is that the best idea??.... Any help would be great, Thanks

[commercialcobb]

These are the comparisons if have, is it just shading on a different layer or is it hand painted to look like this? You understand what im saying, mine is bland (bad) no depth or realism, and his has depth (good)?? I get this worked out and I'll leave you fellas alone for a while and go back to working on the project. Promise, lol.. Thanks once again you guys are a great help, and by the way how is it looking so far, for my first repaint?

[adlabs6]

Looks like you're off on a good start for a first repaint. Oh and don't worry about the questions, always happy to help.

In the lower example, where you are seeing the shading on the Doctor-Heli repaint, that is shading applied to a layer above the other repaint layers. This is much like the process that is used by profile artists to create depth. This is done by applying highlights on the upper sides of surfaces, and some darker shading on the lower sides of curved surfaces. You can give this a try and see how the effects work, just use a new layer on top of the stack that you can experiment with.

I'll work up a sample to illustrate what would be a beginning way to try this.

[adlabs6]

Ok, here's just a very basic shading I drew on top of your sample repaint.



And here is the layer I did the shading on, with the background checkerboard showing through the transparency. Pretty simple, just black and white airbrush for a simple start. You can take it farther and get more creative however you wish.

[commercialcobb]

adlabs6, thanks a million for taking the time to show me how instead of explaining... It put a smile on my face , no kidding..... It justs looks so much better that way!! One question I have though, does it make it look bad in flight sim when you bank or roll and the underside is facing the sun with a shadow on it??