[--Steve-O--]

I'm starting to get the hang of gimp and lithium, texturing is actually kinda fun! who would have thought. down to the point, does any body know of any good hull, and hanger bay textures floating around? anybody want to loan some out? I'm not great at creating, but modifying is something i can do.
BMP or PCX preferred, as i don't have the means as of yet to toy with DDS or TGA

speaking of which, i posted a model for download for error checking and forgot to give credit for the custom textures i used on it.
Trashman for his hull texture, (borrowed from the GTI Nareos) and Scooby Doo for the posted tutorial texture.
they came in handy.

[Water]

I'm starting to get the hang of gimp and lithium, texturing is actually kinda fun! who would have thought. down to the point, does any body know of any good hull, and hanger bay textures floating around? anybody want to loan some out? I'm not great at creating, but modifying is something i can do.
BMP or PCX preferred, as i don't have the means as of yet to toy with DDS or TGA

Gimp is fine with TGA.

As for creating textures - use this carefully (because used badly it will look like a Hullgen texture)
Hullgen http://www.aqpm75.dsl.pipex.com/hullgen.html by Strangelet.
I found it best to save the page to the hard drive. It is as shockwave app run from hullgen.htm(hullgen16.dcr)

[--Steve-O--]

i'll have to retry TGA. i think i messed with it once and the game hated it. do you still have to index TGA as you would a pcx?

[Water]

i'll have to retry TGA. i think i messed with it once and the game hated it. do you still have to index TGA as you would a pcx?

No need to index as its 24bit colour format. You also can use an alpha mask with it.  FSO can use the alpha for  transparency and reflectivity.

[--Steve-O--]

sweet deal. how do you do alphas with gimp? all the info i've found so far is kinda vague.

[Water]

sweet deal. how do you do alphas with gimp? all the info i've found so far is kinda vague.

Background Stuff

A useful tool is Quick Mask Shift+Q
Paint in greyscale- white is selected, black is unselected. Light grey with a value of 90 = 90% selected

Layer mask.
Layer > mask > layer mask
To edit a layer mask: (in layer tab) Alt+left click on layer mask border turns green) - paint on it in greyscale. Alt+ leftclick to go back to normal layer mode.

Alpha Mask.
To edit alpha directly. (in channels tab) deselect red, green and blue.
You can then edit directly using paint tools AND ERASER.
Once finished reselect red, green and blue channels.

For versions before  2.2.14
You MUST then reselect the layer you were working on in the layer tab. Otherwise you will drive yourself nuts trying to find out why you can't paint on anything.

Another method
errr..  This may be the wrong way to do it, but it's simple.
Once your image is done.
Do a copy visible and create a new image out of it. The same as flattening the image but less hassle - less chance for screw ups.
Then create a layer mask - edit it how i want it then save the file as tga. (Save a copy)
Gimp complains and says You are about to save a layer mask as TGA. This will not save the visible layers. Then it complains some more but saves the layer mask to the alpha.

[--Steve-O--]

thank you much, i'll try screwing with it next time i roll around to gimp.