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Art File Creation Tutorial in Photoshop 7.0

In this tutorial you will learn how to create the art files shown in driver.

Note. To complete this tutorial you will need to have available a suitable route for the creation of the screenshots.

You can download the sample 512 and Icon maps with textures here and the track* here.

The Photoshop templates are available here.

*The track was created by CloakedGhost275 by my request. It is a modified

version of his Rail Ties and is used with his permission.

1. Photoshop 7.0 Update

Before we begin the tutorial you need to be aware of a bug in the TGA plug-in included with Photoshop 7.0. The TGA plug-in would not allow you to save the alpha channel. There is a fix for the problem you can either update the TGA plug-in or you can update Photoshop to version 7.0.1. Either way the new TGA plug-in will then work correctly.

2. Screenshots

The first item we need is the screenshots. If you downloaded the above maps then for the 512 images select and place your rolling stock item in surveyor on the track mark. To get the item in the correct location you need to have the front of the item in line with the trackmark. Once you have the item in the correct location switch to driver either using the Ctrl-F2 shortcut or exiting surveyor and loading driver selecting the Consist 512 images map and run it. For both methods you will need to create and save session. Switch to the tracking cameras take a screenshot with the "Print Screen" key.

Do the same for the Icons

3. Photoshop editing

Once you have the screenshots you will need to edit them in Photoshop. The screenshots are located in "C:\Program Files\Auran\Trainz\ScreenShots" with the "C:\Program Files\" being the location you installed Trainz to. Also open the Photoshop templates or create two new files one 512 x 512 and one at 128 x 64. Once you have them opened or created we can begin editing the screenshots. Select the 512 screenshot and then select the "Magic Wand Tool" and change the "Tolerance" to 0 and make sure the "Anti-aliased" and "Contiguous" check boxes are checked and click on the black area on one side of the track in the screenshot. Hold down the shift key and click on the other side of the track. If all of the black area is not selected then continue holding down the shift key and selecting more black area. Once you have finished then we need to invert the selection so that only the locomotive and the tracks are selected. There are two ways to do this, the easiest way is to press Control-Shift-I and the other way is to go to the "Select" menu and select "Inverse" either way the selection is inverted and ready to be copied to the template. Press Control-C or select "Edit", "Copy" and then paste the selection onto the 512 template by pressing Control-V or selecting "Edit", "Paste" from the menu.

Figure 1 Magic wand tool

Figure 2 Magic wand tool settings

Figure 3 Loco and track correctly selected

4. Resizing and relocating

The first thing you will notice after pasting is that the image is too large, to change the size of the image select "Transform" then "Scale" from the edit menu. In the Width and Height boxes select and type a setting from the table below.

	Icon	512
Resolution	Width and Height	Width and Height
1600 x 1200	40	60
1024 x 768	65	90
800 x 600	80	120
640 x 480

After you have resized the image you then need to relocate it to an appropriate location. If you are using my Photoshop templates then for the 512 image position the lower track so that it covers the white line and is about a tracks width from the left edge. For the icon place the lowest pixels on the line. Once you have completed this press Control-E to merge the layer with the back ground.

Figure 4 Transform type in boxes

5. Colors

Before proceeding you need to make sure that the color's in the color selector box are set to pure black 0,0,0 and pure white 255,255,255. This will allow the correct amount of transparency for the black areas without affecting the main image.

Figure 5 Color control box

6. Alpha channel

After you are satisfied with the image size and location select the "Magic Wand Tool" again and select the black areas again. Then click on the channels tab and select create new channel from selection and a new channel will be created called Alpha 1. Now without removing the selection press delete. If the outer black area turns white then swap the colors and press delete again. Now invert the selection by pressing Control-Shift-I and swap colors again then press delete. You should now have a white image of the locomotive and tracks with a black surrounding area. To see the original RGB image select the Channels drop down box and click on the "RGB" entry

Figure 6 Channel menu with highlighted new channel from selection button

Figure 7 Alpha channel

7. Save location

The correct location to save the files to is called the tutorial_art sub-folder with tutorial the name of your rolling stock item. Save the 512 image as tutorial_art_512.tga and the icon image as tutorial_art_icon.tga. When saving both files ensure that the checkbox "Alpha Channels" is checked. If it is greyed out then you have not correctly created the alpha channel or the update to the TGA plug-in was not applied.

8. Text files

Now that you have saved the files to the correct location you will now need to create the text files that allow Trainz to find the image and its alpha channel. Create two text files called tutorial_art_512.texture.txt and tutorial_art_icon.texture.txt. Open the text files and enter the following information

512	Icon
Primary=tutorial_art_512.tga Tile=st Hint=Dynamic Alpha=tutorial_art_512.tga	Primary=tutorial_art_icon.tga Tile=st Hint=Dynamic Alpha=tutorial_art_icon.tga

Once again replace the word tutorial with the name of you mesh and folder structure.

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