[nzwilliam]

Xenephus, another excellent and free graphics editor is Paint.NET. I have been using this one since switching to XP Pro 64 and it does everything you need when it comes to skinning planes, and it saves in bmp. I have built numerous plane skins for other sims using this program, (and just did my first IL2 skin with it), and I find it to be very easy to learn. Also, it should be fully compatible with all OS. Best of luck with your project.

Cheers!

Lou

How do skins exported in 8bit BMP look using Paint.NET? I was using serif photoshop at one stage and although skinning and exporting in the correct format was possible, the finished skins looked a bit blotchy and...well...quite frankly, crap :roll:

Like learning most things regarding different software, you don't know what you need to know until you want to do something in particular - but don't know how. If you know the question you can find the answer, there's plenty of GIMP info and tutorials on different techniques and tips if you google what you want to know. A very basic tutorial to get the ball rolling and inspiration flowing for those curious would be a good idea. Once the questions start coming if google can't answer someone here can I'm sure :wink: