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Before we are going to make the ultimate dreamcar there are some things you have to know and took me a long time to find out. Knowledge of the points to come is crucial in order to make a great car.
 
Software

Jasc Software's Paint Shop Pro 7 (PSP), Microsoft Picture it! and GP3 Edit

I do the painting in PSP and the logos in Picture it! The logos can be easily also be done in PSP but is slightly easier to rotate and resize the logos in Picture it! so I prefer that program. GP3 Edit or GP3 Master are necessary to export the livery (or skin) into a decrypted GP3 exe. Actually the whole painting process can be done in Paint but I will not recommend it because it does not produces smooth edges and lines.

 

Template

For painting you need a piece of paper or a canvas. Our canvas is the bitmap. The livery or skin which is put on top of the basic carshape. Different liveries, different cars, it's that simple. You can either use a existing car and wipe it clean or use a blank template and start from scratch. When you begin carpainting it is wise to use an existing design as a reference point. Later you will prefer a blank template because it is more challenging and you are only limited by your own imagination. 

Blank templates are in the download section. If you prefer to use an existing bitmap just use GP3 Edit or GP3 Master to export the bitmap. Open the bitmap into a paint program and you are on your way.

 

Copy

Look at designs you like and learn from them, that's very important. As it is with any form of art it is essential to study how other great designers (e.g. Ralph Hummerich) have done their designs and copy them to begin with. Later you are going to make your own designs. But why not learn from a great designer. Study RH cars very well because they are meant to be as good as the real F1 cars, so they are the next best thing. And I must say Ralph is good at it.

 

CAR Construction and research

When you look at the bitmap you see it's not a car but some kind of a jigsaw puzzle. Study how the pieces fit together when you see the car in the game. 

A very usefull guide: (don't know where I got it from really, but if you are the owner please let me know, and I'll mention you on this page)

    

Look at all the labels on the bitmap and see where they are on car. This way you'll come to understand how the car is build up in the game. This is important because you'll have to understand how the lines run across the car when we start painting or else it i'll look great on the bitmap but terribly wrong in the game. This zone map guide is available in the download section.

Again study Ralph's F1 designs carefully because for example the Arrows 2001 shows you exactly where the body lines are because it has lots of lines.

I circled the areas which are partically important to study carefully. With the Arrows you can see perfectly how the lines run accross the car. See how they align with eachother in the game, you'll learn a lot by just watching the car in the game. The better you are at this, the better you will become a designer. 

The easiest way to make a car is to use a blank template and just stick some logos on it. But a car gets more special and nicer if you add shading and striping.

 

Important viewing technique in PSP

Open two cars. Make them full screen. Make sure the zoom is on 1:1  (use scroll mouse middle button). And then press CTRL an TAB together this will alternate between the cars. Because the cars are the same size you can clearly see the differences in painting and lines between them!

 

If you have done the preparations it's now time to move on to the Painting page