[GIMP] Tutorial on liveries

[1993matias]

Hi there!

I just felt like making a tutorial, so here comes:

Step 1
First, I copy the template (usually from Jetabout) and paste it into the newly opened GIMP. I make my aircraft transparent by going to Layers -> Transparency -> Colour to Alpha. Result is like this:


Step 2
I want my plane to look white again, so I add a background layer which is completely white:


Step 3
I add my colours to the drawing on a new layer below the aircraft layer, but above the background layer. Please note that it doesn't matter if you paint outside the aircraft. Why is explained later on.


Step 4
Note that I have to delete the painting around the windows, otherwise you would be able to see the colour through the windows. I usually do this when I'm finished with the painting to avoid retracing erased lines.


Step 5
On a new layer I copy the logo provided with the request - or create my own. I make it fit so it looks nice, and if it overlaps a window, I repeat step 4.


Step 6
I hide the logo and colour layers and add a new layer above all layers except the aircraft layer. On this layer I will draw my shadows by using the Blending tool. Play around by selecting different transitions and shades of grey. Remember to use white as one of your two colours. Please note that the engine cowlings are on a layer each.


Step 7
When you find the right shading make the layer transparent, then you will see this:


Step 8
It still looks kind of flat, so I decide to use the Blending tool again (on a new layer), but this time to add a shine on the top of the aircraft. I select another transition, and I get this, which looks much better.


Step 9 - done!
I still don't like how much of the aircraft has the same colour as the background, so I select the aircraft layer and fill out the area around the aircraft with a shade of blue. This will also automatically hide all previous errors (e.g. paint outside the aircraft), making the job look perfect.



Useful websites with templates:
Jetabout - freewebs.com/jetabout/
Skylite Design - http://www.freewebs.com/sla31/apps/photos/

I hope you find this useful. If you have any questions feel free to ask them. I will be glad to help you!

[Zach21GF]

how do you make such clean lines?

[1993matias]

I copy-pasted them from another image But you can adjust the size of your tool by holding Ctrl+Shift and scrolling. You can draw straight lines by holding Shift and clicking. Try it out

[Air Nostrum]

Hi Matias,

Just a question. What software do you use ?

[1993matias]

I use GIMP, it is a free image manipulator, kind of like Photoshop.

http://www.gimp.org/

[Commercial Air Services]

1993matias  I love you! Thank you so much for helping me find those templates and this tutorial! I just finished my very first livery which is for my recently started and still very tiny airline Commercial Air Services operating in 1955. And thanks to your tutorial it looks pretty good if I may say so myself. I must add that it took me the entire day and night, plus a few YouTube tutorials to get the GIMP tools under my belt but it was worth it. It really is a great program.

Also remember the Vintage template thing, I am still not able to find anything decent for my next fleet addition which is the Convair 440. But then it dawned on me, I could very easily and quickly use the Paths Tool to trace one of a photo taken directly from the side of one. Problem solved.

Btw. how do I post that livery in here? Its a JPEG. I just have to show off! 

[1993matias]

Code: [Select]

You take the link to the image and put a [img] before the link and a [/img] after the link

[Commercial Air Services]

My goodness it took nearly as long to get this thing uploaded as it did to make it! Thanks again I am eternally greatful for your tutorial. Without it I wouldn't have even bothered and missed out some great fun painting my own liveries.

[1993matias]

That is a really great livery! You have some hidden talent there

[Air Nostrum]

Very nice job CAS 

[Commercial Air Services]

Thanks Gentlemen

Though everything there is all Matias's tutorial and an idea taken of Jetabout's shiny engine cowlings for the metal bottom half.

May I ask, and please be brutally honest, does the bottom half come across as metallic or is it obvious that it is hand painted? I still need to find a way to get that done automatically?

I also need to find a way to blend out that bold black outline from the template somehow and shade it to look more natural like yours Matias. I hate the colored in look that creates. Actually what I meant is I need to find a way that doesn't take ages of white knuckle brush strokes with a tiny brush.

Still I love GIMP!

[pilotguy121a]

Can you explain why it won't matter if you draw over the aircraft lines from step 3?

[Commercial Air Services]

pilotguy121a I was also wondering about that when I reached that step but at the very end it suddenly dawned on me. Because you paint that blue sky on the aircraft template layer, which is incidentally the very top layer, it automatically covers anything under it that is not visible through the transparent aircraft template.

I imagined it almost like a paper collage, try to picture this as if it where real physical paper and paint. The very bottom layer is a white paper sheet, the next one on top of that is your paint or color, the next one on top of that is a transparent plastic sheet with an outline of the aircraft in the middle. You then take a green brush and paint a big blotch right in the middle of the white sheet of paper, round about where your aircraft would be. At the very end you take that top transparent plastic sheet with the aircraft on and fill in the space around the outline of the aircraft with blue. So then when you put the transparent plastic back onto the other two layers the green blotch will only shine through the transparent aircraft that has nothing but thin black lines painted on it. Even if you painted all over the entire white sheet at the bottom it would make no difference.

Hope that makes sense, not to steal your limelight Matias, its just that a GIMP tutorial explained layers like that on YouTube which helped me to suddenly grasp the concept so I thought I'd share.

[pilotguy121a]

Makes perfect sense. Should've tried that but I was in a rush to play with it before I went to work. Definitely going to give it another go when I get home, thanks!!!

[Meko1406]

Hey CAS, where did you find a DC-3 template? i have scoured the internet and cant find one!