Rocksim - Graphics (Decal) Help
 

I have been working on an another upscale design of a classic kit using Rocksim 9 which I would like to top off using the graphics (decal) feature.

Some of the samples designs included with Rocksim 9, especially the Estes Orbital Transport, look fantastic decked out with their decals.

I think I have a handle on using the feature itself within Rocksim, but having problems splitting apart the individual "decals" from the scanned image downloaded from Jimz' site.

Does anyone know of a good technique or utility that can help? I know some of the high end graphics software packages can probably do this, but I don't have access or funds for those.

Any suggestions or help is appreciated!

... Bill

You can use GIMP and it's free. ;)

Bill,

Didn't you say you had Photoshop? Or was that someone else? I use the "Elements" version, which is like "Photoshop Lite". The GIMP is another program that works, it just has a bit of a learning curve that is stiff initially.

I use the "lasso" feature in PE, either free-form, or rectangular, and do a "copy (Ctrl-C)" -> "New image from clipboard" to create a separate decal image.

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. I've downloaded Gimp and started playing with it. I agree with those who mentioned the learning curve. To help, I've been going through some tutorials found on the web.

Masking the image and breaking out the individual decals seems like it might just take some patience. Something new to learn. :) That's what I like about this hobby always something new to learn or new area to explore.

I'll let you guys know how I make out.

... Bill

I haven't tried this but couldn't you use something as simple as MS Paint and crop the section of the image file you want and save it to a new file? Just a thought...

Well I had some luck in learning how to extract specific parts of an image file, in this case individual decals. I found another great image manipulation program called Paint.NET . It is similar to GIMP but the interface seems a little more intuitive. I also found a number of good video tutorials for Paint.NET available on YouTube.

So I followed one of the tutorials I found for cutting out the background from an image. Unfortunately, there still seems to be some glitches in applying textures in the latest version of Rocksim. I applied the attached graphic to a fin of one of my designs. Only the lettering appeared on the fin, not the white background. I also tried to utilize the "rotate around R" and "rotate around S" axis options and found that it changed the physical shape of the fin, not just placement of the texture.

To confirm this problem, I opened up the Estes Orbital Transport design file supplied with Rocksim v9 and heavily uses the texture feature. If you go to one of the rudder fins and select option to rotate around s or r axis, the shape of the fin changes.

Well another item to add to my list of Rocksim v9 anomalies. I'm going to email these items to Tim and Paul at Apogee so they can add them to their bug tracking process. I think they are already aware of some of them.

... Bill