A Basic in Depth Graphic Design Game Painting Instruction and Tutorial Lessons

Game Painting Instruction

Tutorial Lessons

A Basic in Depth Graphic Design Online Game Painting Instruction and Tutorial Lessons

A. PROGRAM PREFERENCES - Setting Your Graphic Program Preferences
Lesson 1

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP PREFERENCE
View Settings

NOTE:
These 2 groups shown here are for a basic stable setup of the particular graphic programs shown. They may not be the best or the only way to setup your system. As you become more familiar with a program you decide to use, you will find in some cases that a particular setting may suit you better as time goes on. As with all programs, setting your preferences is a priority. Most programs default setup for their tools or utilities will usually work ok.
A general rule and goal with creating any graphics is to achieve a good file balance. Achieving a point where file size and quality meet without working against each other can take some doing. Keeping in mind that there are many ways to achieve these 2 factors and it can be very confusing sometimes. Setting an order of processing graphic files will help you keep things organized and by organizing the steps, you will form consistent habits which help you from also forgetting each step. Cool Graphics Program Plug-Ins are located at the bottom of this tutorial

PAINT SHOP PRO PREFERENCE
View Settings

	CMYK Conversion Preferences Use Default
	File Format Preferences View Settings
	File Format Associations View Settings
	File Locations Use Default
	Color Management Use Default
	Monitor Gamma View Settings
	Autosave Settings Use Default

B. EXTENSIONS - Saving files Correctly
Lesson 2

FILE FORMAT - Extensions The specific format in which an image file is saved. The format is identified by the three letter extension at the end of the file name. Every format has its own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. By defining the file format it may be possible to determine the number of bits per pixel and additional information. We could talk for days about graphic file extensions, but we are not. We will be discussing the general or most commonly used file extensions which are the ones to be concerned about in everyday use, These are listed below. If you need information explaining extension that we have not covered here then download this file covering every known extension available. Images that may be used by PC computers are saved in various formats. Different image file formats are capable of holding different quantities of colors. Each file format will have a reference to the number of "bits per pixel" that the format is capable of supporting.

BITS PER PIXEL REFERENCE

1 bit per pixel refers to an image with 2 colors.
4 bits per pixel refers to an image with up to 16 colors.
8 bits per pixel refers to an image with up to 256 colors.
16 bits per pixel refers to an image with up to 32,768 colors.
24 bits per pixel refers to an image with up to 16,777,216 colors.

The Most Commonly Used and Generally Basic Type Files are Reference Marked as Shown Below.

= Represents the most used and common basic Extensions

= Represents the best internet transferable type Extensions. For example; sending Pictures in emails or through IM's.

* .GIF files are always solid color type files, Example; Banners, Text only, Animated Files, Under 256 color Files.

* .JPG files are always continuous tone type files, Example; Photos, Blends, Grads, Over 256 color files.

= Represents the Extension that can support almost every image mode available. Including Layers and Alpha modes.

FORMAT EXTENSION

DESCRIPTION

BMP

(Bit-Map)
dib,rle
BMP is the standard MS-Windows raster format.

BMP files can be created with Windows' Paintbrush and used as "wallpaper" for the background when running Windows. See your Windows manual about using BMP files as wallpaper.) Windows uses a fixed color palette for BMP files which cannot be changed, as doing so would make the screen and border colors change too. This means that transferring an image to the BMP format may result in some color shifts when BMP files are imported into Windows applications.
Characteristics:
BMP-OS/2-RGB format supports 1, 4, 8, 24 bits per pixel - not compressed.
BMP-Windows-RGB format supports 1, 4, 8, 24 bits per pixel - not compressed.
BMP-Windows-RLE format supports 4, 8 bits per pixel - RLE compression.

GIF

(Graphics Interchange Format)

The CompuServe GIF is commonly used to upload documents to the CompuServe Information Service and to pass documents between other types of computers. The idea behind designing GIF files was to create the smallest possible image file for uploading and downloading from electronic Bulletin Board Systems (BBS), thus producing a highly compressed format that minimizes file transfer time over phone lines. The compression is accomplished by using the LZW method for indexed color tables.
There are two GIF file versions: 87a and 89a. Both versions may use an encoding method referred to as interlacing. When an image is saved by using four passes instead of just one, it is called interlacing. On each pass, certain lines of the image are saved to the file. If the program decoding a GIF file displays the image as it is decoded, the user will be able to see the four passes of the decoding cycle. This will allow the user to get a good idea of what the image will look like before even half of the image is decoded. Most of today's communication programs (for BBS and the Internet) allow the user to download GIF files and view them as they are downloaded. If the image is interlaced, the user will be able to decide if the image is one they like before half of the download is complete. If the user does not like the image, the download can be aborted. This results in the saving of time and money for the person downloading the image. GIF files may contain multiple images.
Characteristics:
GIF Files can range from monochrome to 256-color.
GIF - version 87a Non-Interlaced supports 1, 4, 8 bits per pixel.
GIF - version 87a Interlaced supports 1, 4, 8 bits per pixel.
GIF - version 89a Non-Interlaced supports 1, 4, 8 bits per pixel.
GIF - version 89a Interlaced supports 1, 4, 8 bits per pixel.

IMG
(GEM paint)

IMG files were originally designed to work with the GEM Paint Program. IMG files handle monochrome and gray level images. The VENTURA Publisher application, working in the same GEM environment, also supported the IMG file format. In order to maintain compatibility, various other desktop publishing applications have added support for importing and exporting this format (although usually not processing it).
Characteristics:
IMG - Old Style format supports 1, 4, 8 bits per pixel.
IMG - New Style format supports 1, 4, 8
IMG - Ventura 4.0 format supports up to 256 levels of gray, and up to 24 bits per pixel.
Some applications read only 1 bit per pixel in both the new and old IMG styles.

PSD

(Photoshop)

Photoshop Advanced format (PSD) is the default file format for newly created images--and the only format supporting all available image modes (Bitmap, Grayscale, Duotone, Indexed Color, RGB, CMYK, Lab, and Multichannel), guides, alpha channels, spot channels, and layers (including adjustment layers, type layers, and layer effects).
Saves all work including palette info and all pixel data. Very Large file size.

PSP
(Paint Shop Pro)

PSP format is used in Paint Shop Pro to effectively do the same thing as Photoshop PSD format (see above)

PCX
(PC Paintbrush)

PCX format, established by Zsoft for its PC Paintbrush software, is commonly used by IBM compatible computers. With no standard to the industry, this format became the standard by default. This format is supported by more applications than any other format. Version 3 does not contain palette information. Some applications will override this by using the default VGA colors used by Windows as the palette. This may result in a different looking images when using different viewers. Most PC software support version 5 of the PCX format.
Characteristics:
PCX - version 0 format supports 1 bit per pixel.
PCX - version 2 format supports 1, 4 bits per pixel.
PCX - version 3 format supports 1, 4 bits per pixel.
PCX - version 5 format supports 1, 4, 8, 24 bits per pixel.

PIC
(Pictor, PC Paint)

PIC format files are generated and used by PICTOR, PC-Paint and GRASP.
This PIC file format is not compatible with the Lotus 1-2-3 PIC drawing files. 16 color PIC files have a non-common structure in their color manifestations. For this reason, graphic applications will produce a temporary scratch file while packing or unpacking a 16 color PIC file.
Characteristics:
PIC - Pictor format supports 1, 8 bits per pixel.
PIC - PC Paint format supports 4 bits per pixel.

TGA
(Targa Truevision)
icb,vda,vst

The Targa TGA format was developed by Truevision for their Targa and Vista products.
The TGA format file is widely used by high-end paint programs and ray tracing packages. It can handle images with up to sixteen million unique colors. It is an industry standard but is not as widely supported as PCX or TIFF formats. The TGA format was designed for use on systems that use MS-DOS color applications. TGA files may be saved compressed (run length encoded) or not compressed. Since Windows does not recognize 16 & 32 bits per pixel, some applications will treat them as 24 bits per pixel. A 16 bits per pixel image will be up-graded to 24 bits per pixel, and a 32 bits per pixel image will be down-graded to a 24 bits per pixel image. This procedure will not affect the image since the 8 extra bits of a TGA 32 bits per pixel file are used to store Alpha or transparency information.
Characteristics: TGA format supports 8, 16, 24, 32 bits per pixel - not compressed.
TGA format supports 8, 16, 24, 32 bits per pixel - RLE compression.

JPG

(Joint Photographic Experts Group)
jif,jpeg

JPEG compression economizes on the way data is stored and also identifies and discards extra data, that is, information beyond what the human eye can see. Because it discards data, the JPEG algorithm is referred to as "lossy". This means that once an image has been compressed and then decompressed, it will not be identical to the original image. In most cases, the difference between the original and compressed version of the image is indistinguishable. In general, compressed JPEG images have compression ratios of between 5:1 and 15:1. A trade-off does exist between the image quality and the amount of compression. You do not need to decompress images saved in the JPEG format. They are automatically decompressed when they are opened.

THE TEMPLATE - Starting to Paint Your Car's Template
Lesson 3

NOTE: You will need WinZip

to extract the Templates in the next lesson from our Downloads and also Your Favorite Graphic Program to Design Your Paint Theme.

Introduction This Lesson #3 will refer to a Template used in Nascar Heat Racing Game. If you would like to follow the lesson closer we recommend downloading the templates linked in center column. There are many Layout styles of Templates for Game Sims. The Game Template Layout usually depends on how the original Modeler or Designer decided to layout the panels down for the 3D car. Each Game Strictly uses its own version of a Templates, but in our case this is not an issue. This lesson will show you information on the tools you need to apply and use in graphic programs. Tools for Effects, Layers, Positioning to achieve a final 2D Final Template. This finished template can then be placed into a games compressed files which the game can understand and use or display correctly. Preparing a Template is actually very simple because the model maker has in most cases given you the Map to cars position, outline and size needed as the template. If Layers are used on the Template don't panic, these are good. If not, then you may have a little more work ahead to produce your final Template for your game. We will describe for you how to work with both Multi-Layered and Single-Layered Types of gaming graphic files un-compressed Templates. Here are some tools that are very necessary during painting game files. Learn to use these masking tools well and you'll master the paint skills that follow. Masking out areas to protect already painted area is important, you don't want to screw up what you have finished. Layers can be essential for protecting areas, but be sure that each layer does not hide another area you want to show up. Takes time to learn, but if you don't make mistakes then you can't learn. I still make them even after 20 years of this stuff. The thing is that the more you do it the more familiar it becomes, just like anything else. I just been lucky enough to be trained by big corporations whom also paid for all my schooling. Work and schooling during production time. Working on live jobs for example, I use to design and digitally layout EARTS game boxes at a union pre-press company in S.F.,CA. on $250,000 computer systems called Scitex. With 34 inch monitors, Yes 34 and this also was years ago when we only had 15 inch only. This also was when EARTS was a 4-5 employee company if you can believe that. Anyway, I learned fast and by the best, which I am fortunate for. We strictly were a HQ business, doing only the largest companies pre-press Ad work. Look to the column in the middle for tools you need to be at your best using. These are by far the most important tools for making clean paint themes or even using your imagination. Alpha Mask: - Making Glass for your Car. I thought I would add this for people that still have confusion making a shaded glass windshield in a modeling program with a pre-shaded file you have made. Step 1. Make a New Transparent file 256x256 Step 2. Make some sort of Gradation effect, for example 100% Black to 0% Black on the file. Step 3. Select it all and create an exact copy of the file, so now you have 2each 256x256 files with a grad blend on them. Step 4. Take one and change it from RGB to grayscale (black only). Step 5. Invert the color with image adjust, which will create a sort of negative looking file from your positive file. Step 6. You still have 2 files, but now one is the exact opposite of the other. Instead of dark to light, it is white to a lightly colored black. Step 7. Open the original file and open your channels menu. Create a new channel which will automatically call itself Alpha. Step 8. Select your grayscale file and click copy and paste the file in the Alpha channel by clicking the white alpha in the channel layers viewer. SEE EXAMPLE VIEW Step 9. Your done after you save it as a 32 bit uncompressed targa. Please view this DOS command line info Example file before trying. EXAMPLE COMMAND LINE More Downloads for Nascar Heat and Other Racing games are available at the following: * CustomizedFiles * CustomizedTires.html * NR2003_mods.html * Downloads * Copyright Information and Forms Copyright and Trademark Information *It is NOT ILLEGAL to to buy a retail game, go home and dissect it to see what makes it tick. You have paid for these rights when you purchased the game. But, if you start manipulating legal copyright items, try to resell any hacked retail game files or say that you own the copyright on something you made that could not of been made without the help of another owners idea, You better hope the files original owner has given permission to do so. Though game companies don't commonly knock on your front door with a subpoena for every game change you make, this doesn't mean If you piss one off they won't come after you to protect their owned and expensive legal rights. For example, try making a Nascar Game now without EARTS approval. They own the legal right to use the name NASCAR for that and you can bet they will try to get their moneys worth for this investment. They own the legal right to use the name NASCAR for that and you can bet they will try to get their moneys worth for this investment.	A) Multi-10-Layer NascarrHeat Template Heat Template .PSDDFormatFormat Download	Multi & Single Layer Templates We will try to describe simply what a Multi-Layered Template is and how to start to paint it. By now you have downloaded the files shown in the center view, open "A" in your (gp) graphic program. You should see the template on the left marked as "A" in your program.) graphic program. You should see the template on the left marked as "A" in your program. Centered below "A" is a Rendition Example "C" of how layers are, but as you view yours it may look more like "A" because "C" is just an Example view. Find Your (gp) menu that will display layers and open it, usually a column view helps so you can pick each layer you want to work with. Layers in files can be thought of as like floors in a building. The floor plan may be the same for each floor, but each floor is like a completely new department. If your not using the department on that floor then turn the lights off. In other words, make the layer invisible. If too many layers confuse you, combine the ones you do need and make a one layer file. There is a thing called overkill in layer making and if the file is approaching 4-5Mbs you can bet the overkill is in effect. Too many layers when painting your car can make the job a long tedious one. If you like to multitask like me and run 4-5 programs at the same time plus hop around them for the specific need they have then you may find yourself locked up from a lack of memory (RAM). Update the changes regularly. If you can't remind yourself as often as you like, then get a system resource program like) menu that will display layers and open it, usually a column view helps so you can pick each layer you want to work with. Layers in files can be thought of as like floors in a building. The floor plan may be the same for each floor, but each floor is like a completely new department. If your not using the department on that floor then turn the lights off. In other words, make the layer invisible. If too many layers confuse you, combine the ones you do need and make a one layer file. There is a thing called overkill in layer making and if the file is approaching 4-5Mbs you can bet the overkill is in effect. Too many layers when painting your car can make the job a long tedious one. If you like to multitask like me and run 4-5 programs at the same time plus hop around them for the specific need they have then you may find yourself locked up from a lack of memory (RAM). Update the changes regularly. If you can't remind yourself as often as you like, then get a system resource program like Cachemann to watch your usage and protect you a bit better. There is nothing like the feeling of making that cool effect and you get a system "bonk" and loose it all, just because of a RAM Handling issue. The system resources can drop fast when you don't free some up by updating every so many updated changes. Be very careful in layers Not to combine areas you want separate. This will put you back to the drawing board and very frustrated to say the least to watch your usage and protect you a bit better. There is nothing like the feeling of making that cool effect and you get a system "bonk" and loose it all, just because of a RAM Handling issue. The system resources can drop fast when you don't free some up by updating every so many updated changes. Be very careful in layers Not to combine areas you want separate. This will put you back to the drawing board and very frustrated to say the least. Open one of the layers shown in Example "C"-4 and paint the coordinating panels that you need to make the car colors you wish. Remember to keep the colors mutual to its neighboring panels. For example; front Fender to Hood. You don't want your car to look like you used different colors for every panel (Clown Car). Most of the time you'll have to go through the process of combining and merging all the layers, then making your .bmp/.tga, finally making the compressed game file like ., finally making the compressed game file like .texxto view in real game mode, possible areas not quite perfect or butting colors up correctly on your car. Unless you have a car viewer which will speed up this process. Be sure to save your original, so you may go back and forth to fix these final areas until they are right, your satisfied and your friends don't laugh at your work to view in real game mode, possible areas not quite perfect or butting colors up correctly on your car. Unless you have a car viewer which will speed up this process. Be sure to save your original, so you may go back and forth to fix these final areas until they are right, your satisfied and your friends don't laugh at your work. Single-Layer Templates We will try to describe simply what a Single-Layered Template is and how to start to paint it. By now you have downloaded the files shown in the center view, open "B" in your graphic program. You should see the "B" template in center column or one of the other 7 colored Templates we have supplied for you in that download. The single layer file is my most used way of painting in games. The reason is that I use the masking tools a lot, shown on the center column. The layers are fine to use but when the panels of your car file are separated enough and have gaps dividing them from other panels, I then see layers being almost useless. If your going to use your Template in the design of a New Mod and need several painted skins with the same scheme but in different colors, by all means make them layered. This keeps the package in one file and not one for every new car skin. But, if your just doing a personal skin for the game, a good mask job will work just as well to make the adjustments to areas of the file, plus you won't have keep thinking in a layers format. Beginners should use a flat single layer template while learning to paint cars. This will help them concentrate on what is in front of them and not what is buried 3-10 layers down in a file. Most of the time, if your not making super fancy color effects to a template, the bucket tool is a useful painting tool even without masking. Make sure your tolerances are set to not flood the entire file or set to little and only paint one pixel at a time. As said before, learning your graphic programs tools, where they hide in the menus, their tolerance settings, which is best for a job and so on. You will get better at painting files in simm games. Most game companies even supply help information for you to personalize your cars or other stuff. If you find you need tools that are not available to you, but you know others have them, then go after these individuals and find out where they got them games. Most game companies even supply help information for you to personalize your cars or other stuff. If you find you need tools that are not available to you, but you know others have them, then go after these individuals and find out where they got them. Be prepared for the notorious Peon Brush-Off by these individuals. Many only play tool trade with their boyfriends which just irritates us all and is pure childish selfish act. If this happens to you, try someone else of course, check our site since we don't play favorites to anyone or get desperate and pretend to be their friend. This last one is funny because some people go the full length to get tools and still get screwed. Well, save your imagination and ideas and someday the tools will be available. *There are some great sites and forums out there with tools, but remember...get to know people in them and be fair with everyone, Our Motto. There is nothing worse in a game community then people or groups keeping tools for their own use. If tools are out into public...then they got there by way of the front door of the developing Company. Another way is called (Leaked). This is when an employee of the company copies needed tool programs onto media and supplies them himself to hungry gamers or in many cases, butt kissing webmasters just itching to change aspects of the game and Web site the modifications with strict site location Readme text.. This type of employee we should all thank, because in many cases you can't get the tools you need and it makes the game almost worthless after the final goals have been achieved in it. Getting the decompiles, file openers or extension name swappers are becoming more and more available for the customers. This trend which the game companies are starting to allow is a good way to keep your game buyers interested in your game for months and as we all known, even years. But beware of 3rd party Websites that get 1st access to these tools. Though hording and false ownership claims from grab baggers are almost a disease in gaming communities, just remember to give respect where it is deserved. Never get intimidated by threatening Readme files as long as you are helping your community gamers. Making everything available to everyone that needs it is not a threat to anyone. Basic rules also are to leave things you find and redistribute intact. Absolutely no changes should be made unless it is to improve or repair 3rd party re-compiled files. After which you may if you please, add your comments to the original Readme file.
	B) Single Layer - NascarrHeat Template in Heat Template in .TGAAFormatFormat Download 7 Pre-Colored Templates
	C) Layering Template Rendition Only! This is just for viewing purposes D) Extra Car Decals Download Included Already w/ A) E) 6 Headlight Sets Download F) NascarrNumbers 2,3,8,9,20,24Numbers 2,3,8,9,20,24 Download

	Commonly Used Masking Graphic Program Tools Magic Wand - Good for fast selections, large or small areas of color. Used with the Anti-Aliasing option creates softer edges between your color picks and can even include closely related colors to the one your masking in your selection. This of course is determined on your setting. Photoshop's default is 32, for PSPPI noticed it is almost 3 times higher to do the same color picks. But, I also am not the greatest fan of theI noticed it is almost 3 times higher to do the same color picks. But, I also am not the greatest fan of the PSPPanyway. You get what you pay for I always say.anyway. You get what you pay for I always say. Rectangle,Ellipse,Square,CircleeSelectorSelector Good for selecting large areas or places where edges are not yet touching or even making places of stacked elements of color. Polygon Lasso - Very versatile tool, like the wand but with some tweaking effects. It is like taking a rope and Lassoing color. Hence the name Lasso. It makes a point to point selection. *Grids and Guides - Keep your work square and Symmetrical. These things are great to make things perfectly square, circles or at a required coordinates. Great reference for visual positioning. Before your Friends can see your COOL paint job you made, Your going to have to send them the final game car file that you made. The reason is that to see your custom painted cars, you need to have them first. If you have a lot of friends with each having a custom paint then be prepared for your game folder size to grow very large fast. If you can afford the space then it is worth having others custom files. This way your NOT viewing a bunch of game auto defaulted skins in your race view. In NascarHeat, this would be an all red car skin with no decals or numbers. The default game skin vary from game to game onto what is the defaulted no skin car color scheme. This would be an all red car skin with no decals or numbers. The default game skin vary from game to game onto what is the defaulted no skin car color scheme. I could go on yakking for years on tools and their uses, but the rest is up to you. You will have your favorite tools and be good at them, which brings up that old proverb; Practice makes Perfect, well almost. 8o)

D. RACING FONTS - Font Styles, Names and Applying
Lesson 4

CUSTOM FONTS DOWNLOAD
Fonts List

System Fonts can be found all over the internet. Ranging from hundreds of dollars to free. Hand made just like car modeling, you will get what you pay for in quality. Free sets I noticed, never seem to be complete with all their characters. This can range from the numbers missing, to certain sizes not available to be produced. But hey, if you get what you needed and it works, why pay right!

I supplied some fonts on the above list for download and if you need or want more, just enter the search menu of your browser and type in free fonts. I promise, You will find more then you need in a life time.

The Most Commonly Used Race Styles
in True Type Fonts

Racing Style Fonts List
These Fonts are the Styles of Fonts shown in the column list on the left. I have not completed the collection of the list shown, But You may download what I have collected by clicking link above.
To install: See Below

Custom TTTRacing Style FontsRacing Style Fonts
This is a small bundle of few True Type Fonts that I have used and liked. These Fonts have a race style look and name too.
To install:
Go into your C:/Windows/FONTS folder. You need to install fonts into Windows by using your Font folders own title menu choice <install font>. Click the menu item and point to the folder with your new fonts. After installing new fonts, it would probably be a good idea to reboot your computer.

Fonts on System Overdose
Be sure never to install too many Fonts onto your system. Fonts can be a very space wasting item on your computer. Try not to exceed 200-300 fonts at one time.
Having 200 fonts active on your system might seem like an abundance of creative opportunities, but the fact is that every one of those fonts must be loaded during boot up, which takes time and resources. If you are honest with yourself, you ve probably never used at least 80% of them, have you? You can remove fonts by deleting them from your Fonts folder or by opening Fonts in the Control Panel. You can always reinstall a font from the CD where you got it in the first place. And if you don t have the source file anymore, rather than deleting it from the Fonts folder, just move the file for that font to another folder. It will be readily available to reinstall but it won t have to load up every time., which takes time and resources. If you are honest with yourself, you ve probably never used at least 80% of them, have you? You can remove fonts by deleting them from your Fonts folder or by opening Fonts in the Control Panel. You can always reinstall a font from the CD where you got it in the first place. And if you don t have the source file anymore, rather than deleting it from the Fonts folder, just move the file for that font to another folder. It will be readily available to reinstall but it won t have to load up every time.

Font Compatibility
True Type, Adobe1, Raster, Style Fonts
When expanding your Font Library, Always try to get True Type , Adobe 1 or Raster Style Fonts. These particular style Fonts are the best designed, recommended and most compatible with your Windows OP Systems.
View 1

View #1

View #2

We will use this NascarrHeat template
example for positioning my numbers

First thing I did was backed up the file and then flattened all the layers to work on a single level I then started the long look for the font that will look right on the car. This can take a while to get perfect, but with out the right looking number, the rest of your paint will look out of place. I decided to go with a font called STANDOUT since it look to fit nice and it had a thick edge. Race numbers always have them thick borders which makes them easier to see on the far side of tracks. The font settings were as follows:

Character Font - Standout
Anti-Aliasing - ON (soft, no jaggy edges)
Setting Edge - CRISP (cleans edge more)
Font Size - 42.55 ems

Fonts usually are sized by percentages or ems by their width. A very intense description why they use this measurement standard, but if I explained it, we would be here until tomorrow. It all works on documents size and layouts, If your a perfectionist and type papers knowing exact number of characters fit on a line, then you know what ems is. For the rest of us, Set the number in and move on, 8o)
When I placed the number, I had to size it a bit manually which is ok. I just took the mouse and scaled it freehand and eyeball the fit perfect. Finally we have our number on our roof. Why??
To help eliminate making the same file 3-4 times just like the first one, I make the largest number first, then copy it, resize to fit the doors. I use a sure way to decide which way it goes on the roof by always remembering that the number is always readable to officials while car is on the far side of track. Judging from the start line as they look across infield to view the race. This way you wont get teased for a backward number someday. I added a subtle shadow effect to lift the number from the car surface for looks.
Here is what it looks like up to now. View #1

Next thing I do is decide what colors to use for inside. I decided on sticking with the red and white them of the car. This will make the addition fit and not look like an Earl Shibe paint job. I pulled out my favorite plug-in, Eye Candy 4000 and used the Red Crimson Chrome effect. Keeping my selection alive and with a 1px feather, then stroked the divide line once with a fine white line to contrast the black and red and allow the number to attract the eye better. Here is the finished file View #2

After these steps, I masked around number with anti-alias / Rope and copied the number to my clipboard. Next I just pasted it on the doors and made a slight scale size decrease with my mouse on the number until it fit just right. Repeat for both doors doing a 180 rotate for one door to place it correctly, making sure they match.

Once this step has been complete, be sure and merge your layers or flatten and save as a targa file. Then mktex on the targa into a car.tex and place it into Nascar Heat so you can check the placing of the numbers we did in this lesson. If they are, your done. If not, leave the game going and copy your backed targa file. Open it with your (GP), then make the fine tune adjustments and repeat the mktex step above. You can replace, overwriting the carXX.tex in game while its running and the car will make the change. Use Alt-Tab combo to return back into game to check your corrections. When your finished, you then can run that new car into the wall to break it in faster. 8o)

E. CUSTOM PAINT SCHEMES MADE EASY - Applying Car-Show Type Graphics
Lesson 5

Custom Designed Car Panel Graphics
*Download the viewer sheet first, to see what
shapes are available, then download your Layout
sheet for that higher detailed graphic selection.
Clicking on a single Layout below will OP you to download it.


A.	B.	C.	D.
E.	F.	G.	H.
I.	J.	K.	L.

Achieve Professional Looking Painted
Results, Even if Your just a Beginner.
Using Prepared Modern Design Panels It is very easy to create that custom show car look without having to be a Pro-Air brusher. If you look in the left column, You will see I have made it incredibly easy for anyone to design a one of a kind paint scheme. These are a collection of customized modern looking designs that can easily be applied to any car file. Use that imagination and just go crazy, if you don't like what you did then just click revert or undo and start again. The sample flame at the bottom took 2 minutes to make by just inverting the files color, then adjusting the hue a little, finally adding a blue tint shadow to give it dimension.
I will be adding many more layout panels with a full range of designs to choose as I complete them. If you need a little help getting started and you have decided on an idea that you would like to use, then try following these basic steps.

*What will be the car body color. Try first of all getting the background of the design you chose to match your car body. For example...black or white are easy to achieve.
*Next, try fiddling with the HUE or COLOR BALANCE controls. Make some abstract changes, you may be very surprised what you come up with even by accident.
*Try making a Magic Wand Tool selection, but try to remember what we have talked about in past lessons. Use the Anti-Alias effect for soft edges. Also after making a selection, try expanding selection a pixel or two so you don't effect or get funny edges.
*One more thing to think about is an overall blur after you complete your design. Softening the art can also help hide a mistake or two. Most of all, don't get discouraged and make many examples. Pick the favorite one you like and go from there.
*Last but not least, Don't forget to make a backup or you could loose that awesome design you just made. At this stage of designing, it can be very hard to duplicate something you did not 5 minutes ago. 8o)

To see all the available designs on one example sheet, Download this WinZIP compressed file viewer sheet. This will make it much easier to find what you like, then after you decide, go up above and download the white Layout sheet with your choice on it. Those singled Layout sheets are the high-detail versions of what the viewer shows you as low detail examples.

SAMPLE:
single (reworked) graphic contained on the above Layout Sheets.

Custom Flames Packs Awesome Pre-made Flame panels for easy placements on all bodies.
A.	B.	The custom flame packs are some of our best graphics for sim gaming painting. This group contains 2 styles of several types of color combinations. Click the thumbnail photos and download a set. Open in your favorite graphic program, mask out the shot and cut and paste the art right on your paint job for a perfect car show type scheme. These packs save incredible amounts of time and look can like you spent hours.
12 Warrior Goddesses Pack Nice Hood Ornaments
A.		This is a set of 12 Warrior Females that would look good on a car hood or possibly in other places that enable the complete view. Though they are very sexy in their poses, they still cover those private areas so that they can be displayed or viewed in the presence of the under aged group. Please Use your own discretion per your own taste in this artwork.

F. 3D STUDIO MAX CHROME REFLECTIVE - Create Chrome Effects on Objects in 3D Studio Max
Lesson 6

3D Studio Max
example of chrome texturing

Making a Reflective Material for Objects

*To create a chrome material, go into the Materials Editor.

*To create a "Raytrace" material, click on the "Standard" button, then select "Raytrace" as the material type. This allows access advanced raytracing tools.

*Change the Reflection value to 255. This makes the material 100% reflective. Set the Shininess to 85, and Shininess Strength to 190.

*Apply the texture to the object(s) you wish to be reflective, then render.

Try These Settings if you like.

Luminosity = 0%
Diffuse = 0%
Specularity = 130%
Medium glossiness (High looks like ceramic)
Get rid of the reflection image
Reflectivity = 60%
Smoothing On

G. PLUG-IN FILTERS SPECIAL EFFECTS - Create Special Effect With Photoshop Filters
Lesson 7

FREE DOWNLOAD SPECIAL EFFECTS
PLUG-IN FILTERS for GRAPHIC PROGRAMS Here is a Treat for you Adobe Photoshop

Owners. 450 Plug-in Filters for Special Effects, FREE. They will work in Paint Shop Pro

if you place them in the Plug-in/Filters folder like Photoshop does. They are also compatible with any other graphic programs which uses (*.8bf ) file type extension. There are many programs available out there to use, be sure yours contains those extensions for maximum usefulness.
Download both files below and read the instructions for placement. Collect all the loose (*.8bf ) files into a new folder and place the new folder with loose plug-ins inside into the Plug-in/Filter folder of Your Program for correct placing. Be sure your Preferences are set so the program can add them to its filter list. Next, Restart Program to have it load them correctly and that's it. Be sure to check the Bonus Zipped Files I included with the downloads for extra special programs that have more Special Effects.