Transparent visors

I really like the helmet visors for GP3 made by K Bell. I am making a season 1985 version but I am having difficulty making them transparent and getting the effect where the edges are soft and blurry. Are these effects set in GPxpatch or in a photoshop or paint programme?



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Glad you like them but I can't take full credit as EnzoJZ made them originally for GP4 and I just ported them for use in GP3. The transparency effect is set by the alpha channel in the .tga file so to answer your question it's set in a decent graphics app. such as Photoshop or PaintShop Pro. If you have either of these programs you should be able to cut and paste your design over the original one as a separate layer then merge. As this doesn't affect the alpha channel your newly saved .tga should work.

Thanks for replying. I will give it a try. Then I will publish my F1 1985 set of visors. BTW, if you set the upper an lower visors as separate 'panels' you can get the effect of lowering and raising the visor - useful when in the pits during qualifing to see timings monitor more clearly.

Hello everyone! Elio, você por acaso é brasileiro?

Sorry Fernando, I can't speak portugesse.

It's a really bad thing that Elio but at least you could visit this link [www.velocidadevirtual.com]

I've made a 1983 visors version, but I was not able to do them very realistic. They all are I don't know that how to say that in English, they are ''squared'' and not with the correct format. I have them saved here if you want them I could send you and them you could fix them. Since now, thank you.

Hi Dinga

I still have the same problem. Using the layering in Paint Shop Pro I can see the visors as they should be, transparent and fading, using the special mask, but Panit shop Pro will not let me save them like this. When I re-open the file they are solid again. I think it might be to do with a setting in Paint Shop Pro. Any ideas?.

To Fernado,

Thanks for using English, (obrigado) most English people are very bad at learning languages. I like your visors. If I can learn how to fix my ones I will try to do the same for yours. Also, I really like that cockpit you are using in that screenshot. What is it called and where can I find it please.

Best regards

Elio

Hi! Thank you for the help Elio! You know a little bit of Portuguese? That's great. The cockpit I'm using it's the New Cinfo Cockpits - 80s & 90s and the autor of that great job is Hernan Viglione you can find it here at the Downloads section. It's really a great job. The only problem is that very hard to put them to work fine. But any troubles call me! CYA!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2006 02:35PM by FernandoVG.

1. Open one of the original visors
2. Cut and paste your Design over the top
3. Merge layers
4. Save file

You don't need to open or try to edit the alpha, I think this is maybe where you're going wrong. Hope this helps!

Two thoughts. First, transparency - for me, layers is definitely the way to go here. (In PaintShop Pro).. You need to have your visor image on its own layer, then reduce the opacity, (the little slider to the right) to give the desired effect - my visors normally start out as solid black, so I reduce that down to between 65% to 90%, depending on the effect I'm looking to reproduce.

Secondly, getting rid of the jagged edges. Make a visor that's larger than you need - I find 5 times larger is good - and get the edges nice and smooth. Then, resize the image down to what you want using Image-Resize, making sure you have Smart Size as the "Resample using" option. It will try to keep the nice smooth edges and, voila, a nice anti-aliased edge.

The Pen

@Paul are you talking about helmet visors for use on the helmet graphics that are included in your carsets? What we're discussing are the overlays for us as part of GPxCinfo. Thanks for the latest Cart carset btw.

Man! This has got to be one of the most frustrating things I have tried to do in GP3. Still can't get it right. I am using Paint shop Pro 8. I've created my new visors by taking an old visor from the 2003 set and painting over with new graphic e.g a red Segafedo design for Niki Lauda. I got a warning when saving (as a tga file) that the image would be merged to one layer and one alpha channel)

What used to appear was un upside down and solid / square edged visor.

I have tried the following (thanks dinga):

1. Open one of the original 2003 visors
2. Cut and paste my Design over the top, I've used tried paste as a new selection and paste as a new layer (I also tried pasting from a saved a bmp of the new design in case the overpainting caused a problem)
3. Merge layers (I have three options, merge down, merge all(flatten),merge visable, and merge group - which isn't always available) I've tried each in turn to no avail.
4. Save file (NB if I don't merge in some form I get the warning about the image will be merged and reduced to one alpha channel)

I am so frustrated. I feel like giving up, which is not like me. I've done six 1985 visors so far and had planned to do the lot. Am I missing something here guys? Is it to do with save options or how I do the merge or what? Last appeal for help!

I'm using PSP7 so there may be some differences.I've sent you a forum PM with my e-mail address, send me your work so far and I'll have a look for you.

Cheers mate!

Check your inbox! If you have any more problems it's not a problem for me to merge these images for you, nothing like getting it right yourself though eh!

That is very kind.

I might take you up on your offer in a week or two as I have had a quick go myself using the black visor and using your instructions with no success. I forgot to mention that when I do the visor also ends up upside-down in the game.

However it is great to see the visors in action now. I will adjust those first few as they fade a bit too early from the top.

When you paste from the new artwork to the black visor template do you copy, paste as a new selection or copy paste as a new layer or as a transparent selection or what?

As I said if all else fails it is nice to know you will help out. It could be an issue with PSP 8.

Cheers!

Copy and paste as a new layer.Try making a single layer bitmap with no alphas and paste this onto the black visor.

Will do!

Paint Shop Pro 8 will not play ball.

If it is still OK with you I will do the other visor graphics and send them to you for merging.

Thanks a lot!

Elio

Yup!