Some feedback would be good :)

[Piggymac]

Howdy all, none of you would know me yet, as Im new to the world of skinning. I have just completed my first skin, (Spitfire Mkvb). I think it turned out ok, but I would like to tone down the sheen on the paint work. It almost has a metalis look about it.. Any tips would be appreciated...
Oh, when I was searching the web for articles on converting 24 bit to 8 bit colour, I came across this neat little program called, Graphic Converter. It does a really good job and loses very little if any quality when you convert your image to 8 bit. Its really easy to use as well, its available at, Graphic Converter 2003 - Image converter to bmp,jpg,jpeg,gif,png,tif,tiff,pcx,tga,wbmp,ico,cur ,wmf,emf
Cheers

[Hunhunter]

Hi, and welcome to the site. Interesting schemes there, I assume they are squad skins? The metallic sheen is caused by the in game lighting effects in IL2/PF. I never fully understood how it worked but from experience I found that darker colours with lots of detail seemed to reflect less light. For example, an olive drab P47 with lots of dirt on it has quite a matted appearence, where as a pale grey plane with only panel lines seem more reflective for some reason.

I seem to remember that you can adjust the lighting in IL2/PF so that maybe another option. I'm more MSFS minded these days but maybe one of our IL2 experts can shed some light on it? (if you excuse the pun! )

[Vigilante]

Hi Piggymac

One thing that I have found is that the IL2 engine is extremely sensitive to bright and light. What I do to get a matt shade is to make a copy of my finished image, desaturate the copy by what looks to be way too much, and try it in the game. Usually colors that look gray and drab on the flat skin will look vivid and lively in-game because of the light effects.

Hope that helps some and welcome!

[Piggymac]

Hmmm, I thought it might be the game lighting as it looked just how I wanted it in photoshop..I will try desaturating a copy of the skin and see what happens...Thanks Fellas... Oh, no they arent squad colours on the skin. I was so excited about making a skin, I didnt plan anything. I just made it up as I went along...(lol, probably shows). Next one I will plan before hand and will be more combat freindly..